[Vision2020] is V2020 doomed?

[Sunil Ramalingam]

And thank you Mark, for that post.

Sunil


>From: Mark Solomon <msolomon at moscow.com>
>To: Donovan Arnold <donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com>,        Jerry Weitz 
><gweitz at moscow.com>, Michael <metzler at moscow.com>,        
>vision2020 at moscow.com
>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] is V2020 doomed?
>Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2006 07:13:31 -0700
>
>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.
>
>>_____________________________________________________
>  List services made available by First Step Internet,
>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>                http://www.fsr.net
>           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
>¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