I stopped by Present Perfect this afternoon to take a photo of proprietor Mary Rossing (click to enlarge) who, according to this announcement on the Northfield News web site… … found…
Category: <span>Businesses</span>
ID Insight signed a lease this week. For the next year or so, they’ll be on the second floor of the First National Bank Northfield. I blogged in July about…
The City of Littleton, CO has pioneered a different sort of economic development strategy for the past decade. Known as “economic gardening”, this strategy shifts the emphasis from “economic hunting”, i.e. recruiting companies to relocate, to helping a community’s existing businesses and entrepreneurs grow into healthy, vibrant companies with a strong employment base.
Historically, small businesses have accounted for about 75% of all job growth, plus half to two-thirds of the nation’s innovations and inventions. According to the NY Times, small businesses accounted for more than half of all private-sector jobs created last month. And of 150,000 new jobs, 91,000 of them were in businesses with fewer than 50 employees. (Large businesses, however, cut 4000 jobs in June.) And the SBA (U.S. Small Business Administration) has determined that companies with fewer than 20 employees created 85 percent of the new new jobs over the most recent 14 years of available census data (up to 2003).
Given facts like these, it simply makes sense to cultivate and nurture entrepreneurial activity and our existing businesses, rather than putting all our economic eggs into the recruitment basket. However, as Ross pointed out in an earlier post Northfield does not have a reputation for being “business-friendly”.
But why not? And what does that mean, anyway? (The most vocal sector of the “be more business-friendly” contingent usually uses the term as code for “developer-friendly”, which isn’t the same thing at all.)
I’ve noticed crews installing fiber in various parts of southern Northfield the past couple of weeks. I look this photo last week near the Community Resources Bank on Jefferson Road.…
The City recently added ’48 hour parking’ signs to its downtown lots on Water St. (both sides of the river). Downtown residents who park their cars there are now required…
General manager Perry Nixon has this sign on the door of the new Sweet Lou’s Waffle Bar and Cafe at the corner of Division and 3rd. As I noted back…
In the comments to my previous post about Northfield/Apple Valley, Anne B. said, “I’ve been asking for two years and I don’t have a clue what you and Ross and others want the city to be.” Well, I’d certainly never try to speak for Ross and others, but I’ll take another, more comprehensive crack at the subject to see on which points we might find agreement and disagreement.
What I “want Northfield to be”, or rather, my vision for the community, is fairly straightforward, and I’ll try to limit my details to those concerned with planning and land use. Things like “quality education”, “good health care”, “controlling heroin use”, and “promoting the arts” are beyond the purview of this discussion. At least for now.
The short answer is, I’d like to see Northfield be a community that demonstrates cradle-to-grave livability based on the collective wisdom of the last five millennia or so of urbanized societies; a cohesive, functioning community of people with a multiplicity of connections to each other (education, recreation, work, civic, church, social) that go beyond the superficial.
That means a mix of ages, a mix of occupations, a mix of land and building uses….. built to a scale designed for the convenience of human beings (not for 2000 pounds of motorized steel and aluminum). This discourages isolationism and encourages interaction between residents through all seasons of life, which fosters a genuine sense of community. It’s also psychologically and socially healthy, and if done well, sustainable. No more bowling alone.
People have known how to do this for a long time, and relevant examples abound. We’ve lost a lot of that knowledge in the 20th century, particularly in the postwar era, but the tools and examples are still there, and the knowledge is being recovered. (If this is too subtle, or too vague, I’d be happy to provide an extensive reading list and point to relevant resources to elucidate the things that are implicit in these first few paragraphs. For now, I’d like to keep moving along toward a longer, more detailed answer.)
Preparations for Crazy Daze were happening yesterday afternoon downtown:
Left: Tom McKown, spiffing up the walkway in front of the Archer House.
Center: Community Service Officer Kris Wilson putting up the no parking signs. Kris’ vehicle says on the back: “This vehicle was seized from a drunk driver.” The police department evidently has 3 or 4 vehicles that have been ‘seized’.
Here’s the lineup for today’s festivities. It’s not easily found on the Northfield Chamber’s website but Ross Currier has the Crazy narrative on his blog.
THURSDAY, JULY 27, 2006 2007
NORTHFIELD , MINNESOTA
- STORES OPEN AT 7:00 A.M.
- TASTY FOOD SPECIALS
- CITY-WIDE BARGAINS
- SIDEWALK SALES GALORE
I saw this notice on the door of Sprazzo this morning. If anyone has details, attach a comment.