Thanks alot, Mac!

I've been looking for that website, didn't know what they were calling it.

Grins,
S

Just a note to remind folks that July 1 is the deadline for public comment on the new Columbia River Crossing at www.columbiarivercrossing.org/Get...aspx

Below is a copy of my letter, and I am hoping that others will speak in support of the Mill Plain MOS Terminus.

June 30, 2008
Post Office Box 202
Vancouver WA 98666

Columbia River Crossing
700 Washington Street, Suite 300
Vancouver WA 98660

Gentlefolk:

My name is Rory Bowman and I was born and raised in west Vancouver. Born at Memorial Hospital within half a mile of Interstate 5, I attended Lincoln and Shumway before graduating from Hudson's Bay High School in 1984, then living in Portland for most of the next ten years as the MAX light rail system came online. Until I bought my current house in the Arnada neighborhood in 1993, I had never owned a car for commuting so, as a lifelong resident, I know something about multi-modal transportation. I walk and bicycle, take busses, light rail and cars. As someone who lives, works and owns a business within the primary project area, I write in support of a new I-5 bridge with light rail and a "Mill Plain MOS Alignment Option."

I have no particular preference for most of light-rail alignment options but oppose the McLoughlin option for a Clark College terminus and believe the Mill Plain MOS is the least expensive and most politically palatable.

My reasons for opposing the McLoughlin Boulevard route to Clark College are many, but fundamentally focus on the current quality of this route for multimodal transportation. With traffic-calming structures, wheelchair cuts, wide sidewalks, bus routes and two existing bike pathways, McLoughlin Boulevard between Main Street and Clark College is already an established and well-functioning multi-modal corridor. Students from the high school and Clark College make use of this path by foot and bicycle, as do recreational riders and those accessing Marshall Center and Central Park recreational areas. Unlike the freeway crossing at Fourth Plain, the McLoughlin underpass is well-shaded and much more insulated from traffic, and currently has more multi-modal options than are shown in exhibit 2.3-20 on page 2-37 of the DEIS. Many of these blocks already have well-established and mature trees, with at least ten trees along Mcloughlin between "D" and "G" streets alone with a circumference at breast height greater than 48" (twice that of a standard telephone pole). Mature cherry, walnut, chestnut and maple currently in place provide shade for pedestrians and bicyclists, most of them with canopies that cover half of the current street. To cut down these trees and remove bike lanes on both sides of McLoughlin would be a net loss to the neighborhood, and a blow to multimodal transportation across Interstate 5, especially in inclement weather where the shade and rain cover that these trees and the underpass provide are superior to the nearest alternatives at Fourth Plain and Mill Plain Boulevards.

If a Clark College terminus is chosen, I believe that 16th street is a more logical route than McLoughlin. not only is that street currently configured only for "standard" auto traffic, but it has appreciably less tree canopy and widening of this area t would disrupt fewer buildings.

Thank you for your attention to this matter, and best of luck in building a terrific new bridge!

Sincerely,

Rory Bowman