It is widely accepted that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. In fact, it was 5th-century B.C. Greek mathematician Pythagoras, who discovered the longest side of a right triangle is actually the shortest path between the two points on either end.

But Pythagoras missed a couple of key exceptions, however. First, his theorem only works on flat surfaces. And secondly, he never calculated the distance between the folks who want to establish an inner-city connector between Interstate 20 and I-220, and those folks who don’t.

And despite the proposed distance between those two points being virtually a straight line, these groups could not be further apart. Here’s what I mean:

Earlier this year, the Louisiana DOTD formally broke ground on a section of I-49 that will connect Martin Luther King Drive and La. Highway 1 by 2016. As this section of I-49 inches closer to Shreveport, so does the debate over constructing an estimated $300 million inner-city connector to this last section of I-49, which would be built through the Allendale neighborhood.

Formally, the prospect of this connector is only in the planning and environmental stage, where an Environmental Impact Statement will be presented to the Federal Highway Administration and DOTD for approval.

But for others, like the Shreveport City Council, they’ve already made up their minds. In June, they unanimously supported construction of a new 120-unit affordable housing complex that is being built on land owned by the Shreveport Housing Authority. And this was in spite of the Metropolitan Planning Commission’s denial of the project only days earlier.

State Representative Roy Burrell argues that this connector is more important than this housing complex because the connector will have a projected economic impact of $400 million in the Allendale area alone. He claims that those opposing the connector, and supporting the construction of the housing complex, have their own, selfish economic interests in mind instead, and not the “plight of the poor black folks in Allendale.”

On the other side of the road, those opposing the connector point out that downtown was most prosperous when neighborhoods like Allendale, and Ledbetter Heights, were prosperous. Architect Kim Mitchell points out that since 1980, the population in these neighborhoods has decreased by 80 percent. Revitalizing these neighborhoods, and making them attractive for entrepreneurs, he explains, “doesn’t include running a six-lane interstate highway through them”.

He points out that even President Eisenhower, who signed the law establishing the interstate highway system in 1956, admitted that building these highways through congested parts of cities was against his original concept. But now, it seems, his original concept may actually be part of a growing trend throughout the nation.

For example, there’s a proposal in downtown Dallas to tear down I-345 because some say it divides the Deep Ellum neighborhood and downtown Dallas, effectively choking the life out of both. And even down in New Orleans, Mayor Landrieu says that he is willing to consider tearing down the elevated stretch of I-10 through downtown New Orleans, pointing out that it “gave people more impetus to bypass the city than to stay in it.” Tearing it down, he explained, could attract new residents and businesses.

And that’s what Senator Barrow Peacock has in mind also for Shreveport, but for a different reason. He supports building the connector because it will attract new residents and businesses to both Allendale and downtown alike. He points to the North Central Expressway in Dallas, complete with miles of service roads on both sides, as an example of how to build more than a highway, but an economic engine.

What’s the alternative to building the connector? Some folks propose simply looping I-49 traffic around I-220 and the 3132, and for considerably less than the estimated $300 million cost of the connector. Of course, this will increase southbound traffic (and congestion) on North Market, for travelers headed into downtown.

Well, that’s enough for now. It’s all a matter of great importance for community’s future, though. It’s difficult to overestimate the role that the interstate highway system has played in the American economy and our culture. The interstate connected us as a nation, long before Facebook, and it’s hard to imagine progress without it.

In the coming months, get informed, and be heard. Surely there’s a way for us to get Pythagoras and Robert Frost together somehow, so that we can travel along the shortest distance between two points while, at the same time, perhaps taking the road less traveled. I hear it will make all the difference.

Louis R. Avallone is a Shreveport businessman and attorney. He is also a former aide to U.S. Representative Jim McCrery and editor of The Caddo Republican. His columns have appeared regularly in The Forum since 2007. Follow him on Facebook, on Twitter @louisravallone or by email at louisavallone@mac.com.