[Vision2020] It's alive, alive!

[Phil Nisbet]

I realize that it might just not have hit home for you Joan, but I do not 
visit downtown, I live right next to it and have done so for the past five 
years.  And in that space of half a decade, many businesses have changed 
hands or simply gone out of business in the downtown area.  Though we do not 
have boarded up shop fronts, the slow down in area business is significant 
and is indeed cutting into the margins of local entrepreneurs.  I have not 
“pronounced downtown Moscow dead-on-arrival”, but I certainly think that if 
you spend the time to ask business owners, they will tell you that they want 
and need a stronger customer base, one with more cash to spend.

It’s just grand that you are full of fight for things that matter to the 
community, Joan, but did you ever stop to think that just maybe, fighting 
all the time is part of the reason the community is weak.  Strong 
communities are built through consensus, not by lobbing hand grenades across 
political trenches.

Moscow and Latah County do not have the votes needed to insure that the 
University is not cherry picked of all the best new and existing programs.  
The only way we have to insure that our University here is strong is to 
build internal consensus and then to build coalitions with other rural areas 
to get the votes to hold some clout in the Legislature.

What we need is support for leadership here.  Our county commissioners need 
to be leading the charge at the IAC to get other areas in the state 
convinced that the U of I is not their enemy and find ways that we can be 
their mentor in economic growth.  We need support for LEDC and to help it to 
spread the word to other economic development groups in the state that the U 
of I is open for business and ready to help their areas as well.  Those are 
bridges we need to build and we have the people who can do that job, if they 
get the support they need to set the foundations.

But we will not get there if all we do is internal squabbling or if we spend 
the rest of our efforts attacking other rural and resource based counties 
and communities.  The U of I has to be seen as a help mate, not “that bunch 
of commies in Moscow”, if we want the votes to counter balance Boise’s 
population in legislative clout.

So if you feel like fighting, Joan, fight your inclination to bite people’s 
heads off, roll up your sleeves and start building consensus with people you 
normally disagree with.

Phil Nisbet

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