Re: Alturas

["Lois Melina" <lmelina@moscow.com>]

BJ Swanson wrote:
[snip]
>You may ideally think that businesses like Anatek and Pacific
> Simulation could relocate in the downtown area.  However, both will tell
you
> they needed room to expand, parking, sophisticated wiring for computer
> systems, etc.  Please tell me there is some well-kept secret in downtown
> Moscow that can offer this, complete with a cooperative landlord. 
Perhaps
> the URA should look at the downtown area next.
[snip]

I haven't followed the Alturas discussion as closely as some, but to me,
this has been at the heart of the discussion all along--to use an urban
renewal agency and the benefits of such to renew an urban area rather than
develop agricultural areas. The downtown is desperately in need of
everything you say and we cannot hope for it to become a thriving economic
center if all we do is plant trees. The buildings need renovation. The
parking situation needs to be addressed. We could build 14 Alturas business
parks but if the central core of the community shifts from downtown to the
periphery, a shift in our collective attitude towards our community happens
as well. The economic side of the community may be thriving, but at the
expense of less tangible measures of the quality of life.

Lois Melina