[Vision2020] The Future

[Phil Nisbet]

Tom

You can have all the little stores in downtown that you dream of and it will 
not replace any lose of high paying University Salaries.  And other 
Universities are snapping up what this one either turns away or ships to 
other locations.

Just as an example, the plastics industry is moving to include 
nanotechnology into its designs to make nano-composite materials that will 
help to improve the life of products.  If a plastic bummer is stronger than 
steel and has half the weight, energy savings result.  If a nano-composite 
can make a house less flammable, lives are saved and inert nano-composites 
can be used to replace more toxic fire retardants.

So the plastics industry sees growth in those types of materials going from 
less than 1% of their sales to 30-40% of their sales in the next decade, 
from a current sales of just under a $100,000,000 to in excess of 4 trillion 
dollars.

University of Alaska Fairbanks just snagged $17,000,000 in a grant to study 
just one aspect of nanotech composites.  University of Pennsylvania picked 
up some research initially done here in Moscow and got a DOE grant for about 
ten million to look at how nano particles could assist in nuke waste 
disposal.  Heck, the NIST of the Department of Commerce is handing away 
$600,000,000 a year in grants and do we have any active here in Moscow?

You have to sell one heck of a lot of Wild Women Traders dresses or a pot of 
Tie Die T-shirts to equal even a fraction of what’s out there in terms of 
research money, let alone the potential for spin off technology businesses 
that this kind of work could be bringing in.

If we keep losing jobs at U of I and refuse to get in touch with the future 
of technology, this will end up being nothing more than an admin center for 
branch campuses that get all the good jobs and all the Research Grants.  How 
many shops can we have in Downtown, Tom, if the University loses more jobs 
and payroll?

The reason that the non-conforming businesses are siting in downtown is that 
the business climate here makes downtown space cheap.  Housing costs are 
through the roof here and what sort of disposable income do you think that 
kids making minimum wage at Wendy’s or Tri-State have once they pay their 
landlords?  Half the school year population is living hand to mouth and we 
offer no better paying jobs to them.  Want to see non-conforming uses move?  
Increase disposable income by getting some real jobs in here.  If downtown 
businesses could make more profits, they would of a matter of course push 
those other businesses out and expand.

How many jobs will beating the CCers up and forcing them to leave bring in?  
How many jobs will turning Wallmart out end up ponying up here in Moscow?

And its not that I concur with Doug Wilson’s ideology or that I am in love 
with Wally World’s stores, I just see people chasing their tails and 
refusing to deal with real economic development issues.  This area needs 
jobs and yet this very list felt free to jump all over Barbara and claim she 
was part of an evile conspiracy for even suggesting that we need economic 
development.  As the person in charge of Economic Development in the county, 
rather than assist her and get some desirable growth, she ends up fighting 
an uphill battle to get even a few things going in the Alturas Park.

So stop whining about downtown and tell us, what sort of development should 
we be looking at?  How should we as a community get with the University to 
see that it ships no more jobs out to Boise or CDA?  How should we go about 
attracting firms to move here and use our access to a large intellectual 
community to increase hob opportunity here?

That’s what the FUTURE is about, not NSA or LOGOS or any of the other 
piddling issues that absorb your time.

Phil Nisbet

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