Guest Columnist Martin Hackworth: Grading on the Curve

“If you’ve lived in the Gate City long enough, you’ve probably heard the line: ‘This is a town with a university, not a university town.” – Idaho State Journal

In fact, I have heard that. And, despite the cheering, nothing in the Bengal Community Partnership is likely to change it. I suspect that many of the principals involved, despite the rah-rah and photo op, know that this is just window dressing unlikely to alter anything in a historically dysfunctional relationship.

The Bengal Community Partnership—smoke, mirrors, and noise—is the most quintessentially Pocatello thing there is. The economic fortunes of Pocatello have been swirling around the commode for some time. Things like this that just alter the direction of rotation won’t stop the flush.

Most of the large private sector employers who once provided jobs and a tax base are either leaving or gone. Union Pacific, Simplot and FMC—going, going and gone. AMI-gone. Idaho State University, having been poorly run for decades, is on life support. And most recently, Amy’s Kitchen downsized to what’s required to keep the premises from being stripped for cables. There is no silver lining anywhere in this cloud.

About the only things growing around here are gangs, illegal drugs, untreated mental illness, and a homeless population. Oh, and Flock cameras, which are a solution to almost none of what ails us.

All of this bounty of misery is, mind you, running against the drift of boom times for the state of Idaho, which is currently experiencing a population growth rate of 1.44%, second in the nation, and a GDP that’s growing at a current rate of 1.5%.

I’ve lived here for over three decades—longer than anyplace else in my life. I stay because I like it. Pocatello should be, based on location, physical beauty, and being one of the largest cities in one of the fastest-growing states, thriving.

That we are definitely not. And help does not appear to be on the way.

According to the usual suspects, critics (like me) are the reason we can’t have nice things. Our troubles have nothing to do with the people in charge—it’s the critics and naysayers. If we could just get people to quit talking about what they see with their own two eyes on social media, everything would be sunshine and rainbows.

That’s all BS, of course, and I know because when I first came to Pocatello in the early 1990s, the city was thriving. There were three shopping malls, a half dozen large employers, a strong tax base, and a business district that was rocking.

During the late 1990s, I chaired Pocatello’s Community Development Commission for a few years. At that time, my observation was that the city was ascendant and generally run by a group of people who were rational, competent and understood the “service” component of public service.

But even then, the writing was on the wall.

During my time on the CDC, ISU was impossible to work with, but beyond that, business development and economic growth were priorities that everyone took seriously.

In terms of residential growth, most developers were good to work with. But others were more difficult—objecting to our rules for on-site stormwater retention, parking, density, curb gutter, sidewalk, and setback requirements. And though our codes were reasonable and clear, a series of mayors and city councils often overrode our recommendations in favor of developers they were cozy with.

I think about that every time I drive through flooded local streets after a rainstorm.

Fast forward a few decades and we have a parade of bungled development courtesy of Pollyannish and self-dealing city leaders: Northgate, Hoku, ISU’s “Gallium Valley of Pocatello,” the Center Street Underpass and West Benton Street bridge debacles, homeless encampments (including the public library), Flock cameras that no one wants, a recent data center calamity, a curious airport development scheme, and several newer high-density developments with construction so shoddy that fences and siding are already falling down.

Consider the Center Street Underpass—a genuine debacle with no end in sight. Even though the city is still claiming that this project is on track for completion by the end of this year, short of a miracle, this is unlikely. The underpass will not be open by year’s end, is unlikely to be open before next summer, and may possibly remain closed until 2028.

Why are city leaders sticking to a timeline that is obviously not coming to fruition? The least bad explanation is that they are wildly incompetent. The most bad is that they know that their timeline is wrong but will brook no dissent. Either way, it really sucks to be a Pocatello downtown business in the 2020s.

The West Benton Street bridge is the most curious construction site in the world. I ride past there almost every day and observe that it’s full of construction equipment that never moves. It’s an aspirational diorama of an actual construction site.

I literally don’t know anyone here outside of city hall who approves of Flock cameras. Flock Safety, an Atlanta-based company valued at $8 billion, is best known for their nationwide network of automated license plate readers (ALPRs) that capture images, searchable by any Flock customer. This arrangement has caused alarm due to frequent instances of inappropriate use and general privacy concerns.

Elgin Community College, located just west of Chicago, signed a one-year contract with Flock Safety in April 2025 to install six cameras on their campus. This was part of a greater movement that saw universities all over the area installing Flock cameras to enhance public safety.

But the Elgin administration grew concerned when it learned how widely others could search its camera images. Elgin subsequently sought to end its contract with Flock and requested that the company remove the cameras. Within a day, Flock rejected the request because they were complying with their end of the contract.

Elgin then offered to pay the rest of the contract without the cameras. Flock did not respond. Because Elgin did not want the cameras used, they began covering them with zip-tied garbage bags. A cat-and-mouse game ensued in which people arriving in unmarked vehicles would remove the garbage bags, after which staff at Elgin would cover them again. This continued until the contract expired this past April.

The problem with Flock is that places like Elgin and Pocatello get bumrushed into signing up over safety concerns, while ignoring the implications for privacy and misuse. If the reporting I’ve seen on Flock contracts is accurate, no city should ever sign one. And forget about tweaking one to your liking. You are not going to rewrite a Flock contract to restrict what you don’t like because their entire business model is based on the fact that you are not the customer, you are the product.

Apparently only one member of our city council gets any of this. When it comes to Pocatello, you have to grade on the curve.

There is, mirabile dictu, exactly one bit of good news to report. The removal of the Monarch Building has been a wonderful success. A very small crew of skilled workers accomplished a miracle taking it down. Kudos to them. What the PDA is going to do with the nice gravel lot they now own is lost on me, but that has nothing to do with the success in getting the building safely hauled away.

Is there any chance we can get those guys to work on the underpass? They just have to walk a few feet to the east.

Associated Press and Idaho Press Club-winning columnist Martin Hackworth of Pocatello is a physicist, writer, climber, skier, motorcyclist, musician, and retired Idaho State University faculty member who now spends his time raising four kids. Follow him on X at @MartinHackworth, on Facebook at facebook.com/martin.hackworth, and on Substack at martinhackworthsubstack.com.