According to this MinnPost article which discusses what makes people attached to a particular city. The article discusses with Katherine Loflin, a placemaking expert and lead consultant for a Gallup and Knight Foundation study on what drives attachment to a city. While the results of this study are interesting, most people may disagree with the findings.

From the article:

If people can find jobs and reasonable places to live, they’ll be attached enough. Worrying about quality of life, amenities, public spirit and all that squishy stuff seems a bit trivial in an economy that still recovering from one of the worst recessions ever.

But Loflin makes a business case for love of a place. These days, those people most likely to drive the growth of a city, namely young people between the ages of 25 and 34, have reprioritized. Quality of life registers high on their list of necessities. Corporations are finding that increasingly they have to sell talented recruits on the place where they would be relocating as well as the job.

As a hiring manager working in a field which is showing rapid growth and high competition during the turned down economy, I have been fighting to both recruit and retain people for my teams. While my experience is limited and certainly not as wide as the number of people looked at by this study, my experience in no way mirrors what Loflin has said. Talented recruits just out of school or with less than 10 years experience have just as much desire for high salary, regardless of their current location in our outside Minnesota, as anyone else I have talked to recently. You can sell them all you like on the greatness of the MSP metro but they know two things: money talks and it’s freakishly frigid here. When recent grad students are requesting six figure salaries without more than a few months of relevant real-world experience and getting offers from elsewhere with it, I can give you a 99.999% guarantee that this study is bunk.

What do you think about this one? Would you pass over a much higher income elsewhere just so you could stay where the people are? Are you surprised that recently minted masters-level students without much relevant experience are receiving such high offers when you hear in the news that this group is so hard pressed for cash lately? What attaches you to the MSP metro? Whatever you have to say about this one go ahead and comment on as I’d love to hear what you have to say.

According to this Savage Pacer article, the Governor is attempting to gain nearly $5.5 million in funding for a new fence at the Shakopee Women’s Prison. While the hedgerow that is currently separating inmates from residents has been surprisingly effective at stopping escapes, residents want a wrought iron design so that it looks good in their neighborhood, something which raises the potential price and limits the likelihood it will be approved in the bonding bill yet again.

From the article:

Politics in Minnesota is reporting that Gov. Mark Dayton has included $5.2 million for a security fence at the Shakopee women’s prison in his bonding bill proposal released Monday morning.

Like his predecessor Tim Pawlenty, Dayton has tried before to obtain funding for the controversial prison fence.
Although a top priority for the Minnesota Department of Corrections, it was ultimately left out of the final legislation that passed the Legislature, judged by some lawmakers as too expensive.

The fence’s estimated $5.4 million price tag is hefty due to the secondary interior invisible detection system, as well as the brick and wrought-iron design preferred by neighbors, some of which would prefer not to see a fence at all.

Shakopee’s Women’s Prison houses all five levels of inmates from minimum up through maximum security offenders. With a wide range of prisoners being housed there, one would think that neighboring residents would want the best barriers available regardless of their aesthetics. If the costs would come down with a less visually appealing fence but would offer the same or better protections, it’s surprising that the battle continues.

What about you? If you lived near a prison would you prefer looks over potential safety especially knowing that all 5 levels of offenders were housed within? Do you think that compared to the other items on the countless bonding bills passed over the years that a $5.5 million prison fence should be included over some others? Whatever you have to say about this one go ahead and comment on as I’d love to hear your thoughts.