How Long, Not Long

Thanks for your indulgence while I was away last week. Where was I, you ask? I joined a group of about 50 others on an inaugural “Reckoning for Truth, Trust, & Racial Justice Tour,”  hosted by the Center for Economic Inclusion. I met colleagues – and made new friends - from our region and from across the country. Lissa Jones-Lofgren was our “translator,” and she set the tone by reminding all of us that: “if you’re Black, today is either the day before or the day after something went down.”
 
Together we walked through the streets of Montgomery, AL, toured the Legacy Museum, and the Rosa Parks Museum. We walked the path of enslaved people, from the water’s edge to the warehouses and the slave depots. We saw the “Black streets” and the “White streets” downtown. We walked through the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. We crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, learning the history of Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965, and the successful march of March 21, 1965, that culminated with 25K people on the steps of Montgomery, AL capitol building. These marches became a turning point in the Civil Rights Movement.
 
As you might imagine, so many thoughts about this transformative trip.  Powerful, haunting, uncomfortable. I’ll share an excerpt from Martin Luther King Jr’s  “How Long, Not Long” speech, spoken on those capitol steps, on March 21, 1965:
 
Once more the method of nonviolent resistance was unsheathed from its scabbard, and once again an entire community was mobilized to confront the adversary. And again the brutality of a dying order shrieks across the land. Yet, Selma, Alabama became a shining moment in the conscience of man. If the worst in American life lurked in its dark streets, the best of American instincts arose passionately from across the nation to overcome it. There never was a moment in American history more honorable and more inspiring than the pilgrimage of clergymen and laymen of every race and faith pouring into Selma to face danger at the side of its embattled negroes…. I know you are asking today, “How long will it take?” Somebody’s asking, “how long will prejudice blind the visions of men, darken their understanding, and drive right-eyed wisdom from her sacred throne?” …. I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because “truth crushed to earth will rise again.” - Martin Luther King Jr, March 21, 1966.
 
May we all feel the conviction of his later words:  
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It may well be that we will have to repent in this generation, not merely for the vitriolic words and the violent actions of the bad people who would bomb a church in Birmingham, Alabama, but for the appalling silence and indifference of the good people who sit around and say, ‘wait on time.’” – Martin Luther King Jr, 1966 Convocation.
 
Together we can walk in the footsteps of change.
 
See you in the trenches.
B​

• U.S. opens second COVID boosters to 50 and up, others at risk. The CDC stopped short of urging that those eligible rush out and get it right away. That decision expands the additional booster to millions more Minnesotans.
• Number of COVID patients in US hospitals reaches record low. Numbers have fallen more than 90% and some hospitals are going days without a single COVID-19 patient in the ICU for the first time since early 2020.  

• U.S. added 431K jobs in March, in sign of economic health. National unemployment rate down to 3.6%.
• Minnesota’s unemployment rate shrank to the 5th consecutive month in February (to 2.7%), but for Black Minnesotans, that’s not the case (grew by .3%).
• Minnesota economy in 2021 beat pre-pandemic level, even with fewer people working. The state’s GDP rose 5.7% last year, in line with the nation’s recovery pace, and beat 2019’s level in absolute terms.
• Governor's Council on Economic Expansion: The Council met March 28th to understand strategies around holistic investments in current and future workers, including BIPOC entrepreneurs and micro-businesses, and how to remove systemic barriers to create a just and fair society that supports all to participate, prosper, and reach their full potential. Watch a recording of the meeting here.  
• Rent Regulation: Policy Choices and Impacts. Urban Land Institute Minnesota and the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis are partnering with experts from across the housing sector to present a four-part, virtual event series featuring research-based, evidence-driven conversation on rent regulation. The first part starts on April 11th from 3:30-4:30pm. Register here. 
• The Biden administration said it will release 1 million barrels of oil per day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for the next six months in a bid to lower gasoline prices, which have been pushing up inflation. Oil prices dropped in response to early reports of the move. (CNBC)
• Grow Minnesota – what we learned from businesses in 2021.

​Federal:

• A bipartisan group of senators said they are close to agreeing to a $10 billion deal ​​that would drastically scale back U.S. global vaccination efforts and amounts to less than half the size of the Biden administration's initial request for funding. In the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other top Democrats are preparing a vote as soon as this week on legislation to provide coronavirus-related relief to restaurants, but it's an open question as to whether they would try to merge it with the larger preparedness package.
• The Senate Judiciary Committee has a meeting today (Monday) to advance Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's Supreme Court nomination to the full chamber. What we're watching: The committee vote is not expected to face problems, and nor is the full Senate's vote after Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said she will vote to confirm Jackson, ensuring that the first Black woman nominated to the high court will receive support from at least one Senate Republican.

 
Regional

• St. Paul’s rent control vote caused lag in housing sales prices. Economists estimate that if voters had not passed an ordinance, residential properties would be 6-7% higher.
• St. Paul rent control draft rules: allow landlords to “self certify” increases over 3%. And questions abound.
• St. Paul: Mayor Melvin Carter announced a $14.5 million American Rescue Plan  investment to replace thousands of lead pipes across the city.  

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Read more updates in our weekly Chamber Advocacy Update

• Bridgewater Bank is among the Twin Cities-area banks and credit unions ranked among S&P Global’s top performers of 2021.
• Grand Old Day canceled again: "Covid has brought many uncertainties for all of us and requires a new way of thinking about large scale, all age events such as Grand Old Day," wrote the organizers in a post on the Grand Avenue Business Association's website. But don't worry, it wasn't all bad news. Here's what they have in mind next.
• 40 Iconic Eats of the Twin Cities!
• Events ahead for the St. Paul Area Chamber: Join Us!
  • Cybersecurity in the Modern Age, Business Education Series, April 7
  • 2022 Equity Leadership Series, Session 2, April 20

• Future of work: we are never going back to normal, but we are going back to work.  Employees have an emboldened sense of choice and control over where and how they work. Find out here how to meet employees where they’re at. Meanwhile, 81% of Twin Cities managers want employees back in the office.

• DEED Hears from Business and Community Leaders on Importance of Youth and Tech Training for BIPOC Workforce.  Last this week, DEED Commissioner Steve Grove hosted a roundtable at the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center (PWCC) focused on tech training and the importance of introducing youth to this growing and high-wage earning industry. Youth from Black, brown, and Indigenous communities represent one of the fastest growing segments of our workforce and will continue to be so over the coming decade. Providing technology training opportunities will help meet the demands of Minnesota’s dynamic tech industry and prepare young people for successful careers with sustainable wages. You can watch a recording of the full discussion on DEED’s YouTube channel.
• Minnesota’s graduation rate dipped slightly in 2021, but Black students see gains.

• Record year for Twin Cities multifamily production. That said, the traditional “hotspots” of downtown Minneapolis, Uptown Minneapolis, the University of Minnesota neighborhood, and downtown St. Paul have fallen to the bottom of the list of Twin Cities submarkets.
• Cone zone: 235 construction projects on MnDOT’s $1 billion 2022 to-do list. ​