[Vision2020] Unstable, Doomed Model Cannot Protect Our Quality of Life

[Tom Hansen]

>From this weekend's (February 26-26, 2006) Daily News with a special vote of
thanks to Antone Holmquist and Eileen McGovern -

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Unsustainable, Doomed Model

B.J. Swanson has come under fire for her opinion on the proposed Wal-Mart
Supercenter and some are calling for her head.  I say bully for her.  As a
well-respected local banker, her learned opinion should be worth a great
deal.

Some local economists have trumpeted the economic mantra of "consumer
choice" and bemoan Moscow's 1 percent annual growth.

Basic mathematics, however, reveals that a 1 percent annual growth in Moscow
would certainly fill every nook and cranny from Moscow Mountain to Paradise
Ridge and beyond within an average lifetime and such growth is just frankly
unsustainable worldwide.

Last year I embarked on a road trip from Fort Worth, Texas to northern
Arkansas.  This is the heart and soul of Wal-Mart and other big-box stores.
An awful lot of these towns have virtually no business district and the
towns look shriveled up.  I drove into Bill Clinton's birthplace and found
nearly a ghost town.

Wal-Mart and the other huge chains have sucked the soul from these towns.
As a young college student studying economics I suspected the basic economic
premise of growth, growth that was crammed down my throat was not quite
right and 35 years later I know it is an unsustainable and doomed model.

Antone G. Holmquist
Moscow

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Protect Our Quality of Life

Moscow, Idaho, Heart of the Arts, home of the Farmers Market - nestled
cozily in the undulating Palouse.  Moscow is a community unique in its
ability to combine small-town familiarity and warmth with the enriching,
energizing force of the University of Idaho.  This has been Moscow's
strength for many years and now it is under attack.

Wal-Mart, the largest corporation in the world, and persistent violator of
human rights both locally and globally, wants to gouge out a chunk of the
Palouse and replace it with a sprawling, concrete Goliath of commerce - the
Wal-Mart Supercenter.

The super center is likely to alter the character of Moscow to something
more gray and generic.  It will initiate urban sprawl, threaten both
downtown businesses and the potential for sustainable economic growth, and
have a negative impact on the local environment - all of which makes Moscow
a less attractive place to live.

Whether or not this assault on our quality of life occurs has a lot to do
with the City Council's answer to the question: How to zone the area
Wal-Mart wants to invade.  If it is zoned a mixed-use area, Moscow will be
protected from the corporate onslaught.

Please contact your City Council members and let them know how important it
is to this community that they zone that area mixed-use in order to protect
our quality of life.

Eileen McGovern
Moscow

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Thank you so very, very much Antone and Eileen for expressing a true sense
of community.

Take care, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

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"A bad cause will ever be supported by bad means and bad men." 

- Thomas Paine (English Writer, 1737-1809)

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