Our Readers Write

The Bridge to Nowhere, Part 2
Editor:
I haven’t laughed this much in years. I just read the study that supported building the pedestrian bridge over Wadsworth Boulevard.
Just Google “pedestrian analysis and bridge study.”
Please go to the site and read the report yourself.
Once you let go of the anger and disgust over this waste of money, you will begin to see the humor. It does take awhile. Plan on a week or more, and then you will see the humor. Maybe a month.
The study is based on projected usage in the year 2030. Yes, 2030, which, if my math is correct, is 19 years from now.
The study actually states that it is based on a method that will intuitively evaluate the results.
What you will learn, after reading the study, is that this bridge was going to be built no matter what the study said. The results of the study did not matter. The bridge was going to be built, and now I know why.
I didn’t figure it out. I wish that I had. The smartest person I know figured it out. Here is the reason, but you need a little background first.
Remember Villa Italia? Remember University Hills Shopping Center? Remember Cinderella City? Remember Southglenn Mall?
They were all shopping malls that were torn down, and a village center was built in their place. That is the evolution of old shopping centers. They get depreciated until they have no tax benefit, and then they get torn down. In their place is a new Town Center, with stores that are separate and are designed like Aspen Meadows — one-stop shopping where you drive to the door of the store you want. It is the new design. It saves the mall owners millions of dollars through lower maintenance and utility bill costs. You can drive by any of the malls I have named and see the evolution of shopping malls, and then you will start to see why the bridge was built.
They are planning on tearing down Southwest Plaza. It is depreciated and old. It is having trouble keeping tenants. It is outdated and needs to be refreshed.
Well, my theory is that the mall knows this, just like you now do, and they planned ahead. They needed a bridge to connect the west side of Clement Town Center to the east side of Clements Town Center, and they figured out how to build it. Well, they actually, in my theory, figured out how to get you, the taxpayer, to build this $3.5 million bridge.
So, when the mall is torn down in three or four years, and the Town Center with the condos and the new shops and theater is built on both sides of Wadsworth, remember who paid for the bridge that connects them. We did. The taxpayers of Jefferson County built the bridge to connect both sides of the new Town Center.
Aren’t we stupid.
Of course, it is just a theory.
Gee, I am not laughing anymore.
Randy Brown
Littleton