Letters to the editor Aug. 11
Main Street plan
Congratulations on passing Kalispell’s Main Street Safety Action Plan. It is a strategic plan for the safety and functional transportation future of our community.
However, I am disheartened to learn an important part of the plan was excluded from adoption due to the concerns (or perceived concerns) of a small, privileged neighborhood. It appears that these folks want all the traffic calming and mitigation measures without participating in the solution for our city’s overall transportation network.
The citizen’s committee, of which I served as a member, invested hundreds of man hours over six months to carefully craft a wide-reaching, multi-faceted solution to our failing transportation network while enhancing the safety of our community. Multiple outreach events were conducted to receive and consider community feedback. The comments and concerns from these sessions were given serious consideration in our protracted deliberations.
The plan is a comprehensive document designed to serve and guide the community’s allocation of resources for many decades. As we all know, change is a constant. Change presents both opportunities and challenges. Our community is fortunate to be experiencing many benefits of the current trends where we can accentuate the positives and access the resources to mitigate the shortcomings that already exist. By discarding a portion of a thoroughly vetted, carefully tailored, closely examined, comprehensive plan that addresses serious shortcomings for the greater community while retaining the mitigation benefits for a specific neighborhood, the council has created a biased, unbalanced approach to our mutual future.
Full implementation of this plan will require decades and much prioritization, as well as tens of millions of dollars. Keeping the plan whole preserves its integrity, the vision for a comprehensive safe transportation system, and flexible options for future investments as funding sources develop.
I implore the citizens of Kalispell who want to see equity in the development of our community’s transportation plan to remind their representatives that they can revisit Monday night’s decision for the benefit of all citizens rather than a privileged few.
— Marc Rold, Kalispell
They are not invaders
On July 28, the Venezuelan people stood up to the dictatorship of Maduro and overwhelmingly voted for a better future under the opposition. Many Americans — including locally — have been stirred by the nation’s passionate cry for freedom.
Through my work with the nonprofit Valley Neighbors, I have come to love the Venezuelan people with all my heart. Many have come to our community in order to escape repression, violence, threats, hunger, scarcity and all the things we see in the news right now. They made an unbelievably courageous journey to a new place, for the well-being of their families, even as they miss their beautiful country and loved ones back home. The barriers they face in the U.S. are daunting, enough to break the spirit of almost anyone, yet, by and large, they endure, work hard, love their families fiercely, laugh and find joy, and keep their faith deeply grounded in God.
In recent months we have sadly heard other messaging about Venezuelans in our community — words of fear and misinformation that seek to turn real people into political pawns. I desperately want my community to understand that the Venezuelans you praise as heroes back home are the same people who have come to our community in Kalispell. They are not invaders; they are regular people trying to make it. They are heroes — both here and back home.
So when you don’t understand a Venezuelan speaking Spanish, or maybe playing their music a little louder than you’d prefer, or working hard to fix their own car in view of your front window, could you spare some kindness? Could you remember that these are the same people you cheer on from your armchair while you watch the evening news? They make our community a better place.
— Rebecca Miller is board chair of Valley Neighbors