Welcome to the chamber blog!

Post by B Kyle and Will Schroeer

How can we be better? How can we compete? Each of our members asks this about their own business or institution. At the Saint Paul Area Chamber of Commerce and East Metro Strong, we ask those questions about Saint Paul, our region, and the state overall.
 
Nine groups who care deeply about the region and the state agreed four years ago to a common set of measurements of regional competitiveness and health: the “Regional Indicators Dashboard.” (The nine are GreaterMSP, the Itasca Project, the Minneapolis Regional Chamber, Minnesota Business Partnership, the McKnight Foundation, the Metropolitan Council, the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, the Regional Council of Mayors, and Saint Paul Area Chamber of Commerce. The Dashboard is here.)
 
This year’s Dashboard was released last Friday, and the region again fell in a key measure of competitiveness: can people get to work by transit? Last year, we were 6th of 12 peers; this year, 7th of 12. Both years we also got worse not just relative to our peers, but relative to ourselves from the year before. That is, we’re weren’t just passed by Denver because it opened a new light rail line; we actually got worse in absolute terms as we made it harder to get to our own jobs by transit.
 
Getting worse twice in two years is not a sustainable route to competitiveness.
 
Last year, after we fell from 5th to 6th, we made this argument in the Pioneer Press: “Others are outpacing the Twin Cities in connecting people to jobs.” In response, many regional business groups were delighted when the governor proposed investing $50 million to build new high-quality bus lines serving jobs and workers. The SPACC blog described how well aBRT works in “The A Line works! Let’s Build More”. And we worked with our partners at the Minneapolis Regional Chamber to set up BetterBusesMSP.com to help you advocate for these new lines.
 
Fast forward to today. Both the House and the Senate have proposed bonding bills. Neither one calls for or supports investments in aBRT. But the fight isn’t over, as final decisions are being negotiated between the House, the Senate, and the Governor.
 
Meanwhile, our competitors across the country continue to invest in better transit for their employers and employees. Do nothing, and we will continue to fall in the rankings. Good workers will continue to leave, or not move here in the first place.
 
There’s a lot going on in the final few days of the legislative session. The impending decisions regarding the inclusion of aBRT in the final bonding bill will have repercussions far beyond this year.
 
The new arterial Bus Rapid Transit (aBRT) lines can be built quickly, and we know they work.
 
Let your legislators know that you want Better Buses – for your business, and for the workers you need to hire.

Post by Will Schroeer, Executive Director of East Metro Strong

I was out a couple of weeks ago making a video about people’s experience with the A Line, a rapid bus line between Roseville, Saint Paul, and Minneapolis. I knew that ridership in this corridor has increased 30% since the A Line opened. But the numbers did not quite prepare me for people’s enthusiasm. 

“It’s just really easy.”
“The A Line has helped me by taking 10 to 15 minutes off my commute every day.”
“I like riding the A Line because it’s very fast.”
“I really love the fact that it comes so often.”
 
The A Line works so well because it’s “arterial Bus Rapid Transit” (aBRT). 

Arterial Bus Rapid Transit is a slightly opaque name for a straightforward idea: make bus service faster and more reliable by carefully engineering out things that slow them down. For example, buses spend a lot of time stopped while people board and pay fares. Solution: pay your fare at the station, and board through both doors.    

To learn more  about aBRT, you can check out  www.betterbusesmsp.com/about-abrt; and while you’re there, you can watch the video from our trip and judge people’s enthusiasm for yourself.

Bottom line: the A Line works. 

Governor Dayton is proposing to  accelerate the construction of aBRT lines by bonding for $50 million to fund more aBRT. The proposal itself does not specify which routes the funds should be used on. $35 million would almost certainly go to fully fund construction of the D Line along the route of Metro Transit’s #5 bus, the busiest bus line in Minnesota. Substantial additional money would go to advancing the B Line, aka Lake-Marshall between Minneapolis and Saint Paul. There’s a nice summary of how the rest would be spent in the April 15 Pioneer Press editorial supporting the investment, here: www.twincities.com/2018/04/15/editorial-a-clear-case-for-these-buses. (The link title gives away the conclusion, but it’s worth a read anyway.)

