It is time to start anew at WSU/Pullman

[Cougsocal]

Have you looked at downtown Pullman lately? It isn't only WSU that is struggling on all fronts. You know you are struggling when a plasma center is a main downtown tenant, and it is among many boarded up shop fronts. How come Pullman has struggled for decades, despite having cash cow employers and a captive audience next door? You can write it off as caused by Pullman's isolation and surrounding poverty, but neither Starkville nor Oxford, Mississippi suffer the same problem. They too are isolated communities, and in the poorest, least educated state in the union, but they are islands of prosperity, in a sea of poverty. These cities work with their universities, and are business friendly. They make it inviting for people to travel to games and events, because they recognize that people must travel. They make the it as inviting as they can, not only for fans, but for potential students. Instead of the landlord/tenant model of real estate, they have adopted and promoted the condo model. They have upscale/trendy downtowns, with no defunct plasma centers in sight. They are making it work.

The hope of big fish donors coming to the rescue and things trickling down from there, is not going to happen. WSU/Pullman need to seriously look at the successful isolated university communities, and chart a new symbiotic course. Both WSU and Pullman are slowly dying. Bearing in mind that the lotto donor concept will never happen, meaningful change starts by turning Pullman from a clearly negative draw for both fans and potential students, to a positive, and slowly building from there. The city needs an adjustment change, and the university needs to accept that new "on campus" bells and whistles for students/athletes, doesn't overcome the net negative effects of surrounding urban blight.

It is time for new leadership. Schultz has had 8 years, it has only gotten worse, not only academically, but the in terms of the surrounding community. He has no answers and is just playing the fiddle.

 

[cr8zyncalif]

Actually, relatively speaking, Pullman/Moscow is booming on both sides of the border. Just not so much in downtown Pullman. I have two nieces and a nephew in Moscow. All are in contracting...homes, commercial buildings, cabinet making, etc. They all have an 18 month backlog. Money is being spent. Homes, condos & apartments are being built. Homes & commercial buildings are being remodeled. Money is being spent. There is no economy problem, per se'. Like everywhere, retail has taken a hit from internet commerce and home delivery, which has hurt downtown Pullman (it was heavily retail a decade ago)...and high mortgage rates in the past year have put a damper on residential real estate turnover, as it has everywhere. But the narrative that Pullman is withering away is simply not supported by what I see when I visit, or by my family members that are seeing money being spent.

 

[Observer11]

Video killed the radio star and Covid killed downtowns.

 

[Flatlandcoug]

Have you looked at downtown Pullman lately? It isn't only WSU that is struggling on all fronts. You know you are struggling when a plasma center is a main downtown tenant, and it is among many boarded up shop fronts. How come Pullman has struggled for decades, despite having cash cow employers and a captive audience next door? You can write it off as caused by Pullman's isolation and surrounding poverty, but neither Starkville nor Oxford, Mississippi suffer the same problem. They too are isolated communities, and in the poorest, least educated state in the union, but they are islands of prosperity, in a sea of poverty. These cities work with their universities, and are business friendly. They make it inviting for people to travel to games and events, because they recognize that people must travel. They make the it as inviting as they can, not only for fans, but for potential students. Instead of the landlord/tenant model of real estate, they have adopted and promoted the condo model. They have upscale/trendy downtowns, with no defunct plasma centers in sight. They are making it work.

The hope of big fish donors coming to the rescue and things trickling down from there, is not going to happen. WSU/Pullman need to seriously look at the successful isolated university communities, and chart a new symbiotic course. Both WSU and Pullman are slowly dying. Bearing in mind that the lotto donor concept will never happen, meaningful change starts by turning Pullman from a clearly negative draw for both fans and potential students, to a positive, and slowly building from there. The city needs an adjustment change, and the university needs to accept that new "on campus" bells and whistles for students/athletes, doesn't overcome the net negative effects of surrounding urban blight.

It is time for new leadership. Schultz has had 8 years, it has only gotten worse, not only academically, but the in terms of the surrounding community. He has no answers and is just playing the fiddle.

Manhattan, Kansas has the luxury of being only 10 miles or so from a major interstate and there are multiple two lane state highways that provide easier access to the university and the city. That said, since 1970, Manhattan has grown from 27,600 people to around 54,000 people. In the same timeframe, Pullman went from 20,500 to 32,900 people. In terms of relative growth, Pullman is about 7,000 residents short of Manhattan in that 50 year span.

Most of the issue seems to stem from almost no growth in Pullman from 1980 to 2000. Manhattan grew by 12,000 residents in that time span...Pullman only grew by 1,100. Pullman rebounded a bit between 2000 and 2010...but we had a pretty big hole dug in the 90's.

I'm not sure that there is anything that WSU can do to force changes in the city though.

