by Michael R. Allen
Gateway Connector Lacks Funding – Nicholas J.C. Pistor (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 8)
Apparently, the State of Illinois lacks funding for a $500 million east side highway that would connect Troy and Columbia. Plans aren’t dead, though — and that’s a bad thing for the character of the small towns in Illinois that it would “connect.”
Proponents of the connector call it a boon to the growing cities of the metro east. Careful scrutiny might show that the cities are losing investment and residents in their core areas while using annexation of placeless sprawl to offset the losses. The road would reward and subsidize an a trend that is slowly killing the small urban areas of the metro east.