Photos by L.G. Patterson
In 2009, a gallon of gas ran you $2.15, “I’ve Gotta Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas topped the charts and the population of Columbia reached 98,831. The iPhone 3G hit the shelves and retailed at $199. The Missouri Tigers defeated the Kansas Jayhawks with a last-second field goal at Arrowhead Stadium.
2009 was also the year then-Editor Sandy Selby completed an issue of Inside Columbia with the title: “Columbia 2025: Experts Make Startling Predictions.” Editorial Assistants Kelly Corrigan and Brian Fefferman compiled a lengthy feature forecasting what Columbia might look like in the distant year of 2025.
According to Inside Columbia’s predictions, we should soon be seeing cars powered by algae instead of gasoline, the demise of the post office and ten completed lanes on Interstate 70 this year.
Fifteen years later, we haven’t reached this utopia. We continue to wait in tedious traffic on the two-lane Interstate 70, buy stamps at the Walnut Street post office and most of us still fill our cars with gasoline instead of pond scum.
However, some of our predictions hold true. Our old issue bid a preemptive farewell to landline telephones and paper checkbooks. The feature also predicted that the internet would advance by leaps and bounds, turning 2009’s technology into fossils. “In 2025, the internet will be so ubiquitous in high-speed, wireless and broadband capacity,” Kelly Corrigan reported. “We’ll think of the internet the way we think of electricity: if it’s not there, we’ll squirm.”
As we ring in the new year and set expectations for 2025, let’s reflect on how far our city has come since 2009 — and how much further we may still have to go.
Some of our aged predictions are amusing, but most ring either spookily accurate or a touch disappointing. Let’s unpack our 15-year-old issue and examine what we got right and what we may still need to hope for.
Lane-Changers
Prediction: In 2009, most Missourians envisioned a bright future for Interstate 70. Our old issue forecasted that by 2025, the highway would be made of ten lanes, five on each side. West and eastbound lanes would be split by a concrete median rather than grass.
In 2006, the Missouri Department of Transportation planned an ambitious project to meet the rising transportation needs in Missouri. Then-MoDOT Outreach Coordinator Bob Brendel stated that two of the five lanes would be reserved for trucks, two for passenger vehicles and the fifth for merging and exiting travelers. The main focus of the aspiring project was safety. Separating the vehicle lanes would make for efficient, safe travel throughout the state. The project also had a goal to acquire enough funding to make adjustments to “Malfunction Junction,” the interchange between U.S. 63 and I-70.
“By 2025, the daily headaches that have become habit for Columbians who use increasingly congested Stadium Boulevard for I-70 access may be quashed,” Editorial Assistant Kelly Corrigan wrote. These plans took form in 2006 as sketches. They garnered strong support from the citizens but insufficient funding from the state. Then-City Manager Bill Watkins told Inside Columbia that it was impossible to say when the changes to I-70 and the interchange would take shape, but they hoped to receive funding to complete the project by 2025. In 2009, MoDOT told Inside Columbia they were hoping for $50-70 million in state funding to complete the project.
Today: We are still in the throes of the Improve I-70 project. But in May 2023, MoDOT secured a historic investment from the state. In 2009, they hoped for $50 million. Last year, the Improve I-70 project received $2.8 billion from General Revenue to rehabilitate, expand and improve 200 miles of interstate. The project then began to take shape once more, under the watchful leadership of Program Director Eric Kopinski.
“When this opportunity became available, I immediately reached out to our leadership,” Kopinski says. “This is going to be the coolest thing we do as a department and I want to be a part of this.”
Kopinski, a public servant at MoDOT for over 15 years, knew he was undertaking a hefty responsibility. The project’s vision is ambitious, but Kopinski is eager to provide Missourians with a safer, better and more efficient interstate. He was named program director and assembled a “small but mighty” team of five fellow officials to tackle 200 miles of interstate improvement.
Our I-70 still holds some of the oldest pavement in the United States. Some stretches of the highway have not seen major renovations since ground was broken in 1956. I-70 is a historic highway and a feat of engineering. That also makes it the most in-need of rehabilitation.
