► On the Record

“We are disappointed in last night's results, but the voters did speak and we will respect their decision.”

-- Marsha Manning, campaign manager for Vancouver Mayor Royce Pollard’s reelection campaign (see VBJ’s story on Election Day here).

Reporter's Notebook

Paul Leonard can be reached at pleonard@vbjusa.com

The opposite of exuberance

In 1996, then Federal Reserve Chief Alan Greenspan famously coined the phrase “irrational exuberance” in regards to imprudent dot-com era investors.

Fast-forward to 2009, with this reporter looking up an antonym for “exuberance” in an attempt to describe the current state of the regional economy.

Apathy? Lethargy, perhaps?

By any name, it seems just as irrational as the overly-speculative dot-com boom or the debt-filled housing bubble of the last decade.

My awakening came as I reported the closure of Princeton Athletic Club last week. Researching past articles on the business, I discovered a quote from PAC owner David Lawson, talking about downtown Vancouver’s economic prospects in the fall of 2007.

It was like reading a note from my third grade self buried next to the jungle gym in a time capsule – distant, yet strangely familiar.

“I like the area, and it has obvious advantages with the new construction coming in and the growth,” PAC’s owner said in the Oct. 5, 2007 edition of the VBJ.

Instead of reveling in the fruits of a downtown boom, today David is unemployed and his business bank-owned, with a last-ditch effort to modify his loan shot down because his lender “didn’t see growth potential in the area,” he told me this week.

Here’s my reply to David’s lender regarding the apparent lack of growth in Vancouver, Washington:

My hometown of Albany, New York – the capital of the fourth-largest state in the Union – has been stuck at around 95,000 inhabitants for decades. By contrast, Vancouver today has 162,400 people, up from 143,560 in 2000 and 32,464 in 1960.

And let’s not forget nearly $1 billion in private waterfront investment set to break ground nearly a stone’s throw away from PAC’s newly-minted “no growth” zone.

In America, there is a trend towards seeing the market as heading upward indefinitely – i.e. the years 2004-7; 1996-9 and 1923-9 – or caught in a never-ending death spiral.

However, denying a business a life raft during one of the longest recessions since WWII because of a lack of growth potential in this still-growing city’s downtown core is what I call “irrational apathy” – or lethargy, if you prefer.

Business Around the Northwest

FBI issues small business alert, South Sound Business Examiner

High Tech poised to lead Washington’s recovery, Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal

Low-turnout election provides few clues on Boise streetcar, Idaho Business Journal

► On the Record

“Owners who are inflexible are sitting with their properties dormant… those who are willing to take risks are succeeding.”

-- Brett Irons, broker at Coldwell Banker Commercial Jenkins-Bernhardt, one of many regional firms riding a wave of lease deals in a volatile commercial real estate sector.

Reporter's Notebook

Paul Leonard can be reached at pleonard@vbjusa.com

As Washington state goes, so goes the nation?

The Evergreen State is known for many things – among them coffee drinking, a nearly-constant threat of showers and a decidedly-independent streak in its politics.

Now add one more item to that list: bellwether.

No matter how the final vote count on Initiative 1033 and Referendum 71 goes down, Washington voters will have already shaped the national debate on crucial issues for individuals, families and businesses.

First, regarding a matter at the heart of Tim Eyman’s bid for a ninth-straight ballot victory, Washingtonians have the chance to send an unambiguous rejection of the notion that vilifying and defunding our government before an economic recovery has the chance to take hold, is the right path for our state.

There’s no doubting the deep well of anger and mistrust held by many toward government on the local, state and federal level, evidenced by the high turnout at Rep. Brian Baird’s town hall-style meeting at Clark County Amphitheater in Ridgefield last August.

But for many others, another belief is emerging – one that sees government as neither the problem, nor the solution to everything wrong with our country. With the federal stimulus program credited today with saving as many as 650,000 jobs nationally, including thousands of Washington state teachers and construction workers, clearly there’s much that government on all levels can do – and must do – on behalf of its citizens.

Which brings us to Ref. 71, a measure asking voters to approve legislation passed earlier this year giving same-sex partners equal protection and rights as heterosexual couples. Though the state’s business community, with the major exception of Microsoft Corp., mostly stayed on the sidelines on this issue, this measure’s extension of basic civil rights to all residents has found considerable support in many different quarters.

One thing is clear: the morning after Election Day, we will know where the Evergreen State stands. Then it’s on to next year’s midterm elections to find out whether the nation followed our lead.

Business Around the Northwest

Kaiser property to get TIF boost, Spokane Journal of Business

U.S. Geothermal gets stimulus funding for Nevada power project, Idaho Business Journal

Raising an urban village, Bellingham Business Journal

► On the Record

“If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans, I would choose - because it contains all the others - the fact that they were the people who created the phrase 'to make money.’”

-- From Russian-born American novelist Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged (1957)