City Government

Mayor Hotline April 12 to 18

HOTLINE
April 12 – 18, 2008
UNUSUAL NORTHEND WIFE, GET ENVIRONMENTAL, FEARFUL RESIDENT, MESS AT NEW LIBRARY SITE, FIX THE ECONOMY, FIX THE TRANSPORTATION, FIX THE TRFFIC
4/12/08
Jen Whitewing
Misc:
I’m not your normal Northend housewife. I very much appreciate living in Boise, Idaho; it’s brought my family tremendous blessings. Even my son’s high school experience at Capital High School has been good. I hope that there will be rooftop gardens, solar power, walking, bike riding, but also I just want to make one comment. I have had some very unsafe experiences on the city buses. I think the trains are a fabulous idea; trains are sometimes calmer than buses. They go in more direct routes and they don’t stop as much. Buses seem pretty stressful for everyone involved when you try to get five, ten, or twenty miles; it’s almost impossible sometimes. Anyway, conform or be cast out; I guess that’s what I get for walking, riding a bike, and taking the bus rather than purchasing a gas-guzzling car. What can I say? Too much liberal arts education certainly. Thank you very much.


4/12/08
Margaret Rymer
1516 Harrison Blvd.
Boise, ID 83702
Environmental: I’m calling because I was wondering what the Mayor and the city are doing to make Boise a more environmental city, and I also want to see if we are considering putting any solar panels on things like city government buildings and schools in order to model ourselves as a more environmental city. I know that Chicago is a very environmental city these days; Austin, and I heard a program about environmental cities
and we weren’t even mentioned. I would really like to see what we can do and what I can do to help as well as a citizen. Thank you.
Action Taken: Contacted

4/13/08
Angela
Airport: I was wondering what all the planes in the sky were for today. I wouldappreciate a call back.
Action Taken: contact
They were guard A-10’s
4/14/08
Darlene Fletcher
210 E. Woodvine
Lot Lines: I’m calling in regard to a building that they’re trying to get over on my side of the lot. I was just wondering how I could stop them from building on my lot. It’s already been appraised and everything. Is there any way I can go about stopping this? This is my first encounter with this and I don’t quite know who to contact or what to do about it.
Thank you and have a good day.
Action Taken: contacted
PDS

4/14/08
Bruce Richey
Roller Hockey: I’m calling about a request for the Parks organization; if you would include a roller hockey rink in your upcoming planning, or look into it becoming an upcoming sport around the country. It’s growing quite rapidly and is a lot of fun. I recently moved from Florida and they had children and adult leagues that were very well attended, and very well run. It was a lot of fun for kids and adults and not very expensive. It would be a fun addition to some parks here in the Treasure Valley area and I would love to see something come up in one of the newer parks that are being planned or even added to an existing park. Thank you.
Action Taken: contacted
4/15/08
Mark Clark
112 N. Wilson St.
Boise, ID 83706
Motorcycle Safety: I just wanted to mention that with the increase in the number of motorcycles and scooters on the roads, I would like to see more awareness campaigns brought forth to enlighten the general public as to the safety concerns and the ability to be able to see these motorcycles. I see where another fellow died yesterday as a car
turned left in front of him. You know this is a pretty regular thing now days. I’ll be contacting lawmakers regarding laws in regard to right-of-way violations when it deals with injury or death, because right now a guy could get killed on his motorcycle and the right-of-way violator would receive a paltry sum in the way of fines – $65 or something
like that. So, a little bit of accountability there, and you’ll see that any given day now that the weather is nice, there’s just a ton of motorcycles out there on the road and some of them are probably less experienced than others. I would like to see some awareness campaigns regarding motorcycles; some genuine work on this type of deal especially since the gas prices are up, we’re only going to see motorcycle usage increase.
DFA
Action Taken: contacted

4/17/08
Sam Hui
4624 W.State St.
Collister Shopping Center: Hello Mayor Bieter. I am with Nam King Restaurant here in Boise, Idaho at State St. & Collister. I have some questions about the new public library here at State St. and Collister. I’m not sure if you’re aware of all the renovation and what not that the new ownership of this shopping center, which includes the Boise Public
Library. I don’t know if you understand what is going on here, and I would like to speak with somebody regarding what is going on here because it is affecting our business and I know it’s affecting the Library. No one can get in and out of this place; there are safety and fire hazards; there are handicap access issues going on here, and I would like to actually talk to you about the lease that the City of Boise has signed for the Public
Library. I think there are some issues that concern me and I know it’s public record, so I would appreciate it if somebody would get back to me on some of these issues because they’re very important. Just drive out here and take a look for yourself. Thank
you very much.
Action Taken: contacted
PDS

