[Vision2020] Moscow ... community?

[Mark Seman]

O.k. this is another attempt for me to make my public statement and express
concerns for this community.  As some may know, I do not post often.  Most
of you may have never seen or even remember my posts...I have trouble
getting letters to the Editor printed because they are too long.  I have
about 10 messages on my hard drive that I haven’t sent because they are
precursors to this one, but in a format that was too specific.  I’m not
saying anything new, I'm just saying it differently...from one perspective.
This will be long, so it will take some of your time to read it.  By the
end, it is not intended to be complete, but worth it.

For me to have sent this, I have had just about enough of the squabbling
polarization that is being exhibited in Moscow and the surrounding area.
The way that my mind works places me in a group that I would classify as an
absolute realists.  I will not attempt to define it any further than that,
except through the following paragraphs, and in that I believe there is
always room for another opinion.  Color & gray-scale are available, and
things are not only black and white, unless you just want to see them that
way.

I want to get beyond the big picture issues that have been flying over V2020
and relate them to you as they impact me personally… beyond the concepts -
to practice and beyond, and back to concepts.

Doug Wilson, Christ Church, Chamber of Commerce, LEDC, MAC, Moscow Downtown
Association, Moscow City Council, Pullman City Council, County
Commissioners, Port Commissions, UI, WSU, Developer, Realtor, Homosexual,
Heterosexual, Black, White, Christian, Muslim, whatever group you and I are
in or out of, we can always boil ourselves down to “us & them” or “me & you”
, and can always come back to “we.”  “We the people” will always have
differing views, but we can work past our differences and work towards
common goals.

My wife & I have a living & working history here for 25 years and we have
been business owners for the past 3 years.  I have gained a whole new
prespective being a potential employer as opposed to my previous life as an
employee.  As a self-employed design professional it is intolerably
frustrating for me to witness the ignorance and selfishness behavior
exhibited by many in this community (spread it however far you want in the
region.)  Economic development is the lifeblood of any community and it is
important…it is vital, if for no other reason than it can exhibit vitality.
The manner in which a community exhibits or expresses its vitality is what
defines it.  Is it art & architecture, is it economic starvation, is it
economic gluttony, is it environmental ruin or is it resource stewardship?

To assist some of my causes, I have joined many local business groups,
associations, commissions, and volunteer groups.  I have an agenda, no
doubt, and many of you will not agree with it, envision it or want it, but
some will.  And if enough are interested it might even become a “movement.”
I hope to at least get things moved off of high-center.

Moscow Arts Commission – I have joined to promote the education of and
encourage the viability for my profession, as an artist and businessman, the
art of architecture.  I will help out in other capacities and with other
causes promoted by MAC and you - the interested community.  I am developing
a program to guide tours of Rec Center and Firestation #3.  For those of you
that might be interested in attending January’s tour (date & time TBD),
please let me know.  We can discuss as much of the delivery process as you
like.  Ahead of this effort is a similar one that will involve  Highschool
and Jr. High student participation.

I am keenly interested in the educational opportunities mostly because of
greed.  Greed for quality and greed to make a living...maybe even grow my
business and employ people again.  Quality and living, maybe that is what's
meant by "quality of life" and why people want to stay here?

This education, is not only meant for the students, but for the general
public as well.  I want to reduce the persistently problematic efforts that
have been the stock-in-trade of our region’s development.  It could have to
do with the proposed developments off of Joseph Street, other subdivisions,
Rolling Hills, College Hill, houses on rural hilltops, the Hilltop/Stables
development, university facilities, downtown revitalization (there’s that
word again, and no, it does not exhibit satisfactory vitality.)  There are
opposing views that need to reach common ground.  Without getting too
specific, but maybe also being too obscure, much of my previously mentioned
intolerable frustration stems from these four issues: total lack of any
local professional involvement; narrowly focused exclusive participation;
misdirected student efforts or the need for signature with limited, if any,
perception of the local community sense.

The reason professionals are around, is most often to providing expertise
rather than looking to fleece.  With knowledge comes a value and in turn a
cost.  Whether these are short-term initial ones or long-term or life-cyle
ones, they can be planned or unplanned.  I see a lot of it unplanned.  It
will likely forever amaze me - the lack of it.  So much reluctance to plan
the effort, spend the time and pay the money.  It does not need to be an
arduous task and it usually doesn't take outside experts to fill out the
form either.  Run it through the process, allowing research, analysis, and
discussion, then decide and move on.

Smart planning makes good sense … good community sense.  It allows us to
look beyond immediate needs and tries to anticipate.  Usually it helps to
have more than groups of laypeople pushing for their cause, expertise helps,
so why not encourage it, and bring some art into while you’re at it.
Planning and design.  They usually solve problems, not cause them.  Why cut
corners?  Why not hire someone to help provide expertise?  Why not see the
value?  Why not promote community instead of polarization?  You can, if you
just want to see it that way.

