Minnesota Multicultural Media

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The special broadcast originated at the Centennial

Showboat at Harriet Island and featured live music byWain McFarlane & Jahz, and networking before the

show. Riverfront Economic Development Association(REDA), the powerful business support and promotion organi-zation that serves St. Paul’s West Side community, and theMinority Business Development and Retention division of St.Paul’s new Human Rights and Equal Economic Opportunity(HREEO) Department, and Twin Cities Local InitiativeSupport Corporation (LISC) co-sponsored the forum broad-cast.

The first of its kind broadcast program also reflected the emer-

gence of a unique multi ethnic and multi-media platform forexamining and promoting business and economic developmentin communities of color. Minnesota Multicultural MediaConsortium (MMMC) editors and American Indian businessdevelopment executives joined broadcast host Al McFarlane inmeet-the-press style interviews of city department heads, com-munity development strategists and banking industry leaders.

Minnesota Multicultural Media Consortium leaders and St. Paul mayor Chris Coleman at broadcast from Centennial Showboat. L-R: TomGitta, publisher, Mshale Newspaper; David Glass, president, American Indian Economic Development Fund; St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman;Nghi Huynh, publisher, Asian American Press and president of MN Multicultural Media Consortium; Al McFarlane, editor–in–chief, Insight

News and host of Conversations with Al McFarlane; Aldolpho Cardona, publisher, Latino Midwest.

Partnerships create resiliency, growthSt. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman last week affirmed the city’s commitment to do right by

communities of color, small businesses, women-owned businesses and other disadvan-

taged businesses through restructuring city government to create new ways to do busi-

ness with the City of St. Paul.

Story by Al McFarlane • Photos by Suluki Fardan

McFarlane• Ford Reader October 26, 2009

http://www.insightnews.com/



Coleman welcomed the nearly 100-member audience and gave particularthanks to Christopher Romano, execu-tive director of REDA. “It’s alwaysgood to have neighborhood economicdevelopment partners at the table

because they really know what is goingon in the community,” he said.

While it is appropriate to discuss howbusinesses navigate challenging eco-nomic times, Coleman said the empha-sis should be on the “season of oppor-tunity” now at hand in St. Paul.“Everyone knows about the $1 billionof investment that will occur along theUniversity transit corridor. But thereare other opportunities occurring acrossthe city on the West side, on the

Eastside, on the North End and onPayne Avenue and Arcade Street,” hesaid.

Coleman said the City of St. Paul mustensure that minority- and women-owned and disadvantaged business arepart of the opportunity.

“I think we’re doing our part,” he said.“Four years ago when I took office we

realized we were not properly organ-ized or focused to make sure that wewere providing opportunities for all of our citizens and business owners. CityAttorney John Choi, acting on recom-mendations of a formal audit of St. Paul

efforts to ensure inclusiveness, askedpeople what they needed. He made rec-ommendations for changes we neededto go forward. We made a very dramat-ic change in opening up the Departmentof Human Rights and Equal EconomicOpportunity. We created a new way of doing business. We are making surethat people can succeed and that asminority-owned businesses andwomen-owned and disadvantagedfirms, you have the resources you needto be successful.

“We’re figuring out where we can part-ner with people. We have new loan pro-grams. A lot of people are travelinglight right now. They’re fearful aboutthe recession,” Coleman said. “We areasking what we need to do to assurethose businesses that are struggling. Sowe can drive business in that direction.These are things we can do and willcontinue to do. We need to hear from

all of you. What are the things that youwant us to do that were not doing. Howcan we continue to restructure andorganize to create opportunity?

“This is not just a morally right thing to

do, but it’s economically the right thingto do as well. When we invest in busi-nesses, those dollars turn over againand again and again in our own com-munity. When we support our smallbusinesses, we stabilize our neighbor-hoods,” Mayor Coleman said.

Chris Romano is executive director ofRiverview Economic DevelopmentAssociation (REDA) the only commu-nity development corporation (CDC)doing development work on Saint

Paul’s Westside.

Romano hosted business and civicleaders at the October 13th taping ofthe Conversations with Al McFarlanepublic policy broadcast. The broadcastairs 11am Tuesday, October 27, onKFAI FM 90.2 in Minneapolis and106.3 in St. Paul. The program originat-ed at the historic Centennial Showboatat Harriet Island and featured network-

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L-R David Glass, president, American Indian Economic Development Fund; Nghi Huynh, publisher, Asian American Press and president of MNMulticultural Media Consortium; Aldolpho Cardona, publisher, Latino Midwest; and St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman.



ing and live music by Wain McFarlane& Jahz. The program promotedengagement, opportunity, awarenessand support for minority, women andsmall business development.

