ACHD

New GUARDIAN Banner Photo

PREVIOUS GUARDIAN BANNER PHOTO

PREVIOUS GUARDIAN BANNER PHOTO


After years of sticking with the same picture for the banner, the GUARDIAN has caved to reader suggestions and updated the image above.

While the old photo was what we liked about Boise–a clean view of the foothills over the downtown–the new one is much more compact, thanks to the intent of local politicos and developers to “increase density.”

We can’t help but think back nearly a decade when the GUARDIAN began offering the “different slant on the news” in 2005. Corruption was exposed at the “Poop Farm,” and Boise began a series of ill advised legal battles–losing most of them–which cost citizens hundreds of thousands in fees. There was the fight against the Christians over allowing a vote on moving the Ten Commandments tablet, denying citizens the right to vote on debt at the airport for a parking garage, attempts to ban free speech of panhandlers, the fiasco over the homeless shelter, the ongoing battle with ACHD over parking meter sensors,….the list of defeats goes on.

They spent many thousands of dollars on public relations efforts to bend public opinion on everything from bike lanes to trolley cars. When the GUARDIAN dubbed Team Dave’s effort the “Trolley Folly,” they came out with a statement saying the proper name was, “Street Car.” The GUARDIAN responded by calling that effort the “Desire Named Street Car.

We have changed the faces on the council, but only slightly, and most of them are now firmly on Mayor Dave Bieter’s “Team Dave.” He has been successful in re-election bids and has made repeated concessions to developers over city-owned land, development fees, etc.

The “good fight” continues with the new banner picture serving as the backdrop for another decade of GUARDIAN slant. Finally, we coined the term “GROWTHOPHOBE” to define our fear of growth for the sake of growth. Check out where GOOGLE sends you on that one.

Comments & Discussion

Comments are closed for this post.

  1. Great photo Dave! Congrats on your always dignified posts.

  2. Beautiful.

  3. Another great shot!

    The only down side is that you are forced to include the “ugliest building in America – that being the butt (backside) of the Aspen building.

  4. nice photo of downtown but not a good choice of a photo for the banner.
    No BSU, no skyline, no Bogus, no parks.
    Your own photo of March 16th, would be a much better perspective, with the lovely evening sunset.

  5. Excellent pic BG, now back to business:

    It wasn’t just team Dave tooting the trolley whistle. If I recall correctly, Team Coles spent $300,000 on the Regio Sprinter for a week of demo rides between Meridian and The Depot. No word if any of those riders actually walked that last mile and a half to downtown.

    Sigh, that $300,000 would have completed about 1/3rd of the missing greenbelt between Americana and Main.

    EDITOR NOTE–You are correct. Coles was also the one who pushed for a police station in the flood plain along Fairview without a vote of the citizens. I stopped that in court and saved citizens about $15,000,000 when the city paid cash for the new “City Hall West.”

  6. Dave, I thought I detected a new masthead photo in the last day or two. But I just assumed you took the old one and photoshopped a Mormon temple into the middle of it.
    (-;

    I see over on the “alternative” BW website, there’s a story about how Team Dave is lamenting that homeowners are being burdened with more and more of the tax load, and commercial property with less. (That is, when Team Dave isn’t off to another ribbon-cutting or groundbreaking for another tax-exempt commercial property.)

    Thanks for being a burr under the saddle, Dave! YOU ROCK!

  7. Bright lights, Big City.

    I like the close up composition, but some of the those lights are distracting (pink on Zions, garage, traffic)

  8. Nice shot, Dave! Now, if you’d pull back and pan to the right…. I miss the foothills backdrop.

    EDITOR NOTE–Rabula and others, the view is from the Depot. The old view was from Crescent Rim. Part of our problem was the wide format and the width. If we shot a wide view showing EVERYTHING, the building would be so tiny as to be insignificant. We shot this at dusk and did no manipulation in Photoshop with regard to colors etc. The biggest challenge was to separate the beige buildings which blended together (the “skyline” has vanished). We feel it shows the “increased density” sought by the city leaders.

  9. very exciting skyline you have captured here. dave z.

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