text: Right. Let's all then gather for the demise of downtown.
  Look, we all have ideal situations we'd like, but then we stop to consider reality. Are people really going to bike and walk from all over this small city to get downtown--- during 80-95 degree summer days (you have to plan for all contingencies when deciding about a downtown) and most importantly, during the long and dark rainy season that could last up to 9 or 10 months?
  It's like the idiotic idea of shrinking Willamette down to 2 lanes to accommodate a relatively VERY few bikers, neglecting the fact that the parallel accesses worked just fine.