Should we look to other places to see why "the right" businesses have moved there? Does the cost of property, labor, and electrical rates play a part? And to what extent?<br><br>The first place that comes to my mind is the city of George, WA. They are in the process of having major companies such as Microsoft, Yahoo, etc. relocating some of their business because 1. land is cheap, 2. labor is relatively cheap, and 3. electrical rates are ridiculously low (maybe the lowest in the nation). I don't know if their location to a major interstate is a factor or not, but they are within 15 min. of I-90.<br><br><b><i>Bruce and Jean Livingston <jeanlivingston@turbonet.com></i></b> wrote:<blockquote class="replbq" style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <meta content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2963" name="GENERATOR"><!--[if !mso]>
<STYLE>v\:* { BEHAVIOR: url(#default#VML) } o\:* { BEHAVIOR: url(#default#VML) } w\:* { BEHAVIOR: url(#default#VML) } .shape { BEHAVIOR: url(#default#VML) } </STYLE> <![endif]--><o:SmartTagType name="City" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"></o:SmartTagType><o:SmartTagType name="place" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"></o:SmartTagType><!--[if !mso]> <STYLE> st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) } </STYLE> <![endif]--> <style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Tahoma; panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:blue; text-decoration:underline;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:blue; text-decoration:underline;} p {mso-margin-top-alt:auto; margin-right:0in; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0in;
font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} span.EmailStyle18 {mso-style-type:personal-reply; font-family:Arial; color:navy;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" /> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:shapelayout v:ext="edit"> <o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" /> </o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--> <div><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: navy; font-family: Arial;"><o:p><font color="#000000" size="3">One other thought that occurs to me as I mention high tech companies that fit the bill for the kinds of economic development we ought to be encouraging is that I totally spaced the infrastructure improvement that the City has recently sought to undertake which is directed toward the kinds of companies that we hope will grow and develop here -- extending
a fiber optic connection in a continuous loop beyond downtown, extending to Alturas business park up Mountainview to D Street (Eggan Youth Center, I believe) and back to downtown. And in thinking about that, I realize that I completely forgot the host for this list, First Step Internet, which has also extended high-speed connectivity throughout Latah County and their local ISP competitor, Cactus Computers. I'm sure there are other businesses that I've forgotten, EMSI, for example, but my list was not meant to be exclusive, just illustrative.</font></o:p></span></font><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: navy; font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></div> <div><font color="#000000" face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: navy; font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></font> </div> <div><font color="#000000" face="Arial" size="3"><span
style="font-size: 10pt; color: navy; font-family: Arial;"><o:p>Bruce Livingston</o:p></span></font></div> <div><font color="#000000" face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: navy; font-family: Arial;"></span></font><font color="#000000" face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: navy; font-family: Arial;"></span></font><font color="#000000" face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 10pt; color: navy; font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></font> </div> <div class="Section1"> <div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> <hr tabindex="-1" align="center" size="2" width="100%"> </span></font></div> <div class="MsoNormal"><b><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;">From:</span></font></b><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;">
vision2020-bounces@moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces@moscow.com] <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">On Behalf Of </span></b>Bruce and Jean Livingston<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Tuesday, September 19, 2006 8:55 PM<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> Bill London; vision2020@moscow.com<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [Vision2020] why is <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Moscow</st1:place></st1:City> growing?</span></font><o:p></o:p></div></div> <div class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></div> <div> <div class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">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 Livingsto<font color="navy"><span style="color: navy;">n<o:p></o:p></span></font></span></font></div></div></div>=======================================================<br> List services made available by First Step Internet, <br> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. <br>
http://www.fsr.net <br> mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com<br>=======================================================</blockquote><br><p> 
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