Here in the thereabouts of North High, Governor Olson's alma mater, the "For Rent" and "For Sale" signs are popping up like mushrooms. There are new tenements going up in Bassett's Creek bog, but not much of anyone is moving in.
Head west a bit, further out than the tract homes popping up in Medina and such. Buffalo, beyond the MUSA, is becoming a full fledged suburb, with all the attendant problems. The tract houses are popping up as far west as Watkins, over an hours drive west of downtown Minneapolis. Not quite as far though from the western suburbs, where much of our job base has moved.
Around Paynesville it hits you- every little 10 acre plot with a bit of woods, a hilltop, or water in view is sprouting new homes like mushrooms after a drenching. Paynesville doesn't have much of a job base to speak off, especially not living wage jobs. So it's not the locals that are building these lake homes and hobby farms. Neither does St.Paul or Willmar, a half hour away. If you want a clue of what's going on, take a look at the local tractor dealer or who's buying up tracts of land. The only new tractors moving off the lot in any numbers are the little ones aimed at the hobby farmer market. And the real farmers are bemoaning the hunters from the cities who are bidding up the price of farm land above what there kids can afford.
About now someone will rise to Minneapolis' defense, throwing out the census numbers for Minneapolis (growing) and Boondocks, MN (stagnant). As long as you've got the census figures out, look at that Baxter, Alexandria, and some of the other rural towns that boomed during the 1990s. These towns portend a trend that is spreading across rural Minnesota.
After flocking to metropolitan areas for over a century, why are folks headed home to the country? The industrial revolution drove millions from the now mechanized farms to the city's factories. The captains of industry has since subcontracted such work to China and other low wage sweatshop economies. This leaves many of those that still have jobs often free of the factory and able to live where they wish. The same loss of our manufacturing base has resulted in a loss of jobs which have forced many to government economic assistance- over 10,000,000 working ages americans now draw SSDI or SSI checks. The treasury department will be happy to deposit these checks in most any bank. Then there are the retiring baby boomers, who can again live where the please, free of the metro area's workplaces.
For the first time in over a century we have increasing hordes of citizens who need no longer commute to work. In fact, in many areas of the country already over half of the adult population is not working. This forces core cities like Minneapolis into competition with the whole country and even foreign countries in the race to attract residents and their tax dollars. In such competition Minneapolis currently has little to offer, with a few downtown neighborhoods being able to offer amenities like easy mobility and diverse goods and services. However, much of Minneapolis is in comparison with greater Minnesota overpriced and crime ridden. If Minneapolis is to survive it will have to offer as secure and affordable an environment as greater Minnesota.
on Highway 55,
Dyna Sluyter
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