Romano said REDA serves two func-

tions for the Westside community.REDA is a business association, a minichamber of commerce with over 100members. “We hold training and net-working sessions. We provide loans.Secondly we have a community devel-opment corporation function. Ourresponsibility is to ensure Westsiderevitalizes in the best way possible,from a business and community per-spective, he said.

“This is a difficult time, but also the

time of great opportunity. District DelSol has more vacancies than everbefore, more than at any time in the lasteight years that I’ve been here,” hesaid. “But on the other hand, it is atime of opportunity. For small businessowners that want to expand or get intobusiness, today is a very good time todo that.”

“REDA and the City of St. Paul arebringing many tools to those business-es to help them succeed. Our toolsincluded loan and grant programs. Youtypically hear in the media that thereare no loans available right now. Youhear that businesses are sufferingbecause they don’t have the capital toexpand or to cover their cash flowneeds. But that couldn’t be furtherfrom the truth in our community.”

Romano said, “One of my goals is tomake sure that that message getsacross. There are community bankershere today and there are folks at CityHall here. And we have resources.”

“If you own a small business on theWestside and if you need money toexpand your business to buy additionalmachinery and to be successful we canprovide those funds. We do that In con-nection with community banks and the

city of St. Paul,” he said.

Romano said REDA also providessmall business grants. “One of the nicethings about a grant is that you don’thave to pay it back.” He said the grantsare for façade improvements, like sig-nage, windows, and entryways, thingsthat improve the look of the business.

The grants require a 1 to 1 match witha limit of $5,000 from the grant. So aproject could cost up to $10,000 withthe business providing half of the proj-ect cost.

Romano said this is a particularly excit-ing time because of the federal stimulusprograms. “We are still trying to figureout how old gold funds work togetherand how we can get the money down toour neighborhood businesses. But I

think we will be able to figure out howto do that in conjunction with city andstate government.”

Romano praised St. Paul Mayor ChrisColeman’s leadership in support of theneighborhood business associations“To have the mayor of our city comehere and spend time with us shows the

“This is a difficult time, but also the time

of great opportunity. District Del Sol has

more vacancies than ever before, more

than at any time in the last eight years

that I’ve been here.” Chris Romano

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Tom Gitaa, publisher, Mshale Newspaper



commitment he has to our communityand to ensuring that continued successof Westside businesses,” Romano said.

Tomas Sanchez, executive director of Invest St. Paul, said he has worked inSaint Paul’s Planning and EconomicDevelopment (PED) for over 35 years.He said invest St. Paul coordinatesplanning, zoning, and traffic transit

environments to support small businessdevelopment.

“We look at what regulatory things weneed to create an environment for eco-nomic development that will attractlarge businesses and small businessesto St. Paul. We encourage the develop-ment of business corridors. We alsoencourage employment. We used to doa lot in that area but not as much today.But we do provide financing that cre-ates jobs,” Sanchez said.

Sanchez said his department is respon-sible for historic preservation, andleverages city resources to supporthousing development.

Adolfo Cardona, publisher of LatinoMidwest, joined fellow publishers,Nghi Huynh, of Asian American Press,and Tom Gitaa, of Mshale, and DavidGlass, executive director of theAmerican Indian EconomicDevelopment Fund, in raising Meet-the-Press style questions of forum pre-senters.

Cardona, whose newspaper is a mem-ber of REDA, asked, “How do REDAand the City help entrepreneurs notonly ‘seize if the opportunity at hand’but also help in finding, identifying theright opportunity?”

Romano said sometimes the best advicebusiness counselors can give to themicro entrepreneur who says he wantsto start a business is “Don’t do it!”

He said, “We joke about that from timeto time, but in truth, it is better to con-vince someone that their idea is not agood investment in today’s economy.So we may advise them against sinking

the $20,000 that they have scrimpedand saved over the past 10 years into abusiness that won’t work.”

On the other hand he said, “We have asupport division that helps folks puttogether cash flow analyses. We helpfolks look at financial statements andcreate business plans. That is an impor-tant part of our work. It is the reasonwe have such strong relationships withthe local banks. They know if REDA isinvolved, there is somebody on the

ground floor doing a lot of outreach andconnecting with the business.”

Romano said there are a number of organizations and agencies across thecity that provide counseling and train-ing services to small businesses. “Youparticipate in the training programs youare often eligible for reduced rates onother business services includingaccounting legal and marketing servic-es,” he said.

David Glass said typically minority andAmerican Indian communities are“communities of poverty.”

