[Vision2020] is V2020 doomed?

[Mark Solomon]

Listed online as available at UI Bookstore for $24.95. I'm sure Bob 
can get it if not on the shelf at Bookpeople as well.

m.

At 8:00 AM -0700 6/3/06, Tom Hansen wrote:
>Thank you very, very much, Mr. Solomon.
>
>Does anybody know whether or not the book "Idaho's Constitution: The 
>tie That Binds" can be found at either Bookpeople or the UI 
>Bookstore?
>
>I suspected that Moscow's "political and economic influence" 
>developed roots long before last January 3rd.
>
>I have always been an easy mark when it comes to state and local history.
>
>If I may make two recommendations:
>
>1)  O Palouse - A documentary (DVD) of the history of the Palouse region.
>
>2)  "Up the Swiftwater" by Sandra Crowell and David Asleson - A 
>pictorial history of the upper St. Joe River region.
>
>As you so eloquently reflected:
>
>"There was no timber industry to speak of, no north-south road, and 
>very few Republicans."
>
>If only . . .
>
>Seeya round town, Moscow.
>
>Tom Hansen
>Moscow, Idaho
>
>************************************************
>
>"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little 
>temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
>
>- Benjamin Franklin
>
>************************************************
>
>From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com 
>[mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com] On Behalf Of Mark Solomon
>Sent: Saturday, June 03, 2006 7:14 AM
>To: Donovan Arnold; Jerry Weitz; Michael; vision2020 at moscow.com
>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] is V2020 doomed?
>
>A quick review of Idaho history should serve to remind us that 
>Moscow/Latah's "political and economic influence in the state" was 
>due to the demographics of the 1800's. When Idaho entered the Union 
>in the post Civil War era, the major population centers were the 
>mining districts of the state (primarily the Silver Valley), the 
>main trading centers situated along major transportation hubs (still 
>largely river or Oregon Trail focused : Lewiston and Boise), some 
>dryland farmers in the Palouse and the beginnings of irrigated ag 
>along the Snake in the south. There was no timber industry to speak 
>of, no north-south road, and very few Republicans. To a large 
>extent, Idaho was Democratic, as in Southern Democrat in post Civil 
>War America. When it came to setting up the new state's 
>infrastructure, the north with it's large population block was able 
>to secure the capitol in Lewiston (the terminus for upriver 
>navigation on the Snake), the state hospital in Orofino (Orofino 
>used to be a gold mining town before Weyherhauser and the green gold 
>of timber came in the early 1900's), the teachers college in 
>Lewiston (now LCSC) and the state university in Moscow (whose 
>moderate Republican leaders banded with the Dixiecrats to prevent 
>the Mormons of south Idaho from dominating the state. South Idaho 
>got the prison in Boise and the School for the Deaf and Blind in 
>Gooding (another Oregon Trail connection although I can't recall if 
>that happened at the same time as statehood). ISU was eventually 
>established in Pocatello (a Democratic RR town), but that was much 
>later.
>
>For an excellent account of how the state came to be formed, I 
>recommend UI Law Professor Dennis Colson's book on writing the Idaho 
>Constitution: Idaho's Constitution: The Tie That Binds
>
>It was a marriage of convenience that lasted, for Moscow, a 
>surprisingly long time. Lewiston lost the capitol quite quickly when 
>the instruments of state power were "stolen" and transported to 
>Boise via the only connecting route: downriver on the Snake and then 
>over the Oregon Trail via Pendleton to south Idaho (a trail any one 
>who has to go to Boise from Moscow has travelled more than once if 
>you've had the misfortune of needing to be in Boise, with a car, 
>when a rockslide closes Highway 95).
>
>What has diminished Moscow's influence in the state has far less to 
>do with the internal workings of our community than the explosive 
>growth of the state capitol (with all the attendant power that 
>implies along with it's setting aside the mainline RR and an 
>Interstate highway), the race hate politics of the 60's, 70's and 
>80's that saw tectonic shifts in the major parties political 
>platforms with Southern Democrats realizing they are now 
>Republicans, the national shift from moderate to radically 
>conservative Republicans and a winner take all mindset first seen 
>here in the Church/Symms race in 1982, white flight from other 
>states in the 80' and 90's to almost lily white north Idaho north of 
>the C'dA Reservation, and the boom in second home/retirement homes 
>in the ski/river/lake areas of the state as the baby boom generation 
>reaches it's economic if not age maturity.
>
>There are great challenges facing us. A city council and mayor who 
>have been in office for less than six months did not create our 
>problems. Unlike Donovan, I remain hopeful they are able and willing 
>to face them. Thanks Jerry for summing them up so succinctly.
>
>
>Mark S.
>
>
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