Re: Alturas Technology Park

["JS M" <jbiggs50@hotmail.com>]

You raise some very valid points, however I'm sure every member of City 
staff, the entire Planning Commission, and all the City Council will tell 
you that the public has had an opportunity to review and respond to any 
proposal the City has undertaken.  The problem isn't so much with the 
process, it's with participation.  How hard to you have to beat the public 
to make them show up at a Council Meeting?  Likewise, when 50 people show up 
at a meeting, how is the council to know if they are the only 50 people with 
a concern?  The public process works, within the legal parameters given, but 
the public has to show some interest before any representative government 
will pause and ask your questions.  Most decisions made by small local 
governments are made in a public vaccum, regardless of any public 
notification process.  There is much more focus from the public on the 
national level than on the local level.  I think our society has done itself 
a disservice by buying into the myth that government is just too complex to 
understand.  It's really not rocket science.
jm


>From: Ken Medlin <dev-plan@moscow.com>
>To: "JS M" <jbiggs50@hotmail.com>,        "Moscow Vision 2020" 
><vision2020@moscow.com>
>Subject: Re: Alturas Technology Park
>Date: Fri, 17 Dec 99 23:45:05 -0800
>
> > Does the City Council
> >feel that Moscow is competing with Spokane or Couer d'Alene?
>In fact, Spokane developers and politicians consider Moscow-Pullman
>within their sphere of economic expansion, according to a WSJ report in
>October. When it comes to venture capital, they'll most likely begin to
>call the shots, as some CA financial interests are already working in
>Spokane. I think that's why our two communiites, and  esp. Moscow, ought
>to reach some kind of consensus, citizen-based, as to goals, quality of
>life, urban boundaries, saving downtown, etc. A little of this was
>discussed during the campaign, but when you ask the average citizen what
>the election was about, it usually boils down to personalities, name
>recognition, etrc. -- not issues and principles. Maybe the Alturas
>project is, from these perspectives, not a bad concept, but does it have
>broad public support, is it soundly based on some planning theory and
>methodology, is it attracting the "right" kinds of enterprises (other
>than a new law firm), is it good for downtown, does it relate to local
>human resources rather than to skills that must be imported, etc. etc.?
>These kinds of questions ought to be raised by the community if citizens
>are expected to risk underwriting new ventures about which they know
>little or nothing!
>   For me, City Council and EDC have a lot of questions to answer, and the
>sooner the better. I advocate a public hearing on the matter involving
>all elected and appointed officials having anything to do with this
>scheme. After, all, I'm paying a big tax bill today, and I'm wondering
>how much of it is already mortgaged.  Ken M.
>
>------------------------
>William K. Medlin
>Dev-plan associates
>930 Kenneth Street
>Moscow ID 83843
>208/892-0148
>dev-plan@moscow.com
>

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