[Vision2020] is V2020 doomed?

Sun Jun 4 07:04:52 PDT 2006

Mark,

 I really do enjoy history, and appreciate your recap of  the European settler's political history in northern Idaho. However, I  don't think it is Moscow's history that is in contention here, but  rather its future. 

 I do agree that the current City Council  has only been in place for six months and that is little time to make  major changes. However, the current faction of has been in control of  the city government for 2/12 years and has not taken any major interest  in developing a city plan to turn around the slump that Moscow has  taken.

 I disagree that the failure of the Moscow Community to  grow and prosper politically and economically is a result of the  success and increased population growth in Kootenai and Boise. Moscow  has always been a tiny town in comparison to Kootenai and Boise, so  our  influence has always been based on education and  research.  If anything, population increases in the state should  increase our influence in the state. Education becomes more important  in growing states, not less. 

 It is my opinion that the  decline of Moscow's influence and economic growth is primarily because  of mismanagement by the Hoover Administration and because of the  anti-growth stance of current and past city leaders and other people of  influence in the community. 

 Moscow has a national  reputation of being anti-growth and anti-business. Several actions of  the city have proved this to be the case even in recent history. One of  them being a moratorium on large retail. Others being outlandish  reasons for opposing businesses, like they use water, space, cause  traffic, and pave their parking lots.  We immediately eliminate  any realistic probability of any major industry and business coming to  our community when these irrational statements and arguments prevail in  the prevention of businesses being allowed to settle in town. 

  Mark, the proof is in the pudding. Almost all counties in the state of  Idaho have increased their population, economic growth, and overall  success. Latah is the largest failure. Let us also combine those  numbers with the fact that Latah gets nearly $320 million a year from  just the University from state funding. That means that Latah gets  about $1 BILLION every three years, for FREE, a major economic shot in  the arm, and it still has a declining economy and population. It still  cannot provide wages and jobs much more above the national poverty  line, and with a highly educated population. Something is amiss here.  Moscow should be a booming healthy town.

 I don't think that  Moscow will fall forever. With $320 million coming in, and about $ 1  billion in buildings and assets at the University, we will still exist.  The question is, when are the people of Latah going to realize that  with all this money coming into the city and county why it is that  other cities and counties are doing so much better than us, living a  higher standard of living, and paying less in taxes? Someday, I believe  people in Latah will ask these questions and demand answers. 

  Best Regards,

  Donovan J Arnold

Mark Solomon <msolomon at moscow.com> wrote:    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.

  At 12:17 AM -0700 6/3/06, Donovan Arnold wrote:
  Jerry,

  I don't think Moscow is willing to do what it needs or takes to survive  in the 21st Century as a strong growing community. We are not a growing  community. We are in fact a shrinking one. We are quickly losing our  political and economic influence in the state.  We are the Spanish  after the Armada. It is not a mystery of how to get out of this rut.  But that is the direction many people here in power today want the city  to go. They want us to be a small, poor college town stuck in 1999.  They want the average annual income to be $24,000 in the city, and  family income in Latah to be $30,000 a year. They want us paying 45% of  our income in substandard housing, 20% on food, and 10% more on all  other retail goods. They even want us to pay 20% in sales tax, even for  food and other necessities.  
  If Moscow wants to be a thriving community it needs to be willing to  embrace change and growth. Our community leaders so far have refused to  do that. Our leaders fear it and run away from it, rather then learning  about it and using it to our advantage. They insist on using a candle  out of the fear of being electrocuted by turning on a light switch.

  Thanks for the work you do for this community Jerry.

  Best,

  _DJA

  Jerry Weitz <gweitz at moscow.com> wrote:
  No,  and I believe that UI needs all the help we can give it and wish the  V2020's focus is on how to prosper with 21th Century realities, how to  avoid "swaths of prosperity(Gov. Warner),'' and help make our rural  area prosper as an example for other rural areas that are being  gutted.  jerry (a devoted ruralist) At 11:38 PM 6/2/06, Donovan  Arnold wrote:
  "It  seems to me that if folks on Vision2020 focused on solutions to  pressing issues such as helping the UI regain its prestige and  position, offering solutions rather than difficult arguments to such  items as water, attracting/retaining business that create good jobs,  helping with transporation issues, providing excellence in k-12  education for all students, making the town more attractive,  promoting   sensible growth through actual planning,  considering the consequences of having the area's retail shift to the  corridor and how to have our community prosper if this occurs,  etc.,  I suspect Vision2020 will lift itself up and have the  reputation of being a safe place to forward great ideas and actions."--  Jerry W.

  In other words, in that very long sentence, Jerry, you think V2020 is  doomed?

  Best,

  _DJA

  Jerry Weitz <gweitz at moscow.com> wrote:

  It seems to me that if folks on Vision2020 focused on solutions to  pressing issues such as helping the UI regain its prestige and  position, offering solutions rather than difficult arguments to such  items as water, attracting/retaining business that create good jobs,  helping with transporation issues, providing excellence in k-12  education for all students, making the town more attractive,  promoting   sensible growth through actual planning,  considering the consequences of having the area's retail shift to the  corridor and how to have our community prosper if this occurs,  etc.,  I suspect Vision2020 will lift itself up and have the  reputation of being a safe place to forward great ideas and  actions.  After all, local politics may turn out to be the most  important. jerry 

  At 11:23 AM 6/2/06, Michael wrote:

  I  agree with Bill London.  It almost seems that the strange  conservative presence on Vision 2020 is a strategic move; I’m not  saying it is, but it certainly does look like it.  I know there  are some long term contributors here who have recently given up, and I  certainly can’t defend this list as I have done in the past.   Ironically, though, Wilson’s point about who’s doing what and why on  Vision 2020 has been disintegrated in the process.  I have not  given up on V2020 either, though.

  Michael Metzler

  have  heard from a few people lately who think V2020 is doomed.  The  horrible mean-spirited postings of late have disgusted many of  us.  What is to be done?

  I  haven't given up on V2020.   I think we need to deal with the  present problem on V2020.  The problem is that following the  Lewiston Tribune feature, a couple of hot-head arch-conservatives  decided to have some fun with the liberals in Moscow.  So they  joined and started screaming.  And we jumped for the bait.   What I suggest is that we practice what Doug Wilson is so clever at  using...old-fashioned shunning.  We should all stop responding to  the postings from tony and dick.  This tactic has worked before on  V2020.  I would suggest trying it again.

  BL

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