Kopinski is confident that Missourians will see a new interstate in five years. Two hundred miles of the highway will be renovated by 2030, featuring safer, smoother ramps and exit ways. Most excitingly, a third lane will be added in both directions, making I-70 a six-lane highway rather than the current four. The dated jersey rails and grass medians will be replaced by a tall concrete barrier, shielding westbound traffic from eastbound and vice-versa.
“It’s been many years, even decades, since we’ve had this sort of investment or opportunity for a statewide program,” Kopinski says.
Why 2030? MoDOT’s five-year timeline for improving the interstate is a quicker turn-around than it may seem. It’s an ambitious deadline, considering the 250 miles of I-70 that need to be refinished. However, the department is ensuring that Missourians can still use I-70 freely and comfortably. The department and has taken note of important dates where traffic will halt construction.
“We know when travelers are most utilizing I-70 and our interchanges,” Kopinski says. “As we schedule these work hours, we’re trying to least impact the traveling public. But in order to complete our schedule, there will be impacts.” To minimize disruptions to commuters and travelers that rely on I-70, the project is mainly assigning night work on the Columbia to Kingdom City stretch. But five years is an incredibly ambitious date for such a massive project; it is likely construction will be taking place six days a week.
MoDOT has researched the heaviest traffic dates for mid-Missouri, so it is possible that construction may fluctuate around busy travel times such as the holidays and Mizzou football season. Kopinski and his team have a goal to minimize disruptions to those who rely on the Interstate, but they also know how vital it is that the work is accomplished quickly. So, travelers may want to plan around potential disruptions in their commutes until their projected 2030 completion.
Coming sooner, however, is a change specific to Columbia. The interchange of I-70 and U.S. 63, “Malfunction Junction,” has received special attention from MoDOT. Kopinski anticipates that by 2027, the interchange will look entirely different.
That interchange is home to the highest vehicle accident rate, not just in Columbia, but in all of District 5, which encompasses Jefferson City, Sedalia and Boonville. The often-dreaded 70 to 63 interchange will undergo a two year makeover, receiving much needed renovation and rehabilitation to make it safer for travelers.
“Having that [interchange] be up to modern standards will really allow freight and goods and services to better serve our businesses in Missouri as well,” Kopinski says. Not only will the changes to the interchange help Columbia’s tourism, local business and economy, but they will also improve the safety of commuters and locals who regularly rely on the interchange.
Safety is the number one priority of Kopinski’s team and is at the heart of every effort for the Improve I-70 Project. Improvements will allow cars to travel at appropriate speeds with sufficient space to merge and exit, lessening the risk for accidents to occur. By 2027, we should see a new interchange with smooth, safe ramps, underpasses and a roundabout on Clark. By 2030, a new and improved I-70 will be ready for smooth, uninterrupted travel.
As we all adjust to the next few years of construction, Kopinski encourages drivers to take it slow and pay attention to their surroundings. “As we schedule these work hours, we’re trying to least impact the traveling public,” Kopinski says. “But with our current schedule, we’re pretty much working six days a week, 24/7. There’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes.”
He says the project will thrive with patience and awareness from the commuting public. Next time you trek down I-70 or hop on the interchange, you maybe halted by construction. Although it is frustrating to be stuck in traffic, consider the benefits we may soon reap with new lanes and a safer drive. Happy travels!
Virtual Vision
Prediction: In 2009, we pictured that by 2025, we’d abandon computers for headsets that display the internet right in front of our eyes. “Heads will be fitted with goggles in which we can view the world and access the internet,” Inside Columbia wrote. “They’ll have glass lenses and electronics built in. You’ll touch a button or use voice command. The glasses should be able to store and recognize facial features to save us the embarrassment of forgetting someone’s name.” We foresaw Terminator-esque technology taking over not only the world, but our faces, forecasting that this year we’d be seeing almost everyone with these fixtures.
