Politics from the Palouse to Puget Sound

Friday, March 30, 2007

A Brand for the Palouse?

According to today's Moscow-Pullman Daily News:
"A group of representatives from throughout the Palouse are looking to create a branding image for the so-called "Knowledge Corridor."
...
[Moscow Chamber of Commerce Interim Director Janice] McMillan said through the Knowledge Corridor concept she hopes to attract businesses that can help the area grow.
Considering Nancy Chaney, Mark Solomon, PARD, No Super WalMart, stalking herons, frolicking cute bunnies, viewsheds, used $40 bikes, charming valleys, tiny brooks, European cities, sweatshop forums, Main Street, unique rural character, a thousand other places, etc. ad nauseum, here is my entry for the "knowledge corridor" branding contest:


Why not? My brand would accomplish the same thing as what we read in the newspaper every day and save both paper and ink.

Why bother encouraging growth at all when there are people in the community doing everything they can to stop it?

4 comments:

April E. Coggins said...

I would like to point out that it is Moscow's small corner of the Palouse that is anti-growth. Pullman and Whitman County are open to growth. Geographically speaking, Colfax is the heart of the Palouse, Moscow is on the edge.

Unknown said...

I wish we could blame it all on Moscow.

But a bunch of Pullman-based eggheads are successfully holding up a $20 million project that would bring 400 jobs and $1 million a year in tax revenue.

And the Whitman County Commissioners seem bound and determined to shove unconstitutional and egregious violations of private property rights down our throats in the name of "not covering our buttes."

There's plenty of "anti-growth concentrate" to go around. It doesn't matter how open we are to development if we encourage growth with one hand and stop it with another.

Paul E. Zimmerman said...

Hrm... is it not true that the "knowledge corridor" folks are the ones with quixotic visions of "clean" IT company campuses doting the landscape instead of "dirty" industries of every other stripe? This is the latte and biscotti crowd vs. the coffee and toast crowd, right?

If so, is this attempt at creating a brand their weak way of trying to define by category what business may locate here?

April E. Coggins said...

Yes Paul, the "knowledge corridor" idea is that cars coming and going from high tech jobs are clean. It's only when the same cars go retail shopping that they become dirty. We all need to work to earn money and then feel guilty for spending our earnings. We should all stay home and not expect joy or improvement in our lives. We are all working and sacricing for the greater good of the government.