<html>
<body>
BJ, <br><br>
Several times now, you have mentioned that you believe in free markets,
but on a level playing field.<br><br>
Frankly, I have not been able to glean from your posts what you mean by
that phrase, "level playing field" as it applies to business
and economics.<br><br>
Since you have invoked a sports metaphor, perhaps you could shed some
insight as to how you invoke level playing field by answering some
"level field" questions as it relates to sports.<br><br>
1. Do you favor a salary cap for professional baseball teams?<br>
2. Do you think that all major league players should receive the same pay
(all pitchers paid the same, all catchers paid the same or even all
players paid the same) or do you think that professional players should
be paid according to their abilities?<br>
3. Do you think Title 9 is an appropriate way to level the sports
opportunities for female school athletes?<br>
4. Do you believe that professional sports teams should all use the
"relegation" approach for assuring an appropriate level of
competition between teams (this is used by most European soccer leagues -
if you are consistently at the bottom of your league, you get demoted to
a lower level division)?<br>
5. Do you think that handicapping horses is the best way to assure a
level playing field in horse racing?<br>
6. Do you think that all sports events should be played in "neutral
playing sites" to help deal with the "home field
advantage"?<br>
7. Do you think that Olympic athletes should be handicapped to give
everyone a better chance to win?<br><br>
I am serious about this - your answers will be of great assistance in
understanding your posts and provide us with a means of finding common
ground. <br><br>
At 08:50 AM 3/4/2006, you wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite=""><font size=2 color="#000080">
Excellent, Bruce! If I didnt know better, Id think you were a
rational economist in disguise!<br>
<br>
I believe in the free market too, but on a level playing field. If
my addition is correct, there are proposals for 1.7 million square feet
of new retail in Moscow and Pullman including the Moscow Wal-Mart
complex, the corridor and Wal-Mart in Pullman. Is this a little
much? Its easy to say whatever the market will bear. But
in this case, the destruction of smaller businesses before the market
rights itself is not good business and effectively kills
communities. Others will say that the smaller, local businesses
must learn to compete with Wal-Mart. That is extremely difficult
when a Wal-Mart Supercenter carries 60,000 items, many made in China in
sweatshops that are illegal here. A typical Costco carries 4,000
items.<br>
<br>
Bruce mentions buying razors at Wal-Mart. Compare the Gillette Mach
3 razors purchased at Wal-Mart with those purchased at non-Wal-Mart
stores. Notice the color is different even though the name is the
same? Notice the Wal-Mart Mach 3 doesnt last nearly as long as
those purchased from Costco, Rite-Aid, Hodgins, Marketime? Ever
wonder why Snapper lawn mowers are never sold at Wal-Mart? Because
Snapper refused to lower its quality (and price) to Wal-Mart
standards.<br>
<br>
B. J. Swanson<br>
<br>
-----------------------------------------------<br>
<br>
<hr>
<div align="center"></font></div>
<font face="Tahoma" size=2><b>From:</b> vision2020-bounces@moscow.com
[<a href="mailto:vision2020-bounces@moscow.com" eudora="autourl">
mailto:vision2020-bounces@moscow.com</a>] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Bruce and
Jean Livingston<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Saturday, March 04, 2006 6:24 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> Donovan Arnold; Vision 2020<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [Vision2020] Goodnight Goody, Goodnight Ridge<br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times"> <br>
</font>I imagine someone telling Dave he can't expand Paradise Ridge CDs,
and I don't like it. But the obvious analogy to Wal-Mart that you
are trying to make is not a clean one, in my opinion, Donovan, though I
do agree with some of what you write. <br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times"> <br>
</font>First, I wouldn't be the least bit concerned about people telling
me where they thought I should shop. I kept buying grapes, even
though the Farm Workers were trying to organize a boycott. I listen
to the reasons for not shopping at Wal-Mart, and I agree with some of
them, but I still shop at Wal-Mart on rare occasions. I try to
patronize other places, and I always try Tri-State or Spence's, first,
because I think it is important to patronize local businesses to help
assure that more money stays in the community. But I admit it, my
razor blades come from Wal-Mart when I don't have a Costco run in the
offing.<br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times"> <br>
</font>People may still shop at Wal-Mart, as they could at any other
store that is operating here. I don't begrudge others the
opportunity to shop at Wal-Mart, and I agree with the free market
advocates and the need for business opportunities in our community, and
so I agree with the right to expand when it comports with good planning
and the law. <br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times"> <br>
</font>But if Dave were in the mood to expand Paradise Ridge, by buying
up one of his neighbors on Third Street in the heart of downtown, where
retail sales are the dominant and preferred activity according to our
zoning code and comprehensive plan, anybody arguing against that
expansion would have worthless arguments, and the expansion would be
approved. That is where your analogy falls apart, unless you were
contemplating plunking the CD store in an area where it was not allowed
-- in which case I would likely not support that location despite my
affection for the business.<br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times"> <br>
</font>I think that what many fail to recognize is that there are too
kinds of Wal-Mart opponents out there in our community right now:
those who abhor Wal-Mart and would deny its entry anywhere, and those who
question the planning that went into this particular expansion
effort. I am on record as being in the latter category. If I
can find the reasons that I submitted to the P&Z public hearing, I
will forward them to the list. <br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times"> <br>
</font>Briefly, I believe that the proposed extensive commercial motor
business designation of the Thompson property is poor planning.
