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Posted by Sherman in Idaho [72.47.153.24] on Saturday, July 28, 2012 at 22:25:53 :
In Reply to: Re: That's what they all said back in the '60s posted by Kaegi [24.16.253.154] on Saturday, July 28, 2012 at 20:56:36 :
I remember when you'd drive from Seattle to Tacoma on 99 and there were nothing but closed businesses, junkyards, and bars. In Federal Way there was the Spanish Castle and that was about it. Wittenberg Surplus was in there somewhere and the Midway drive-in survived for a long time. Go down 99 today and nothing from that era is even still standing. It's all strip malls and big-box stores. Same thing on 99/Aurora from Seattle to Everett.
The flip side of that is do we really want to be stuck in stop and go traffic on a 4-lane highway with a stop light every block all the way from Seattle to Portland? We had to build the Interstates, and for the most part, the towns and highway strips that got bypassed have recovered. I wouldn't say Wallace has recovered at all, but Wallace was hit with three economic disasters all at roughly the same time -- the Hunt Brothers' debacle plus EPA regulations closed the mines, the FBI and changing values closed the whorehouses, and I-90 bypassed the whole town. That was a tough combination to recover from and we're still struggling.
Still, I don't think business would be much better in town if Wallace still had the last stoplight on I-90. People on the freeway are just thinking about getting where they want to go. They'd slow down going through Wallace, but they wouldn't stop unless they had to take a leak or get gas, which is about the only reason they turn off in Wallace nowadays anyway. The days when travelers would stop and stay in a local motel, or go shopping in the local stores as long as they had to drive through town are long gone. Now you have to give them a reason to get off the freeway. Sandpoint has all that touristy junk downtown, and the people who like that sort of thing will still get off the highway to see it. Wallace doesn't even have the whorehouses any more.
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