Strong Local Economy : Buzz

Three Twin Cities companies have made Fortune's "Inner City 100" list of the fastest-growing urban firms in the nation.
 
The magazine singled out data infrastructure provider Atomic Data, bike-rack design firm Dero, and IT consultancy On-Demand Group (see The Line's coverage of On-Demand here).
 
The fastest-growing inner-city company in the nation, according to Fortune, is Coyote Logistics, a Chicago-based transportation firm.
 
Companies were ranked by compound annual growth rate based on their revenue over a five-year period between 2006 and 2010. The survey was part of the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, a project designed to examine urban economies and spur economic development in cities.
 

Walk Score, which rates U.S. cities for bikeability via its Bike Score rubric, recently gave Minneapolis top billing for its bicycle infrastructure.

Next in the lineup are Portland, San Francisco, Boston, and Madison, according to Bike Score.

“Bike Score is based on bike infrastructure (lanes and trails), hills, destinations and road connectivity, and the number of bike commuters,” the website states.

Scores are tallied “based on thousands of votes on hundreds of ideas from the Walk Score community,” it states.  

The Pioneer Press reports that the food truck scene in the Twin Cities “shows no sign of petering out.”

It cites the Orange County Register, which used information from the Roaming Hunger website to assert that the fastest-growing food truck cities are Philadelphia, Raleigh, N.C., and Minneapolis-St. Paul.

At this time, 2,300 gourmet food trucks and carts can be found across the country, it states.

Ross Resnick, who is behind Roaming Hunger, is quoted, saying, "We're adding over 150 trucks to the site every month.”







 

Minneapolis joins Hangzhou, China and Amsterdam as cities that could serve as models for better bicycling policies, believes a columnist for Valley Courier, a newspaper in Colorado.
 
The article notes that in addition to the extensive bikeway system in Minneapolis, the area is also home to the founders of Bike Fixtation (see previous coverage in The Line here), a new kind of vending machine that dispenses bike accessories and patch kits.
 
"We could learn something from these models," the article notes. "[W]e'd save a lot of money and a lot of gas, while dropping the pounds that weigh us down."

Realtor Magazine recently named Minnesota, and specifically the Twin Cities, as among the country’s most peaceful settings.

Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Utah were the other top states, while Louisiana was at the bottom of the list.

It cited information from the 2012 U.S. Peace Index, a study that the Australia-headquartered Institute for Economics & Peace does every year.

For each place, researchers studied the homicide and violent crime rates, police response, incarceration rates, and how easy it is to get a hold of small arms, it states.
 
The piece quotes Steve Killelea, the Institute for Economics & Peace executive chairman: “What is absolutely clear from the Index is that peaceful states perform better across a range of economic, health, education and community factors.

"They have higher high school graduation rates, lower poverty, better access to basic services, higher labor force participation rates, higher life expectancy, and less single-parented families. Even social capital--like volunteerism, civic engagement, trust, and group membership--is higher in more peaceful states.”

The Walker Art Center magazine features a story about the “Art of Placemaking,” as it pertains to Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis.

“Despite its status as a major, historic thoroughfare in Minneapolis--or maybe because of it--Hennepin Avenue has for decades been regarded as a problematic, contested public space,” it reads.

A project called Plan-It Hennepin aims to change that, by turning it into a “lively, compelling cultural corridor,” the story says.

The story touches on the Walker’s perspective on the process, in which it’s a participant:  It quotes the Walker’s Olga Viso, who says, “Along with our partners in Plan-It Hennepin, we thought that the Walker could help lead a different conversation in terms of creativity and envisioning possibilities, by bringing artists’ voices into the process.”

This story dovetails with The Line's feature this week on Candy Chang.

Even with a somewhat improved economy, belts are still tightened when it comes to vacations and extra expenses. Fortunately for the Minneapolis and St. Paul areas, we still have the ability to entertain visitors without risk of giving them sticker shock.
 
A recent study from Livability.com ranked the top 10 most affordable vacation cities in the country. The website took its database of 500 cities and narrowed them down based on factors like availability of discounts on local attractions and quantity of free activities.
 
The Minneapolis area was ranked second on the list, after Louisville, Kentucky. The editors noted: "Explore the City of Lakes and 180-plus area parks, where 81 miles of on-street and 85 miles of off-street trails showcase landscapes and historic neighborhoods." 

Business magazine Forbes released its annual "100 Best Corporate Citizens" list, and eight Minnesota companies found a place on the roster.
 
