Tag: rural minnesota

By Marnie Werner, Vice President, Research & Operations About 18 months ago I was sitting in front of a state senate committee on child care, talking to them about what I had found while researching the child care shortage for the previous two years. When I was done and others were invited to come up ...

Feb. 27, 2019 Next week we’ll be releasing a new publication, “Letters to the New Governor,” a collection of essays written by people from around the state on various topics of importance to Greater Minnesota. One of those articles is on the current child care shortage, and the following is an excerpt. You’ll be able ...

  Market forces in small rural communities almost guarantee that it will cost more to build a new starter home there than young families can afford, says the Center’s research associate Kelly Asche. Discussing his new report on the housing shortage, Kelly tells how some public-private partnerships are making it happen in places like St. ...

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 ...

  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: “Like many towns its size, Marine on St. Croix, Minn. – population 694 – is all too familiar with the challenge of keeping a small rural school alive. A years-long battle to stop the town’s only public school from closing came to an end earlier this year, with the district citing low enrollment rates as ...

For part 3 of our talk with Mike Maurer, chief deputy and emergency management director for Blue Earth County, Mike tells us what we can do in our own homes to prepare for a disaster in rural Minnesota. Three days is key. 

Last year the Center released the report “A Quiet Crisis: Minnesota’s child care shortage,” which shed light on a dire family and economic development problem affecting the entire state. A year later, we revisit the issue.

EXCERPT: “According to Blue Cross data*, diabetes accounts for 6.3 percent of loss of good health in Minnesota. The Twin Cities area has the lowest diabetes impact, at 5.2 percent, while northwestern counties are hit the hardest with an impact of 8.1 percent. Minnesota’s northwestern counties also demonstrate a significant disparity in the impact of ...