New report deserves fair hearing

Five years ago, a Milken Institute analysis of Spokane’s business climate stunned the area’s government, business and academic leaders. The city trailed only Johnson City, Tenn., as a place to do business among 162 cities surveyed. Seattle, by comparison, ranked No. 1.

The numbers were humbling and, worse, reinforced the pervasive sense in the late 1990s that the area economy was just marking time, and little was being done about it. Kaiser Aluminum Corp. workers were locked out. Spokane’s mayor and City Council members were venting more steam than Mount St. Helens, and making themselves a different kind of spectacle in the process.

Months of soul-searching and blame-laying followed release of the Milken study, notably in a series of symposiums. But about the only thing of substance that came out of those meetings was the formation of INTEC to help with job force training.

Now comes another provocative report, although not one that will again put Spokane in a bad light nationally, as the article that ran in Forbes did.

Authored by semi-retired Eastern Washington University Professor Shane Mahoney, “Cultural and Economic Development in the Spokane Region” finds a climate of distrust and censure discouraging economic initiative in the Inland Northwest. He says local leaders do not appreciate the importance of a research university, nor the value of working together as a region.

Mahoney, who teaches government, bases the report on 30 interviews with community leaders, some in Boise, and a review of literature that analyzes successful economies, particularly that of the Silicon Valley. The expectation his findings and methodology would be controversial prompted the inclusion of a disclaimer by Eastern, as well as its Institute for Public Policy and Economic Analysis.

They were right to expect a backlash, but not necessarily right to disclaim Mahoney’s work. And the community would be wrong to reject everything he has to say, even though much would seem to conflict with the economic performance of the last two years, which have been among the best Spokane has experienced in a long time.

If anything, an overwrought response will only confirm what Mahoney says about Spokane’s reluctance to openly discuss important public issues, and its insularity, which he contrasts with the collegiality he says exists in Boise. The Idaho city, by the way, ranked seventh in the most recent Forbes survey of 150 U.S. cities.

The Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce has suggested a public meeting to discuss the Mahoney report. If he accepts, the session could provide a useful review of the recent progress made on economic development, and efforts by local organizations to sustain the momentum. Unfortunately, one of the most accurate observations made by Mahoney pertains to budget constraints faced by agencies promoting the area who, as one former official says, “fight for the scraps.”

But the danger is a repeat of some of bitter exchanges that tainted the 1999 symposiums, and that would be too bad. Cooperation among government, business and academic leaders has improved tremendously the last five years, with the coordinated effort to create a University District the best proof. Spokane County alone has added more than 5,000 jobs since then. Spokane is an All-America City, and among the most wired in the world.

Not all has gone well. Relations with our Idaho neighbors can sometimes get prickly. County government is more fragmented than ever. The distrust identified by Mahoney fostered the successful Liberty Lake and Spokane Valley incorporation initiatives. So did a “zero sum” way of thinking: If they win, we lose. Mahoney talks about that, too.

In his conclusion, Mahoney stresses that his report is preliminary. Culture is a difficult animal to capture in 30 pages. Perhaps the best thing that could come out of a broad discussion of his work would be a consensus on what deserves further study.

The report, however, should not become a distraction. We can talk about our shortcomings, but we should talk about our successes, too. Contention, Mahoney notes, is one characteristic of modern economies.

Sometimes, we do that too well.