Lefko, Young: We love St. Paul, and we worry about St. Paul

We love St Paul We worry about where the city stands and where it s going whether downtown its neighborhoods its schools its businesses its people There are population and private institutions talking about improvements but no apparent inspiring vision or energized leadership pulling together the people and the guidance needed to get the job of renewal done We fear that we too are trapped in the doom-loop cycle beleaguering once-great American cities where the loss of businesses jobs and services produces the lack of capital required for a rebirth of what we want as downtown This has become an intertwined economic political and psychological dilemma to resolve Perhaps we are not asking the right questions as to what demands fixing what requirements to be done Perhaps with national trends of suburban movement increased homelessness political power shifting to suburban control the loss of corporate managers with ties not to our cities but to their golden parachutes the cities will never return to the reality from which we seek to benefit and enjoy once again Perhaps St Paul will require a new way of thinking about what a future city and downtown can and should become We need inspiration knowing that from inspiration comes leadership and that from leadership comes achievement What can be our vision St Paul is about people not money unfailingly has been It is about families and communities But therein lies a issue St Paul is a collection of communities not really a city The assets of St Paul are separated one from another like a pile of Lego pieces waiting to be assembled into a stunning construction How do we assemble the pieces Who will come up with the vision We cannot separate downtown from the vitality of our neighborhoods and a metropolitan context We are fortunate to have a multitude of existing information We have five strong colleges and universities two law schools we are located on a beautiful major river We have a healthcare industry complex We have state establishment We have a History Center and a Science Museum parks and a zoo and a soulful Japanese garden theaters The Ordway and the St Paul Chamber Orchestra artists weekend markets We have a history which forms the basis for tourism We have an educated workforce We have an increasingly international demography producing the workforce civilization restaurants art and ethnic mix of the present and future We have these existing tools without utilizing the two-way benefits of having the educational guidance river ethnic composition educated workforce and strengths of people who love our city We have district councils which allow a higher level of participation for every citizen What we have not done is determine how to build the circular systems where every citizen asset institution and amenity is defined not as a cost or challenge but as a capital asset contributing to the larger region in tandem with all the other capital assets financial educational social cultural We have hundreds of small businesses seeking to grow but more often worry about how to retain the insufficient large corporations chosen of whom can move on the decision of an absentee corporation without any familiar or historical ties to St Paul We need to place more emphasis upon strengthening our small businesses If we wait for the city regime to provide that leadership we will fail The Caux Round Table for Moral Capitalism will soon convene a process to build the vision and framework for a citywide circular system Related Articles Collins Kutelia Get Russia right End the resets and win the peace Skywatch Celestial monsters and a ghost Your Money Financial stress can lead to avoidance survey says Working Strategies Job search best practices require discipline Joe Soucheray Trump lacks grace and permission in his destruction of East Wing It will include representatives from population private informational educational and civic groups We have the possible to create the St Paul for the future The world has changed and we cannot re-invent the past We are St Paulites We love our city and the neighborhoods We have problems which will not disappear but which can be overcome with resolve imagination and the courage of our convictions We stand at the edge of a new frontier As an admired president once reported us All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days nor in the life of this Administration nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet But let us begin Todd Lefko is a member of the board of the Caux Round Table for Moral Capitalism and Stephen B Young is its global executive director