[Vision2020] Fwd: This used to be Menlo Park Hardware

[Tom Hansen]

Greetings Visionaires -

As appealing as remaing a nice small comfortable community seems to be, that 
concept loses its warm fuzziness whenever the topic of "property taxes" is 
breached.

Should we put "No Vacancy" signs on all the entry ways into Moscow?  Perhaps 
the university should turn down registration applications once enrollment 
approaches a certain number.  Perhaps we should simply establish the number 
"25,000" as the combined population breaking point between UI and Moscow.

If we did these things and disallowed any tax-exempt entities, this could 
possibly work.  Then Moscow would not be so attractive to the big chain 
conglomerates and the mom-and-pop stores would flourish in our nice small 
comfortable community.

To me, nothing could be worse.  We must allow for progress if our town is to 
survive.  As families and businesses move into Moscow, the tax burden, on a 
household-by-household basis, lessens.

At a time when a large percentage of our community is justifiably 
complaining about property taxes, we cannot limit the number of names on the 
tax-paying rolls of our town.  We certainly cannot afford to reduce that 
number.

As much as the sole-proprietorship stores, with their strong sense of 
community, appeals to each and everyone of us, we can no more restrict our 
commerce to that concept than we can return to the family farm.

My father was born and raised in Hartley, Iowa (a town of about 2,500 back 
in 1935).  He lived the farm life.  He got up at 4:00 AM to milk cows, feed 
the chickens, etc. etc. before he went to school.  After I retired from the 
Army (summer of 1989), my father took us back to see his old farm in 
Hartley.  What brought tears to my father's eyes was not necessarily the 
renewal of old memories.  The farm was still there.  What hurt my father's 
feelings was that it became part of a major co-op.

We cannot close our doors and pretend it is still 1960.  We must welcome 
progress and adapt to it.

I am definitely not a Wal-Mart fan by any stretch of imagination.  But we 
can open our doors.  After all, a stranger is simply a friend that you do 
not know.

Take care and grow, Moscow.

Tom Hansen