Today: The closest we’ve gotten to these specs would be Apple’s Vision Pro, released in February 2024. It’s a spatial computer that operates similarly to an iPhone or Macbook, with app features and an LED display that projects screens onto our environment. The Vision Pro retails for $3,500 (equivalent to $5,232 in 2009, adjusted for inflation) which is likely why these headsets are not commonplace. Some users have complained about the bulkiness of the goggles and how isolating it can feel to attach it to your face. Google and Samsung have their own VR headsets in the works, with plans being teased in November 2024. Not to be compared to previous gaming headsets, such as the Meta Quest, these are meant to be used in everyday life, useful for working, communicating and watching movies. Perhaps our thought that such goggles would be commonplace was too early. Maybe in a few years, we’ll begin to see our coworkers, neighbors and family members shield their eyes with these futuristic spectacles.
The End of the Line
Prediction: By 2025, landlines will be obsolete as people begin to rely on cell phones as primary sources of contact.
Today: In 2022, survey data from the US Centers for Disease Control revealed that only 29% of American households still own a landline phone, but only 5% of that population reported that they found the landlines crucial to their everyday life.
Paperless Reading
Prediction: We will advance past paper books and magazines, trading them in for a digital display. “We’ll probably start seeing some rolling or foldable displays. It’ll be a media device that you carry all the time,” Michael Rogers, a media futurist for The New York Times hypothesized. We envisioned that newspapers and magazines- like this one- would no longer be in print circulation, but would rather be uploaded to foldable e-readers.
Today: If you’re holding this magazine in your hands, you can gather that print media is far from abandoned.
According to Statista, magazines are out performing newspapers, with 220 million Americans reporting that they subscribed to a physical magazine in the past year. While Inside Columbia is still a print publication, a majority of our readers anticipate new issues online or follow our social media. Instead of the prophesied e-readers that would be unfolded to display our favorite newspapers and magazines, many rely on phones or computers to read digital news.
Cutting Out Cable
Prediction: Cable television will likely follow analog television into oblivion when satellite signals orbiting the planet take the place of cables. In 1996, Dish Network was established as the first satellite network, relying on signals bouncing up to space and back to provide coverage. Satellite television quickly gained popularity, replacing the cords and lines that would anchor our television sets to the world.
Today: We underestimated how much the television viewing experience would change in 15 years. Now, less than half of Americans report using cable or satellite for television access. The once-exciting technology of satellites was replaced by internet streaming services. Netflix, a mail-order DVD service, launched internet streaming in 2007 and began a domino effect of similar services setting up shop and replacing cable. Blockbuster, the well-loved video rental shop, was also sent into oblivion by the rise of streaming services, despite having the opportunity to buy Netflix in 2000. According to The New York Times, 83% of Americans are subscribed to at least one streaming service ousting the satellites predicted.
Losing the Library
Prediction: We hypothesized that the arrival of e-readers such as the Nook and Kindle would send the library into oblivion. “Amazon’s new Kindle is another gadget that defeats the purpose of lugging a bag of books home from a Saturday afternoon jaunt to the local library,” Kelly Corrigan wrote in 2009. We suspected libraries would become a relic of the past.
Today: In 2024, the Daniel Boone Regional Library boasted 1,042,769 visitors between January and September, according to their annual service report. The library has advanced into the modern age, offering access to streaming services and digital literature to card holders. Services such as Libby and Kanopy allow readers to reserve and borrow virtual versions of their favorite novels. These services operate the same as the library, with due dates and hold policies. But the library remains a fixture of our community, far from obsolete. We still rely on the library as a study spot, a respite or a venue to keep us connected to the community.
Face It
Prediction: Passwords and physical keys would be another casualty of our progression to the modern age. “In 2025, we’ll enter physical or online domains after we’ve been biometrically authenticated as our thumbprints, voice, iris or face scans promise more tip-top security than a combination of symbols or a ring of keys,” Kelly Corrigan theorized.
