EXCERPT: “If Wadena’s downtown commercial district has the distinction of being added to the National Register of Historic Places in the future much of the credit will have to go to a route Denis Gardner chose to follow four years ago. Gardner was driving to his home in Deer River after being invited to Deer ...

  Kelly Asche, research associate at the Center, has just completed an article that gets to the heart of the question of why it’s so hard to get housing built in rural Minnesota. While rural communities recruit workers to alleviate the workforce shortage, they find they don’t have the appropriate housing for workers they would ...

EXCERPT: “State Rep. Paul Torkelson, the House Transportation Committee chair, is blasting the Department of Transportation for its newly released list of $417 million in highway projects, saying it fails to heed to outstate needs. ‘We have critical corridors like Hwy. 23 in western Minnesota, Hwy. 14 in southern Minnesota, and countless others in desperate need of ...

EXCERPT: “In 1998, when John Keller joined the St. Paul-based Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota (ILCM) as an immigration attorney, he would often drive to Worthington, where hundreds of low-income immigrants and refugees depended on the organization’s free legal services. ‘We would do workshops, answer a bunch of questions, do in-takes and represent whoever we could help,’ ...

  We meet this week with Rep. Joe Schomacker of Luverne to talk about where we’re at the legislature in the final weeks of the session.

EXCERPT: “Looking for the hottest economic region in Minnesota? Drive about an hour southwest of the Twin Cities and you’ll find it in Greater Mankato. With one of the fastest-growing economies in the state, a revitalized downtown and a growing mix of restaurants, retail, entertainment venues and everything else a big city offers—without the traffic jams—residents, ...

Providing housing for a community or region’s population is complex and dynamic. A healthy housing market should be able to provide housing for most people and their diverse needs through a combination of natural churn and new construction. In rural areas, however, economic and demographic forces are at work creating a housing shortage that many communities ...

EXCERPT: “Cook County and the city of Grand Marais are teaming up to create a regional park just north of the city. The proposed Sawtooth Bluff Regional Park would be built on 640 acres already owned by the county and city. There is also potential to acquire two additional parcels in the future, a 78-acres ...

  This week we talk with IRRB Commissioner Mark Phillips about economic development on the Iron Range and the impact of trade tariffs on the iron ore industry.

EXCERPT: “One of the most common significant struggles for most small cities across the state is the balance between funding critical projects and other necessities and limiting the amount of burden they put on their residents. Top it off with the proposed LGA budget being less than it was in 2002 for this year the ...