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Note: if you have a fast modem or a direct connection, click here to go to the illustrated page. MISSION STATEMENT These pages are posted by a NIMBY for the purpose of advocating better quality of life and less traffic congestion, noise, hazards, and pollution through the center of Goshen, Indiana, by constructing a limited access bypass around the city. NIMBYS vs PIMFYS An essay by Marvin Bartel - June, 1999 --- For the at least the last 30 years the PIMFYS have objected every time a bypass was proposed. They said it would kill the downtown. Ultimately, their traffic dream came true. Unfortunately, the traffic dream also brought nightmare competition. We now have PIMBYS all the way from Dunlap to Benton, but the downtown has more trucks than shoppers (count them). Our scenic city gateways have been changed into generic corporate strip malls that suck the shopper's away from downtown. In addition to competition, the PIMFYS traffic dream also brought nightmare congestion. It also brought nightmare noise. It also brought nightmare pollution. It also brought nightmare fear of parking. Even walking downtown is less of a dream than a nightmare. A simple political truth became clear to me as a member of the Mayors Traffic Task Force. The PIMBYS outnumbered the NIMBYS on the Task Force. While the Chamber of Commerce was represented PIMBYS, the most passionate advocates for INDOT's proposal were those with businesses along US33 Southeast. Additionally, a number of city employees "served" on the task force and naturally supported the official city position (no bypass - just widen the streets some more). "Never doubt that a small group of dedicate citizens can change the world. The video survey of license plates entering Goshen and exiting Goshen is said to prove that we don't have enough through traffic to justify a bypass. I spent 30 minutes* observing Main Street recently, and I, like any common sense person, question these "statistics". I asked the consultant to explain why the survey shows many more vehicles entering Goshen than exiting Goshen. I never got a satisfactory explanation for all these "vanishing" vehicles. The majority of the Task Force was not interested in getting an explanation. The consultant did comment on the difficulty of entering all the data and the difficulty of finding good workers. My experience with hiring consultants is that they are generally quite pleased to tell you what you want to hear. The PIMFYS also hired the consultants from Indianapolis to design and give authority to their Thoroughfare wishes. Count me with the vast common sense majority of NIMBY citizens of Goshen who feel these out-of-town consultants were working to appease the people who hired them. Those of us who oppose the plan do not want this traffic in our backyards. We are not addicted to it in our front yards either. We don't even want this traffic next to schools and playgrounds. We hate this traffic in the heart of our community. If this is what it means to be a NIMBY, thank you, I take pride in it. Let the PIMFYS widen the strip mall corridors on US33, but not the streets in front of homes, schools and churches. Get a limited access bypass started now. Please join me as Maple City Traffic NIMBY. Pay close attention to the coming elections. Be careful whom you support. The current proposal is bad for Goshen. It may seem to relieve some congestion. Ultimately, it will only make the situation worse because more and more streets will need to be widened to accommodate the next wave of traffic being attracted to our central corridor. Imagine the coming damage to homes, trees, and safety on South Main, North Main, Eighth Street, and many other residential areas as we build thoroughfares to feed PIMFY dependencies. We must stop destroying our city in order to save it. We NIMBYS support a good long-term solution, even if we have to wait a few years for it. * To see the pictures I took during my
lunch hour on Main Street, click on the
illustrated version of this essay. It takes a bit longer to load, but
definitely tells the truth about our traffic problem.
"If somebody wants put nuclear waste in your backyard, you don't have to understand the half-life of radioactivity in order to have an opinion." James Burke, author of The Knowledge Web,
Simon and Shuster ©1999
This quote was from James Burke on National Public Radio,
June 29, 1999
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