Re: Highway 95 -- Moscow Bypass

["Mike Curley" <curley@CYPHER.TURBONET.COM>]

Visionaries:
It doesn't seem to be a reasonable comparison to look at Moscow and nearly any 
city in the crowded east--or any other larger city.  Our downtown is two blocks 
wide by 5 or 6 blocks long.  If we keep running an ever increasing number of 
trucks through it, no one will want to spend any time there.  There is plenty 
of room for development around the outskirts (and beyond) of the city now.  
Putting a bypass through the west part of town isn't likely to promote much 
business development on the U of I property or further south across Palouse 
River Drive--at least none that couldn't already find a reasonably 
attractive location.  With the couplet completed by the time any by-pass is 
built, there will still be plenty of traffic through downtone.  Admittedly, 
some who are traveling to points north might exit the bypass at Moscow for 
food, gas, or other supplies who might have made that stop downtown if that 
were the only route.  Since my downtown business doesn't rely on  
out-of-towners stopping by, I don't pretend to speak for retailers, 
restaurants, gas stations and others who do.  But, if I were locating a retail 
operation downtown right now, I would still push for a west Moscow by-pass and 
believe that I was doing the right thing not only for the community but also 
for my own economic self-interest.  

In that regard, I believe it in the city's best interest to encourage the 
current routing of 95 to be one of the more western routes (certainly not over 
Paradise Ridge as the designers obviously want to encourage) so that a by-pass 
remains a viable option.  any route that ties into the couplet from the east 
will be highly unlikely to afford an opportunity to realistically discuss a 
by-pass.  

Mike Curley