[Vision2020] Moscow, growth, and MHS (was School Levy)

[Donovan Arnold]

Mr. Hansen writes,

"Try approaching the intersection of Highway 8 and I-95 at 5:00 PM on 
Friday.
>Talk about gridlock.  Sheesh!"

Very Funny.  You know life is good when your number one complaint is you had 
to wait only five minutes to get across the busiest road in town.


Take Care,

Donovan J Arnold

>From: "Tom Hansen" <thansen at moscow.com>
>To: <tbertruss at aol.com>, <auntiestablishment at hotmail.com>,        
><vision2020 at moscow.com>
>Subject: RE: [Vision2020] Moscow, growth, and MHS (was School Levy)
>Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2005 17:12:59 -0700
>
>Good point, Mr. Moffett.
>
>
>
>Try approaching the intersection of Highway 8 and I-95 at 5:00 PM on 
>Friday.
>Talk about gridlock.  Sheesh!
>
>
>
>Tom Hansen
>
>
>
>We could learn a lot from crayons: some are sharp, some are pretty, some 
>are
>dull, some have weird names, and all are different colors....but they all
>exist very nicely in the same box.
>
>   _____
>
>From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]
>On Behalf Of tbertruss at aol.com
>Sent: Monday, April 04, 2005 3:49 PM
>To: auntiestablishment at hotmail.com; vision2020 at moscow.com
>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Moscow, growth, and MHS (was School Levy)
>
>
>
>
>
>Joan et. al.
>
>
>
>Joan wrote:
>
>
>
>  >>Traffic congestion?  That's when you're the fourth car in line at the
>stoplight on Third and Jackson.
>
>
>
>Joan, sometimes with your style of humor it is hard to tell if you are
>joking or not. But perhaps you have not been driving in Moscow at rush hour
>lately.  Moscow has developed traffic jams far more than just being the
>fourth car in line at Third and Jackson.  You are joking, it must be.
>Because at various tight flow points for traffic in Moscow you can be 
>backed
>up ten to twenty cars and sit through several cycles of red green red green
>light changes.  Of course this is small time compared to a complete stop on
>a 6 lane freeway in Los Angeles.  But I would rather stop the development 
>of
>traffic jams getting any worse here than just going along with such
>developments because it is not as bad as LA.  I don't even want to use 
>major
>urban areas as a reference point.  The way major urban areas of the USA h!
>ave developed should never have happened in the first place.
>
>
>
>Ted Moffett
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Joan Opyr <auntiestablishment at hotmail.com>
>To: Vision2020 Moscow <vision2020 at moscow.com>
>Sent: Sun, 3 Apr 2005 01:04:13 -0800
>Subject: [Vision2020] Moscow, growth, and MHS (was School Levy)
>
>My friend Ted writes:
>
>
>
>"The Palouse is beautiful and peaceful.  Crime is limited, the air is clean
>(well, now in Moscow there is more and more of a "choke" factor with all 
>the
>vehicle exhaust), there are numerous appealing outdoor recreation
>opportunities within a days drive, and property can be bought in Latah
>County for prices that are attractive.  There are two major universities
>adding a cultural and entertainment mix to a rural agricultural/forest
>resources economy that is a draw to people who want the country life and
>still have some big city culture.  Spokane is close enough, and the roads
>good enough, to make a one day shopping trip complete with dinner and a
>film. I'm n! ot saying we are about to become another Denver, but it seems
>apparent that there are enough positive variables to attract enough people
>to the Moscow area that growth could seriously negatively impact the small
>town rural life that Moscow represents, or did represent"
>
>
>
>Now, Ted, you know that I haven't been body-snatched.  What self-respecting
>alien would pick me when it could have Jennifer Lopez?  I'll bet she's been
>body-snatched at least half a dozen times.  That would explain her string 
>of
>3-month marriages.  No human being could possibly be that fickle.
>
>
>
>About Moscow becoming a bedroom community of Spokane -- could I just say
>politely and respectfully that I very much doubt it?  I drive the road to
>Spokane often enough to know that it's 1) no great shakes in the winter
>time, and 2) that I average at least three near-death experiences per trip.
>Highway drivers between Pullman and Spokane love to pass on blind curves, 
>up
>hills, and across the double yellow lines.  Between the 18-wheelers, the
>suicidal maniacs, the Shameless Speed Trap that masquerades as the City of
>Colfax, and farmers transporting heavy equipment, I don't see how anyone
>could consider the 160 miles from Moscow to Spokane and back a reasonable
>daily commute.
>
>
>
>[And don't tell me that drivers can go the back way through Palouse; the
>state of Washington dismantled that road sometime last spring and it seems
>to have no intention whatsoever of rebuilding it.  Highway 12 is nothing 
>but
>rocks and mud from the Idaho border to the Ringo Road.  Perhaps Palouse has
>been taken over by your Jennifer Lopez body-snatching aliens, and 
>Washington
>is conducting an experiment to see how long they can live on only creek
>water and wheat tailings?]
>
>
>
>As for reasonably priced property in Latah County, where are you finding
>this magical acreage, Ted?  Because I want some.  I happen to have on my
>desk both the Latah County "Parade of Homes" and a Real Estate guide for
>Wilmington, NC, a popular seaside city with a strong economy and a
>population several times larger than Moscow's.  Care to guess where it's
