Business around the Northwest

As vacancies rise, malls form new plans, South Sound Business Examiner

Resellers need new permit by Jan. 1 to avoid sales tax, Bellingham Business Journal

Oregon AG’s office: avoid these charities, Portland Business Journal

► On the Record

“The commute will be a nightmare. I’m hoping the amenities on the other side will compensate for that.”

-- Camas resident Dave Howell, founder of iPhone app builder Avatron Software, of his decision to relocate his company from Vancouver to Portland.

Reporter's Notebook

Paul Leonard can be reached at pleonard@vbjusa.com

Build the CRC, already

2012 isn’t just the apocalyptic end-date on the 5,125-year-long Mayan long calendar. It’s also the earliest work on the Columbia River Crossing project can begin – that is, if a miracle occurs in downtown Portland this afternoon.

As I write, 10 members of the Project Sponsors Council are meeting to take comments and suggestions, all in the attempt to forestall a vote CRC backers are afraid they might lose.

There’s no doubt: the scaled-down $2.6 billion project is in trouble, the victim of budget-squeezed local and state governments, a divisive “no-tolls” Vancouver mayoral campaign and plenty of angst from Portland-based alternative transit advocates.

Strangely enough, lost in all the wrangling is an essential sector of our regional economy, the one with the most to lose if the CRC does not go ahead as planned: freight haulers and the businesses from Mexico to Canada depending on their services.

Let’s get real. The real reason for a replacement bridge isn’t so that Portland bicyclists can have a beautiful view of the river, or to cut 15 minutes of drive time between Hazel Dell and downtown Portland – though both of those perks would be a nice by-product of a brand new span.

The real reason the governors of Washington and Oregon met at the banks of the Columbia River seven years ago was to find a way to facilitate commerce between two economically interconnected and interdependent states.

That’s it.

Instead the project has been hijacked by the interests of light-rail advocates and car-bound commuters alike, bloating the CRC like a piñata stuffed with too much cheap candy.

At this moment, the only topic that should be up for discussion among the PSC, which includes outgoing Vancouver Mayor Pollard, mayor-elect Leavitt and Southwest Washington Regional Transportation Council vice-chair Steve Stuart, are ways to build a replacement bridge as quickly, cheaply and safely as possible.

The time for bickering between Oregon and Washington, Clark County and Portland, is over.

The fight now should turn to the feds, with both sides of the river focused on securing more funding for a project essential to the economic well-being of both states for decades to come.

Business around the Northwest

Oregon sets out to see if toll road is one it wants to take, Oregon Daily Journal of Commerce

Portland has 19th worst traffic, Portland Business Journal

Shopping local for your holiday gifts, Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal

► On the Record

“Even though the full-time staff number is small – around 40 troops – we are glad to not lose 160 years of history.”

-- Jan Bader, an administrator for the city of Vancouver, on news of a $28 million army training facility at Birtcher Industrial Park in Orchards, to be completed in 2011.

Reporter's Notebook

Paul Leonard can be reached at pleonard@vbjusa.com

Training Day

With the announcement of a new military training facility in Orchards, Vancouver seems destined to remain, at least in part, an army town.

And as early as 2011, that facility will be home to hundreds of recruits, with many drawn to military service because of love of country, family tradition or simply out of a desire to be gainfully employed in what promises to be a tough job market for years to come.

Just where those recruits will be going – where they will serve, fight and in some cases, die – depends in large part on President Obama’s strategy for the eight-year-old conflict in Afghanistan. Obama outlined a plan Tuesday for more than 30,000 additional troops at another, better-known training facility, West Point.

On the day of the President’s speech, I spoke with Congressman Brian Baird about his recent trip to the war-torn region and his thoughts on the decision to send more troops, as well as the war’s effect on economic priorities closer to home.

VBJ: Do you agree with the President’s decision to send in more troops?

Baird: That’s not the important decision. The most important decision will not be what we say, but what we do. What’s clear is that military action needs to be contingent on real action by the Afghan government to end the corruption there.

VBJ: With today’s announcement, do you think Afghanistan has finally become Obama’s war?

Baird: That’s a silly question. And one that’s typical of our political process [since] we think we get to start over every four years. People need to understand that this decision is vastly influenced by what came before. Given that history, what do we do? Unfortunately, I don’t think anyone has that answer.

VBJ: You made a recent trip to Afghanistan. What was your impression of the situation there?

Baird: I was also in Pakistan, in Islamabad and Peshawar, near the Afghan border. The Pakstani army took over Taliban areas nearby, and that was mostly a good thing for the people. But it took 30,000 troops to take a small valley from the Taliban. My question is what it will take to clear a whole country [Afghanistan].

VBJ: What do you say to parents of young people looking to join the military, as well as family members of troops on their second or third deployment? Are you comfortable with your support of the war?

Baird: The short answer is that I’m never comfortable with these decisions… The minute I saw the fireball over the Pentagon on 9-11, I thought the world has changed, that there’s no question that we are going to war, and that means people are going to die. The question then and always is the safety and security of the country. But it’s not quite as clear now what the mission is, or what we can do to succeed.

VBJ: Has the spiraling cost of the Afghan war affected your view on priorities at home like healthcare reform?

Baird: The problem is that we tried to fight both in Iraq and Afghanistan without paying for it and now we’re borrowing billions from the Chinese to keep things going. Before we start adding more things on the list, we need to find ways to pay for them.

Business around the Northwest

Utilities get $9 million from Enron scandal, South Sound Business Examiner

$88M grant aids utilities in quest for efficiency, Portland Daily Journal of Commerce

Oregon gets $699K from fraud settlement, Portland Business Journal