Cities 07

On my way from Milwaukee to Minneapolis at the end of an uneventful spring break, we stopped in Who Knows Where, Wisconsin. Just after exiting the highway, my buddy got lost in some business park, trapped in circular drives, one way streets where for a substantial distance all you could see were large but dispersed office buildings and tons of open space. It was here I got my idea for studying business parks as the unsung hero of suburban America. Finding a similar large business park proved difficult because my knowledge of TC's suburban areas is beyond slim but eventually I found myself in Rosemount. Even here it was difficult to find a business park although I recognized all the telltale signs of a growing suburban neighborhood. Development seemed a plague on the city – every other corner had optimistic For Sale signs, commercial, retail, residential, you name it. Many of the residential areas looked fresh, manicured and yes, mainly single family – so I couldn’t help but ask over and over again, where do all these people work?! Finally I found what I’d come for – Rosemount Business Park. It was small compared to the one I had mistakenly spent so much time in earlier but has offered me, so far, every taste in my mouth of urban sprawl and above the Business Park, in all directions looms the storm cloud of development. Or as the city sees it, the rainbow of development.
A little generic information, first. The Business Park was launched in 1995 as part of a new growth plan the city was so excited for. The Rosemount Port Authority is the elected council on development in the city and they own the land where the park is located today as well as leads on land surrounding the park. The land, selling for one dollar! to industrial, manufacturing and professionals alike, used to be for primarily agricultural use. The park and its surrounding areas paint the perfect picture of an incomplete but hopeful suburban development project. To the north is extensive new housing, to the west is a not-quite-thriving downtown and to the south and east you can find none other than Minnesota’s pride croplands. If this wasn’t enough, it seemed that development had only just reached this point because turning out of the business park to the south you ran into an actual dirt road. There are six large companies on the business park, two smaller buildings with several companies occupying the space. The six companies are all along the lines of manufacturing focused, one distributing medical supplies like gloves and wipes, another making, importing and exporting sheet metal. The only company that stands out is MRCI, a non-profit corporation working with disabled people to find steady employment.
Rosemount Business park, today, covers 80 acres. It’s projected growth? 480 acres. The city-wide growth plan calls for revitalization of the downtown, development of new housing as well as new industrial and professional opportunities. The city’s growth pattern thus far mirrors urban sprawl to a T: the city has grown 50% since the 2000 census; they’ve added more homes in the last 10 years than in the preceding 140 and more than 1,000 people are permanently settling in Rosemount each year. The city boasts of easy access to the Twin Cities Metro Area through state highways 42 and 52, and 35N, which connects you to St. Paul in just ten minutes.
A little more on my paper…I’ll be using primarily ethnographical observation and other research sources for my paper. I haven’t yet decided whether to write the paper objectively or focus on the negative consequences of this suburban development. I’m thinking that even though my natural tendency is towards sarcasm, I may push myself to objectivity because suburban development is, if nothing else, the American phenomenon of this century.