[Vision2020] real economic development in Moscow

[lfalen]

Bill
I did not say no standards or promote any growth. Zoning ordances are there for a reason. It would be fine for a 4-H kid to have a hog in town on adequate acreage. It would not be fine to have a hog farm of several hundred hogs in a residential neighbourhood. To locate one out in the county would be fine.
Roger
-----Original message-----
From: "Bill London" london at moscow.com
Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 11:36:59 -0700
To: "lfalen" lfalen at turbonet.com,  "v2020" vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] real economic development in Moscow

> R-
> You missed the point.
> These high-tech jobs can go anywhere.  All towns want them.
> The entrepreneurs can be choosy, and they are choosy.  They want towns with 
> a high quality of life.
> If Moscow sacrifices its high quality of life for (what you describe as) 
> "almost anything that will provide jobs, increase the tax base and improve 
> the overall economy", then we lose what now attracts these high-tech jobs.
> You just can not have it both ways.
> I want to live in a town that maintains its high quality of life and 
> therefore is attractive to high-tech jobs  -- not a town that has no 
> standards but goes for any growth.
> BL
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ----- 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.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> > 
>