St. Louis leaders were surprised Wednesday by the news that Macy’s was folding the tent on its Midwest division, and eliminating 850 jobs downtown. The company’s realignment plans were a shock to Minneapolis, too, the Star-Tribune reports. The announcement of 950…

Nearly 24 hours after returning from the RCGA Leadership Trip to Minneapolis and St. Paul,  a few items are still  clamoring to climb out of my notebook. Here goes one final data dump:

• These Minnesotans sure save their press clippings. St.…

Scott Schnuck, the chairman of this year’s RCGA Leadership Trip to Minneapolis-St. Paul, must have been anticipating the reaction of some of my cynical colleagues. When I returned to the office, they asked how I had enjoyed the “junket” and…

The St. Louisans who journeyed to Minneapolis-St. Paul with the RCGA this week found many things to be jealous of. For the technology-industry folks among the 87 delegates, the biggest outbreak of jealousy was inspired by Dick Sommerstad, director of…

 St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman says he usually delivers an upbeat message to groups like the visiting RCGA delegation from St. Louis. But seeing the wreckage of the I-35W bridge out the window of the Guthrie Theater, where he was speaking Monday,…

If you want to attract a national political convention, it takes money, facilities and organization. At least, that’s the message from the Twin Cities folks who landed the 2008  Republican convention for St. Paul.

The convention bid was one of the…

For 87 St. Louisans who are on a three-day fact-finding visit to Minnesota’s Twin Cities, one of the highlights was this morning’s tour of the new Guthrie Theater in downtown Minneapolis. The building, which opened in June 2006, includes three…

To most outsiders, the downtown skywalk systems in both Minneapolis and St. Paul are wonders of the modern urban world. They seem like sensible responses to a harsh climate, and they’ve been credited with preventing employers and retailers from fleeing…

As I mentioned in the previous post, the site of the I-35W bridge collapse is visible from the 50th floor of the IDS Tower, where 87 folks on the St. Louis RCGA’s leadership trip gathered to hear about downtown development…

As I did last year from Atlanta, I’ll be blogging for the next couple of days from the Regional Chamber and Growth Association’s  leadership trip. This year’s destination: The Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Eighty-seven St. Louis business and…