On 9/13/2016 6:13 PM, Timothy J. Salo wrote:
> [...]
>> MPRB is outsourcing union jobs to an inexperienced company for a
>> business venture that is unsustainable and bad for the environment
>> with a business plan that is questionable and incomplete at best. ...
>
> It is widely believed that small businesses generate much, maybe even
> most, of the job growth in the U.S. I believe that it would benefit
> the City and the region, if the Park Board, the City, and the
> University of Minnesota (one of the City's largest employers) were
> more supportive of local small businesses.
> [...]
On 9/13/2016 7:01 PM, Anton Kelly wrote:
> Tim,
>
> I think most of your facts are wrong.
Maybe. But, I don't think so.
> [...]
> Third, even a basic glance at BLS data demonstrates that most of the
> new economic activity generated in the last couple of decades has been
> in the form of low-wage, part-time, little-to-non benefited positions.
> To make a very long story short, this has upended the middle class.
First, the public sector appears to be generating few, if any, new jobs.
The Federal workforce has been shrinking since 2010, and is well below
what it was in, say, the 1980s. Total employment by the states hasn't
yet rebounded to what it was in 2008. And, I believe that local
government employment is following the same trajectory.
So, it seems to me that it is all well and good to talk about the City
and the Park Board as sources of good, middle-class jobs. But, I don't
think either will be the source of a lot of _new_ jobs. Rather,
I suspect that full-time employees, seasonal and part-time employees,
private sector companies wanting to provide goods and services, and
investments in automation will all be competing for a very slowly
growing pie. (Oh, and maintenance and repair expenses.) Perhaps,
this zero-sum nature of slowly growing budgets is the context for the
current complaints.
(By the way, I suspect that the loss of parking attendant jobs when the
City sold its parking ramps offers some relevant lessons. I can only
speculate what those lessons might be, but I would love to read informed
commentary on this topic.)
So, that leaves the private sector to generate new jobs. I think it
is probably reasonable to expect the City and the Park Board
to assume some responsibility for attracting and supporting new jobs in
the City. In my view, this ought to include supporting small and
new businesses. And, supporting small businesses ought to include
contracting with them for goods and services, and making it easier
for small businesses to contract with the City and the Park Board.
Of course, as Mr. Kelly points out, new jobs are not all equal. I
would like to see the City (and the Park Board) adopt explicit
objectives and measures aimed at attracting, nurturing, and contracting
with high-tech and other small businesses that create well-paying
jobs. Small tech companies create many more well-paying jobs that,
for example, service industry companies.
(My personal view is that the City and other local government
organizations do a pretty poor job of supporting small businesses.
But, that is a topic for another time.)
> What MPRB is doing here exacerbates the problem. I tend to think that
> more progressive Minneapolitans would be offended if they knew the
> details of what is really going on.
> [...]
I think that most City residents, progressive or other wise, would like
to see the City and the region to be home to a vibrant, growing economy.
In the interest of brevity (the rest of this missive notwithstanding)
I will leave additional commentary for another time.
-tjs