What’s on community minds? Microlending, broadband, credit

Every time I sit in on the quarterly (roughly) meeting of Friends in the Field in Little Falls, I'm looking for a pulse.

I don't mean in the sense that there's no life to this group of a couple dozen people who participate in, for lack of a better term, the community development industry. They come together to trade notes from a variety of roles -- University of Minnesota Extension, foundations big and small, the state Department of Employment and Economic Development, the Center for Small Towns, Central Lakes College, the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota and even the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

So, although the cast changes a little bit from one session to the next, these are people who as much as anyone in Minnesota have a feel for what communities think they need to, as we say here at Ground Level, "face the future."

Jobs? Trails? Better planning? The organizations around the table at the Initiative Foundation office offer a good bit of intelligence about what people on the ground from Marshall to Cloquet are thinking they need.

So, to me, they feel the pulse of Minnesota communities and I go to hear them. So what was I hearing at the latest gathering last week?

1. Credit is tight, and now it matters. Small town banks have been pulling in their horns as regulators look hard at them. A few months ago, not so many businesses or entrepreneurs were looking for capital anyway, but now they're starting to and not having an easy time finding it.

2. Interest in micro-enterprise is growing. DEED has a program delivering community block grant money to local governments who want to contract with non-profits to provide small-loan help for businesses started from low and moderate income households. And the Region 5 Development Commission has someone trying to determine demand level and sustainability for microlending.

3. Scratch only a little bit and you can find a broadband itch. The Blandin Foundation has led a lot of efforts in this arena and they're thinking the debate is not only about creating an infrastructure but about building demand for high-speed connectivity.

Do these themes resonate? Is anyone else seeing action or interest along these lines around Minnesota?

• Annandale watches special session for broadband help
• DNR pushes ahead with its groundwater planning
• Broadband providers seek $44 million from state fund
• Shifting rain could be lowering groundwater