BOI Airport Admits Parking Not Needed

Nice little Q&A by Tim Woodward in the DAILY PAPER Sunday.
Seems the Boise Airport didn’t really need the $29 million five story parking garage stopped by the GUARDIAN editor five years ago. In fact, there isn’t even demand for a surface lot that cost just $2 million or so to build. [...]

Avimor Faces Dismal Future

The Avimor planned community along Highway 55 north of Eagle has been full of hype, but little else and today things took a turn for the worse.
A GUARDIAN contributor with good sources offers this:
“It is true that Avimor’s parent company SunCor Development is up for sale but has not yet changed hands. In fact, the [...]

Boise Joins Growthophobe Movement, GUARDIAN Offers “Back Story”

In a brilliant act to cut development in the Foothills, Team Dave has apparently seen the light and joined the GUARDIAN GROWTHOPHOBE movement.
Boise City Council Tuesday made public the purchase of Hammer Flat – a 701-acre wintering range for mule deer, elk and antelope in east Boise – using funds generated by the [...]

Boise Fire Beyond The Limits

THIS IS A REVISED STORY WITH ADDITIONAL INFORMATION REGARDING I-84 RESPONSES. SOME COMMENTS BELOW MAY NO LONGER APPLY.

We have to side up with Boise FD Chief Dennis Doan and the City Attorney when it comes to collecting $15,000 from the owner of a $500,000 house outside the city which caught fire in 2007.

Boise [...]

Amendment Seeks To Deny Voter Rights

The Idaho legislature will soon be considering HJR 005 which looks pretty tame at first glance, but it is designed to deny citizens the right to approve long term debt at airports and allow airports to go into the real estate speculation and rental business. Here is the GUARDIAN’s take on the bill.

The net [...]

Attorney General Asked To Investigate Caldwell Urban Renewal

Canyon County Prosecutor John Bujak announced Today he will petition the office of Idaho Attorney General to investigate information revealed yesterday by the Boise and Caldwell GUARDIAN news blogs.
“Based on the information presented and the check register of the agency, the case certainly merits further investigation,” said Bujak. He explained the case will start [...]

Audit Of Caldwell Urban Renewal Imperative

Caldwell GUARDIAN editor Paul Alldredge has been working tirelessly to shed light on the excesses and deceptive activities of urban renewal agencies in Canyon County. In his latest effort he obtained the check register of the Caldwell Urban Renewal Agency which reveals a pattern of abuse and deception. This report will draw [...]

Update On Desire Named Street Car

The DAILY PAPER has joined the long list of opponents to Team Dave’s “Desire Named Street Car” with a HUGE EDITORIAL in Sunday’s edition. They didn’t go soa as advocating a massive increase in the bus system, but it is clear (to us) the Statesman has come over to the GUARDIAN side.
Reporter Cynthia Sewell [...]

City Has Poor Record On Land Speculation

The Daily Paper ran a lengthy story Saturday detailing plans by Team Dave to sell a bunch of “surplus property” to finance other projects intended to stimulate the economy through GROWTH.
The City can’t be trusted to follow through. Since the inception of the GUARDIAN we have watched the city buy land with grandiose plans [...]

Governments Fight Each Other With PR Efforts

The last minute “panic attack” to to get the Air Force to locate not one, but two bases of F-35 fighter jets in Idaho brings to mind some the other ill fated government-funded Public Relations efforts we have seen over the years.
If the F-35 follows in the footsteps of most of the other projects [...]

Boise Purchases More Out of County Land

When it comes to phosphorous, a plethora of people and pots of poop puts plenty of pressure for proper procedure to prevent pollution and provide protection.
A plan by Boise’s Public Works Dept. to reduce phosphorous in the Boise River sounds like a good environmental move on the face of it and one that [...]

Macy’s Departure Is Due To Inept Government

Macy’s leaving downtown Boise comes as no surprise. For more than 40 years we have watched officials tout their “vision for the future” in downtown Boise. It changes with each new planner and consultant.

The Bon Marche (Macy’s today), J.C. Penney’s, The Mode, Falk’s I.D. and many smaller merchants vanished, thanks to the far [...]

Boise City Buys Out of County Land

Last week at a special council session, Boise City acquired a piece of land in Boise County known as Stack Rock. The landmark is a popular spot with hikers and mountain bikers who previously had to cross private property to reach it. We just hope Boise doesn’t get a hankering for Tamarack!

It was [...]

GUARDIAN Top 2009 Stories By Month

As the legacy media does its annual TOP TEN stories to fill space between the holidays, the GUARDIAN has done the same thing based on what we have posted in the past year.
In rereading some of the posts and comments, it appears we have an inordinate number of comments on police and fire stories. [...]

GUARDIAN Christmas Wish List

For those who believe in Santa Clause, we have a Christmas wish list which has plenty of room for additional items.

A toy train for Dave Bieter so he will stop trying to force a trolley and AMTRAK upon the kind, decent inhabitants of the City of Trees.
A toy ambulance for the Boise FD so they [...]

Growthophobes Claim Victory In Water Fight

That mega subdivision planned north of Eagle needed a gusher of groundwater and came up with only a trickle as a result of an Idaho Department of Water Resources ruling Monday.
The developer known as M3 won approval for only one-sixth of the water right requested from Water Resources in what GROWTHOPHOBES living north [...]

Hyped Development Now Pathetic Footnote

Interesting note for GROWTHOPHOBES out Eagle way.
When the developers offered all the hype for a golf course community, the city fathers and mothers of Eagle jumped aboard and all crowed about pumping millions upon millions of dollars into the Treasure Valley annually.
It never happened because the developers didn’t have the money–as with Avimor, [...]

Urban Renewal Agencies Plot State Law Revisions

While most of us are planning for the holidays and trying to finance toys for the kids, urban renewal agencies around the state are plotting legislation that will give them unbridled control of spending public funds for projects that belong under city control–like sewers, transportation, and public buildings.
Their plan to get the state [...]

City, Simplot Can’t Agree On New Building

A proposal for an agricultural museum and new offices for the J. R. Simplot Company to be built by the family foundation for about $100 million in downtown Boise is apparently on hold.
Simplot and City officials have been meeting to hash out designs issues after the city declared the initial Simplot idea was not to [...]

Boise FD Expands Service Area With Takeover

When Boise Fire Department closed #6 station at Liberty and Fairview 15 or more years ago, they turned around and PAID what is now the North Ada District to provide fire service to that station and the surrounding area along Fairview.

Now, after years of “fee for service,” the BFD is doing a flip flop and [...]