Toward a Sustainable Technopolis - Technopolis: Best Practices for Science and Technology Cities - page 165

overcoming the barriers to Moore's Law. These include neural chips and quantum
computing.
Nonetheless, new technopolis projects would be foolish to build expensive
facilities that may be obsolete in four years. Instead, find science and engineering
niches that will allow a long payback period on your infrastructure investment.
2.2 Plan for Cessation of Government Funding
An island in the Mediterranean procured a European Union grant for its tech-
nopolis project. An architectural competition was announced, and I was asked to
be a judge. The island's ancient and wealthy aristocracy was bitterly opposed to
the development. Thus, there were no funds for continuing the project after the EU
grant was gone. Moreover, Europe's most prominent architects, who did not get
paid, developed a bad attitude about the island and its prospects.
We all know that culture change takes a very long time. The EU did not take
this knowledge into account when creating its technopolis grant program. The
island's government did not take it into account when launching their project—or
if it did, it used the knowledge for short-term political advantage rather than for a
sustainable technopolis.
In Japan (Suzuki 2004 ), the national Technopolis Act terminated in 1998, and
the government moved to a policy focused on promoting venture business and
links between industry and universities. At the prefectural level in Oita, however,
local funds and initiatives continued to build tech and non-tech clusters, Governor
Hiramatsu's ties with MITI continuing to serve the region well.
A member of the Oregon Council for Knowledge and Economic Development
complained that the financially strapped State slashed funds for nurturing the
knowledge economy, but at the same time increased funds for roads and bridges.
This complaint is naïve, both from a political perspective and a business per-
spective. Legislators do not know what ''knowledge economy'' means. Marketing
such an abstract concept to the government, demands cleverness and perseverance.
Roads and bridges get built and maintained in all parts of the state, creating
blue-collar jobs everywhere. What could be more appealing to a state legislator? In
contrast, technology and knowledge jobs cluster in the districts of the state that are
already more privileged. These are few, compared to the number of rural and old-
economy districts.
History shows the necessity of keeping the roads and bridges open. After the
crashes of 2001 and 2008, however, legislators suspect that the knowledge economy
is a flash in the pan or another fraud perpetrated by dotcommers and Wallstreeters.
Smart and sustained effort must be aimed at selling the knowledge economy to
political leaders. With luck, you can find high tech companies whose interests are
aligned with the technopolis', and recruit their seasoned lobbyists to sell the
technopolis project to the government. Even then, do not count on the government
being your friend.