“We come forward and try to obtainbusiness loans, but we’re already sad-dled with bad credit. People from com-munities of poverty come to the tablewith bad credit. We find it somewhat

challenging to work with lenders, evencommunity lenders and banks, inobtaining loans. It is even difficulworking with the SBA (Small BusinessAdministration).” Glass asked, “Howdoes your organization help us if thatnavigate through these problems?”

“In the Latino community we have thesame issues. We struggle with that all

that time,” Romano said. “We can’t sihere and say we have the answer to thefolks in our community to get them thecredit we would like to see them get.”

“We also deal with immigration issues.That ends up being a huge roadblockfor many of our financial partners. Ihave nothing against the large banksthat we work with, but I have found thatsome of the community banks aregoing more willing to look outside thebox when it comes to some of these

issues whether its credit score or busi-ness financials or what have you,”Romano said.

“Often times we say we will help withthe loan servicing, the training, andwith one and one meetings with theentrepreneur every month. That takes ahuge burden off the lender. But it helpsensure that their loans are going to getpaid back.”

Romano said the grants available, fromthe STAR (Sales Tax AreaRevitalization) Program. St. Paul takesan extra ½% sales tax to fund and theSTAR Program. “It allows us to makegrants of up to us $5,000 specificallyfor business facade projects,” he said.

Asked how the city CDC’s worktogether, Sanchez said, “We recognize

Page 4

“If it’s money they needed, we

can try to provide funds so loan

amounts needed are smaller and

involve less risk” Tom Sanchez



that we don’t always have to lead. Sowe look two the community develop-ment corporations to provide input andto tell us what is they need. What arethe things we can do to support theirmission? Sometimes it is a matter of getting the city of the way and lettingthem do what they do.”

“If it’s money they needed, we can tryto provide funds so loan amounts need-ed are smaller and involve less risk,”Sanchez said.

In a second panel, Readus Fletcher,deputy director, Human Rights andEqual Economic Opportunity(HREEO,) who heads St. Paul’sMinority Business Development andRetention initiative, said “the city of St.Paul generates business opportunitiesto the tune of several hundred milliondollars a year. The department seeks toensure business and employmentopportunities are equally available toall communities.”

“We do human rights complaint inves-tigations. That’s important becausemost investigations are employment-related and that means the individual’seconomic opportunity. But the biggerinitiative is procurement. We do all thecontract bidding and contract compli-ance. We manage contracts that go outfor purchasing for housing and otherbusiness services purchased by the Cityof St. Paul. We set expectations forminority and women employment and

for business participation. We docapacity building to enable small andminority businesses to participate. Wework with community developmentcorporations like REDA and SelbyCDC. We provide working capital,loans, and grants. A primary function isto get funds to the community,”Fletcher said.

Bob Kessler is director, department of safety inspections (DSI). He said hisdepartment and the newly createdHREEO each represent the biggestreorganization of city government sincethe seventies. “We believe we can pro-vide good information and efficientservices. That is what we want to do.”

Larry Zang, the DSI project facilitator,said the Department of Safety andInspections is a regulatory department“but that is not the whole story or thebiggest part.”

“We are proactive in supporting busi-ness. We outline for owners whatrequirements they must meet and howthey can shape their business plan tohelp them succeed. We tried to work with businesses to make them moresuccessful and guide them through

business processes,” he said.

Nghi Huynh, president of MinnesotaMulticultural Media Consortium andpublisher of Asian American Pressasked about strategies ensure economicand business participation equity forcommunities of color. He asked forassurances for minority participation inlight rail business opportunity and

asked why the city was not moreaggressive in seeking stimulus funding“The city of St. Paul did not respond toMinnesota Multicultural MediaConsortium efforts to respond to thefederal broadband stimulus spendingproposal requests,” he saidConsequently, he said, the Consortiumpartnered with the University of

Minnesota and Minneapolis city agen-cies.

Susan Feuerherm, acting purchasingmanager, (HREEO), said St. Paul is tolooking to be involved in broadbandstimulus spending initiatives. “And wehave received and others stimulusfunds this week,” she said.

“In addition we put out a request forproposals for a $146 million projectwith 15% goals for women, minority

and disadvantaged businesses partici-pation and employment. The project isbeing run by the Regional RailAuthority, but being put out to bid byour office,” she said.

Fletcher said the $1 billion light railproject is actually being built by theMetropolitan Council and the FederalTransit Authority. “They let the con-

Susan Feuerherm, acting purchasing man-ager, Human Rights and Equal Economic

Opportunity (HREEO)

Page 5

“We provide working capital, loans, and

grants. A primary function is to get

funds to the community,” Readus Fletcher

Larry Zang, project facilitator, Departmentof Safety and Inspection (DSI)



tracts and they set their goals. We work with them to set high goals for employ-ment, apprenticeships, and training,” hesaid.