Today: Apple introduced Touch ID in 2013 with the launch of the iPhone5S. Users apprehensively touched their thumbs to the home button, recording their fingerprints for easy phone access. It was a touchy subject: a user in a 2013 CBS article nervously quipped that “Apple introduced the world’s largest name-to-fingerprint database now available without even trying.” Some were impressed with the feat of technology but some users preferred to keep their thumbprints to themselves. In 2020, Apple took it a step further, introducing Face ID on the iPhone X. Face ID uses a camera to scan your face and connect infrared dots to your features, encoding it in the phone’s software. With these inventions, our passwords became obsolete and we can unlock our phones with just a glance. However, Face ID and Touch ID are not necessary; users have the choice to opt out of them in favor of a typed password on both Android and Apple phones. As far as keys go, most of us still rely on them, whether it be a metal key or a fob. But some car manufacturers followed suit when Tesla introduced a digital car key in 2017. Digital keys allow drivers to start, unlock or lock their car through an app. This technology raises a slew of suspicions and is still being developed by most carmakers. 31 car manufacturers, from Honda to Porsche, offer digital keys, according to Kelley Blue Book.
Lucky Pennies
Prediction: Pennies have been fighting the good fight now for years with many debating their worth,” Corrigan wrote in 2009. The one-cent coin was often cast aside, dropped into dusty dishes or abandoned altogether. If many do not stop their walk to pluck a copper coin from the sidewalk, why should the government continue to mint them? Inside Columbia theorized that pennies would no longer be in circulation come 2025.
Today: We are still receiving pennies more often than we are spending them. When we pay in cash, we expect to receive change in our palm. This is the most common occurrence in which the copper coins are exchanged, since pennies are the least spent coin in the United States. Many parking meters and vending machines do not accept them; it’s much easier to dish out silver quarters and dimes instead. There are 240 billion pennies in circulation now and production has not ceased. Several bills have been proposed in Congress to eliminate pennies, but none have passed. On the other side of the coin, Canada stopped minting their version of the penny in 2013. Canada’s Minister of Finance, Jim Flaherty, explained it simply: producing the penny was too expensive to justify. Costs in Canada are now rounded to the nearest fifth. In 2023, the U.S. Mint spent $179 million producing nickels and pennies, according to Fortune. It’s likely that we will continue to use- or not use- pennies as legal tender for the foreseeable future, despite the public urging the Federal Reserve to eradicate them.
Farewell to Fuel
Prediction: In 2009, the race cut back on fossil fuels lead researchers to algae. Yes, the green scum that floats on top of ponds and stagnant waters was predicted to begin taking the place of ethanol by 2025. The oil algae produces can be purified and distilled into butanol, a fuel substitute for gasoline. The upside of algae, apart from being a biofuel less harmful than fossil fuels, is that it feeds off of nitrates and carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is the most bountiful greenhouse gas and nitrates waft from sewage and other biohazards. An increase in algae farms, fed by nitrates and carbon dioxide, would also aid in limiting our greenhouse gas emissions.
We predicted that biofuel wouldn’t quite become commonplace by 2025, but that it would become a growing fraction of our fuel supply. But in 50 to 75 years, we could be fully reliant upon the green oil.
Today: Algae as a fuel source holds a few more disadvantages than previously believed. According to Spring Power and Gas, deriving fuel from algae is an expensive process and one that has not been researched enough yet. The production also requires copious amounts of water and it is difficult to ensure quality control. Algae fuel research still exists, but the most common fields for alternative fuels are biodiesel blend ethanol, hydrogen fuel and compressed natural gas.
In 2009, we didn’t expect electric vehicles to take center stage in the movement for greener transportation. Electric vehicles, or EV’s, have taken off in popularity in Columbia. Our city received a $3.6 million federal grant to install 24 to 46 EVs chargers throughout the city. Columbia was the only city in Missouri to receive this grant. The efforts to make EVs accessible in Columbia align with the city’s plan to combat climate change.
Columbia’s Climate Action Plan outlines a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 35% in 2035, 80% in 2050 and 100% in 2060. Clean transportation is a cornerstone of this goal; transportation is the second largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. The CAAP was developed by the Department of Sustainability, established in 2010. The department is headed by Director Eric Hempel, along time public servant. Hempel began work for the city in 2008 and became Director of Sustainability in 2012. He has confidence that making EVs commonplace can guide us to the goal of 35% fewer emissions by 2035.
