|
Please consider joining us for the 25th Annual St. Paul Area Chamber Foundation Celebration, this year happening on July 25th from 11 am - 1 pm at Hamline University. We’ll celebrate the Foundation's commitment to nurturing our future workforce through initiatives such as the DEI Collaborative and Leadership Saint Paul , now in its 44th year with over 2,500 alumni!
We will also recocnize our HERBIE Award winners. As you likely know, this honor is awarded to deserving individuals and businesses/organizations that exemplify the traits inspired by its namesake, Herb Brooks: Humanitarian, Enterprising, Resilient, Bold, Inspiration and Ethical (HERBIE). New this year, we also will be awarding an Inclusive Employer Champion award, sponsored by Ramsey County. This year’s HERBIE Award Winners… drumroll please! The 2024 Organization being recognized is the St. Paul Pioneer Press, celebrating its 175th year in service to Saint Paul! The 2024 Individual being honored is Erin Dady, of Bremer Bank! And our Inclusive Employer Champion: Blaze Credit Union! In keeping with tradition, the Foundation will host its beloved Really Big Time Silent Auction and Wine Wall, serving as pivotal fundraising avenues for our leadership programs Your support, through attendance and/or donating a silent auction item, not only showcases your dedication to community leadership but also plays a vital role in advancing the Foundation's mission. If you want to support the auction, let us know here. And register here to join us! See you in the trenches, B Summer adventures are upon us! And it’s the best time of the year to gather together. So I’ll start out my comments this week by highlighting some fun events ahead! The Young Professionals are heading to a Saints game Tuesday night; this month’s Chamber Connect: Pride Month Edition, is over at Urban Growler. Our Equity Leadership Series event this Friday take participants to “Kumbayah, the Juneteenth Story” performance. And, of course, our Golf Classic at North Oaks is July 8, right after a holiday weekend (we have only a couple foursomes left). Pick an event (or two!) to gather together, build a new connection, learn something new from the experience. That’s what we do best together!
It’s been since March that I last updated you on my learning from Bud and Tom, how self-deception interrupts healthy relationships and results-oriented leadership. Though I’ve been talking with you about so many other important things in the meantime, in my quiet time I’ve continued to read and reflect. As a quick reminder, I started this journey in February as we were preparing for our Annual Meeting. I’ve been feeling like this next season of leadership will require more of us, more of me. I sought some help from a professional coach to get started. And so began the journey of reading this book, and sharing some of my learning with you. This week’s comments will wrap up the book, though I intend to continue working on this as we move forward together. The fundamental question, of course, is: how do I get out of the box? Lots of thoughts about that. Let’s start with what doesn’t work. What doesn’t work is to focus on changing others, deciding to “put up with” others, implementing a new skill/technique/process/procedure, or simply walking away. None of these get to the core of the issue. The key to leading without lying to myself is to focus on results for our organization, and then actually SEE the people around me, acknowledge their talents, empower them, and ultimately hold them accountable. What does work?
Something I highlighted in the book and will take with me: “When you’re in the box, people follow you, if at all, only through force or threat of force. But that’s not leadership. That’s coercion. The leaders people choose to follow are those who are out of the box.” Our job is to create leaders within others. See you in the trenches, B Last Friday, the Saint Paul Planning Commission held a public hearing on proposed amendments regarding the operation of drive thrus in the City of Saint Paul. The amendments would eliminate drive thrus as a permitted use in the B4 central business district and prohibit future restaurant drive thrus in the T2 traditional neighborhood zoning district, along with increasing requirements for stacking spaces and distance from transit stations. For context: sample T2 zones include significant portions of University Avenue and up Snelling, Rice St, Maryland/Phalen Blvd area, Arcade, Suburban Ave/White Bear Ave, Cesar Chavez, and West 7th.
