Summary:

St Paul is one of the great, medium-sized cities of the country, if not the world. However, St Paul is under-valued, under-appreciated and under developed and lives with a serious inferiority complex. Especially when it comes to her twin city neighbor. This should not be. In a beautiful river city that is a capital of commerce and government and shares our countries greatest river and all its beauty, majesty and resources.

What other medium-sized city has as many great liberal arts colleges and a big ten land grant university campus in her midst as well as numberous community colleges. Home to fortune 500 hundred (3m and Ecolab) hundreds of large and medium-sized companies and America's two larges cooperatives (CHS and LOL) and Minnesotas oldest company (St Paul Companies/Travelors). What a diverse set of resources. What a place to live, work and be educated. Also a rail and water transportation hub. Home America's greatest railroad developer...James J. Hill. Still a major commercial and AmTrak hub. Now back in beautiful Union Station.

How do we harness all these incredible human and natural resources to be the most incredible 21st Century City in America, if not the world? As I said St Paul suffers from an image problem and a bit of an inferiority complex. We are under appreciated. Even amongst ourselves. What other medium city has such riches. Let's develop them to the fullest. Be what we can be. Create new opportunity. Create the future.

I suggest a six month community conversation of discussions, focus groups and thorough weighing of pros and cons and develop a vision for our future....2020...no pun intended, For real. We can do. Build a vision, exploit our human, natural and commercial resources to create opportunity and the greatest, thriving, growing, living community on earth. So much possibility. So much to build on. It will change our perspective, our self image and our stereotype in the larger world.