So before moving to the fine state of Idaho Annette and i enjoyed five winters in Minnesota. One of the odd connections between Minnesota and Idaho is that we lived at street number 3527 in Minneapolis and our house in Idaho is street number 4527. What are the odds of that?

But it doesn’t end there. Out in the industrial zone east of downtown there’s a locomotive manufacturer “Motive Power.” They manufacture and refurbish electromotive diesel locomotives. I’ve noticed several Union Pacific heavy EM diesels lined up outside the big barn awaiting any manner of work. I don’t drive by Motive Power all that often, but while back i noticed a nifty streamlined loco with a snazzy paint job sitting on a siding. Stopping at a traffic light i could take a better look. Metro Transit was painted on the side. Metro transit…. where had i seen that before? Then one day realized the refrigerator magnet holding my mortgage bill up where i can’t forget to pay it also said “Metro Transit” in the same font and color scheme. D’oh!

So again i ask what are the odds? Of all the places we could have moved after annette finished her phd at the University of Minnesota we ended up where the diesels destined for the commuter rail of Minneapolis are produced.

But here’s the thing: Boise has one of the saddest public transit system on the planet, yet we have oodles of under-used rail connecting all the communities of the valley and beyond, and we have a local factory that produces diesel locos. But do we put them to use here? No, they’re shipped to, among other places, Minneapolis.

And this is one of the hardest realities to swallow coming here from larger cities; places that have not achieved a certain population density are inevitably behind many curves and often seem hopelessly out of touch with reality. And for anybody who believes that lower population densities guarantees a better environment for their precious children I suggest they visit, oh, Kellog, or any of the myriad other former mining centers where companies could dump all manner of toxics with impunity. Don’t forget, the government didn’t put the Idaho National Laboratory and its 57 nuclear reactors where it is because the commute was convenient for the scientists.