[Vision2020] It's alive, alive!

[Joan Opyr]

Lately in this space, Phil Nisbet and others have pronounced downtown 
Moscow dead-on-arrival.  It's coded, flat-lined, do not resuscitate.  
Well, I don't know where Phil is shopping, but the Main Street I visit 
is not only alive but lively.  I wait in line for coffee at the One 
World Cafe.  I wait in line for scones at Wheatberries.  I wait to buy 
my books at Bookpeople; I wait to buy my gyros at Mikey's, and I wait 
to buy bright, sharp, and dangerous objects at Moscow Pawn.  (Sharp and 
dangerous objects are a weakness of mine.  It all started with my sharp 
and dangerous tongue.)

As for other downtown businesses, Hodgins' Drug Store is my kids' idea 
of heaven; the Moscow School of Massage ($25 for one hour) is mine.  
Gem State Crystals, HyperSpud, Now and Then, and Wild Women Traders are 
all terrific shops with interesting and attractive products.  I eat 
regularly at the Red Door, Moscow's finest restaurant, and I buy the 
bulk of my lovely and fashionable wardrobe at Goodwill.

I am never the only customer in a downtown shop, not even on my 
infrequent visits to Falling Moon Tattoo and Piercing Studio.  Doug 
Wilson has sneered that no matter what happens to NSA, the Skattaboe 
Building will not become a tattoo parlor.  What a shame!  I remember 
when Falling Moon was just a couple of shabby rooms above US Bank; now, 
they're in the old "Laura's Tea and Treasures" shop.  I think they'd 
fill the Skattaboe quite nicely -- and I'd just like to point out that 
they did a lovely job on the silhouette of Nancy Drew that rides 
shotgun on my right biceps.  The Garden Lounge, Falling Moon, and the 
Moscow Chamber of Commerce seems a far more sensible line-up than The 
Garden Lounge, New St. Andrews College, and the Moscow Chamber of 
Commerce.  But that was the point of zoning for a Central Business 
District, wasn't it?  To locate like uses in like districts?  Yes, I 
realize that some of you, like Doug, look down your long noses at a 
downtown tattoo parlor, but the owners of Falling Moon are successful 
entrepreneurs.  What's more, when folks like me are done having daring, 
titian-haired sleuths tattooed upon our arms, we often pop out to buy a 
cup of coffee or a nice book or a tie-dyed T-shirt.  Downtown business 
begets downtown business.

Yes, Moscow is suffering from a certain malaise.  Morale at the 
University is so low, no wise-cracks about crawling under the bellies 
of pregnant snakes or the faculty having to carry around umbrellas in 
case the ants try to pee on them would be funny or in any way alleviate 
the tension on campus.  We're beyond the joking stage.  It's clear that 
the State Board of Education and its masters in Boise plan over time to 
cherry-pick the best of UI's programs -- engineering, the law school -- 
and leave us with a glorified community college.  This is no excuse to 
lie down in the grave Boise has dug, much less begin pulling the dirt 
down on our heads.  We must organize as a community to fight the UI's 
death by attrition, and we must prepare to fight hard.  The odds are 
surely against us, but our task is not impossible.  Moscow has much to 
offer -- and one of the most important is a lively and attractive 
downtown.  The kiss of death would be to surrender our downtown to 
poor-zoning decisions and to the consequent attrition before we've even 
begun to fight.

Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
www.auntie-establishment.com