Now the bad news: that proposal was not included in the House’s bonding proposal this week. 

Would you like to see more fast, comfortable, reliable buses in the Cities? The Saint Paul Area Chamber of Commerce, East Metro Strong, and the Minneapolis Chamber have set up a way to make it easy to say so to decision-makers. The site www.betterbusesmsp.com will automatically find your legislators and help you let them know of your support.

Post by Matt Kramer, President

​Please enjoy our brief thoughts from the Chamber on what 2016 was like, and what we expect to see for 2017.
 
2016 was characterized by, I would say, one major event. From January through August I can’t even begin to count the number of hours involved in the Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST) discussion. This city initiative, similar to that completed in Minneapolis, requires all businesses with employees working in the City of Saint Paul to offer paid sick and safe time to all employees, even those working part-time.
 
We actively participated in this process in hopes of guiding the discussion towards solutions that we believe were more workable for all employers. We were disappointed that in the end virtually no amendments were provided for various worker categories that we believe called out for relief. We are working with the city on the implementation of the ordinance and hope that through the course of its introduction we can continue to craft common sense modifications that the city will consider and adopt.
 
In the meantime you can expect to see guidance material from the city early in 2017 with implementation for larger companies on July 1, 2017 and smaller companies (less than 24 employees) on January 1, 2018.
 
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the lawsuit by the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce against the City of Minneapolis on their implementation of Earned Sick and Safe Time. While we are not a party to the lawsuit, we do support this effort and believe that clarification from the courts is needed before individual cities proceed in creating a virtually unworkable business landscape. While any decision in this case  would  be non-binding in Saint Paul, we are tracking the lawsuit closely and will determine at a later date any recourse we may take.
 
While ESST dominated the landscape, this was hardly the only issue that the Chamber tackled. We remained very active with our civic partners and saw some incredible results. Rice Creek Commons has officially launched in Arden Hills with both the city of Arden Hills and Ramsey County approving the development plan proposed by Alatus. This is a major win for the East Metro with over 400 acres of land being added to the tax rolls with a variety of residential and commercial solutions. Your Chamber was an active and engaged supporter of this project and we are excited to see the project move forward.
 
We also saw the Ford Site in Saint Paul introduce the public realm and zoning plan, a key milestone for the site. Click here for more information on this fantastic 100 acre plus development in the heart of Saint Paul. We have been very active on this project for years and are looking forward to great things to come.
 
For the Midway area what could be more exciting than the news that Minnesota United FC will be building a brand new stadium for their MLS team. The stadium is going to be incredible and you had better get your season tickets now!
 
Transit remains a work in progress, but 2016 saw great advances in the three proposed lines in the East Metro. Gateway, the Rush Line, and Riverview all made strong progress towards being accepted as a program by the Metropolitan Council. Gateway is furthest ahead in early engineering, but both Riverview and Rush made major strides. All three lines terminate at Union Depot and extend transit options for employees across the East Metro. In 2017 both Rush and Riverview will decide on proposed routes and modes (what type of transit), moving both lines ahead in the planning process. Our East Metro Strong initiative continues to make sure the East Metro is both ready for transit and prepared to advance our lines when they move into the Metropolitan Council process.
 
Across the board we were active with all kinds of direct member issues. From zoning to permits, signage to recycling, our public affairs team worked with members and various city and county functions across Ramsey County. The vast majority of time we were acting as a facilitator, using our contacts and know-how to accelerate results for our members.

​We were also proud to work directly with a number of our civic partners, including Arden Hills, Maplewood, and Roseville on various city-led business activities. Our ability to bring business expertise and contacts to the benefit of our partners remains a significant value-add and one that we plan to continue to bring to the table.

​On the staff front we continued to “graduate” our team to our members. We had a number of departures and while we hate to lose great folks, we were gratified to see so many of our team members joining Chamber members across the metro! Turnover for us is merely placing our great employees with great members; a benefit for both of us!
 
We also are finishing our first year in our remodeled offices. Thanks to Securian, McGough Construction, and NTH, Inc. for their help in creating this great space for the Chamber.