Councilman’s ‘street run’ idea has merit

Every day, my computer gets flooded with messages sent by various people and organizations across Idaho and our nation regarding a myriad of topics that potentially affect those of us in the Mountain Home community. While most of those messages end up in the digital trash can, some of them grab my attention quite unexpectedly.

The latest example happened last week when I received a message from one of the city councilman in Nampa. Granted, Nampa is nearly 60 miles away, but my eyes focused on what this person planned on doing.

Looking at “setting a new, unique standard” for leaders in his community, Councilman Sebastian Griffin announced plans to run every street in his district. His goal was simple: Gain a first-hand perspective on the current state of the city’s streets and infrastructure. Simply put, he wanted to see for himself some of the problems people in Nampa deal with regarding the condition of these parts of town and how future development could affect these areas in a not-so-nice way.

“Running the streets of my district allows me to see first-hand the challenges and opportunities we face,” Griffin said. “I want to understand the real impact of our policies and ensure that developers meet our community’s new expectations.”

This was just the start. His other goals sought to help cut wasteful spending and enhance public safety while supporting small, local businesses. By inspecting the streets himself, the councilman hoped to gather these insights as a way for the city’s leaders to make smarter, more effective decisions for his city’s future.

Whether he planned to actually step out of his office and take a walk through these areas or simply get in his car and drive through there wasn’t immediately clear. However, it does help him gain the one thing some community leaders lack – seeing for themselves everything that affects their city in good and not-so-good ways versus hearing about these problems second hand through the proverbial rumor mill.

Of course, those of us that deal with the rumor mill also understand these stories tend to take on a very biased tone depending on who tells them. Case in point: I’ve literally lost count of how many of these people inside this rumor mill kept telling the same story over and over without actually doing any research to back up what they said.

Instead, they tend to use their own personal bias to take the facts and twist them in a way that fits into their narrative. Worst of all, none of these people ever take time to come to a city council or county commissioners’ meeting and listen to what these elected officials had to say.

Instead, these so-called Internet trolls used a form of “keyboard courage” to spread rumors and falsified information versus being responsible citizens and tell these community leaders how they felt.

What they should’ve done instead is follow the councilman’s example by getting away from our computers and phones and look around our town through our own eyes. After all, we can’t see what’s happening in some parts of town, both good and bad, unless we’ve been there ourselves.

Instead of assuming some parts of Mountain Home are areas we need to avoid, for example, we need to see for ourselves what led someone to make these types of comments. Perhaps someone ended up at the wrong place at the wrong time and dealt with something that never happens there but wound up leaving a negative impression in their minds. Maybe they needed to meet face to face with someone in this part of town to hear their perspective on what might have caused this problem to occur.

At least that helps them better understand that today’s society does have its share of problems. But at the same time, society as a whole isn’t necessarily bad.

Granted, I have been in parts of some towns in other parts of the United States where I felt the need to keep my guard up. Typically, this happened at night where I wasn’t able to clearly see everything happening as I drove by. Usually, this coincided with driving past the places where people go to have a drink and enjoy their time with others.

Maybe if I had taken time to walk through these same areas, I could’ve had an unbiased look at what was really happening versus allowing a sense of negativity take over.

When it comes to dealing with other issues in our community, it’s best to see firsthand why they exist. For example, Mountain Home continues to see people moving here from out of state. This urban growth prompted the city and other parts of Idaho to build more homes and apartments for these families to live.

In addition to seeing home prices continuing to escalate, some cities are dealing with a lot more traffic congestion as well as affecting access to resources such as electricity and running water.

However, the one thing that seems overlooked are the reasons why these people came to Idaho versus going to, say, Wyoming, Nebraska or North Dakota. There’s definitely something here these people need.

The problem is too many of us simply assume these folks moved here due to things like rising crime, threats of violence and a lack of personal safety. How many of them actually took time to meet with these people, ask some simple questions and listen to what these newcomers say?

After all, we can’t always assume these people “fled” some states due to the so-called political turmoil affecting these places. Instead, how many of them came because they’re stationed at Mountain Home Air Force Base and chose to live off base versus living in the base housing area?

Councilman Griffin seems to have a good idea on how to gain the perspective others in Nampa might lack. It’s something I feel the mayor, members of the city council and county commissioners here might want to consider doing as well.

If anything, it gives our elected officials a chance to speak with those in the local businesses and neighborhoods to build a positive rapport and understand firsthand what Mountain Home and other communities in Elmore County might need. It provides them an unbiased perspective on what we need to make our communities stronger.

But let’s not stop there. I think the councilman’s idea needs to reach further into other branches of our state and federal governments. Why not make it mandatory to require those elected to public office to actually step out of their limousines and mansions and head somewhere they’ve never been and meet with those these elected officials took an oath to support? After all, it can’t hurt to go and take a walk, can it?

– Brian S. Orban