Some thoughts on First Street project

I got on my electric "scooter" (i.e. wheelchair) the other day and went around looking at the First Street project. You see so much more when you can stop and stare, which you can't do when driving by. The buildings are beginning to look like the ones in the drawing, except . . . . . . I did not notice on any drawings I saw such an enormous multi-level penitentiary, er, parking garage. It really dominates the whole area, doesn't it?

The people on Third Street who used to have a peek at the river now and then are stuck looking at the side wall of the new Blue Goose or the parking garage. Maybe the Blue Goose will commission a mural of the river for them.

Eventually all the dust will settle and the structures, for good or ill, be completed and then perhaps consideration can be given to the fact that the bridge right next to all these new buildings goes..... nowhere. Some of us would like it to go somewhere, to relieve congestion and keep the extra traffic (anticipated by all the new buildings) flowing smoothly.

Every time I cross Prairie Street bridge and come up to the barricade I'm reminded of a scene from "Les Miz," and I hope it won't take a revolution to get it torn down. Funneling traffic to the left and right has been fun (especially on the right, where southbound stops and northbound doesn't and the near-misses are interesting to say the least) but it's time to get serious. I never thought I'd be caught paraphrasing Ronald Reagan, but I can't help myself: "Mr. Mayor, Tear Down That Barricade!"

Janet Rossi

St. Charles