Dubuque aims appeal at young women

Iowa city, others work to attract and hold on to the brightest and most talented

DUBUQUE, Iowa -- This quiet town where old-money neighborhoods perch atop steep bluffs along the banks of the Mississippi River seems an unlikely setting for a modern-day war.

But Dubuque (pop. 57,000) is battling the aging of its population. It has watched many of its young people leave for college and never come back. It has seen hundreds arrive but stay just long enough to get a degree from one of its four colleges and universities.

So officials in Dubuque and other cities around the nation are trying to plug a brain drain by wooing young professionals. And they're getting more pointed in their pursuit: They're courting women.

"From an economic standpoint, it is a war," says Daniel McDonald, assistant director of the Greater Dubuque Development Corp. "There is a talent war right now that's exacerbated by the fact that we're the fourth-oldest state. ... Talent is the No. 1 issue for us."

Eager to retain and attract creative talent with high earnings potential, cities are taking note of a demographic shift: Today's 25- to 34-year-olds are part of the first generation where women are measurably better educated than men.

Cities that successfully appeal to young women can reap a windfall, according to "The Young and Restless in a Knowledge Economy," a report by CEOs for Cities, a Chicago-based network of mayors, business executives and other urban leaders. As women start to dominate the brain pool, they can generate the creative energy cities crave to revitalize neighborhoods and bring in more businesses, people and revenue.

The fight to lure and hang on to the educated young has become more urgent for cities because the generations that follow baby boomers are smaller and the number of young people is shrinking.

Showcasing women

From California to Florida, economic development brochures increasingly feature successful young professional women. In Silicon Valley, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles, a new non-profit organization called Springboard is organizing events for female entrepreneurs to showcase their ideas to venture capitalists, says Heike Mayer, an urban affairs and economic development professor at Virginia Tech.

Estimates by the Center for Women's Business Research in Washington put the number of businesses owned by women at 10.6 million in 2004, an annual growth rate of 8.2% from 1997 to 2004.

"Women are moving to the forefront," says Carol Coletta, president of CEOs for Cities. "Cities have a very rich opportunity to focus on making their cities attractive and appealing to women."

Dubuque's sales pitch stresses the strong role women play in community and business leadership:

*Four of seven members of the City Council are women. Women head two of the colleges.

*The covers of four of the five past issues of Tri-State Business Times, a local monthly magazine, featured women. The magazine named seven "rising stars" in November, five of them women and all in their 30s. They include top managers at a software company and a bank executive.

*Last year, the city used a $45,000 grant from the Iowa Department of Economic Development on an out-of-state campaign: "Dubuque: Your hometown. Your future." It advertised in Denver, Chicago, Madison, Wis., Minneapolis and St. Paul -- cities that have drawn many young Dubuquers and other Midwesterners. Of the 600 "opportunity packs" sent to potential residents since November 2004, 67% went to women.

*Attendance at an annual Salute to Women luncheon organized by the local Telegraph Herald newspaper has grown from 200 nine years ago to 700 this year. That success led to the launch of her, a free magazine for women published five times a year.

*Professional women are forming informal networks. An exercise group that includes Kathy Kessler, head of the Dubuque Area Chamber of Commerce's workforce development, high school principal Kim Swift, a psychologist, a social worker and others, meets at 5 a.m. up to six days a week to jog and lift weights to train for marathons.

Offering opportunity

At the tri-state juncture of Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin, Dubuque is unlike much of the rest of Iowa: It's neither flat nor heavily agricultural. Hilly neighborhoods feature 19th- and early 20th-century homes.

Iowa's first riverboat casino was launched here 15 years ago, and tour buses unload visitors at the floating Dubuque Diamond Jo Casino (the general manager is a woman), a replica of a 19th-century paddle-wheeler. Revenue from casino and greyhound race tracks paid for harbor improvements.

The largest employers in the metropolitan area of 89,000 people have nothing to do with gambling.

David Becker, chief executive of Cottingham & Butler, an insurance company downtown, grew up here but worked for IBM and other large corporations in St. Louis, Washington and Chicago. When he was offered a job back home, he hesitated and "my wife was mortified," he says. But "she made way more friends here in six months than she had in eight years in Chicago."

Recruiting executives and salespeople is not easy, but offering opportunities that may not exist in larger markets is the key, he says.

"We're learning how to attract very talented women to the company by putting flexibility into their schedules," Becker says. Plus, "the Internet is making the disadvantages of living in a place like Dubuque smaller and smaller."

Wendy Romero, 30, was lured here by opportunity. She studied art at Savannah College of Art and Design and got a master's at Georgia Southern University. She came to tiny Loras College to help launch a visual arts program of studio art, graphic and interactive design.

"It's an opportunity for me to be a pioneer in education and change the way art and design is seen," Romero says.

Female entrepreneurs thrive here. The Cafe Manna Java gourmet coffeehouse and restaurant on Main Street is owned by a woman. The Body & Soul Wellness and Spa Center is owned by Julia Theisen.

Architect Bethany Golombeski, 36, a native of Flint, Mich., once lived in Chicago and Germany. She and her husband, Bob Johnson, who had relatives in the area, bought the Captain Merry, a historic building across the river in East Dubuque, Ill., and turned it into an upscale inn, restaurant and spa.

"Growing up in a very industrial city, I had no sense of pride, no sense of community," she says. "Besides the physical beauty here, the sense of history that I got. ... When we moved here, people said Dubuque is 10-15 years behind the times. That's a good thing. We're not all big-box edge cities."

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