Business around the Northwest

Emergency plans vital for business, Portland Daily Journal of Commerce

Washington Technology Center awards $394,910 to spur innovation and jobs, Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal

Zions Small Business Index rises, Idaho Business Journal

► On the Record

“The Hambleton deal could have been another Riverwalk.”

-- Port of Camas-Washougal District 2 Commissioner Bill Ward, referring to a recently collapsed $2 million purchase and lease deal with Hambleton Lumber Co. in Washougal. Read VBJ’s story on the failed transaction and the potential ramifications for at least 14 Hambleton employees here.

Reporter's Notebook

Paul Leonard can be reached at pleonard@vbjusa.com

It takes an entire county to raise the economy

As it turns out, editing a business publication is mostly an indoor job, after all.

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to get out of the office more often, to meet more of our subscribers, readers and members of the Southwest Washington business community – with perhaps a computer with wireless access riding shotgun (iTablet, anyone?).

Though it promises to be the least “green” of all my resolutions – my four-door Nissan gets a mediocre 23 miles-per-gallon – I’m ready to embark on a journey taking me to all four corners of Clark County and beyond.

And it looks like I’m not the only one.

More than a month after meeting with North County mayors, city managers and council members, the Columbia River Economic Development Corp. is hitting the road again, this time to East County.

In a meeting Jan. 19 at Camas Public Library, East County mayors, council members and port commissioners, along with CREDC president Bart Phillips, will gather to continue or at least begin a conversation about a more regionally-integrated focus on economic development.

As the VBJ reported back in November about the possible creation of a North County EDC, there is a persistent feeling in outlying business communities that their interests are being overlooked by Vancouver-based entities.

Whether or not this feeling is more perception than reality, what is clear is that there needs to be much more dialogue between all parties, large and small, as to the course of the region’s economic future.

The stakes for Southwest Washington have never been higher. With growth stalled and recovery in the vital real estate, construction and retail sectors still a glimmer on the horizon, what is needed is a continued push to build on the strength of Clark County’s burgeoning tech sector and to retrain our workforce for the jobs of tomorrow, not just in Vancouver, but in Battle Ground, La Center and Camas, as well.

And with a special legislative session opening Monday in Olympia, as VBJ Publisher John McDonagh writes in this week’s edition here, it’s more important than ever to maintain a unified front to push for our community’s priorities on the state level.

So that’s why I’m moving forward with a reinvigorated push to cover the issues that matter most to our readers, wherever they choose to do business in Southwest Washington.

Business around the Northwest

2010: Many businesses must report greenhouse gas emissions, Bellingham Business Journal

Freight Rail Plan identifies statewide needs, South Sound Business Examiner

Metro buys future Chehalem Ridge Natural Area park, Portland Business Journal

► On the Record

“Boy, I hope the rest of our votes don’t go like that.”

-- Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt, after a contentious vote Monday to pick a mayoral pro-tem. After five rounds of voting without a decision, Councilman Larry Smith was selected 4-2 to fill the largely ceremonial position.

Reporter's Notebook

Paul Leonard can be reached at pleonard@vbjusa.com

The price of security

After what seemed only a short reprieve, the ugly specter of terrorism is firmly back in place on the frontlines of media coverage, kitchen table conversations and water-cooler gossip.

The near-miss on Flight 253 on Christmas Day, foiled only by the quick-thinking of fellow passengers and flight crew, made me think about the fragile nature of our sense of security and what that might mean for an equally fragile economic recovery.

What I’ve come up with is a shortlist of winners and losers in a business environment dogged by persistent security concerns such as those that have reemerged in the last few weeks.

One of the big potential winners is Richmond-based engineering firm L-3 Communications, which stands to benefit from the increased use of full-body scanners like its ProVision system, enabling airport screeners to catch items hidden underneath clothes like the explosives bombing suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s used to get through security by tying to his thigh.

Others like security consultants, working both in the physical and electronic sector, also stand to benefit, as will those trading in so-called safe-haven investments like silver and gold.

And if experience living in New York City in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks is any indication, an increasingly security-conscious public tends to hit either the local watering-hole or the nearest 15-screen multiplex. Case in point: the $45 million take by 2001’s biopic about a faux-male model, “Zoolander,” or more recently, the $270 million record-breaking box office over Christmas weekend.

On the other side of the coin, the list of losers seems to include everything and everyone else.

First, the airline industry stands to lose big if the flying public, especially business travelers, decide to stay home due to concerns, not only about terrorism, but of cumbersome and increasingly-rigid security regulations. As would the ports, potentially bogged-down by a decline in trade and heightened freight screening requirements.

And as in all times of uncertainty, investors in everything from stocks, certain kinds of mutual funds and commodities like oil would be in for an even bumpier ride – as if that were possible given the volatility in most major markets in the last few years.

So it’s no surprise that we’ve got lots to lose in a business environment weighed-down by an insecure public.

Security is a funny thing – it being equal parts perception and reality.

Which makes the continued vigilance of the U.S. government against all terrorism threats, large and small, as well as a thorough accounting of all the missteps that led to the Flight 253 debacle, all the more important.

Business around the Northwest

Grants available for Safe Routes to School projects, South Sound Business Examiner

Portland area lost 52,200 jobs last year, Portland Business Journal

The top 10 stories of 2009, Bellingham Business Journal