A region is as a region does, looks

Sometimes it takes a stranger to see what we can’t recognize in ourselves.

The governor’s bottom-up economic development process lumped Larimer County and Weld County together into Region 2 for planning purposes. It’s logical – we’ve been big fans of the “Northern Colorado” brand for more than a decade and a half.

And now that the two counties have completed the exercise to create a matrix of economic goals, strategies, actions and outcomes, the areas where larger regional issues overshadow county-centric concerns are obvious.

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Job creation and support for emerging enterprises. Education and workforce development. Transportation and infrastructure. Water storage and delivery. Building on existing partnerships on all levels – and there are many, on both sides of the county line.

In short, we’re all in this together. Although tax-based funding for government services, especially sales-tax-based funding, creates natural rivalries for new business, additional cooperative efforts can benefit more of us than fiercer competition.

Granted, the process of combining all the issues facing both counties then whittling them down to the top six goals and strategies on a relatively short – and constantly shifting – deadline took elected officials and staff outside their analytical comfort zone. And as representatives from Save the Poudre have pointed out, the changing dates may have condensed the time allotted for public input.

But in the end, the matrix was completed with the cooperation of the business community as well as other groups interested in looking at the larger regional picture rather than running out the clock pushing a one-issue agenda. As a result, some interesting ideas made it into the final document submitted to the state, ideas that might have been second-guessed out of the discussion given more time to develop “consensus.”

Relocating the Broncos training camp, the National Western Stock Show, the Governor’s Energy Office and the state Department of Agriculture to the region – and building a NASCAR track – could be filed under Blue Sky Ideas, but Brand Improvement is one issue that we think regional eco-devo types should already be addressing. “NoCo” just doesn’t have the same ring as “Silicon Valley” or “Research Triangle.”

Since this is a bottom-up process, we’re asking readers to submit their best ideas for a new brand for the Larimer/Weld County Region. What do you think would best describe who we are, what we do, and how many advantages we offer businesses and individuals?

Send your ideas to editor@ncbr.com, and we’ll share them in this space.