NIMBY or what?

Now here is a thought provoking concept found in the letters to the editor today:

SIOUX CITY -- A friend suggested a possible site for the Gospel Mission. He said it should be perfect as it is large, has a cafeteria/kitchen, indoor and outdoor recreation facilities, and lots of grounds surrounding it. Not to mention compassionate, civic-minded neighbors. The old Hoover Junior at Hamilton and Country Club boulevards. -- Larry Johns

Lets see them argue this one out. All of the reasons for putting the Gospel Mission in the old HyVee sound pretty valid but then so does this one. One argument against the Hoover site might go like this "well, the client base for the Mission isn't from this neighborhood." But this begs the question that is the client base from the west side neighborhood of the current Mission? Isn't the client base of the Mission by definition homeless? Couldn't they just as easily hang out around the northside location of Hoover? Soon there will be a great bike trail along Perry Creek that they could ride their old drop handle Schwinn Varsitys on. Or does this concept expose this as a case of NIMBY?

Could it be that the planners of this proposed development have had their prejuidices exposed? "The westside is pretty far down the property tax scale and the clients of the gospel mission are pretty far down the socio-economic scale so they should go together just fine."

Or how about this concept: leave the mission where it is and bag the concept of a "Wesley Way connector". What's wrong with W. 8th Street anyway? No stop lights between W. 7th and Hamiliton, nice and wide, and tree lined already. A top coat of asphalt and that street is good to go for years. Oh, thats right, the city wants to redevelop that "corridor" into big box stores and strip malls a la Singing Hills Blvd. A build it and they will come kind of deal. Might be a good idea, and what the hell, the Feds are going to pay for a big chunk of it all so lets go ahead and tear down a bunch of occupied structures to build a parkway. Maybe they can get the same guy who built the guard wall on the completed section of the parkway to finish off the new end. Whoever it was did such a beautiful job there.