[Vision2020] Moscow, growth, and MHS (was School Levy)

[Tbertruss at aol.com]

Joan et. al.

What I meant was that a resident of Moscow can make a one day shopping trip 
to Spokane complete with dinner and a film.  If you think I was suggesting that 
Moscow could be a bedroom community for Spokane ... never mind, I won't 
explore what this implies.

However, I have driven the roads between Moscow and Spokane a thousand times. 
 I drove it for years carrying the US Mail many days of each week.  The roads 
to Spokane could be better, but the scare factor in terms of crazy drivers 
and risk is nothing compared to what I faced in the Northeast a few years ago 
when living there for two months, with modern freeways galore.

When I said property, this means what I said.  The Parade of Homes does not 
show much of the property for sale in Latah County that is totally undeveloped, 
focusing on homes for sale, not wheat fields or patches of trees and weeds.  
I know people who have bought property in Latah County for a dime, built their 
own home, and live very cheaply.

Anyway, my comments on growth were not aimed necessarily at dissing a new 
Moscow High School, but to suggest debate on the realities of economic 
development on a finite planet with finite resources, and the option of starting to look 
at more steady state economies as the eventual reality the human race will 
need to consider.  Almost no one wants to face the music on these issues.  
They'd rather pretend we can live in our little hideaway on the Palouse while the 
Earth's ecosystems are trashed, in part from resource extraction from many 
areas of the world that our puny Palouse economy supports nonetheless.

By the way, the Moscow High School has been remodeled and had several much 
newer additions built on since 1965, so what sits there now by the Latah 
Courthouse requires I delete buildings from the area as I drift back in time to 
playing sports on what was an open grassy field extending from Third St. to Fifth 
St. in front of the old MHS building.

I agree, if this was your point within all the asides, that a new Moscow High 
School would help to draw business investment to our area.  People who see 
taxation for a better school or better roads as just an economic burden on the 
taxpayer sometimes fail to overlook the fact that the CEO of X mega-monster 
corporation who is looking for a good community to expand his business might have 
a husband or wife and children who do not want to live in some backwater 
hickville with a crumbling high school and potted roads, even if they do send 
their children to a private school.  The employees of such a company also have 
children who want to attend a good school, and just as most do not want to live 
in crumbling apartments or housing, they would find a new high school and 
better roads a factor in the decision making of where to locate their business.

Ted Moffett
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