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Sweet marketing music

Tanner Montague came to town from Seattle having never owned his own music venue before. He’s a musician himself, so he has a pretty good sense of good music, but he also wandered into a crowded music scene filled with concert venues large and small.But the owner of Green Room thinks he found a void in the market. It’s lacking, he says, in places serving between 200 and 500 people, a sweet spot he thinks could be a draw for both some national acts not quite big enough yet for arena gigs and local acts looking for a launching pad.“I felt that size would do well in the city to offer more options,” he says. “My goal was to A, bring another option for national acts but then, B, have a great spot for local bands to start.”Right or wrong, something seems to be working, he says. He’s got a full calendar of concerts booked out several months. How did he, as a newcomer to the market in an industry filled with competition, get the attention of the local concertgoer?

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by Andrew Tellijohn
May 2004

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Economy


Recovery of 54,000 jobs
lost will take time, says
Great North Alliance report

The road will be long to full job recovery in the Twin Cities, according to a new report by the Great North Alliance of Minneapolis.

In the final quarter of 2000 Twin Cities jobs peaked at 1.8 million, says Douglas Petty, CEO of the not-for-profit that works on “critical issues affecting our region’s economic competitiveness.” Three years later, we’re below that high-water mark by 54,000 jobs. Add to that number those entering the labor force due to population growth, and another 60,000 jobs are needed to return to an equivalent employment level of the peak.

“The sense is that the Twin Cities, because of restructuring and overzealous laying off, we’re looking for a quick rebound. But 54,000 jobs is a lot of jobs,” plus the 2,000 to 3,000 per month needed to cover population growth, Petty says. “We haven’t even had a gain quarter to quarter, year over year. So it’s going to take time.”

He says most economists predict 2005 at the earliest for full job recovery, four years after the cycle peak.

November 2001 was the trough in terms of the recession, he adds: “Since then the nation lost 0.5 percent, and the Twin Cities lost almost 2 percent” of jobs. Of the 61 metro areas studied, half of those have more jobs now than at the end of the recession, Petty says.

He’s quick to add context to the glum news: “The Twin Cities regional economy is one of the most competitive in the world. We should be compared among the top tier of metro areas in the country,” he says. The Alliance does compare the Twin Cities to 11 others in its top tier, including Boston, Austin, Denver, Phoenix and Seattle. We rank 11th largest as a job center.

Douglas Petty, The Great North Alliance: 651.699.0542; www.thegreatnorth.com