Friday, June 08, 2007

Moving To PA To Escape The Fallout

Out of the many reasons to move to Pennsylvania, the last one would be because of a nuclear fallout. It is just something I do not think of (including moving to Pennsylvania, period). Sure, its a beautiful state and all, but as a New Yorker it isn't something that I would seriously consider. There is a group out there however that is planning for a nuclear attack on New York City, so that they can attract businesses to their area. I wish I was making this up, but let me introduce you to "Wall Street West."

From The Empire Zone:

Gov. Edward G. Rendell’s administration maintains that since the region is about 100 miles west of Manhattan, it is outside New York City’s theoretical nuclear blast zone. It is ideally situated, they say, to be a safe retreat from the metropolis, but close enough to be linked directly to the computers that run the banking and trading systems.

“We think we’re uniquely positioned,” said Catherine A. Bolton, project director of the Wall Street West consortium, whose goal is to lure financial companies based in New York to put backup facilities in a nine-county region in northeast Pennsylvania. “There are places in New Jersey, but they’re not outside the blast zone.”


Just because there is nothing going on in Northeast Pennsylvania does not give them the excuse to play on the absurd fear of there being a nuclear attack on New York. This is a case of greed that tries to capitalize on extremely remote scenarios.

The idea might have gained some traction back in the cold war, when many people did believe that Russia and the United States were going to blow each other up. Bomb shelter companies did very well back then, but business has dropped off considerably since the fall of the U.S.S.R. People like Rendell need to stop playing on people's fears and look for other ways to improve regional economies.