Virgin on Business: Tension Headache

However the Udub-Wazzu fracas over a medical school
in Eastern Washington plays out, the contretemps can be credited with one achievement already: It has put to final rest the notion that the Cascade Curtain has been torn down and were all just one united and happy Evergreen State.

Not that the cause was showing much sign of life anyway, the most vocal proponents having moved on to rewriting the maps to include something called the Salish Sea. It wouldnt be the first time fascination with a bit of Northwest preciousness had worn off; anyone seen signs of that fabled region known as Cascadia recently? No, you havent, because it doesnt exist, any more than political or economic uniformity envelops the entire state of Washington. Coming to this realization is a good thing, because having a bit of tension and competition within ones borders is a good thing.

Its also recognition that conflict, not peaceful coexistence, is the normal human condition. Anytime two or more humans are put in close proximity with one another, tension ensues. Does everyone get along with everyone else at your workplace, in your softball league, in your neighborhood, in your family?
Sometimes the conflict escalates to unhealthy, even violent proportions, but in moderate doses and properly channeled, it can serve some useful purpose.

Here in Washington, it serves the political purpose of checks and balances. While Democrats dominate in heavily populated Seattle and environs, Republicans can cobble together enough Senate districts from the rest of the state to eke out control of one legislative chamber. Such a standoff may not be pretty or comfortable, but it ought to be enough to keep the worst ideas from gaining traction. Everyone cheers bipartisanship, but gridlock or at least the threat of it gets the real work done.

Which brings us to the medical school fight. In the name of expanding educational opportunities, theres been considerable empire building and turf defending. The University of Washington has its campuses in Seattle, Tacoma and Bothell; Washington State University has its in Pullman, Spokane, the Tri-Cities and Vancouver, and is making incursions into Everett. Community colleges, meanwhile, are morphing into four-year schools. Every one of those projects has backers in some corner of the state.

None of this comes cheaply, especially to a state government that has many other hands reaching into the till, often with their own geopolitical motivations and grievances. Want a state transportation package? Better make sure everyone with influence leaves with a prize.

The states fiscal resources are not limitless. Neither is regional political power, even for Seattle and Puget Sound vs. the rest of the state. The state cant afford to give everyone a new four-lane highway or every university its own medical school and statewide network of campuses, and, thus, the horse trading begins.

So dont lament the Cascade Curtains existence and endurance. Embrace and celebrate it. It could be worse; in some states it is, where population, influence and longstanding regional grudges and grievances are more pronounced, such as Chicago vs. downstate Illinois, or New York City vs. the rest of New York.

If anything, the sort of economic, political and geographic diversity from which those tensions spring makes Washington healthier. Would it be as intriguing to tourists if the entire state looked like Seattle, or a forest, or a wheat field? Would it have endured the recession in better condition than many states had three of its most important industries aerospace, tech and agriculture not emerged from the downturn relatively unscathed? If it relied on just one major industry?

Seattle rides high these days in economic power, but save a little appreciation for the rest of the state, even if each thinks the other is a bit grabby when it comes to state-funded projects. Without each other, the next crash that comes along in several of those industries at the same time will produce a headache no medical school, no matter where it is, will cure.

Monthly columnist Bill Virgin is the founder and owner of Northwest Newsletter Group, which publishes Washington Manufacturing Alert and Pacific Northwest Rail News.