First off, I'm disappointed that the first time the Chamber heard of this proposal was when the agenda came out. The Planning Commission stated they’d done significant outreach. Somehow we missed it. That said, the issue itself certainly is not unique to Saint Paul. I just see the fundamental disconnect: the public demand for drive thrus is higher than ever. City planners (again, not just Saint Paul) want to remove them. Simply put, drive thrus play a valuable role. They allow restaurants the flexibility to continue to serve customers while dealing with both workforce shortages and public safety issues. And if you read anything about consumer use, you’ll find that the vast majority of adults frequent drive thrus on a very regular basis – bringing that business into the city itself. Think about the convenience for those with mobility issues, small children, or those needing to maintain distance from others due to illness. In fact, post-Covid, consumer habits have shifted to drive thrus and takeout for dining preferences. Purely from an economic growth perspective, from my season at the Port Authority I experienced several companies that walked away from Saint Paul because they simply couldn’t find locations for drive thru service. Each of these companies wanted to bring jobs, tax base, and expanded services to Saint Paul. They went elsewhere. Now, certainly, some locations are not a good fit for a drive thru operation due to infrastructure design or maybe traffic patterns. We don't need a sweeping policy change to analyze specific projects. The more we legislate to the least common denominator, the more we invite in “unintended consequences” that actually drive future business opportunity away. Much of the basis for the amendments currently being proposed is centered around achieving climate goals, but I’m not sure these amendments will have the desired effects of reducing vehicle miles travelled and encouraging pedestrian travel. Forcing customers to rely on curbside pickup will require additional parking spaces in the restaurant footprint and still will lead to idling vehicles as customers wait for their food. Perhaps some consumers will shift to food delivery through the apps which, again, promotes vehicle travel to the restaurant. Again, those with mobility issues and small children in tow will not opt for a pedestrian walk up, they’ll just not be able to dine out. To use a transportation cliché, I’d ask the City to pump the brakes on these proposed amendments. Rather than taking these amendments to committee for discussion, then back to the Planning Commission, and onto the City Council, the City can use existing processes to achieve desired outcomes. Just take a more targeted look at the locations where drive thrus don’t make sense from traffic safety standpoint, rather than negatively affecting diners and economic growth across the city. See you in the trenches, B I recently needed a moment of inspiration, truly. And I experienced one. I attended a special event at the Science Museum, a NASA Inclusive Innovation Mashup Cohort Finale Event. This Mashup Lab, powered by Brown Venture Group, is a lean startup commercialization bootcamp. Its goal? Within a consortium construct, to empower entrepreneurs to bring innovative ideas to market. I found this special for a couple of reasons. First, this Mashup Lab is designed specifically to increase participation of targeted underrepresented contributors. Second, Brown Venture Group and NASA together are collaborating to establish this ecosystem with Fortune 500 companies and research universities. And third, it is happening right here in the Greater MSP region.
So I attended the Finale Event, a graduation of sorts. At this event were innovators, commercialization experts from the U of M, NASA representatives, and Minnesota leaders. Among them: DEED Commissioner Varilek, Ramsey County Commissioner Martinson, Mayor Carter. Commissioner Varilek talked about the work of this Mashup Lab as an opportunity driven by Paul Brown, “an evangelist for tech transfer and federal/state collaboration in this space.” Commissioner Varilek also reminded us that Minnesota has both a track record and a bright future in terms of begin the home of innovation. He spoke of the current environment in which this Mashup Lab has come to be. Through the CHIPS Act, 31 inaugural “Tech Hub” cities have been identified; Greater MSP is one such region. In May, Polar Semiconductor announced its expanded semiconductor operations, that include $120M federal, $475M state, and $300M Polar investments. NASA’s representative Harvey Schabes talked about their engagement across the country, encouraging and reaching out to regions like ours: “We tripped across the Twin Cities. Brown Venture Group did the work, and Mayor Carter supported the initiative. NASA wants to take it to the next level, in the form of this first of its kind mashup lab.” And Mayor Carter reminded us that “this is an opportunity to introduce and sell this city and region to the global marketplace.” It all started more than a year ago with one man, one idea, one day. That’s how revolution happens! See you in the trenches, B |
Archives
December 2024
|
|
Address:
401 Robert St. N., Suite 150 St. Paul, MN 55101 |
Office Hours:
Monday: 9AM–4PM (Lobby Closed) Tuesday: 9AM–4PM Wednesday: 9AM–4PM Thursday: 9AM–4PM Friday: 9AM–4PM (Lobby Closed) |
Get weekly news on local businesses, events, offerings and more.
|
|
Board Member Login
|
©2022 St. Paul Area Chamber. All Rights Reserved.
|