“We have a policy that helps us bring alternative fuels to the norm,” Hempel says. “But EVs are the best fit right now. There are a lot of long-term benefits to owning and operating EVs.”
Columbia’s fleet of municipal vehicles have also begun trading gas-reliant cars for electric ones. Municipal EVs are more cost effective for the government and cut back on transportation emissions that contribute to climate change. Hempel says the city has exchanged combustion-engine vehicles for electric or hybrid pickup trucks, minivans and passenger vehicles. These are light-duty vehicles; the opportunity for fully-electric heavy-duty vehicles has not yet presented itself.
However, Hempel says it’s possible that the government will shift toward fully-electric trash trucks by 2040. “Our major focus right now is reducing greenhouse gas emissions to help reduce the impacts of climate change,” Hempel says. “The EVs help us lower emissions as an organization, which is significant.” Most of the EV chargers will go to the airport, but many will be installed at the Daniel Boone Library and the garage on 5th and Walnut for community charging. As required by the grant, the chargers must be available for public use. It’s far from the algae we predicted, but electric vehicles are picking up in popularity in Columbia. They eliminate fuel costs to the driver and help reduce the transportation emissions.
“We have a lot of work todo,” Hempel says. “As long as continue to bring on more renewable energy, we will start to see more consistent and dramatic progress.”
Perhaps in another 15 years, our city’s greenhouse gas emissions will decrease by over 35% and more Columbians will use renewable energy than gas. And in 2040, maybe electric trash trucks will pick up our beloved roll carts.
The Next Generation
The torch is slowly being passed as Columbia’s age demographic shifts younger. In 2009, Columbia’s most dominant group was 44 to 65. Now, the median age of Columbia is 31. According to 2024 census data, the 20-to-29-year old group makes up the largest portion of Columbians.
Fifteen years ago, we predicted that Columbia would only get older. But the baby boomer generation that once held a majority over our city has dwindled, with millennials now enjoying a larger share. Our city is getting younger and steadily growing. In 2009, Columbia boasted a population of 98,831. As of 2024, an estimated 120,000 people call Columbia home. In that population, women have a slight lead; our city is approximately 51% women and 49% men. With millennials and Gen Z becoming more prominent in our population, ousting the baby boomers, we will see the next generation start assuming major roles in our city.
Gen Z is the first generation to come of age in the internet era. This generation often catches criticism for being coddled, but their access to the internet has formed an eager, pragmatic group of young adults. According to Pew Research, Gen Zers are on track to be the best-educated generation with more young adults enrolling in higher education than ever before.
This is an ambitious generation – with some of the most shining examples right here in Columbia. In 2009, Inside Columbia gathered the class of 2025, at the ages of two and three, to catch a glimpse of the next generation.
This adorable group of toddlers was just beginning to learn their ABC’s. Sixteen years later, they are planning their adult lives. These are our future lawyers, nurses, veterinarians and hair stylists.
We reconnected with this same group of Gen Z-ers to find that the future is in good hands.
Columbia’s Future
Although Columbia has not yet implemented algae-powered cars and we still sit in monotonous congestion on I-70, our city’s future is bright. Maybe we will revisit this feature in 15 years and check in on our class of 2025: the 31 and 32-year-olds who once called Columbia home. By 2040, it’s entirely possible that Columbia will be bigger, safer and greener. We may all be driving electric cars and it’s also possible Columbia will be younger, as the population continues to trend younger as the years go on. The future of our city is up to a younger generation, which means the future may be brighter than we suspect.
Regardless of demographic shifts, advancements in technology and changes to the landscape, Columbia will always be Columbia. Our streets will always be populated with the best restaurants and small businesses. We will continue to be greeted by smiling faces, even if those faces age. Columbia will always be a savvy, eclectic and tight-knit town, traits that surpass the growing pains of time.
As for 2025, Columbia will strive to thrive with support from its uniquely caring citizens. As for 2040, check back with us in 15 years.
