Faux city in the City of the Crosses? And a tale of two Pegasus Corporations

Note: It turns out there are two Pegasus groups: There’s Pegasus-Global Holdings Inc. at www.pegasus-global.com, which is based in Washington state, and Pegasus Global Holdings (no hypen) at www.pegasusglobalholding.com, which is based in Washington, D.C.
According to two sources who have contacted me, there is no connection between the two group. The websites and background of both make interesting reading for those interested in corporate future planning and impacts on all of us.


By S. Derrickson Moore
dmoore@lcsun-news.com
LAS CRUCES — There’s a feeling of unreality about it, in more ways than one.
A faux city in the desert, built by a corporation named for a flying horse ...
As I’m writing this, we still haven’t heard whether Las Cruces or Hobbs will be the location of the $1 billion Center for Innovation, Testing and Evaluation (CITE), a project of Pegasus Global Holdings.
What would you like to see in a model city, a testing ground for the best civilization can muster?
Sparta or Athenia? A new Jerusalem?
It can challenge the imagination, even for Baby Boomers who have been encouraged to grow up thinking far beyond our own time frame, with visions of everything from Disney’s Epcot and the Jetsons to Star Wars and Star Trek. And today’s kids, who are used to creating their own virtual realities — including cities — online.
I decided to start with an online search for Pegasus Global Holdings, and see what they’ve been up to.
I couldn’t resist a little side trip. The original winged horse Pegasus, according to the Greek myth, was the offspring of Poseidon, god of the sea, and Medusa, she of the writhing snake hair and the gorgon gaze that could turn those who made eye contact to stone. When Perseus, teamed with Athena and Hermes, killed Medusa by cutting off her head, Pegasus (and a brother, a giant named Chrysaor) sprung from her decapitated, pregnant body. (You’d have to expect a large and crazy gene pool from the jefe of the oceans, the largest ponds on the planet.) Pegasus went on to help defeat the monster Chimera, before becoming a star, or rather, lots of stars ... a whole constellation, in fact.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch and reality, there’s some intriguing but confusing info when you go searching for the website of the flying horsie’s namesake. There’s Pegasus-Global Holdings Inc. at www.pegasus-global.com, which is based in Washington State, and Pegasus Global Holdings (no hypen) at www.pegasusglobalholding.com, which is based in Washington, D.C.
Pegagus with a hypen identifies itself as “advisors to the energy and infrastructure industries” and their clients range from British Petroleum to “24 Washington State (Indian) tribes.” They have offices in Cle Elum, Wash., near Seattle, and in Melbourne, Australia.
Pegasus without the hypen touts their “demonstrated ability to offer diverse product offerings to commercial and defense clients around the world, whilst remaining in compliance with all national laws and regulations pertaining to controls of sensitive technologies” and states that the group is “a recognized leader in telecommunications in North America and Europe. Pegasus is also a U.S. Government authorized prime vendor and manufacturer of defense equipment and technologies. Pegasus has a proven track record as experts in commercializing military technologies for the global marketplace – in strict compliance with national laws and regulations pertaining to export controls – and the militarizing of global commercial technologies.”
CITE, they state, “will resemble a mid-sized American city, including urban canyons, suburban neighborhoods, rural communities and distant localities. It will offer the only of its kind opportunity to replicate the real-world challenges of upgrading existing city infrastructure to that of a 21st Century smart city, operating within a green economy.”
I like the concept of thinking ahead, and learning from results (sometimes also known as “mistakes,” or, in the case of things like the big oil spills and Chernobyl and Fukushima, “major disasters,” that will impact future generations).
I hope we’ll think ahead, too, and consider future consequences when inquiring about what will be tested and how, and when thinking about environmental, as well as the ultimate economic and other impacts of building a faux city near the City of the Crosses.
S. Derrickson Moore can be reached at dmoore@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5450. To share comments, go to www.lcsun-news.com and click on Blogzone and Las Cruces Style. Follow her on Twitter @DerricksonMoore.