 

[Coug90]

Manhattan, Kansas has the luxury of being only 10 miles or so from a major interstate and there are multiple two lane state highways that provide easier access to the university and the city. That said, since 1970, Manhattan has grown from 27,600 people to around 54,000 people. In the same timeframe, Pullman went from 20,500 to 32,900 people. In terms of relative growth, Pullman is about 7,000 residents short of Manhattan in that 50 year span.

Most of the issue seems to stem from almost no growth in Pullman from 1980 to 2000. Manhattan grew by 12,000 residents in that time span...Pullman only grew by 1,100. Pullman rebounded a bit between 2000 and 2010...but we had a pretty big hole dug in the 90's.

I'm not sure that there is anything that WSU can do to force changes in the city though.

Obviously Manhatten added 30K to their football stadium and that is what contributed to the population growth.

 

[LeachPack]

Obviously Manhatten added 30K to their football stadium and that is what contributed to the population growth.

Lol

 

[95coug]

Actually, downtown Pullman is starting a construction project this summer to make the downtown more walkable and accessible. And...it's going to partially narrow Main street down to 2 lanes.

 

[dgibbons]

Have you looked at downtown Pullman lately? It isn't only WSU that is struggling on all fronts. You know you are struggling when a plasma center is a main downtown tenant, and it is among many boarded up shop fronts. How come Pullman has struggled for decades, despite having cash cow employers and a captive audience next door? You can write it off as caused by Pullman's isolation and surrounding poverty, but neither Starkville nor Oxford, Mississippi suffer the same problem. They too are isolated communities, and in the poorest, least educated state in the union, but they are islands of prosperity, in a sea of poverty. These cities work with their universities, and are business friendly. They make it inviting for people to travel to games and events, because they recognize that people must travel. They make the it as inviting as they can, not only for fans, but for potential students. Instead of the landlord/tenant model of real estate, they have adopted and promoted the condo model. They have upscale/trendy downtowns, with no defunct plasma centers in sight. They are making it work.

The hope of big fish donors coming to the rescue and things trickling down from there, is not going to happen. WSU/Pullman need to seriously look at the successful isolated university communities, and chart a new symbiotic course. Both WSU and Pullman are slowly dying. Bearing in mind that the lotto donor concept will never happen, meaningful change starts by turning Pullman from a clearly negative draw for both fans and potential students, to a positive, and slowly building from there. The city needs an adjustment change, and the university needs to accept that new "on campus" bells and whistles for students/athletes, doesn't overcome the net negative effects of surrounding urban blight.

It is time for new leadership. Schultz has had 8 years, it has only gotten worse, not only academically, but the in terms of the surrounding community. He has no answers and is just playing the fiddle.

I've never understood why Pullman won't put a handful of police officers on traffic duty on gamedays to make exiting faster.

 

[Flatlandcoug]

Obviously Manhatten added 30K to their football stadium and that is what contributed to the population growth.

That's probably it.....

FWIW, they did increase the stadium size from 35,000 in 1968 to 42,000 in the early 70's to 50,300 in the 90's. Of course, despite adding 1900 more seats since then, midwestern asses have gotten fatter so the official capacity of the stadium is now 50,000.

I'm not sure if previous calculations on our future stadium capacity have accounted for wider asses.

 

[UberCougars]

3,000,000 people live within a 2 hour drive of Manhattan Kansas.

Hope this helps

 

[Flatlandcoug]

3,000,000 people live within a 2 hour drive of Manhattan Kansas.

Hope this helps

How is that helping? Does that explain Manhattan growing faster than Pullman?

If you are talking about the stadium size, it's important to remember that KU, KSU, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Nebraska all pull fans from portions of that 3 million people that live within a 2 hour drive of Manhattan. Still, if your point is that we don't need a huge stadium....I agree with you and so does KSU. They have increased the number of luxury style seats but reduced regular seating so their stadium capacity hasn't changed significantly in the past 20+ years.

 

[cr8zyncalif]

When speaking of KSU in that era it is important to remember how much of the conversation is due to Bill Snyder. Without him, the KSU football situation would not look the way that it does today, including the current stadium size. A Bill Snyder doppelganger in Pullman would thoroughly revise things.

 

[Loyal Coug1]

When speaking of KSU in that era it is important to remember how much of the conversation is due to Bill Snyder. Without him, the KSU football situation would not look the way that it does today, including the current stadium size. A Bill Snyder doppelganger in Pullman would thoroughly revise things.

In the Mountain West, 4 stadiums are smaller than WSU's, 2 of them at 25,000 (USU) and 29,000 (Wyoming) A couple of them are at 30,000, two in the 36,000+ range. WSU is set for now.

Mountain West Stadiums - College Gridirons

Information, history, pictures & more of Mountain West College Football Stadiums.

www.collegegridirons.com

 

[wazzucougs96]

I've never understood why Pullman won't put a handful of police officers on traffic duty on gamedays to make exiting faster.

