Tragic Optimism

In the face of the unfurling war in Ukraine and continuing domestic economic challenges, sleepless nights and growing cynicism can be corrosive. The BBC and The Atlantic both wrote pieces last fall about “tragic optimism”:  how to stay out of the ditch when anxiety continues to swirl around us. At an even deeper level, Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl wrote about this as well. We can choose to incorporate gratefulness into our daily thinking. If Frankl is correct, we can have optimism in the face of tragedy – to find connection and purpose.
 
With that frame of mind, today is a feel-good day. Anybody else forget to set their clocks ahead on Saturday night? I started out aggravated but that ended quickly because Sunday proved to be beautiful and the week ahead promises to be even more so.
 
Last Wednesday was a great day, too – for several reasons.  Our Lunch With Leaders event featured 3 “regular-but-powerful” women who are leading: Kenya McKnight-Ahad, Founder/President of Black Women’s Wealth Alliance; Major General Johanna Clyborne, Minnesota’s Assistant Adjutant General (and Minnesota’s first female 2-star general); and Lara Juras, VP and Director of Culture and People with the Minnesota Vikings. Metro State’s Great Hall was packed and attendees captivated by their comments. We all could have sat there much longer, hearing the stories of regular women doing extraordinary things. Just one of the comments I received after the event: “I want you to know that today was one of the best panels events I have attended in a very long time.  The panelists were authentic, the questions superb and the dialog, invaluable. Thank you for your efforts!”
 
Also on Wednesday, we honored two organizations with our Celebrate Business Success and Celebrate Service awards:
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​The Buttered Tin, winner of Celebrate Business Success award: we’ve been recognizing companies with this award since 2006, and we were especially delighted to recognize The Buttered Tin – a dynamite woman-owned business celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. They recently expanded from their St. Paul location across the river to add a Minneapolis location, and you can order their cakes for delivery now! The bakery’s founder is James Beard-recognized chef and Cupcake Wars winner Alicia Hinze. Alicia is also very community minded – during Covid-19, she and her staff set up a way for people to donate and send breakfast to frontline workers.

Metro State University, winner of Celebrate Service award: new this year, this award recognized Metro State University. And it’s also led by a woman – President Virginia Arthur. For over 50 years, Metro State has been a community partner, whose impact has been uniquely extraordinary in terms of social mobility for its students. Metro State is an urban university, uniquely designed to meet the needs of adult learners in the region.Most fascinating to me as a measure of their impact is the Social Mobility index, which measures where students enter a school in terms of their economic standing and then, 5 years after graduation. Metro State ranks 39th nationally and #1 in Minnesota. Further, 85% of alums live and work and pay taxes in Minnesota. That translates to over $4B in taxes across its 50K alums.
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Other news to share: 

• ​A great introduction: this month’s B’s Table Talk guest is Troy Blizzard, VP and General Manager for Mortenson. He walks us through his journey to authentic leadership and his 5 points to developing as a leader. A worthy conversation!

• A great award, well-earned:  MSP International Airport is back on top: best-in-class again for 2022! And rebound continues. In 2021, served nearly 70% more passengers in 2021 than 2020.  A full return is still pending, however, in 2021 serving approximately 64% of the passengers served in the record high year of 2019.
  
• A great win to celebrate: State Hockey tournament: Andover claims its first title in 6-5 Overtime thriller vs Maple Grove, at the Xcel Energy Center on Saturday.  Imagine, both teams’ first time playing for the championships, two overtimes. Amazing! In Class A, Hermantown beat Warroad for its 4th Class A title.  
• A great day - St. Patrick’s Day – is ahead and promises to be a beautiful day! Check out the website www.stpatsmn.org for a full listing of 2022 events!
• ​A demonstration of greatness: according to Axios, America was the world’s most generous country this past decade – and that generosity grew during the pandemic. Cutting across religion, region and age, nearly 60^ of us gave money last year; 72% help strangers; and 42% of us volunteer.  

• And, yes my friends, Saint Paul’s businesses, large and small, are coming back!

 
See you in the trenches.
B

• St. Paul no longer requires masks in city-operated buildings: Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and St. Paul's Melvin Carter lifted mask mandates for municipal buildings Thursday as the rate of COVID-19 infections in the Twin Cities continued its rapid decline. Read more of what Carter had to say on the decision here.
• Minnesota's 2021 death toll well above expected total despite vaccine: The year of COVID-19 vaccines was still a deadly one in Minnesota, with deaths from all causes in 2021 more than 15% higher than expected — mostly because of the pandemic and drug abuse. The Star Tribune breaks down the data here.
• According to the Mayo Clinic: COVID-19 is heading towards an endemic.”

