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The St. Louis
region offers a uniquely affordable urban quality of life, with
some world class assets like Washington University’s medical complex
and Forest Park. Combining strong educational institutions (In addition
to Washington University, Saint Louis University; Webster University;
Fontbonne; Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville; Maryville
University; Lindenwood; McKendree College; Harris-Stowe; and the
Universities of Missouri at St. Louis and at Columbia) and cultural
amenities (museums, the symphony, professional sports) with interesting,
livable neighborhoods and housing costs that spell homeownership
for relatively young adults “is hugely important,” according to
Joel Kotkin.
The Greater St. Louis Economic Development Council and the RCGA
are in the process of developing a talent retention and attraction
strategy with the assistance of Milken Institute professor Joel
Kotkin, a best-selling author and highly regarded economic development
strategist.
The Greater St. Louis Economic Development Council established a
working group to provide strategic guidance for this project, chaired
by President SBC-Missouri Cindy Brinkley.
In addition, a Young Professionals Group has been established to
provide guidance to Kotkin regarding issues that are important to
young professionals. This group is identifying ways to improve the
attractiveness of the region to other young professionals.
Kotkin expanded on the urban, even urbane, lifestyle that St. Louis
makes affordable: “Even if you’re renting, you can still get an
apartment, say, near Tower Grove Park and be in walking distance
to a lot of interesting places. No way you can afford to do that
in San Francisco or New York.”
At least not without a dozen or so roommates.
What’s more, he said, “Every style of housing is relatively more
affordable, whether it’s the Central West End, the older suburbs
or west county, or in Illinois.”
Kotkin has been looking at our town—and our ability to attract and
retain the talent that regional prosperity will require in the future—at
the behest of the Greater St. Louis Economic Development Council.
It’s a wide-ranging group comprised of the RCGA, Civic Progress,
the Regional Business Council, small business owners, labor officials
and regional economic development and political leaders.
Not long ago, the Council and the RCGA set—and met—an unprecedented
goal: the Campaign for a Greater St. Louis generated more than 100,000
net new regional jobs in five years. Now, the next generation of
economic growth and vitality is under way: an ambitious agenda to
stimulate high-growth entrepreneurial companies, promote St. Louis
as a multicultural region and forge economic development partnerships
with both state governments. Above all, the group works as a unit
to promote one message: Our competition, for jobs, revenue and opportunities,
is other regions, not each other.
Kotkin’s report will likely be released in January. But an article
by Bob Schaper in St. Louis Commerce last August captured
one of Kotkin’s early impressions: “In recruiting older executives
for established companies, for example, St. Louis seems to do pretty
well—particularly if they’re married and have children.”
More recently, citing the work of demographer Bill Frey of the Brookings
Institute, Kotkin said, “During the ’90s, there was a net inflow
of college educated people between the ages of 25 and 34 into St.
Louis, but an outflow of people 35 and older.”
So it’s a nice place to raise a family. We’ve heard that before.
But there’s still that nagging problem about opportunities for ambitious
people. “St. Louis is not going to appear at the top of the National
Commission on Entrepreneurship’s list,” Kotkin quipped. “We’ve talked
to people in Silicon Valley,” he continued, “people from St. Louis
who would like to go back, but just don’t feel the opportunities
there yet warrant that.”
Kotkin doesn’t ascribe their reluctance to technology itself, but
to a “sense of excitement, of ownership, of having an impact. It
is often found in technology-based companies, but it is not the
exclusive province of tech-based companies. Besides, technology
is embedded in almost any business now.”
Kotkin points out that this je ne sais quoi may be more prevalent
in Silicon Valley, or in the entertainment and fashion industry
in L.A. Still, St. Louis is not entirely bereft of it.
“We met very bright, very ambitious people at Build-A-Bear Workshop.
They’re attracting and retaining people in St. Louis, because they
have an interesting concept, a sense of building something new,
something expanding, something exciting.
“You sense that there’s still stuff happening at 6:00 in the evening,”
he said, “and that people talk about work when they’re off work.”
Kotkin also recognized biotech start ups and technology-based solutions
provider Quilogy for the “unique and exciting opportunities” they
splash on the local landscape.
Among Kotkin’s preliminary prescriptions were to encourage more
interaction (connections!) between established and entrepreneurial
companies—perhaps through mentoring; perhaps through celebrating
entrepreneurial success and many more informal networks to connect
the region—and to deepen the venture capital pool.
Kotkin, 50, is a native New Yorker. He has lived in California for
some 30 years. He attended the University of California, Berkeley.
He is a senior fellow in both the public policy institute and the
business school at Pepperdine University, as well as an urban fellow
at the City University of New York. He is a frequent columnist for
the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York
Times and the L.A. Times
The most recent of the half dozen books he’s written, The New Geography,
focuses on the digital economy’s impact on cities’ traditional role
as centers of creativity, trade and culture. “There will be big
winners and big losers among them,” it says at JoelKotkin.com,
and New Geography “explains which cities are best equipped
to thrive and which are fated to decline.”
Asked if having Gotham for a hometown or living on the Left Coast
for three decades might affect his vision, Kotkin said, “Everybody
is a product of his experience. I have a certain sympathy for people
interested in owning a home or concerned about where they can raise
their kids. If I didn’t have those experiences myself, I might have
a somewhat different view. But my work is based on lots of experience
in lots of places. And I am painfully honest.”
Among those experiences was a year-and-a-half stint at Washington
University between New York and California. “I lived in a dangerous
part of town,” he said, “and back then St. Louis was boring: What
a great combination! But that experience makes me more optimistic
now, because of how far the region has come.”
Connect the dots, and the trend is up.
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