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City Government

MAYOR HOTLINE November 13-17

 November 26, 2006 ⋅  Post a comment

DOWNTOWN, POOR TALK, TRASH TALK

11/14/06
Jim Allen
1060 E. Washaki
Meridian, ID 83646
Taxi/Vendor: Even though I’m not a resident of Boise, I do frequent the downtown area. As far as the problem with the push cart vendors and the taxi cabs, and the fights, I just want to weigh in there. The push carts and the taxis aren’t the problem, it’s the drunks. I think it’s totally ludicrous and in violation to the principles of this problem that you don’t deal with the problem. Deal with the problem, which are the drunks. In fact, because of that, my wife and I have many times said, “Do we really want to go downtown because of the problems that occur?” The drunks are providing no service to the citizens of Idaho. Get rid of them. Thank you.
M/CC

11/14/06
Janis Stevenor-Dale
Opposition to new school site: I would like to let the Mayor know that the Harris Ranch Neighborhood Association is opposed to the new school site that the Boise Independent School District has entered into a purchase agreement with David Turnbull. We are fully in support of the master planning process that has been developed by the Harris family and Harris Ranch Development. In support of that master planning process, prefer the original school site that was identified in that process which was located near Eckert Rd across from the Alta Harris park. We greatly appreciate your attention to this matter. Thank you very much.
M/CC
Action Taken: contacted

11/15/06
Rick Groff
899 Saratoga Drive
Boise, ID 83706
Community House: I’m calling to express my concern and disappointment and amazement that the city would continue to fight this case regarding the Community House. I think in the article in the paper, the city is trying to claim that it’s a complex issue but really it’s a pretty simple issue. The first issue is it’s not legal in government property to discriminate against women and children. You lost on that the first time and you’re going to lose again. The second issue is that government can’t promote religion. I’m especially shocked you’d continue to fight this particular argument in light of the fact that in the City of Boise, 37,000 people just voted to say no, we do want a separation of church and state. It concerns me that you are going to use city money to continue to fight this suit when you have many other needs and you know you’re probably going to lose. I’m quite certain that if you, Mayor, and the City Council had to pay the fees of fighting this appeal if you lost, you wouldn’t go forward. The only thing I can see happen is the public is going to have to express their outrage that you continue to use tax payer dollars to fight these two issues where you are clearly in violation of the Constitution. I will personally do whatever I can to stop you from continuing this outrageous behavior.
M/CC Legal

11/15/06
Rebecca Rene
6353 W. Battlement Court
Boise, ID 83703
Atlanta Gold: I’m calling because I’m not sure if I can make it to the meeting tonight on the Atlanta Gold Mine and I have very strong objections to the mine going in. If there’s anything I can do besides making phone calls. I’ve already given money in signed petitions but if there’s anything else, you can call me back. If you can pretend I called 1,000 times and mark me down 1,000 times against this stupid gold mine, then do it. Thanks very much and thanks for having the Mayor’s hotline.
M/CC
Action Taken: left msj

11/15/06
Jan Peterson
Dog issue: She has a dog problem. At 7am the dog was howling across the street. She thinks maybe the dog is having a problem with the cold. It was 30 degrees this morning. She called the humane society, called the police and they referred her to animal control. No one was available. 6 hours later animal control showed up and put a ticket on people’s door for barking. They called her and told her what they had done. She talked with Officer McCall of animal control. He told her dogs don’t freeze in the cold and that the dog was fine. They just gave the owners a warning for dog barking. He told her if there’s shelter, like a dog house, it is fine. No homeowner can be forced to have the dog go inside. The only thing we can complain about is the dog barking. She wants to see the law changed. According to the vet, the dog is in danger below 40 degrees. It’s barking is valuable in the neighborhood watching out for culprits. The dog barks like a cry for help.