Moscow Chamber of Commerce & Latah Economic Development Council – I am a
general member and joined these groups to learn more about the business
community, meet other business owners, develop recognition and find where I
could participate and help.  It seems that I could attend meetings most
everyday if I didn’t have to earn a living to pay my bills.  Which leads to
another one of my intolerable frustrations.  Too often, when I hear of local
economic development, it seems to bypass mine and other types of local
businesses.  Development, as I hear it used, means “import-so-we-can-grow”
rather than it being a determination to grow from within.  Personally, I
need to look at the latter, or else become an “export.”

Attracting companies to the area seems to be more of a wishful thinking than
strategic planning effort.  The area has some very appealing qualities, that
could be emphasized, but there are also real  limitations that can
overshadow its appeal.   When I support economic development, I want it to
provide me with tangible benefits and not just more of the same.  I don't
want more haphazard development that sloely focuses on the small world of
the developer.  I want more involved development that benefits the community
to a much greater extent.

Support of local businesses, artists, schools, churches, and other groups
comes at a cost.  There needs to be a flow of dollars. The volume helps
identify the character.  Are we sluggish, or vital, and can we move on?
There is a significant amount o’ lip-service that mimics the concepts, but
execution and implementation is way off.  Quality of life, Heart of the
Arts, support downtown, tax exempt, business vitality all are concepts with
real implications.  What are they doing for us and are they helping?
Questions for all of us.

Christ Church – I am not “in” this group.  I know some of its members
personally and I like them.  I “know” as much about them as I read & hear of
them publicly.  Some of “their” beliefs and views I hold, some I don’t.  I
extended congratulations and thanks to their area businesses and
institutions which have supported quality development via planned &
deliberate growth, a sensitivity to the future, artistic recognition, and
have seen beyond initial utility & costs.  They have used local
professionals to one of the greatest extents I've seen and the results are
there. The gas is in the tank and the sparkplug seems to be firing in that
cylinder of Moscow’s economic engine.

Other area businesses have also included design professionals in their
projects.  That is a great positive step toward thoughtful planning and
design.  Good for them...but from my greedy side - If you didn't use local
expertise, why not?  Oh well, it takes time and education, and at least they
are putting forth a much better effort than many others.

Win-win situations are the backbone to good development and positive public
endorsement.  How do we, as a community, help assure this?  Setting policy
and following through.  Admit any mistakes and make adjustments as necessary
(what I believe Alturus is about.) Don’t get bogged down with planning -
just do it, learn from the past and move on.  The community needs to get
involved (27% voter turnout?) and keep working towards its goals.  Reduce
harmful emissions, reuse and recycle.  Next…

Other Commissions and Boards – I volunteer and participate with Code (and
anticipate Zoning) committees to help foster the type of regulation and
growth that seems most reasonable and beneficial.  It might be pragmatic
adoption of State mandates or involve discussion, development and reviews.
Do these have any positive impact?  I hope so, but people need to be
involved and know & understand more before they can be implemented wisely.
Looking towards the future and building the future are tied together.  The
future will get here whether we plan or not.  I want to have some impact on
what that future will have.  I do not want it to left up to employees that
are comfortable in their jobs, developers comfortable in the fact that
whatever they build will get rented, realtors comortable that whatever is on
the market will sell, and business people comfortable with how things are.

Business and professional associations – I’m learning all the time.  What a
different world it is being on the other side of the employment fence.  I
see new, I see old, and I have a vision for community vitality.  I have
ambition, sensitivity, and a goal for positive growth…personal, business and
community.  I have experienced growth, and decline.  I have hired people and
have had to lay them off.  They are not human resources either, they are
people with children and spouses.  I much prefer the uptick rather than the
decline.  This area needs better growth patterns.  The process needs
refinement not obstruction.  It needs better involvement and internal
community growth promotes involvement, which leads to better control, and
win-win!

Because of my background and experieince, I veiw the world a certain way.
Many other design professionals see and believe this too.  One ubiquitous
problem is that many of those who build, those with the money and can afford
to build, do not have the same vision.  They are wired differently and often
do not have the ability to read the typology.  The built environment is not
a series of unrelated elements wherein people play, work or live.  It is a
story told by a language.  Quality, reason, philosophy, values, and many
other notions are all evident in the the way we plan and build.  Look
around. What do you see?  What does it say to you?  I do not understand the
high level of acceptable mediocrity in our area's construction and design.
I read the language of it and I shake my head in disbelief.  Investing
thousands of dollars in land, materials and construction effort, but how
much for planning and design?  What’s the value in that?  Bankers want their
cut, Realtors want their part, builders theirs, why pay more?  Look what it
does for the community…

I do not expect this message to immediately get across to many in this
community.  Its problems have been so ingrained, I expect it will take some
time.  It is a process, but there are people committed to turning the corner
and seeing a place better than where they have come from - better than where
we have been heading.  I include those listed above, the obstructionists,
the proponents, the blind leaders, the comfortable, the intolerant, the
semiotic illiterate, the uninvolved community, you and me.

I hope to see you in Moscow's future,
Mark
***   *****   ***
Mark & Heather Seman
Full Circle Studios
828 South Washington, Suite B
Moscow, Idaho 83843
v 208-883-3276
f 208-883-0112
FCS@Moscow.com