Getting people out of town as fast as humanly possible will do wonders for the Pullman economy

 

[M-I-Coug]

Video killed the radio star and Covid killed downtowns.

Wrong. Video Killed the Radio Star and Amazon made everything convenient.

 

[Cougsocal]

Video killed the radio star and Covid killed downtowns.

Covid only exacerbates an existing problem, just like WSU's enrollment decline. If you have a healthy economy, and a shop closes, as they do, there is someone else ready to move in. It isn't like Pullman had a vibrant downtown before Covid. They opened a plasma center there well before Covid, all they needed was a payday loan shop next door for the urban decline bifecta! Downtown Pullman has been struggling for decades. When I was in school, you shopped/partied in Moscow, has that changed?

 

[dgibbons]

Covid only exacerbates an existing problem, just like WSU's enrollment decline. If you have a healthy economy, and a shop closes, as they do, there is someone else ready to move in. It isn't like Pullman had a vibrant downtown before Covid. They opened a plasma center there well before Covid, all they needed was a payday loan shop next door for the urban decline bifecta! Downtown Pullman has been struggling for decades. When I was in school, you shopped/partied in Moscow, has that changed?

Is a dollar store the trifecta?

 

[Loyal Coug1]

Is a dollar store the trifecta?

Downtown Pullman is a downtown serving a 10,000-ish resident city. Aside from bar and restaurant traffic, what is or could be there to attract serious college shoppers?

 

[95coug]

Covid only exacerbates an existing problem, just like WSU's enrollment decline. If you have a healthy economy, and a shop closes, as they do, there is someone else ready to move in. It isn't like Pullman had a vibrant downtown before Covid. They opened a plasma center there well before Covid, all they needed was a payday loan shop next door for the urban decline bifecta! Downtown Pullman has been struggling for decades. When I was in school, you shopped/partied in Moscow, has that changed?

Don’t forget Walmart. When that opened, there was no longer any shopping of interest in downtown.

 

[Cougsocal]

Don’t forget Walmart. When that opened, there was no longer any shopping of interest in downtown.

Always a Coug, always an excuse. Starkville and Oxford have great downtowns, Moscow manages way better too, guess what all three also have? Yes, you guessed right, Walmart super centers. At some point you have to say that Pullman and its defunct plasma center, has a major problem, dragging everything down.

Do you know how much a small, 1334 Sq ft, condo goes for near "the square" in Oxford? 1.4 million! Yes, in a small town, middle of nowhere, Mississippi. Why so much you ask? An awesome downtown which drives high demand. Shopping, food and entertainment.

1100 Tyler Ave #207, Oxford, MS 38655 | MLS #157154 | Zillow

This 1334 square feet Townhouse home has 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It is located at 1100 Tyler Ave #207, Oxford, MS.

www.zillow.com

 

[CougPatrol]

I don't know. Personally, one of my favorite things about Pullman is now little it changes over the years and decades. Everyone who has attended there over the past 50 years has largely experienced the same environment.

 

[KRUSTYtheCOUG]

Always a Coug, always an excuse. Starkville and Oxford have great downtowns, Moscow manages way better too, guess what all three also have? Yes, you guessed right, Walmart super centers. At some point you have to say that Pullman and its defunct plasma center, has a major problem, dragging everything down.

Do you know how much a small, 1334 Sq ft, condo goes for near "the square" in Oxford? 1.4 million! Yes, in a small town, middle of nowhere, Mississippi. Why so much you ask? An awesome downtown which drives high demand. Shopping, food and entertainment.

1100 Tyler Ave #207, Oxford, MS 38655 | MLS #157154 | Zillow

This 1334 square feet Townhouse home has 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It is located at 1100 Tyler Ave #207, Oxford, MS.

www.zillow.com

Agreed. And for whatever reason, there is a vast difference between the downtown experience (local shops, eateries/pubs and art galleries) of moscow vs Pullman. Pullman sucks in comparison. That's all I have to say about that.

 

[COUGinNCW]

Agreed. And for whatever reason, there is a vast difference between the downtown experience (local shops, eateries/pubs and art galleries) of moscow vs Pullman. Pullman sucks in comparison. That's all I have to say about that.

Moscow. The San Francisco of Idaho.

 

[BSpike76]

Moscow. The San Francisco of Idaho.

Reading the tile for this thread got that stupid UPS commercial on PAC12 going through my head.

 

[dgibbons]

Getting people out of town as fast as humanly possible will do wonders for the Pullman economy

People that want to stay to see their kids, eat, drink, whatever, will still do that.

Pullman, kind of like WSU, just refuses to make some simple and rather small investments that would make life better for the 20,000ish people that visit on gamedays.

 

[Wazzubrooz]

Moscow. The San Francisco of Idaho.

That made me lol.