When I moved to town two years ago, I took it as a good sign that the hullabaloo over the Bypass got so much attention in the media. It showed, I thought, that people here really cared about the way their tax money was spent and that roads, while not very sexy, can make or break a community.

But there’s a fine line between thoughtful resistance to bad planning and privileged Nimby-ism, and the “Save McIntire Park” campaign struck me as fitting into the latter category. Let’s “save” a park that’s underused because you can’t get to it in order to stop a well-designed alternative traffic artery designed with pedestrian access in mind that has the support of planning staff in the city and county. Hmmm.

As a print journalist, I’ve covered battles between pro development and sustainability interests in four states through issues as diverse as waterfront zoning on lakes to new school construction. I even covered a road fight over a cut-through highway in Western North Carolina first named “The Southern Bypass,” before it got renamed “The Southern Connector” to make it more palatable.

Along the way, I’ve learned that state transportation engineers will work hard to solve the problems in front of them, but they need locals (in and out of government) to make sure the problems they’re trying to solve are the right ones. I’ve learned that spendthrift advocates, environmental activists, and eminent domain victims can stop a plan in its tracks, but they have a hard time presenting an alternative solution. I’ve learned that if a project stretches into its second decade of planning, it drifts naturally towards a place of acceptable mediocrity.

And finally, I’ve learned that if the state wants to give you federal money to build a highway, you better find a way to use it, because it won’t come from anywhere else. When we decided to take our last best shot at untangling the Gordian Knot that is the Bypass problem, our assumptions were as follows: Most people are sick of the issue and many don’t understand its sticking points; the current plan is a waste of money; there is still time to ensure the state and federal money goes to a highway plan that helps us become the city we want to be, not a road that imitates a NoVA commuter morass or a Southside detour.

— Giles Morris