{"id":15685,"date":"2021-03-10T00:52:18","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T00:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=15685"},"modified":"2021-03-09T20:56:18","modified_gmt":"2021-03-09T20:56:18","slug":"ready-for-an-economic-boom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/10\/ready-for-an-economic-boom\/","title":{"rendered":"Ready For An Economic Boom?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Government stimulus, airline changes, vaccine distribution may spell good times, challenges<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Eric Valentine<\/em><\/p>\n

First came additional direct flights. Six cities now fly direct to the Wood River Valley. And although New York is not one of those paths, last month JetBlue announced direct flights from JFK Airport to Boise, just a rental car ride away. While on the West Coast, Allegiant Air added a direct flight from Orange County to the Treasure Valley, too.<\/p>\n

Then came the now-hiring announcements from the TSA via Friedman Memorial Airport\u2019s website iflysun.com: \u201cThe Transportation Security Administration is launching recruitment efforts nationwide to fill over 6,000 Transportation Security Officer (TSO) positions by summer 2021.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next was the \u201clight at the end of the tunnel\u201d thanks to the COVID-19 vaccine. St. Luke\u2019s is doing its best to distribute doses efficiently with a new registration process it rolled out March 8.<\/p>\n

And now there are fresh talks of airport expansion in Hailey, with consulting firm Mead & Hunt telling Friedman board members its counter space and parking lot aren\u2019t big enough. Mead & Hunt was the architect that nearly doubled the size of the airport years ago.<\/p>\n

Finally, by end of week, you can expect to see a $1.9 trillion stimulus package become federal law. How big is that? It\u2019s $300 billion more than the 2009 Obama stimulus and the 2008 Bush bailout, combined.<\/p>\n

So the question is: Are you ready for an economic boom?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at certain economic sectors, we\u2019ve been on the rise really since last summer,\u201d said Mike McKenna, the Valley\u2019s chamber of commerce executive director. \u201cReal estate and recreation-based businesses are just booming at record levels.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, that\u2019s a good thing, but McKenna says when he fields calls from out-of-towners asking for advice on setting up a business there, his biggest piece of advice is to make housing part of any business plan. For instance, it\u2019s very easy to hire someone from outside the Valley, and inadvertently put them in a position where it\u2019s hard for them to find an affordable, commute-friendly, spacious-enough place to live.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no work shortage here, but there is a housing one,\u201d McKenna said. \u201cJust a few years ago a waiter in the Valley could make $40,000 a year and possibly even buy a house. Now, they\u2019d be lucky to afford rent if they could even find a place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some Solutions<\/b><\/p>\n

No one imagines that any plan of action is going to entirely solve the growing housing shortage the entire southwest part of Idaho has been seeing the past few years. But there are some steps that can be taken.<\/p>\n

An example? McKenna points to the recent decision by Hailey City Council to allow for more building of accessory-dwelling units (ADUs), commonly known as \u201cmother-in-law apartments\u201d or \u201cgranny flats.\u201d Specifically, the new housing ordinance allows residents of Deerfield, Northridge and Northstar subdivisions, and more, to build this sort of housing.<\/p>\n

Other jurisdictions in the Valley could conceivably make similar zoning changes, all of which not only provide more affordable places to live, but contribute to the construction economy, too. Moreover, it sustains a wider spectrum of construction, since it\u2019s a different type of build project than, let\u2019s say, mega-mansions in Sun Valley.<\/p>\n

McKenna is not alone in his other hope for the Valley: for everyone, especially new arrivals, to relax. As COVID restrictions figure to continue being lifted and as more folks move to Idaho, crowds and traffic and parking constraints will rise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe running joke I\u2019m hearing a lot these days is how people now honk their horns at you to complain, not to say hi,\u201d McKenna said. \u201cWe\u2019re still a small Idaho town, we expect people to be friendly.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Government stimulus, airline changes, vaccine distribution may spell good times, challenges By Eric Valentine First came additional direct flights. Six cities now fly direct to the Wood River Valley. And although New York is not one of those paths, last month JetBlue announced direct flights from JFK Airport to Boise, just a rental car ride […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,18,159],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15685","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-community","8":"category-news","9":"category-tourism"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15685"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15690,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15685\/revisions\/15690"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}