Welcome to the chamber blog!

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.

Discussion Post By East Metro Strong, Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce and Saint Paul Area Chamber of Commerce

Should people obey the law and pay for expensive transportation infrastructure when they use it? Yes.
With that firmly in mind, let’s look at the StarTribune article announcing that “Freeloading on light-rail lines rises sharply.”
​
The article reviews some possible reasons why fare non-payment may have gone up, what Metro Transit is doing in response, and some context from other transit agencies. All useful information, which reporter Tim Harlow should be commended for including.

Context: other non-payment for transportation

Less useful is the lack of context with any other kind of transportation non-payment. For example, MnDOT monitors violations on its MnPass network, and these rates can be high. The most recent report shows violations from the second quarter of 2016; and shows, for example, an average 18.6% violation rate on 35W during the evening rush at the Lake Street monitoring location.

The MnDOT report does not give an average by corridor, so we can’t compare to average Blue or Green Line rates. But the StarTribune went into great detail on the violation rates by line and station for LRT (four different charts in the on-line article); this same information is available for MnPass. And violation rates look roughly comparable. The Green Line station with the highest violation rate and the 35W MnPass location with the highest violation rate are about the same, and both corridors also have stations/monitors with very low violation rates.

How do we talk about it?

Given that LRT and MnPass both see non-trivial rates of non-payment, how do we talk about each? Compare the LRT article with the last StarTribune piece on MnPass violations.   

Post by Will Schroeer, Executive Director, East Metro Strong

As a long-time transit advocate I wanted to share two observations from last week’s trip to Baltimore with the InterCity Leadership Visit put on by the Saint Paul Area and Minneapolis Regional Chambers.
 
The two busloads of us from Minnesota were stunned by the level of disinvestment in several Baltimore neighborhoods. While we have neighborhoods with a lot of challenges in the Twin Cities, we have few neighborhoods where one can see through the roofs of houses for block after block. And all of this was just a mile from the popular and booming Baltimore Inner Harbor and downtown.
 
After touring these neighborhoods, and speaking with leaders from many parts of the community, two themes emerged.
 
1. Transit connections to jobs are critical
 
My ears perked up when we heard Laura Gamble, Regional President for PNC Bank, say the most important single action to address poverty is “transportation to connect people to jobs”. We also heard a great deal about how to overcome other barriers to employment. But transit is critical. Gamble’s assertion, incidentally, echoes much academic research.
 
2. Don’t do it to us; don’t do it for us; do it with us
 
We heard this precise phrase more than any other, from a variety of stakeholders. And, “Don’t do it to us even while explaining to us how it will be good for us. We need to be partners, to see ourselves in the choices.” And: “Start early. Don’t come to us toward the end.”
 
For a project to succeed, the affected community needs to be a genuine part of the decision-making. As one of the neighborhood leaders we met with put it, “We need to be able to able to point to how the project reflects our input.”
 
Take-away
 
Some of the conditions we saw were far removed from Saint Paul and the East Metro. But I also heard a warning; we disregard these lessons at our own risk.