[Vision2020] Jim Fisher on Comstock's Crack-up

[Tim Lohrmann]

  Amen, and excellent work, Mr. Fisher!          TL
  --------------------------  From Sunday's Lewiston Morning Tribune Opinion section--
  A refusal to wear earplugs because of poor city planning
  Jim Fisher  Moscow Mayor Marshall Comstock says he has had enough. He's not the only one.   I have avoided writing about the city's plan to put a complex of seven ballfields, complete with bright lights and public-address system, across Palouse River Drive from the University of Idaho Arboretum because I live in the adjoining neighborhood. Although I think the plan is a lousy idea, I have resisted the appearance of unprofessionalism that serving a personal interest through my work here might present.   Until now. When Comstock, who voluntarily leaves his post as mayor this year, blew his top Monday night and told arboretum users and neighbors to "put your earplugs on," I had had enough too.   I am not without sympathy for the mayor. By the time he expressed frustration with my neighbors and fellow arboretum enthusiasts, he had been sitting for hours listening to public wrangling. Before the ballfield matter came up, he and the city council had to deal with another divisive!
  issue,
 rezoning downtown because two existing schools there are out of compliance with the existing ordinance.   Yes, that means the old battle lines resurfaced between opponents of New St. Andrews College and those who think there's a place for Christian students even in downtown Liberalville.   Only after hours did the ballfield plan, which played no small role in the recent city election, come up. And the mayor again had to listen to people who think it's nuts to place, as one person has put it, the noisiest thing in town next to the quietest thing in town.      I'm sorry, but if Comstock and the council had asked arboretum lovers and neighbors for their opinions earlier in the process, he wouldn't be hearing so much from them now. He and the council might have learned that the arboretum is more than a tree-filled ravine that some people walk through or live by.   They might have learned, for example, about the successful fight to prevent the arboretum from becoming a playgroun!
 d, or a
 dog toilet, or a sledding hill. They might have learned that one of the best things it offers throughout the year is tranquillity.   During his outburst, Comstock said he was tired of hearing about the place's "ambiance." Sorry, Mr. Mayor, but that's a good word for it. If you don't know it, the UI Arboretum has grown into one of the city's finest public places, one that is unmatched anywhere near Moscow.      Even in Spokane, the otherwise impressive Finch Arboretum sits beside Interstate 90 on the west end of town, its pleasures all but buried beneath the thunder of traffic.   Comstock said he isn't bothered by the sounds of children playing at the school or the pool complex near his house, and he sees no reason why people elsewhere should be bothered either. But it wasn't the prospect of children playing that fired up the opposition to this proposal. It was the huge parking lot (bigger than Rosauers'), those bright lights and that loud PA system. And even today, after so!
 me
 ballfield proponents were defeated at the polls, many opponents would be happy to accept a scaled-back design without them.   Now that the city is starting over with a new committee to plan the area, that might well be the result.      I hope it is. My house does not abut the arboretum, but is across the street from those that do. It also sits several blocks north of the proposed ballfields, so I don't know whether they would affect my home at all. My opposition to this idea is based solely on my appreciation of the arboretum itself.      From what I have seen of Dwight Curtis, the city's parks and recreation director, I doubt he is capable of appreciating the arboretum the way many Moscowans do. At a belated public hearing on the matter, he even suggested the ballfield complex, which also would feature a concession stand, could be considered an annex to it.   I now wonder whether the same is true of Comstock. Ridiculing people who recognize noise and light pollution for wh!
 at they
 are is hardly a sign of civilization. And the suggestion that any residents should be required to wear earplugs because of a permanent installation of city government borders on knuckle dragging.   So that's my rant in response to yours, Mr. Mayor. If you don't like it, put on a blindfold.   ------   Fisher is editor of the Tribune's editorial page. His e-mail address is jfisher at lmtribune.com.   



			
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