Idaho Falls

54 IDAHO FALLS MAGAZINE MARCH 2022 OUT THERE Doing the Downtown Shuffle PHOTO AND STORY BY GREGG LOSINSKI AS THE PANDEMIC grudgingly moves into the past, we are all trying to get back to whatev- er was our own personal version of normal. As the snow melts and the icy streets of our fair burg thaw, I am amazed at what a game of musical buildings has occurred with lots of our businesses. I am glad that so many of our stores and restaurants were able to adapt and survive. More than a few times I have ended up where a business was before the pandemic but now has moved elsewhere and even Google didn't know they had moved yet! You do what you must to survive. You reshuffle the cards and deal a new hand. Our downtown has been fortunate to be able to continue to move forward with our own Idaho version of gentrification. If the pan- demic had not been so long and draining, it would already probably be totally reborn and booming. Given the overall appeal that Idaho continues to manifest, I'm sure the Californians will eventually make all our local real estate developers' dreams come true. Boise is already so packed that people from elsewhere are still buying homes sight unseen in Parma and thinking they are just a short commute from downtown Boise. When they find out how clogged up the Treasure Valley is they will next flood our side of the state. Despite the pandemic, construction here has been booming. It will be interesting to see what the final count is for all apartments and condomini- ums that have been shoehorned onto just about every vacant lot in town. For a while, it seemed like the car wash business in Idaho Falls had exploded without reason. In reality, these purveyors of clean were actu- ally getting in ahead of the game. Somehow, they knew that all the new apartments being built would have cars that would need to be parked outside and that would require wash- ing to get rid of the crud that is constantly blown in by our balmy breezes. Pure genius! As more and more buildings spring up here, the amount of wind able to penetrate our town will decrease. These rows of flats will function just like the Russian Olive wind- rows planted to combat the Dust Bowl. Maybe we will even lose our windy reputa- tion. Early arrivals to Idaho Falls predeces- sor Eagle Rock, often commented on all the wind and sand that greeted them when they stepped off the train downtown. Gone are the passenger trains, gone is the sand, and maybe now the wind. As more and more people move in, open green areas will unfortunately become hard- er to find. This winter our city officials eventually lis- tened to the citizens who thought that losing one of our city parks for a new water tower might not be such a good idea. The solution to instead build the new water tower in part of the city library parking lot seems to be a bit problematic. The infrastructure concerns regarding the placement of the new water tower close to the old water tower make sense, but parking spaces at the library were already in short supply. The park was spared but already tight parking conditions will make checking out a book a bit more chal- lenging. Maybe now all the new cars, from all the new apartments can drive through the new car washes while their owners enjoy our newly renovated downtown. Now that's a winning hand! IF

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