“However, the city has put up moneyfor a specific station and does control

that project. The $12,000,000 of citymoney behind that station shows ourbelief that this is a huge benefit to thecommunity,” Fletcher said.

Angela Burkhalter, Public InformationOfficer - project manager, MinorityBusiness Development and Retention(MBDR) - (HREEO), introduced thefinal panel that included second wardcity Councilman Dave Thune and bank executive John Kimball.

She said “Thune has a vision for smallbusinesses and for neighborhoods. Itnot top down, but is about CDC’s andassociations letting the city know howwe can be better partners as we go for-ward.”

“My solution is to leave everything upto the neighborhoods,” Thune said.“That is where the opportunity is. Thatis where the jobs are. Neighborhoodsare local. Small banks and branchbanks are local. CDC’s and neighbor-hood associations are local.”

That notwithstanding, he said, “This isa bad time to start a new business. It isextremely risky. But that is why part-ners like REDA and the CDC’s are soimportant. But this is also a regionwhere entrepreneurism is strong.”

Thune said St. Paul has the largest

health care market in the upperMidwest and he said environment ori-ented business markets are growing. Hesaid education represents a growth mar-ket for new businesses. St. Paul is sec-ond only to Boston in the number of schools per capita, he said.

While government cannot be the “be alland end all” for small business, he said,“we need to demand responsible part-nerships. And when partnerships andprojects that we set up don’t go exactlythe way we want, we shouldn’t throweverything out and just walk away,despite the good work that has beendone.”

Thune even faulted his own DFL col-leagues for throwing ACORN “underthe bus” when scamming problems sur-faced in one of ACORN’s operations.

“Don’t let politicians get away withthat,” he said.

Thune said St. Paul is right to be wel-coming and non punitive to immigrantpopulations. He said the city doesn’trequire proof of citizenship when pro-viding services or employment. He saidimmigrant workers add to the vitality ofthe city and mean growth for business-es.

Thune encouraged small businesses toembrace and partner with the unionmovement. “Unions are partnersUnions are not scary,” he said.

John Kimball, senior vice president andmanager, SBA Lending at ParkMidway Bank said his bank’s missionis to be a leader in improving the com-munity, particularly, low and moderateincome communities.” Part of theSunrise Financial Services System, thebank specializes in socially responsible

Page 6

“People from communities of poverty

come to the table with bad credit. We

find it somewhat challenging to work

with lenders, even community lenders

and banks, in obtaining loans.”David Glass

Angela Burkhalter, Public InformationOfficer (PIO) and Minority BusinessDevelopment and Retention (MBDR)

project manager

City Council member Dave Thune, Ward 2



deposits and lending. Customers canspecify that they want all their depositsto be used exclusively for lending intheir own community, he said.

“Your money has the double bottomline of aiding the community,” Kimballsaid.

Park Midway Bank was one of leadingSBA lenders in the state, Kimball said.“We used the New Market Tax CreditProgram and we have used federalstimulus funds to increase the amountof guarantee assistance for loans with-out increasing fees to the user. Ourlending has increased over the pastyear, which is significant consideringthe difficult environment where bankshave become more restrictive in theirlending. Partnerships do work and willcontinue to be important in the future,”he said.

Tom Gitaa, publisher of Mshale, askedThune and Kimball what the city andindustry could do to make sure moreresidents of immigrant and communi-ties of color were aware of theresources and opportunities that exist inthe community and in doing businesswith the city.

“A lot of people look to the governmentas a regulator. But we are learningtonight that government also representsa great business opportunity. Many of us are not aware of that. How can wecreate more awareness and get better atgetting this information out so peoplecan engage? “Gitaa asked, “How canwe build and increase the public-pri-vate partnerships?”

Kimball said the banks can help cus-tomers connect with informationbecause “information is absolutely crit-ical element of success. But we are abank for profit. Our mission is banking,not information.”

Thune credited Mayor Chris Colemanwith turning the corner for St. Paulneighborhoods and small businesses“The city had failed to communicate inthe past, but Chris is changing that and

working harder and harder to connectwith the least amount of bureaucracyYes, there are fewer dollars. But we canbe good matchmakers connecting busi-nesses to opportunity.

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Robert Kessler, director, Department of Safety and Inspection (DSI)

John Kimball, sr. vice president/manager SBA Lending, Park Midway Bank

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