Fraters Libertas

Read Their Lips - No New Jobs

The Star Tribune endorses the “jobless recovery” thesis in their news coverage today, with an article about retail traffic on Grand Avenue in St. Paul. It’s entitled (on the Internet version front page)“Brisk sales but few new jobs on Grand Avenue.”

No doubt this editorial conclusion is resulting in Wellstone! yard sign owners all over Crocus Hill nodding their heads in grim satisfaction. (Honey, here’s the evidence. NEVER, EVER doubt Daniel Shore again.)

Based on talking to half a dozen store managers and customers, the Star Tribune comes up with this conclusion:

In this respect, Bibelot and other Grand Avenue merchants appear to represent a microcosm of American retail. While some national labor market analysts forecast an imminent uptick in holiday hiring, others say the hesitation to hire will prove more the rule than the exception.

The content of the article itself isn’t nearly as negative as the headline and conclusions would lead you to believe. Most of the retailers admit they will be increasing their staff to some extent during the Christmas season. And even those who aren’t, credit this to increased efficiency of their existing staff. Which, believe it or not Strib, is GOOD for the economy. But you wouldn’t know if from characterizations like this:

”The [Red Balloon Book Store] is beating last year's autumn sales, but so far it's not going to add staff except for gift wrap. If the store is overwhelmed with business, co-owner Carol Erdahl said, part-timers will put in longer hours And, she said, and "we will all work harder."

Working harder, that’s apparently what’s causing our current economic disaster (a term actually used by Democrat Barbara Boxer at about 11 PM, during last night's marathon Senate session on judicial appointments). In the future, I fully expect the Star Tribune to remain consistent in their support of inefficiency to spur job growth. Perhaps after the season's first blizzard, a screed against snow plows. Think of all the jobs we’d gain if instead of using all that fancy technology, we had an army of shovel totting unemployed retail clerks working their way down I-94 for about a month. Or how about two months? By working less hard, they could double the length of their employment.

One of the examples of the dearth of job creation on Grand Avenue was the upscale culinary arts store Cooks of Crocus Hill:

Bouyed by increased traffic in her store, Elisa Neese said she's "thinking seriously" about getting more help at the Cooks of Crocus Hill store she manages on Grand Avenue. The Crocus chain is doing well; a new store recently opened in Southdale. But Neese is reluctant to add to payroll yet, preferring to watch and wait.

Because of market demand, the chain opens a new location at Southdale, with probably a hundred new jobs created. But because staff isn’t added to the St. Paul location, it’s characterized as a reluctance to add to the payroll? Then am I to believe everyone working at Southdale is a volunteer? If that’s what’s really gong on here, maybe the Democrats have a point about this whole jobless recovery thing.

I’ll be charitable and assume that perhaps the writer, Gwendolyn Freed, thinks Grand Avenue is an autonomous insular economy, not in any way affected by the activity in the metropolitan area surrounding it. (Yes, I’m being charitable by assuming she’s an idiot). So then, the lack of job creation here is objectively bad economic news. For everybody. Let’s not forget, she referred to Grand as “a microcosm of American retail.” (Apparently Edina, where the new store opened with all those new jobs, isn’t.) With the blinders firmly afixed, Grand does appear to be slogging around in the hard working but dismal doldrums of the Bush recession.

How do we break out of this death spiral of economic despair? (Yes "we," I live three blocks off Grand.) I have a one word solution.

Chipotle.

A fine and affordable burrito restaurant that would prosper on Grand and provide at least a hundred new jobs. For years this franchise has been begging for an opportunity to develop an empty lot right in the heart of the Grand Avenue business district.

But time after time, they’ve been turned down by the City Council. And for what reason you ask? As summarized in the Twin Cities Business Journal:

"In April 2002, Rukavina and his development partners, Mark Vannelli and Brad McNaught, were turned down for a permit by the St. Paul City Council, after residents complained about potential traffic from restaurants in the proposed 6,000-square-foot building.

Neighbors objected to the traffic that they thought would be generated by what they called "fast-food restaurants.”

So apparently what the refined sensibilities of Grand Avenue require are new businesses that don’t generate any traffic. Because nobody wants to shop there. Talk about a jobless recovery.

And for denying me easy access to the huge and delicious Burrito Carnitas at Chipotle (and forcing me to stand in the perpetually overflowing line at the Ford Parkway branch), that’s exactly what they deserve.