• The Senate voted 68-31 to send Biden a $1.5 trillion omnibus spending measure, which includes nearly $15 billion in aid for Ukraine, that will fund the federal government through September. To be sure the government doesn't shut down at midnight as the legislation makes its way through the enrollment process, lawmakers also passed a four-day continuing resolution. (Roll Call)  Enough said – took too long.
• The Federal Open Market Committee meeting you've been waiting for is finally here. Fed Chair Jerome Powell and other central bank officials have long indicated that they'll raise interest rates for the first time since 2018 during the two-day summit, scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect a rate increase of 1.25 percent this year, spread out over four projected hikes. We'll be watching to see if Russia's invasion of Ukraine alters any of that thinking. 
• The State of Travel and Hospitality, Q1 2022: With omicron in the rearview mirror and confirmed cases falling in most key regions, travel and hospitality brands can look forward to a bustling 2022.
• Minnesota added 10K jobs in January, and unemployment drops below 3%.
• The rising cost of energy, food and services pushed the United States' inflation rate to 7.9% last month, the highest point since 1982 when the country was in a recession. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she expects to "see further evidence of an impact" due to Russia's war in Ukraine, suggesting consumer prices will go even higher in this election year.

State:

• A bill that rolls back the ability for municipalities to enact rent control passed a Senate committee, but isn’t likely to become law.
• Minnesota lawmakers are weighing a bill that would allow the creation of local Tourism Improvement Districts (TID) funded by service fees levied on lodging businesses to help an industry hit hard by the pandemic’s travel drought.
• Lawmakers remain divided over plan to replenish unemployment insurance trust fund. The deadline is Tuesday, when bills to employers are scheduled to go out. Democrats want to include bonuses for frontline workers, which is proving harder to advance on its own.
• Governor Tim Walz joins other governors in calling for a suspension of the federal gas tax for the balance of 2022.  This represents 18 cents per gallon.

 
Regional

• Minneapolis, St. Paul consider next steps in rent control. The Chamber PA team is continuing to monitor the Mayor’s rent control stakeholder group meetings that are being live-streamed. The first couple of meetings focused on organization and level-setting the subject. The third meeting focused on a discussion of program design options, as a way to highlight historical rent control policies.
• Bill Lindeke, MinnPost: Column: In first months since passage of St. Paul’s rent-control ordinance, housing construction is way down.

Read more updates in our weekly Chamber Advocacy Update.

• MSPBJ’s 2022 40 Under 40: it’s a great group and, after a 2-year hiatus, especially welcome! Of special note within your Chamber’s membership are: Chris Brink, Ryan Cos. US Inc.; Randy Dehmer, Canterbury Park Holding Corp.; Chris Duffy, Goff Public; Jazz Hampton, TurnSignl; Michele Henry, Face Foundrié; Roger Maldonado, Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath; Tory Schalkle, U.S. Bancorp; Jorie Soskin, Medtronic; Sydney Wittmier, M.A. Mortenson Co.
• The Minnesota Hmong Chamber of Commerce (MHCC) is hosting their 1st Annual Asian American Pacific Islanders (AAPI) Small Business Expo on May 14 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Metropolitan State University presented by Wells Fargo. The day is packed with speakers, business training workshops, job fair/resource fair, networking, and panel discussions. Come be a part of the event as a partner, sponsor, business owner, professional, student, or connector. Click the link here to learn more about partnership, sponsorship, and registration: https://aapibusinessexpo.com/.
• 2022 Equity Leadership Series, presented by Bremer Bank,  kicks off on March 16. Facilitated again this year by Anika Ward of Sankofa Leadership Network. Register here!

• With March ushering in Women’s History Month, it’s especially appropriate to highlight 7 lessons from exceptional women leaders. Starting with PepsiCo’s CEO, Indra Nooyi’s, thoughts: “leadership is hard to define and good leadership is harder, but if you can get people to follow you to the ends of the earth, you are a great leader.”

• According to Gallup, Six in 10 Americans are satisfied with the position of women in the U.S., which is similar to what Gallup has found over the past 4 years but well below the average of 71% from 2001-2008. Not surprising, women are less satisfied than are men in this poll, by a relatively unchanged “10% gender gap.”
• Immigration: Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is expected to meet this week with Mexican officials as the Biden administration looks to end the Trump administration-era policy of expelling immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border and denying asylum as a way to contain the coronavirus.
  
  • Why it's worth watching: A draft document obtained by BuzzFeed News says a return to pre-pandemic practices at the border could "seriously strain" border resources and lead to a challenging humanitarian situation in the region, threatening to push immigration back into the headlines in the coming weeks. 

• Colder Products is expanding its Twin Cities manufacturing footprint again: the Roseville-based company just began work on the build-out of a 168K SF facility it’s leasing in Arden Hills, where it plans to employ 500 people by its opening this fall.
• Bloomington City Council has approved aid for Mall of America water park: construction could start this summer. $422M project, $110M of that will come from public funding (including $55M in TIF).  
• Twin Cities retail sector sees lowest vacancy in Upper Midwest. Surprised? I was. 3.4% vacancy, according to a recently published 2022 Retail Investment Forecast by Marcus & Millichap.