Page 10 RAIN November/December 1985 have not in fact made that decision at this point; we've made the opposite decision. RAIN: Do you know of other cities that are undertaking any kinds of programs similar to what you're doing in St. Paul? Morris: There are a number of city officials that have contacted the mayor of St. Paul, and have come out to visit. There are many cities that are embracing part of the concept. One has to remember the context in which this is happening. Number one, the baby boom is coming to power in the cities. That is, the bulge in the population curve is now in their thirties and forties, and when you're in your thirties and forties, you gain the first rungs of power in your society, which means you become the entrepreneur, you become the small business president, you become the head of a local bank, and you become the mayor and the city council. So you begin to look locally, just because that's the age of the population. The second is that the country as a whole is growing older. That's not just the baby boom, the demographics of the country as a whole is that we're an aging popula- ^ tion. And with an aging population, we're putting down roots. People don't move as much now as they did 10 or 15 years ago. And so there is a revived sense of place in the country, that wasn't there 10 or 15 years ago. The other major development is that there have been significant federal cutbacks. And with significant federal cutbacks, one finds that cities are forced to be creative— sort of the self-reliance of desperation, if you will— especially in meeting the human needs of their local citizens. A Profile of the Homegrown Economy 1. Local ownership 2. Employee and community participation 3. A willingness to take risks 4. Inventiveness :■ 5. Getting the most out of local resources 6. Substituting local goods and services for imported products 7. Preventing problems from arising rather than treating them after the fact 8. Expanding exports FROM: The Homegrown Economy: A Prescription for St. Paul's Future And the fourth major change is that the world economy has changed such that people begin to understand how we're all buffeted by forces that appear to be beyond our control, and there's a longing for us to gain more control on the local level. So when you put all those pieces together, what it means is that there's a dynamism at the municipal level that was lacking 10 or 15 years ago. And that dynamism tends to be focused in an entrepreneurial way around business development—business development that uses creative financing, business development that perceives the role of the city as entrepreneur, as venture capitalist, as equity funder, and so forth. So there's a new dynamic occuring, but that is not necessarily a self-reliant city. When the mayor of a city AN AGING COMMUNITY percent of population 70 0 0-15 16-64 over 65 age In years FROM: The Homegrown Economy: A Prescription for St. Paul's Future
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