Idaho Falls...

It is August 21 and I am standing at the corner of Park Avenue and A Street in Idaho Falls, where we spent the night.  From the remnants of what is left of the city before they tore much of it down to make parking lots, drive through banks, and roadways along the river, it is easy to see that this was once a vibrant, thriving productive place with a number of large hotels, now abandoned or turned into SROs, empty abandoned department stores, and 3 or 4 other square blocks of other vacant or repurposed buildings that provide a sense of what once was in this largely eviscerated city desperately in search of a purpose.

Park and A are the center of "The Historic District", a euphemism that old cities across the country use to describe the few blocks of the old part of town that somehow managed to miss the wrecking ball.  Since I am such a good photographer, I have managed to make the situation look more hopeful than it is.  In reality, all that is left are tattoo shops, pawn shops, a few bars but very few because it is cheaper to buy a bottle and share it with friends in the alley, a couple of upscale restaurants, like the Snake Bite in the white corner building, for people tired of Olive Garden and brave enough to venture downtown at night, a used book store, bike shop, some consignment stores, drop in rehab centers (meth is big out here), a beauty salon or two,  and a couple of good bakeries.  If you need shoes, clothes, housewares, drugstores, Walmart, a Subway/McDonald/Burger King, or any of the modern amenities of life, you need to drive way down 17th street where you will find the malls, fast food, and Olive gardens that are the glue that holds it all together for us.  If you want to pawn something, come downtown.

The one bright spot which seems to be a nexus of upscale easy, unbothered activity that draws a crowd is the Great Harvest Bread Company on A a few doors down from Park that is quite good in all ways midwestern.  The bread is excellent and varied, and they are not afraid to cut you a big chunk, buttered for you to sample.  The soup was real good and Jackie loved their chicken salad and that says a lot.

The staff is smiley helpful and generous and it is one of the best things in town.  On the way out of town on our way to Jackson, Wyoming, we passed Scotties Drive In.  Great sign, but the building was in the shadows.

If I sound angry, and seem to be taking it out on Idaho Falls, sorry, its just the result of built up frustration about the poor overall state of old midwestern cities that have been basically abandoned in favor of the malls, box stores, and chain restaurants that have built up on the access roads leading to town, and have drained them of purpose and activity and left the now irrelevant "historic districts" to fend for themselves and struggle for relevancy when indeed it has been stripped from them.  There is no longer any reason to go downtown.  Idaho Falls has fared a lot better than Chattanooga, Des Moines, Omaha, Toledo and a whole list of places in which entire square blocks, many many of them have been leveled and turned into vast parking lots for cars that no longer have any need to use them because there is no need to be down town.  Its all at the mall.

Don't get me wrong, I liked Idaho Falls, what there was of it, there just wasn't much of it.  But its the same story just about everywhere.  I just needed a place to stop and vent for a moment.  Thanks.

                                                                 Pablo