Keep the Palmer rail tracks

Sunday’s Frontiersman editorial on the Palmer rail tracks was sadly a bit shallow.

The railroad tracks could be the city’s economic engine for tourists; only and best by default. And, several viable projects had been proposed — that is, they were viable until the tracks were destroyed last year. Perhaps your editor is unaware of them? The McKeen rail car was one; an exceedingly successful tourist attraction in Carson, Nev., and even more part of our history than there. Or several light rail plans, like those already approved by the city’s voters on three separate occasions and ignored by the city’s manager.

At issue, from the so-called progressives on the city council, is some weird science psychology claiming that the tracks divide the city.

Certainly, the rail right-of-way from Arctic to Eagle is divisive, but there aren’t tracks there. And in town there is a speed-reducing hump at Fireweed and Evergreen easily eliminated under urban crossing regulations if one wished, but division in what sense?

The historic district is well-defined and cohesive. The retail area along Alaska and Colony is equally cohesive. The tracks are not the divisive elements. It is the very nature of the areas that separate them from each other. Removing the tracks does not change that. The trees lining the street are more dividing than any tracks. Sadly, this shouldn’t be a political issue with Democrats trying to rip up the tracks and Republicans trying to keep them. Our village is too small for partisan politics.

Another false issue has to do with our wonderful seniors. Certainly, more accommodating paths and sidewalks should have been developed (why haven’t they?), but the tracks don’t stop any mildly determined octogenarian. My mother-in-law, at age 86, doesn’t have any problem popping up daily at McDonald’s or Freddie’s from the Pioneer Home. The tracks don’t stop her friends either.

The argument that we can’t have a trail because of the tracks is malarkey. The only thing stopping the trail has been whose pocket to line with the money. The tracks haven’t stopped the trail, but they had stopped the parking lots. I believe that is the real issue. Get rid of the tracks and put in parking lots (as they did last year). If there weren’t better alternatives, that wouldn’t be a bad idea. But you can’t get an honest answer.

Or take the idea that there will never be another train to Palmer, a notion created by some very sad folks. Most folks don’t know that the railroad estimated only $600,000 — that’s right, the cost of an outhouse or two — to restore the tracks to a level that would allow regular specialty trains like the now-defunct Colony Christmas train.

I wonder how many children’s tears does it take to melt the hearts of a few Scrooges, how many merchants suffering or going out of business, how many colony children whose heritage is considered valueless, or how many dreams of a viable economic future for this town need to be crushed before the message “keep our tracks” gets through?

Gregory Gusse is a Palmer resident.