11/16/06
Robert Clark
1249 Grand Ave # 237
Boise, ID 83702
Comments and Concerns: I have four concerns. One is about the Community House, Rescue Mission. If Roscoe doesn’t think men and children and families should live together, then why would he want to put it in the middle of where children and families live at this time? If they can’t live in the same building, why would they want to live in the same neighborhood? Especially if he sells the other one downtown and lets sexual predators plus pushing religion on people is wrong. Second is about the library downtown. You guys need to go to other cities and look like the Chamber of Commerce did and other people. Salt Lake City. If you want a vibrant downtown, you need a library downtown. Where do you get the money? Sell some of that extra property you all think you need to have and quit worrying about all these neighborhood libraries and have a beautiful downtown library to make some vibrant living downtown. Until you have people live downtown, you’ll never have good retail and other things that makes the downtown area grow. Go to other cities and look around. We have one of the worst pedestrian cities in the northwest. Why? Because you have rounded cities, one way streets, and you don’t care about that obviously. About the cab vendors on 6th and Main St. the problem is getting the cars off Capitol and 6th and let them park somewhere in the garages on other streets. Not on the corner of downtown. Go to other cities like Austin, TX where all the bars are in the same area and there’s no cars and there are places to walk. It’s all about walking, not driving. You’re forcing people to drive and drink. I’ve been downtown and I’ve rode cabs and a lot of my friends ride cabs. It’s a pain in the rear. If you had the cabs in a cab lane, it would work 150% better. Go to other cities and look. Another thing, you have an ordinance. If you don’t use the patio in a certain amount of time, they are supposed to be taken down. Why are you guys not forcing the ordinances? Or is the downtown association pushing you not to? On 8th St. where CCDC runs the ordinance for the space, they are all pushed back the right length and you can walk around. Where you have outdoor patios out there, you can’t walk two by two, you can barely walk by one. Now around 6th and Main, it is the same thing. They are not supposed to be permanent. Read your ordinance. You need to talk to the people that live here about sexual predators too. One thing they want me to ask is, Mayor Bieter and the rest of the City Council, do you believe in protecting our children? If you say yes then we need to do more about sexual predators. I know you’re not the judge and jury, but let’s do something for the children. They have to live with it the rest of their lives. We need to teach society there is no cure. Quit believing there is. Don’t let the doctor out here at the Correction Institution tell you anything different. If you believe and you want to stay in office, let your citizens know how you stand. Quit hiding behind your walls. It’s time to speak up. If you want a vibrant downtown, don’t do what the last City Hall did before and ran it like Nordstroms out of town that never will come here. Let’s have a vibrant downtown. Another thing is, if you want a vibrant downtown; let it roll like it’s going to. Don’t worry about bringing families in here. If there’s kids, that’s fine. Quit being like the Boise School District and worrying about having more kids so they can get more money from the government per child. Lets downsize but lets make is safe. Work with the builders, developers, people that live there. Another thing is about the skinny houses up off of Vista areas up on the bench. If you go look at some of those old homes, they never had it cleaned up until these new skinny houses came in. If you go to Phoenix with these self-contained communities, you walk behind houses and meet your neighbor. I guarantee you the majority of these people don’t know their neighbors. When you walk behind back yards in Phoenix in these communities, you meet people. I did. You don’t meet neighbors because everyone drives in their garage, shuts the door, and goes in the back yard in the summer and their house in the winter. Don’t tell me these people are worried about their neighborhoods. They are worried about change. Change can be good and can be bad. It’s all up to you and the citizens of this city. You have a good winter. Bye.
M/CC

11/16/06
Joe Basavik
3623 Williamsburg Way
Boise, ID 83706
BFI : I think if I was running the garbage company, my game would be to collect as little garbage as we can. For instance, if it’s a rainy night, I’d have the recycle truck pull up prior to 8am. People are not going to set their recyclables out on the curb when it’s raining. If it is the time for picking up leaves, I would pick them up sporadically in the morning or afternoon. I’d have the guys in the truck pick them up beforehand or afterwards so in the event that the homeowners will have no idea when to expect leaf pickup. Such as today, Thursday, the 16th, it’s raining this morning. I set my leaves out after calling BFI and being assured they would pick them up anytime they want. I think if I was them, I would figure out better plans for not picking up garbage. I mean hell; it saves effort, gas, and everything else. Goodbye.
PW

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