Executive Summary

An Urban Investment Strategy For The
Private Sector

David Cox,
President & CEO of Cowles Media Company

April 1995

The Twin Cities enjoys an international reputation as a great place to live. That reputation is attributable to hard-working, well-educated, civic-minded residents and to thoughtful stewardship of natural and man-made environments: the vitality of our downtowns, world-renowned park systems, and livable neighborhoods.

The reputation, and the reality, is based also on the fact that all sectors of the community share the responsibility. The public sector defines broad priorities for community investment. The philanthropic community invests strategically to fill gaps and encourage risk-taking, e.g., McKnight Foundation’s support for planning the future of the Mississippi. The private sector invests heavily in community life - Honeywell’s support to stabilize the Phillips and Whittier neighborhoods and Medica’s support of a comprehensive preventive health program in the Powderhorn neighborhood.

This tradition of shared responsibility will become more critical as we experience the same pressures faced earlier by other cities. We are coming to realize that spending additional dollars - even if available - is not a sufficient answer. Instead, we must examine how we spend current resources, how future investments can be more strategic, and what principles should guide the process. Here are three.

First, investment must provide long-term return. Whether public, private, or philanthropic, spending must add to the real value of urban infrastructure. Rerouting a street or granting a zoning variance for a single commercial, office or apartment development may create short-term value at the expense of long-term value.

Second, investment must be catalytic. Discrete investments must add up to something beyond the sum of their parts. How can investment in a school or health care center be leveraged to strengthen a community. How can public and private investments complement each other? For example, how can building a new jail in downtown Minneapolis serve as a catalyst for long-term development in that part of the city?

Third, investment must transcend political boundaries and recognize inter-dependencies. Planning districts, neighborhood lines, and municipal boundaries are poor indicators of how people behave and how effective a given action might be. Investments should reflect the realities of metropolitan life by encouraging urban strategies that cross neighborhood lines and political jurisdictions. Investments made - or not made - in Brooklyn Center have a direct impact on North Minneapolis, and vice versa. We need to reinforce public sector initiatives that are consistent with these principles. For example, the Hennepin Community Works initiative is based on the premise that cross-boundary, multi-agency physical improvement projects (e.g., a pedestrian/bicycle pathway along the 29^th Street rail corridor or a boulevard along Lyndale Avenue North) can stimulate employment, enhance natural systems, shore up tax base, and create amenities that encourage long-term development and stability. Proposed development in St. Paul’s Lake Phalen neighborhood could produce similar results. We need to seek out opportunities where the public, private, and philanthropic sectors can reinforce each others efforts.

Each of us has resources to promote these principles. For example, the Cowles Media Foundation provided modest support to the Minneapolis Center for Neighborhoods to explore how neighborhoods can benefit from each others experience using commercial corridors in economic revitalization strategies. This complements and reinforces work by the Minneapolis Neighborhood Revitalization Program. McKnight, General Mills Foundation, The Minneapolis Foundation, and The St. Paul Companies have made much larger commitments which, together with others, can have a highly positive impact.

If the Twin Cities is to remain one of America’s premier metropolitan areas, we must all rethink what makes this a great place to live, and then as partners implement the strategy.

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