Such developments should have occurred between downtown and the state
line, as the comprehensive plan dictated, had not the lack of vision by
prior councils allowed most of that property along A street to become
apartments, contrary to the comprehensive plan. Such a plan would
still allow us to shop and draw us through downtown, making it more
likely that our lovely downtown is a convenient stop along the way.
There is still opportunity for expanded commercial development in the
area from behind the mall to the state line, as was proposed at the same
council meeting last June when the Thompson project first
surfaced. Equally and maybe more important given greater
availability, there is a much more obvious existing site than the
Thompson property for such extensive commercial developments at the north
and south ends of town along Highway 95, a far better traffic
corridor. The Thompson property ought, in my opinion, to be
primarily residential (as it was designated in the comp plan until a bad
planning decision by the prior council last June) and not destroy the
ambience of the existing owners to the east and across the street on
Ridge. Finally, we ought to be saving the west end of the Thompson
property for future expansion of higher paying businesses than a shopping
center; we ought to allow Alturas that room to expand, while fostering a
pro-business attitude and encouraging businesses that pay at least living
wages to locate here.<br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times"> <br>
</font>Now at the risk of being a little windy here, and if you are not
already snoozing, there is a third category of Wal-Mart opponent, in my
opinion and of which I am also a member, and it relates to limited
opportunities for shopping in Moscow, the almighty mantra of "market
choice." I mentioned this on the list a while back and it
engendered little discussion. I expected to hear a rebuttal from
Jeff Harkins who is the most fervent free marketer on the list and my
compatriot on the LEDC, and he said he was working on it, but I
seem to have missed it. <br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times"> <br>
</font>The "more market choice" category that I just mentioned
might at first blush appear to support letting anyone expand and enter,
and see what happens, the classic laissez faire free market
approach. But what I am contemplating is something different.
<br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times"> <br>
</font>It seems to me that we are a very small community with a
relatively limited amount of disposable income to spend in (and therefore
support) the local stores of all types. Wal-Mart offers one kind of
shopping venue, and a Super Wal-Mart would admittedly offer more
(if perhaps of the same lower quality) and the most significant addition
might be food. There is already a Wal-Mart here. There are
four grocery stores, the Co-op on the high end, Winco on the low end
(offering similar pricing to Wal-Mart from what I understand) and
Rosauer's and Safeway in between. There will soon be a Super
Wal-Mart a mere ten miles away in Pullman. <br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times"> <br>
</font>The market choice that I am talking about is more choices for
us. Why a Wal-Mart which we already have? Why not something
else, so our consumer choices are enhanced more than by the expansion of
the existing low-end product line at Wal-Mart? Why not have our
city and economic development and business supporters work on attracting
an alternative to Wal-Mart, so that our limited choices are not so likely
to become primarily Wal-Mart? Why not work harder to attract
something more interesting and beneficial to consumer choice? Why
let Wal-Mart pre-empt the market and fill it up in the predatory fashion
that it appears to be following with two supercenters within 10
miles? Why are we only talking about the choices that the
entrepreneurs choose to offer and not the choices that we consumers would
like to see? We could work toward educating other entrepreneurs and
attracting them instead, and if we put in place rules that applied to all
and some chose to play where Wal-Mart didn't, why wouldn't we be better
off by having more varied choices?<br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times"> <br>
</font>Perhaps most significant to my "more consumer choices"
angle, why let a 200,000 square foot store come in and soak up the
available dollars in this very small community and make it less likely
for other more varied folks to enter our market? Why isn't 100,000
square feet enough in this little community? A size cap would allow
us more choices. I have a good friend on the Chamber Board (who
would probably prefer to remain nameless) and he likes to talk about how
students often have the most disposable dollars to spend, despite their
low income, and that we ought to be able to market Moscow and interest
someone other than Wal-Mart to enter our community. If we are to
have big boxes in our community, why not be pro-active and get us more
real choice for Moscow's consumers, rather than more of the Wal-Mart we
already have? <br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times"> <br>
</font>Several of my MCA Board buddies who oppose Wal-Mart and big boxes
in general characterize this as the "pig in silk pajamas"
argument, because I do believe that large stores ought to be allowed, but
play nice and look nice, whereas these others oppose them on general
principles. I don't want large stores to just make the "great
big sucking noise" Ross Perot once described, though he was talking
about jobs going to Mexico and I am talking about more of our dollars
going to Bentonville Arkansas. If we are to have out-of-town
chains, I would much prefer to have a Costco that pays living wages than
a Wal-Mart that does not, even if lots of those dollars spent go to
Seattle. <br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times"> <br>
</font>Lest someone misconstrue this, I don't believe we can choose one
retailer over the other on the whim of the Council. We need rules
that are applied fairly to all retailers and then we need to apply the
rules fairly, but I do believe we can encourage better and more varied
consumer choices through thoughtful legislating and pro-active and
creative economic development efforts.<br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times"> <br>
</font>Putting a halt to an ill-conceived project buys us the time to do
things better the next time, to have a good plan in place, and to be
ready for things instead of just reacting to the next request on a
developer's wish list.<br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times"> <br>
</font>Bruce Livingston<br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times"> <br>
</font>_____________________________________________________<br>
List services made available by First Step Internet, <br>
serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
<br>
<a href="http://www.fsr.net /" eudora="autourl">
http://www.fsr.net
</a> <br>
<a href="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com" eudora="autourl">
mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com</a><br>
ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ</blockquote></body>
</html>