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Show c r'T a r PAGE 22 THE ZEPHYRNOVEMBER 89 hard boiled or soft? looking for an economic consensus in a diverse community by Alan West The latest cflscusslon In Moaby (as well as one of the longest running) Is the old adage: "Let's not put all of our eggs In one basket, which leads me to the thought, that until we get more baskets, we should try to get as many different kinds of eggs as possible In the basket we have. Pm not sure I really understand that either. However, I dont think anyone In Moab has recently run I.B.M. or any other Fortune 500 company out of the area. The talk around town that somebody has prevented a major development In our area "because" (or minor development for that matter), Is beyond my scope of reason. Weve heard the rhetoric about Wendys and McDonalds being dissuaded from coming to our area because of this "person or that "politician." Let's get real when I decide to pull a half of a million dollars out of my checking account to build "The Golden Arches, as long as Ive got a properly zoned piece of property, a bulkfing permit, and a business Ucense (as well as the desire), there aint nobody that could stop me from flooding Moab with Big Macs. Whether we Dke it or not, Moab Is being watched. (No paranoia on my parL) Our community Is being scrutinized by business men and developers In corporate gray suits. ' They are watching to see where we are going and when the time Is right, as predicted by financial analysts, look out! One of the things we need to caution ourselves about Is that some of these corporate grays are disguising themselves with levis and 4x4s or lime green lycra spandex and mountain bikes. Who knows if some big time veep hasnt had a close encounter of the "bad" kind with an Intolerant (to tourists) local and gone home with the attitude that the areas fantastic, but the people are less than accommodating. We as a community should be treating the visitors to our area as family, as we want to be treated when were on vacation. Inducing a company to our area Is not a simple matter of meeting that corporate man and smiling. Economic development Is a cut throat field; if you think the Olympics are competitive, take an ad out in The Wall Street Journal that would read something like this: Small telecommunicationsmarketlng company looking to relocate to a suburbanrural area. Our company currently has thirty employees, with possible expansion of 50 per year. Send Inquiries to: This company would have to hire a person Just to screen Inquiries from full-ti- me economic development groups. Communities such as Grand Junction would offer Incentive programs that would compare to the operations budget of one of the departments of Moab city. How do we compete? Grand Junction has already wooed a couple of businesses from our own area by doing Just that. We cant compete by solely offering Incentive packages; we simply do rwt have the resources to do so. . Moab does, however, have two things going for it that most other places cant hold a candle to. First, are Its people and second, Its environs. Ill start with the people. I honestly think that Moab has the most diversified group of people when compared to other communities of Its size In the whole of the state and probably the country. Diversity offers several things and unless youre from the "Stepford School of Thought,", they should be perceived as beneficial. The diversity of opinion Is foremost to me. When you get this fishbowl and throw only one Idea In, Ill be damned If the same idea doesnt come back out every time. If you Instead put a number of Ideas into the same bowl, much to everyones surprise, different Ideas come out This leads me to. the problem as I see It In Moab. We seem to be putting a lot of Ideas Into the fish bowl, reaching In and pulling one out, finding that we disagree and simply throwing It back Into the bowl for another grab. We The Grand Emporium on Main HE Welcome to THE HOGAN TRADING CO Home of Authentic Indian Arts & Crafts Jewelry Sandpainting Moab Mercantile & Gallery of Fine Art Kathy Cooney and Chuck Schildt, owners grand emporium on main 5 North Main 259-29- 85 Rugs Kachinas Pueblo Pottery Baskets O Sculptures O Moab Area Artists Hand Blown Glass Red Clay Pottery Handcast Paper Fine Art Posters Of The SW. ATTENTION MOUNTAIN BICYCLISTS: Let it be known that I wear 5 No. Main at the Emporium 259-811- 8 . only authentic Vuamet sunglasses smilin' Chuck (hes got that Took) ..Itl.'JJiillW . f |