[Torie]

If you live in a town with good infrastructure, relatively cheap housing, and available skilled and disciplined workers, new companies will move in because your town now has a competitive advantage. I notice that you live in Idaho, which is in general a sought after place to live. Your town near Pocatello will snap back soon.

[Myrddin]

You discount the effect of old boy politics, a labor force tuned for "blue collar" work and a propensity to tax everything in sight. My city council turned away the Budweiser bottling plant because it offended their LDS sensibilities. Pocatello is trying to levy a "runoff tax" to finance storm drains. Businesses are being hit based on the impervious surface area of the roof and parking lot. The old "gun factory" houses a bunch of "arts and crafts" vendors typical of a weekend swap meet. The building is not used for anything else. The levy is $95,000 against that structure. Needless to say, all the vendors folded up shop.

[DBtoo]

Many of the bio and pharmaceutical research companies are locating around New York, Boston, and the San Francisco areas. Why would they want to go to areas with such high costs of living, dense populations, traffic jams and high taxes? It's just something I've wondered about.

[Myrddin]

On Monday night I went to Frontier Pies for dinner. On Tuesday afternoon I passed the Frontier Pies restaurant. The sign said, "We are now closed. Thanks for 19 wonderful years Pocatello". The same basic sign text that the people at "BMC West Lumber" and "Ponderosa Paint" recently used. Frontier Pies doesn't have much competition. Their main flaw was high staff turnover and slow service. It's not a good sign when moderate size retail and chain store restaurants can't keep the doors open.