>cheaper to live?  Or who has better weather?  And really great seafood?
>
>
>
>I am not dismissing the attractions of Latah County; far from it.  There's 
>a
>reason I live here and not in Wilmington, but our booming economy is not 
>one
>of them.  And I'm still waiting for that massive influx of billionaire
>Californians that native Muscovites have been warning me about since I 
>moved
>here in 1993.  Where the devil are they?  And why aren't they spending 
>their
>money here in town?  Do they get all of their clothes from a catalog and
>have their food shipped in from Fortnum and Mason?  The inconsiderate (and
>invisible) bastards.
>
>
>
>Unless global warming continues to give us winters like the one we just 
>had,
>I don't see Latah County suffering the kind of population growth that has
>plagued little backwater towns in Georgia, Florida, Texas, and Arkansas.
>Eric Estrada is not on his way here to film one of those commercials 
>touting
>the joys of our sunny golf courses and cheap tract housing.  And a good
>thing, too, because we none of us want that -- that sort of growth would be
>horrible.  But unless our winters become perpetually mild and our
>community's economic engine starts running on more than two cylinders, Eric
>Estrada will confine his tan and his teeth to those small Southern he!
>ll-holes that are so popular with retiring snowbirds.  Latah County has the
>university, and it has agriculture.  That's not enough to make us the next
>Denver, Colorado.  That's not enough make us the next Lizard Lick, North
>Carolina.
>
>
>
>Traffic congestion?  That's when you're the fourth car in line at the
>stoplight on Third and Jackson.  Urban sprawl?  How about rural sprawl?  We
>haven't yet gotten to urban.  I hate to see us conjuring up difficulties 
>for
>ourselves.  We have real problems with water.  We have real problems with a
>state legislature that chronically under-funds our university.  We need a
>more diverse and a more resilient economy.  You mentioned Moscow prospering
>just fine in 1965 with a population of only 13,000, Ted.  In 1965, Moscow
>was the hub of higher education for the entire state of Idaho.  Forty years
>ago, who went to BSU or ISU if they could get into the University of Idaho,
>the state's flagship institution?
>
>
>
>Once upon a time, Moscow High School produced the best graduates in the
>state.  Melynda tells me that in 1981, a quarter of her graduating class
>went on to universities like Yale, Princeton, Stanford and several of the
>larger land grant universities.  Many more went on to the University of
>Idaho, which justifiably prided itself on the number of Rhodes scholars it
>produced.  The primary reason I intend to support the facilities levy is
>because I think one of the strongest values Moscow holds as a community is
>the near-universal belief in the efficacy of a good public education.  I
>underst! and that you can be both pro-public education and still oppose the
>upcoming levy, but we've gotten seventy good years out of the current high
>school building, and, in a changing world, what was good enough in 1965
>isn't cutting the mustard today.  I want my kids to have decent science
>labs, a real music room, and a safe and adequate gymnasium.  I want them to
>have the same or better opportunities as students at MHS that Melynda had,
>or that you had, or that their grandmother, the former Rosemary Amos, Class
>of 1963, had.
>
>
>
>If I thought they could get that in the current MHS building, I'd say damn
>the levy.  I'd say new high school my Aunt Fanny.  But MHS is not the
>facility in 2005 that it was in 1965.  Forty years have passed, and you
>can't expect an IBM Selectric to do the work of an IBM Thinkpad.  Change is
>upon us, whether we like it or not, and we can either stand up and greet 
>it,
>or we can turn our backs and let it beat us about the head and shoulders.
>
>
>
>The facilities question is open for discussion until April 26th.  After
>that, we'll either be screwed or renewed.  I'm not ashamed to hope for the
>latter.
>
>
>
>Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
>
>
>
>PS: Donovan mentioned in an earlier post that the high school was perfectly
>adequate when he attended 13 years ago.  One of my favorite pictures of
>Melynda is of her marching downtown to protest the inadequate facilities at
>MHS . . . in 1981.  One of the things we need to acknowledge in our
>discussion (argument?) over the future of MHS is the role played by the
>emotional attachment of its graduates to the physical space that the high
>school now occupies.  Melynda was marching to protest the facilities in
>1981, but it makes her sick to think of the school moving out of downtown
>and "way out" onto the Trail property.&n! bsp;
>
>
>
>Who says liberals march in lock-step?  We can't achieve agreement in this
>house much less in this town about what needs to be done regarding MHS.  
>The
>only thing that we agree upon is that current facility cannot offer our 
>kids
>what they need, but it may well be the case that when we go to the polls on
>April 26th, Melynda and I will cancel out one another's vote.  In our 13
>years together, that will be a first.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>   _____
>
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>  List services made available by First Step Internet,
>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>                http://www.fsr.net
>           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
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