A column from a Pullman City councilor and a letter from a Moscow-Pullman Daily News reader (both Oct. 7) cry out for comment, pro and con.

Thanks to Councilor Becky Dueben for her piece, “In Pullman, we can have nice things.”

I tip my hat to Dueben. Her column was by far the clearest and most cogent communication I’ve seen from the city council in half a century of following Pullman’s city government.

Caveat. I am unilaterally opposed to the grandiose plan to put a tiny funnel in a state highway under the apparently false assumption that it will revive downtown businesses.

I’m all for improving downtown infrastructure, but strongly opposed to turning downtown into a pedestrian plaza.

I’m certainly not an expert on retail businesses, but I’ve had some experience in it and am a proponent of local retail businesses.

While in high school during the 1950s I worked in Sherman’s Grocery Store, the Diamond 5¢ to $1 Store and then, The General Store. Upon discharge from the Air Force, I worked for JCPenney.

Based on past and current downtown Pullman business performance, the “nice things” in the project will just be a collection place for tree leaves, dust, debris and snow.

In the old days, Kennewick’s downtown merchants had their sidewalks swept and their windows washed frequently. In frequent visits to my old hometown, it appears merchants still keep their sidewalks clean.

Not in Pullman. Sidewalks are dirty. Many merchants don’t shovel snow off of their sidewalks and the customers often have to climb over berms of slushy or hard-frozen snow to get from their cars to the sidewalks.

At 85 years and counting, I’m not up to pole vaulting from street to sidewalk, or even going near that downtown mess.

Talk of making Pullman a walk-friendly town is laughably absurd. If Pullman truly wanted to be a pedestrian-friendly city, codes on vegetation growing out over sidewalks and requiring residential sidewalks to be cleared of snow would be enforced.

For decades, I rode shank’s mare (walked) to my campus office — uphill both ways. I’m very pro walkable infrastructure, but against using that lofty concept as an excuse to pursue fantastical dreams.

Traffic, geography, burgeoning traffic from population growth; and a tsunami of economic change are the primary factors in declining downtown retail, and Pullman proposes to make traffic problems worse.

Thank you, Councilor Dueben, for the excellent information on the real need for the project, which is the growing need to replace the ancient downtown underground infrastructure and unsafe sidewalks.

Hopes that “nice things” in the project will vitalize downtown businesses are naïve.

American Rescue Plan money would benefit downtown more were it invested in moving traffic, rather than in obstructing it by reducing Main Street traffic to two lanes.

And adding lanes to Grand Avenue, long dreamed of, would certainly help.

Some attention also needs to be given to Washington State University’s plans to close Stadium Way to through traffic, which will only increase the downtown traffic problem.

Thanks also to Dueben for explaining the rationale for removing the old (I remember when they were planted) trees that are breaking up sidewalks.

Much as we love the old trees, they need to go now instead of waiting until they die of their own accord.

Also, praise to Pullman resident Liz Siler for her letter, “Your vote is your voice,” in which she took on the Pullman City Council for the way that it talks (or doesn’t talk) to residents about city business.

She spoke for a legion of residents who resent having to sit through entire meetings before addressing the council, and only being able to address topics when they are up for final action.

In a former life, when I was a reporter at the Tri-City Herald, I covered school boards and city councils. I well remember some council meetings went past midnight. That’s solid proof that the city truly wanted resident input.

Siler urged voters to elect Deb McNeil as their next mayor. That’s advice that I will take when I get my ballot.

Day has lived in Pullman since 1972. He served on the Washington State University faculty for 32 years as a science communicator, retiring in 2004. He encourages email, pro or con, to terence@moscow.com.