[Vision2020] real economic development in Moscow

[g. crabtree]

What has yet to be explained is how you attract high tech businesses without 
attracting business in general. Setting the city council up as some sort of 
business border guard with the power to say "come on in" to some and "we 
don't much care the likes of you" to others should not be a function of city 
government or anyone else for that matter.

It's hard to imagine a statement more arrogant than:

"...Moscow needs to wean itself from a housing and retail fixation about 
growth. "Our voracious appetite to approve subdivision after subdivision, to 
build high-end homes, has run out of high-end people to occupy them," 
Swanson said, adding that new retail businesses seem to be only replacing 
old ones.

 "Over-built housing and replacement retail is not a good economic model..."

Aren't we lucky that someone who is infinitely smarter than our builders 
will call a halt to high end homes being erected. Goodness knows the 
builder, who is the one taking the risk, couldn't be bright enough to assess 
the potential for profit or loss. If the market were to truly be saturated, 
I would imagine that banks might decline to lend the builder or buyer money. 
Then again the builder/buyer could always seek alternate forms of financing. 
(Does any of this sound like the market sorting itself out?)

If a new retail business comes to Moscow and captures an old business's 
market, one would have to assume that there was a perfectly good reason for 
that to have happened. Either they had a better product, a better price, or 
better service. I don't believe there is anyone in Moscow prescient enough 
to decide that any one existing business is the apex of quality, the 
standard by which all others should be judged, and that no new competitor 
may come in and try their hand at providing something better or different. 
Often new businesses goad old enterprises into running a better operation 
and everybody wins. Why would we want to interfere in this natural process 
of improvement?

I suppose encouraging high tech biz is wonderful, however it might magically 
be done, but standing in the way of other entrepreneurs so a select few can 
hold on to their nebulous notion of a unique Moscow is elitist, short 
sighted, and just plain wrong. I'm sure that Dan, Wayne, and Walter are 
bright enough to know when to get out of the way and allow people with a 
vision to have at it. The function of city government should be to work 
toward a prosperous and welcoming environment for all. Candidates who would 
presume to tell others how their lives ought to be lived should be shown the 
door.

g

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "lfalen" <lfalen at turbonet.com>
To: "Bill London" <london at moscow.com>; "v2020" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2007 10:34 AM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] real economic development in Moscow


>I can't argue with bringing in high-tech companies, I'm all for it. I think 
>Moscow should try to attract all kinds of businesses. It is fine to place 
>controls on those that would create undue pollution. Other than that 
>promote almost anything that will provide jobs, increase the tax base and 
>improve the overall economy.
> Roger
> -----Original message-----
> From: "Bill London" london at moscow.com
> Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2007 09:58:18 -0700
> To: "v2020" vision2020 at moscow.com
> Subject: [Vision2020] real economic development in Moscow
>
>>
>> Today's Tribune article about the MCA forum held last night is a great 
>> summary of the choices facing Moscow voters in this council election. 
>> Vote for the future with MCA endorsed candidates and Moscow will aim for 
>> both maintaining its uniqueness and attracting more entrepreneurial 
>> businesses.  My thanks to the MCA board for sponsoring this forum.  BL
>>
>> ----------------
>> Is high-tech the key to Moscow's future?
>> Forum sponsored by Moscow Civic Association brings together business and 
>> community leaders
>> By David Johnson
>> October 23, 2007
>>
>>
>> MOSCOW - The economic future of Moscow will depend more on attracting and 
>> retaining high-tech companies than encouraging more housing and retail 
>> business, members of a panel agreed Monday night.
>>
>> "In the basic form, economic development is jobs," said B.J. Swanson, 
>> vice president of AmericanWest Bank here and chairwoman of the board of 
>> directors for Gritman Medical Center. "But not just any job." She said 
>> jobs should provide enough money to offer a reasonably comfortable 
>> living.
>>
>> Robin Woods, president of Alturas Analytics located in Moscow, said 100 
>> percent of her bio-tech business comes from outside Idaho, most of it 
>> from the San Francisco Bay Area. Yet, she and her partners opted to 
>> locate here because of the quality of life that's available
>>
>> "Probably it would have been better to locate in San Francisco or 
>> Seattle, but with Fed Ex and the fiber-optic that we have ... and with 
>> the Internet, the world is flat and we can conduct our business here," 
>> Woods said.
>>
>> David Alexander, a UI graduate and CEO of Ivus Industries, a small 
>> business he decided to locate here, said Moscow is an ideal location for 
>> entrepreneurs to tap into a high-tech labor pool that spins off both the 
>> University of Idaho and neighboring Washington State University in 
>> Pullman.
>>
>> "What the business is, is a focus on extremely fast-charging rechargeable 
>> products," Alexander said of his startup company. He said the company, 
>> which has four employees, is currently developing a fast-charging 
>> flashlight.
>>
>> Judy Brown, an economist and director of the Idaho Center on Budget and 
>> Tax Policy, said research shows if a community creates a good living 
>> environment, jobs will come. "The key thing that attracts" entrepreneurs 
>> and businesses to an area, Brown said, is quality of life, not tax 
>> breaks.
>>
>> "Quality of life and the ability to work either from home or near home," 
>> she said, "are the two really key things in deciding where people locate 
>> those kinds of businesses."
>>
>> The forum, sponsored by the Moscow Civic Association, comes two weeks 
>> prior to a city council election here that many say hinges on attitudes 
>> about economic growth. Bruce Livingston, president of the MCA, said the 
>> forum was called in part to dispel the notion that the MCA is 
>> anti-economic growth. He said the MCA is "pro business, pro growth and 
>> pro community."
>>
>> About 30 people, including several council candidates, attended the forum 
>> at the 1912 Center.
>>
>> Swanson said Moscow needs to wean itself from a housing and retail 
>> fixation about growth. "Our voracious appetite to approve subdivision 
>> after subdivision, to build high-end homes, has run out of high-end 
>> people to occupy them," Swanson said, adding that new retail businesses 
>> seem to be only replacing old ones.
>>
>> "Over-built housing and replacement retail is not a good economic model," 
>> Swanson said.
>>
>> According to statistics presented at the forum, Moscow has a population 
>> of about 22,350 and UI employs about 2,870 people. Gritman employs 431, 
>> with the Moscow School District and Wal-Mart, by comparison, employing 
>> 350 and 207 people, respectively.
>>
>> Swanson said it's time for the community to get back on the right 
>> economic track with the primary focus on good-paying jobs and a secondary 
>> focus on housing and retail business. "And as always, focus on anything 
>> that will help the University of Idaho. They've carried us for years. 
>> It's time for us to get out and carry ourselves."
>>
>> All the panelists said Moscow city officials and members of the city 
>> council have been extremely pro-business.
>>
>> "Our intent is to hire WSU and University of Idaho graduates," Woods said 
>> about her expanding business. She said that all but one of the 30 people 
>> working at Alturas Analytics are from the two universities. Woods said 
>> it's important for Moscow to complete it's rewrite of the comprehensive 
>> plan, and to keep tech businesses together to encourage more business.
>>
>> "I think it's important to have kind of a think-tank atmosphere," she 
>> said, "kind of a campus atmosphere in your tech park. So I don't think 
>> it's a good idea to scatter things here and there."
>>
>> Swanson pointed out Alturas Technology Park, located on the southeastern 
>> edge of town, had modest beginnings, but now is home to around 150 jobs 
>> that have annual salaries of $50,000 and up. "And those jobs really 
>> contribute back to the community," she said.
>>
>> ---
>>
>> Johnson may be contacted at deveryone at potlatch.com or (208) 883-0564.
>>
>>
>>
>
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