[Vision2020] why is Moscow growing?

[Nils Peterson]

Bruce, I think that is a very good answer.

The report suggests Moscow has attracted residents who might have chosen to
live elsewhere. We understand some of the reasons for that attraction.

Clearly, these are small communities and one big success like Schweitzer
landing in one town or the other will have regional effects, but I think we
would usefully ask what steps would expand on Moscow's attraction and
especially on attracting the kinds of companies you list.

Its always struck me (since 68 when my family moved here) how similar
Pullman and Moscow are at a gross demographic level and how different they
are on a micro level. I've long wondered about the reasons for the
difference.

My current hypothesis is that Moscow has more flat land, and much of the
flat land lies in downtown and between the town and university.

Among illustrative examples, consider the amount of land developed by the
railroads. There used to be two turn tables in Moscow, (near hwy 95). I know
of none in Pullman. So Pullman was more of a pass-through place and Moscow a
shop and destination or engine change location (e.g., more RR industry and
jobs).

While I'm willing to accept the NewCities "Knowledge Corridor, don't compete
with Pullman" notions, how does Moscow use its geographic features to
advantage? A previous answer was the regional shopping malls. What is the
next answer?

On 9/19/06 9:13 PM, "vision2020-request at moscow.com"
<vision2020-request at moscow.com> wrote:

> Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 20:54:55 -0700
> From: "Bruce and Jean Livingston" <jeanlivingston at turbonet.com>
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] why is Moscow growing?
> To: "Bill London" <london at moscow.com>, <vision2020 at moscow.com>
> Message-ID: <009501c6dc68$899487c0$2f01a8c0 at momanddad>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> Bill, one reason not to scrap our economic development efforts is that being a
> bedroom community doesn't pay the bills.  The expenses of extending
> infrastructure and fire and police protection exceed the tax revenue brought
> in by mere residential property, and retail is not significantly better.  We
> would be much better off if we could continue to bring in and grow companies
> like AHA, Terra Graphics, Eco-Analysts, Alturas Analytics and Anatek Labs,
> etc.  Encouraging emerging businesses to develop from their infancy here, and
> recruiting others that value our quality of life and do not depend on
> extracting scarce natural resources, particularly water, for their business to
> succeed, is a sensible endeavor.  And it does wean us a bit from dependence on
> the University, while transferring some of that brain-work to the taxpaying
> side of the ledger.  Bruce Livingston
>   ----- Original Message -----
>   From: Bill London
>   To: vision2020 at moscow.com
>   Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2006 11:42 AM
>   Subject: [Vision2020] why is Moscow growing?
> 
> 
>   The report is available at:
>   http://www.ci.moscow.id.us/SpecialTopics/MoscowGrowth.htm
> 
>   the core answer, according to my reading, is the 2,000 WSU and Schweitzer
> employees that live in Latah County.
>   Which makes me wonder why Moscow is spending so much chasing the gods of
> Economic Development.
>   I can hear the moaning now from the LEDC etc who spend piles of taxpayer
> money chasing Growth.
>   What would happen if we just declared victory in the economic development
> wars and scrapped all our economic development effort?
>   BL