The only constant is change

Often, I reduce the economy down into two parts – one-part resources and one-part confidence. Economic activity cannot happen if there are no resources and those resources are not placed into action without confidence in the community. Both are also critical to achieve either economic stability or growth. We saw this impact play out after the great recession when companies were returning to profitability in the early 2010s but rather than grow, they sat on enormous cash reserves because they lacked confidence to act.

People decide if they have confidence, returning to a common theme of how our economy works, it’s the people that matter. In community development, we know we never do anything alone and we help build confidence in large part through the partnerships we nurture in our respective locales. We also assist by understanding what’s happening and how partnerships and multiple plans and strategies that are in play at times of adversity. Boy, have we seen a time of adversity these past five years. 

When we go through these tough periods it’s human nature to think this is the first time this has ever happened to anyone. Luckily, while the nature of underlying the adverse time (pandemic, recession, macro consumption pattern changes, international shocks, etc.) might be unique we’ve been through tough times before. A community’s resilience through these times will rely on how we respond together.

In Minneapolis last week, Mayor Jacob Frey announced his Downtown Action Plan and corresponding Downtown Action Council as a framework in our community to guide and accelerate the evolution of central business district post-pandemic.

Downtown Minneapolis has always been the center of activity and economic engine for the region. Downtown just simply hasn’t stayed static in how it supported this activity or economic engine. In days of yore, it was very industrial, evolving many times to the business center encircled by theaters, venues, stadia, restaurants, housing, and amenities you see today. For decades we’ve seen consistent private sector investment and expansion. 

Post-pandemic offers a point of inflection as people simply live differently and use downtowns differently. A phenomenon we are seeing throughout North America, a result of mass adoption of technological changes which were accelerated by the pandemic. Each region must guide their respective downtowns into this new era. Minneapolis is poised for success because we have been here before, we are fortunate to have rich resources, and have strong partnerships to act. 

We’ve been here before. Building implosions have an oversized share in my young memory. In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, it seemed that local television aired live demolition of a building in Downtown Minneapolis every Sunday morning. For a boy it was riveting television on its face. What I was not able to comprehend at the time, not comprehend really until I entered my professional career, was the rationale behind those early morning implosions. I originally thought that is just what happens to buildings. I didn’t realize that each building’s removal was part of a larger plan to remake our downtown core. 

In response to post-war behavioral changes, Minneapolis adopted Metro Center ’85 in 1970 as a plan for our most recent Downtown reset, recommending a new organizational structure of uses in downtown clustered by themes. It guided corridors of entertainment for Hennepin and First, commerce on La Salle and Nicollet Mall, business on Marquette and Second, and government/public uses on Third and Fourth avenues. The plan launched a major expansion for the next two decades, reinventing the core on top to those demolished buildings. It was super successful and also birthed a second boom in the mid-2000s, that you still see tails today and enter into another wholesale shift in behavior. 

Minneapolis has deep and rich supply of resources. Metro Center ’85 was a breakthrough plan that helped a resource filled community follow a shared plan of attack to preserve its downtown. As a lonely outpost in the North, Minneapolis has survived and thrived because of ingenuity driven by necessity. We developed our own industries, banks, advertising, lawyers, airlines, schools, and so on because we are up here 8 hours from Chicago and 6 hours from Kansas City, off the beaten path. If not us, who. Minneapolis was the Mill City, grains, lumber, whatever, we could really grind in the early days. As a result, the Minneapolis-St Paul Region has a diverse economy and continues to breed new generations of entrepreneurial innovation.

We work together and obtain tremendous outcomes. Plans are only as good as the actors behind it. Outcomes matter and what we learned from the actions after Metro Center ’85 have been replicated in subsequent city comprehensive plans, community driven plans in our Neighborhood Revitalization Program, decennial plans from the Minneapolis Downtown Council, labor organization like SEIU, philanthropy like Minneapolis Foundation, and emerging groups like the Minneapolis Renaissance Coalition. We also have active corporate, labor, philanthropic, arts, and industry leaders all betting on the next era on Minneapolis. All working on strategies together that build on the momentum we see in events and experiences Downtown. We see them fill civic responsibilities through their investments and participation in groups like the Mayor’s action council.

The City action plan maximizes our powers as a municipality to increase tools and reduce process pain points. Basically, the plan stives to answer questions in three areas, streets, building, and people. First, how are we supporting the use of the public streets? What can we do to enliven the Warehouse District and Nicollet Mall? How can Downtown be more fun and a unique positive experience. Second, how are we support how people want to use buildings? How can we make it affordable to convert buildings to meet today’s expectations? How can we improve the process to gain permits and remove other barriers to convert buildings? And third, do we have a strong partnership in place as in past eras? Are we are all moving in the same direction?

I am excited by the opportunities in front of us Downtown. Change is already underway as we are seeing people all over Downtown. We know from experience that we can solidify and accelerate our evolution into this next era because we are already aligning our resources. I am confident of it.