Re: Farewell thoughts on Moscow

["Linda Pall" <lpall@moscow.com>]

Dear John (and visionaries listening):

Thanks for gracing this community for so many eyars with your talents and
wit.

I thought for sure you would have noted that extraordinary May 18, 1980,
morning when you took your little boy, Eric, and my  little boy, Zach (both
six year olds, born within a week of each other), over to one of the fields
to zap a soccer ball while I was busy setting up the cream cheese sandwich
booth at the Renaissance Fair to raise money to save the old post office
(now city hall). You returned with two excited little guys and news of the
Mt. St. Helens eruption

Thanks again for your numerous contributions to our family and to Moscow's
notion of community.

Stay in touch... I get to Portland on business from time to time and don't
want to let a good friend just exit stage left.

All the very best to you... and to Eric, now 26 and a newspaperman himself,
if I'm up to date,

Linda



----- Original Message -----
From: John Francis <fran7371@uidaho.edu>
To: <vision2020@moscow.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 13, 2001 6:41 PM
Subject: Farewell thoughts on Moscow


> I'm moving to Portland (itchy feet) and would like to say good-bye to my
> friends here, and offer a few reminiscences of Moscow. I arrived in 1970,
> and except for two years abroad have been here ever since.
>
> Random memories of the '70s:  law student Bill Hamlett moonlighting at
> John's Alley checking IDs; UI undergrad Kenton Bird bringing student press
> releases into the Idahonian, where I worked under Ted Stanton;
Congressman
> Steve Symms visiting the newsroom, pontificating about how he would never
> live anywhere but Idaho and the contempt he felt for politicians who went
> to DC and forgot their roots; Ivar Nelson, who ran Bookpeople, bringing a
> TV and a keg into the store so we could better enjoy watching Nixon's
> resignation speech (beer never tasted better than on that day).
>
> Like many newcomers, when I first arrived in Moscow I planned to move on
> soon; it seemed too small and isolated. Gradually fell in love with
Moscow,
> and the area.  The difficulty of flying here, and our distance from large
> cities, we all probably realize now, are actually assets that lessen the
> deterioration plaguing American cities today.
>
> It is that deterioration that I think is Moscow's greatest danger. Over
the
> years we've seen strip development spread along Third Street until it's
> reached right to the border. That did not have to happen.  It almost seems
> our planners felt that because sprawl was happening elsewhere, Moscow was
> obligated to make the same mistake.   How planners, who have seen the
strip
> malls of Spokane, and have seen sprawl destroy downtown Lewiston,  could
> still okay WalMart, Staples and Applebees is astounding.  And Whitman
> County has aproved strip development from Pullman to the border. So what
> could have been a green 8-mile parkway of paths, flowers and picnic spots
> joining Pullman and Moscow, making us the envy of other cities, will
become
> instead a string of urban junk.
>
> I hope Moscow takes care of its downtown, and its community anchors like
> Farmer's Market and the Co-op, and doesn't take them for granted.  Neglect
> them and they can die (remember the Micro).  The new Kenworthy and the
> forthcoming Community Center are encouraging signs.
>
> I'll be back from time to time.  All the best.
>
> John Francis
>
>
> John Francis
> 311 E 6th St., #2
> Moscow, ID 83843
> (208) 883-0105
>
>
>