[Vision2020] why is Moscow growing?

[Nils Peterson]

Mark, That is the other difference, the kind of student demographic. How
important are the students to the towns? Needs 2 answers, undergrads and
graduate students. The latter I think are significant.

The flag state ship university in a liberal town vs the school that is the
alternative to the flag ship university in a town that is, well, ... hilly.

If we understand these two things, local geography and university/city
character how does that understanding lead us to act -- in absolute terms
and relative to Pullman?


On 9/20/06 6:39 AM, "Mark Solomon" <msolomon at moscow.com> wrote:

> Nils,
> 
> I've thought for years that geography is the difference between the
> two towns but not local geography: state geography. Consider the
> mind-set of students when they leave home to go to college. For Idaho
> students, they are going to notoriously "liberal" Moscow from
> southern Idaho and its socially conservative demographics. They are
> largely eager to be here. For Washington students, they are going
> into exile at a school in a wheat field where they put windows in
> cows stomachs hundreds of miles from the bustle of the west side and
> they can't wait to leave.
> 
> Mark
> 
> 
> At 10:14 PM -0700 9/19/06, Nils Peterson wrote:
>> 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
>