Hormel Foods was ranked the highest of the state's companies, coming in at number 19 on the list, followed by The Mosaic Co., 3M, General Mills, and Medtronic.
 
Also on the list are Best Buy, Target, and UnitedHealth Group.
 
Forbes came up with the results by comparing companies in seven areas, including human rights, employee relations, philanthropy, and environmental awareness.

Fox News included Summit Maibock, a type of beer from the locally based Summit Brewing Company, in its list of the top-ten spring beers from U.S. and German breweries.

The piece provides some background on this seasonal style of beer, which usually comes out in April or May.  

Considering Summit’s Bavarian roots, “it's only natural that they honor that heritage by brewing their own Maibock,” the article states.

Summit’s Maibock “is fermented at slightly warmer temperatures than other lagers to coax more spicy aromas from the hops. As for its flavor, Moravian 37 and Munich malts and Saaz and Mt. Hood hops combine for a toasted sweetness with a subtle spice and peppery character.”

A story from Yahoo! about “America’s Most Creative Food Trucks,” features the Twin Cities-based Chef Shack.

Yahoo surveyed the country’s “quirkiest cuisine” delivered on wheels.  

It found that while the popular Chef Shack may seem to offer a random menu at first, with everything from bacon beer brats to beef tongue tacos, everything is sourced from local family farms and coops.  

“Chef Shack operators Carrie Summer and Lisa Carlson switch up the menu on a regular basis, tailoring it to the season's prime ingredients. This means that your taste buds are guaranteed a flavorful punch no matter which dish you order,” it states.

Venture Beat mentions the local CoCo coworking space and Project Skyway business accelerator in a story about the coworking trend.

Skyway is an example of the kind of collaborations that can come out of coworking, it expains.

For the vast majority of startups, coworking may be a better alternative than the traditional business incubator, it argues.

“Co-working shifts the startup mentality away from the tunnel-vision focus on getting funding, and onto the 'first-things-first' task of growing a company culture, developing ideas, and most importantly, nurturing support networks,” it states.

The Orange County Register in California recently reported on a survey from temp firm Ajilon Professional Hiring, which looked at the best places in the country for finding a job.
 
The firm named Minneapolis-St. Paul as the top spot for job hunters, based on factors like unemployment rate, diversity of industries, cost of living, level of higher education, and the range in size of companies offering jobs.
 
Ajilon noted that the Twin Cities topped the list mainly because hiring is on the rise among its large industry players in sectors like financial services, health care, retail, and manufacturing. The area is also family-friendly, with low crime and poverty rates, the article noted.

In a Bicycle Times story titled “The surprising rise of Minneapolis as a top bike town,” local writer Jay Walljasper describes the city’s affinity for bicycling.

Minneapolis' goal is to make biking an even bigger part of the transportation system, he states.

Mayor R.T. Rybak is quoted in the story, saying to a group of out-of-towners, “Biking has become a huge part of what we are,” adding, “It’s an economical way to get around town, and many times it’s the fastest. I frequently take a bike from city hall across downtown to meetings.”

Jeff Stephens, the executive director of the Columbus advocacy organization Consider Biking, also visited the city. “It was exciting to see what they’ve accomplished in Minneapolis, which is a city that seems a lot like Columbus.”

Livability.com recently put together a list of the top ten music cities in the country, excluding Nashville, New York City and Los Angeles. Minneapolis wound up in second place.

Athens, Georgia, topped the list.

First Avenue in Minneapolis’s Warehouse District is an important music venue, according to Livability.com.

“Most remember it from the Prince movie Purple Rain,” and the building’s decorative stars make up a who’s-who of artists who have played there, it states. The wall includes such big names as U2, B.B. King, Death Cab for Cutie, Wilco and many more, notes the article.

Also, the nearby Fine Line has drawn artists such as John Mayer, Sheryl Crow, The Black Keys, Lady Gaga, Ben Harper, and Buddy Guy over the past two decades.

Property rental search site Rent.com has named the top metropolitan areas that are "wonderful places to create a fun and affordable lifestyle" for newly married couples.
 
Although the list was not ranked, Minneapolis made the top 10, joining cities like Dallas, Denver, Phoenix, and Austin.
 
Rent.com chose the areas based on availability of rental inventory, cost of living, annual average wages, and unemployment rates. Six of the top 10 cities are in the South, two are in the Midwest, and two are in the West. No metro areas in the Northeast made the list.