Of 68,000 sq. ft of Cinemas, Russia, and Cisco

68,000 sq. ft. of Cinema. This is what is coming to Barkley Village, with construction starting this spring. The leasing promo for this development is very upbeat. It extolls the virtues of our fine city: close access to I-5, three higher educational facilities, 20 minutes from Canada, $60K plus 'median family income'.   Below is what this area looks like now  from the sky. The red oval is Haggens Barkley now. The light blue square is where this new complex with theater will be built. You can see a some illustrations here, here, and here. :

 

Funny, I don't remember anyone asking me if I wanted a 16 plex mega movie theater in my city. I see no evidence of any public hearing on the COB web site and I don't find it listed a "major project" on the COB planning web site.  I have driven by this site many times, as many of us do on our way to the Barkley shopping center. I have always thought to myself that this would be a fine place for Cisco Systems to employee about 5000 engineers. But Cisco isn't bringing any engineers to Whatcom County. Instead, they are going to "fight unemployment in Russia". Cisco will be investing over $1 Billion in the development of "Skolkovo, Russia’s Kremlin-sponsored Silicon Valley."

Four Scenarios for Whatcom County's Future

I have sent a local paper an article I have written describing four scenarios that will cover economic growth for the next 1 - 4 years in Whatcom County and our country.  If it is not published, I will publish it on www.rmfmedia.com.  Essentially, I make the argument that current attempts at stimulus funding do not address collapsing employment and home value trends. The power of such trends leave open the possibility of large scale economic collapse and social destruction of wealth, assets, families, homes. My four scenarios are:

(1) Re-energized Growth
(2) Hope and Resilience
(3) The Growing Dark and Despair
(4) Anarchy and Armageddon

Obviously, I support scenario (1) which would involve aggressive recruitment of corporate business to Whatcom County, large scale funding of start-ups with local capital and/or public-private enterprise funding, and aggressive local and state level efforts to protect middle class assets and families.  The tragedy of an economic collapse is that wealth and assets that needed years to develop can vaporize in short periods of time. Long time periods are often required to rebuild this wealth. The social costs incurred during periods of wealth destruction' are often severe (divorce, abuse, homelessness, crime, narcotics trafficking, black markets, etc.). Recovery from such despair can be problematic and long-term, especially for core urban areas.