Ken Miller on "What Tacoma Has to Sell"
Ken Miller has a lengthy op-ed appearing in yesterdays’s News Tribune in which he gives his prognosis of Tacoma’s current financial situation, and his prescription for revival. Miller makes some interesting points, identifying where he believes Tacoma stands in terms of competition for business:
So it seems we’re trapped. Our labor costs are too high for us to compete as a truly low cost city; but our ideas+talent pool is too shallow to compete as a highly differentiated one. We’re stuck in the middle, as Porter would say: moderate costs, moderate differentiation. That spells trouble with a capital T-Town.
Only a wild card can save us. Do we have one?
We do. Actually two.
Miller’s two trump cards for Tacoma are arts and culture tourism and JBLM: museums and military. He suggests that government, businesss and citizen groups all put their full weight behind promoting and supporting the museum community and working towards stronger partnerships with the military.
The argument that Tacoma needs to pull together towards a common goal – behaving as if government, business, and citizens are on the same team – is a given that bears repeating.
If we accept collaboration as a necessity in any plan for economic growth in Tacoma, do we also accept the idea that museums and military should necessarily be our shared goal?
Is Miller on to something here? If not, what’s an alternative?
Miller explained himself far more articulately than this paraphrasing suggests. Read his words in today’s News Tribune.
Filed under: Economic Development, Soapbox
3 comments
R RR Anderson October 31, 2011
you could say Ken Miller has his hand, thumb and fingers tightly gripped around the quandary. Right Tim Farrell ?
M Mofo from the Hood October 31, 2011
An economy always operates within a context of Uncertainty, Scarcity, and Dynamism.
T talus November 1, 2011
I’m not particularly impressed with the “museums and military” idea. We already have both — we can do more with the former, but don’t have much control over the latter, especially once Norm Dicks retires or gets his district changed. And making the town seem more military-focused may repel more people than it attracts.
To me, Tacoma’s advantage is that it’s much more affordable than Seattle and offers less congested and less pretentious urban experience in a city with a great waterfront with still unrealized potential.
But something will still be missing for current and potential new residents without more individual and community investment in supporting and cultivating a better art and music scene and in improving transit.