4/17/08
Colleen White
11708 W. Freedom Dr.
Boise, ID 83713
BPD: I’m actually calling, being prompted after a comment that was made by my father who will be 90 this year. He is living alone on the Boise Bench where he has owned his home there since 1967. My mother passed away a couple of years ago, so he is living alone. He commented that he and another elderly neighbor on the same street (he lives
on Johnson St. at the intersection of Cassia and Johnson near Monroe School) are concerned specifically because there is at least one home, and potentially two, that are rented out with many young people living in it, who they believe may be students at college, or not. This is in regards to safety. Things have happened a couple of different times that have caused the police to come down there. They feel like they can’t comment to these young people because they may get a retaliatory affect from that on their own property. For instance, trash pick-up day, numerous things of beer containers, etc. sitting out there; things coming across onto their yards from the other yards. My main concern is that my elderly father, who is perfectly capable of taking care of himself, now has to fear his neighbors because he has no physical strength to defend himself.
I’m sure it’s not something that runs through his mind every single minute of the day, but I’m concerned. If I could get a call back regarding maybe extra patrols there to check out the rentals. I don’t know the specific addresses of the rentals, but they are in the middle of a dead end street with a cul-de-sac. Thank you for your consideration.
BPD
Action Taken: left msj

4/17/08
Dale Bendixen
5731 Woodcross Dr.
Boise, ID 83716
Economy: I would like to know what the Mayor and the Governor are going to do about the financial situation in the state of Idaho. I am a machinist; I make a half-way decent wage, yet I am unable to afford any of my bills or groceries any more because the price of groceries and gas are completely outrageous. I can’t get any help from the state or
any with any kind of food stamps or anything like that, and quite frankly this is just getting pretty ridiculous. I would like to know if these concerns are being addressed, and if so, what are they planning on doing about it? Thank you very much.
Action Taken: left msj

4/18/08
Michael Tobin
389-2098
Traffic: I live in the North End Neighborhood near Camelback Park. Neighbors, including myself, are concerned about the traffic around the park. We notice that on 13th almost no one goes the speed limit of 20 miles an hour and there’s a destination park for kids and a playground right there. You do a great job with controlling speed around schools, and I feel like this playground deserves the same. Secondly, Heron St. next to
the park is a collector street and has a lot of traffic, especially during rush hours, and there are no speed bumps, speed limit signs, or cross walks and I think since so many people walk to the park from the neighborhood, I think more attention needs to be paid to creating a safer environment for foot traffic and pedestrians before tragedy happens.
Thanks.
BPD

Comments & Discussion

Comments are closed for this post.

  1. Re: Jen’s comment, I read ValleyRide will be moving from a flag-down-the-bus system to a fixed-stop system. According to the source this must have already happened in Canyon County and will be happening in Ada County this spring/summer ’08. According to ValleyRide it will improve safety. (I’d presume so, I’ve seen a lot of unusual/unsafe driving manuvers around buses stoped in unpredictable spots, as well as people standing on the side of busy roads in any number of places.)

    With fewer unpredicatble stops it may be less “stressful,” depending on what your definition of that is. (With stops being farther apart, it might be more stressful on your legs!)

    Source: http://www.valleyride.org/Portals/1/MovingToABusStopSystem.pdf
    (Watch out, it’s a PDF for no particular reason other than to bar access to the information.)

  2. Mrs. Whitewing indeed appears to be atypical insomuch as the vast majority of folks west of the Mississippi appear more eager to be boiled-in-oil-alive, than set foot on Mass Transit.

    For an undignified way to express her concern about the need for better mass transit solutions, I’d invite her to participate in Boise’s 1st Annual No Pants Day on Friday, May 2nd.

    ———————————-

    Boise’s 1st Annual No Pants Day was conceived during a recent forum regarding the dismal state of Mass Transit in the Treasure Valley, and is an amalgamation of International “No Pants Day” , Improv Everywheres’ “No Pants Subway Ride” , and myriad consciousness raising events.

    It is not a protest, rather: “It is a day where everyone, be they students, respectable businessmen, or cherished community leaders, leave their pants behind, and have a little fun”.

    And… Generate awareness about the Treasure Valley’s need for more intelligent transportation solutions by gathering with friends and family and utilizing existing Public Transportation.

    If only to take a “2 Buck Tour” of our fair city (the cost of an all day Bus Pass).

    Visit http://www.valleyride.org for Bus Schedules

    “Usually this means wearing thick, appropriately modest boxer shorts, but bloomers, slips, briefs, and boxer-briefs all work as well”.

    ————————————————-

    Participants are encouraged to dress as they normally would, sans pants, and respond to inquiries about their trouserless state with quips such as: “Damn… I forgot my Pants Again”, “Someone Stole ’em”, or simply “It’s No Pants Day Silly”.

    —————————————————

    Boise No Pants Day has received support from Hundreds of Citizens, Area Merchants, BSU’s Students for Active Civic Engagement, Finland’s No Pants Day, and received press coverage by the Idaho Press Tribune, Arbiter, and as far away as Detroit, Florida and Virginia.

  3. Victor Antablian
    Sep 17, 2008, 3:20 pm

    Hello –
    I just recently moved to the area and I’m interested in helping run a new roller rink that hopefully is in the plans. I will be coaching an ice hockey team at Idaho Iceworld, recently joined the chamber of commerce and I just want to be part of something that I think will be a growing entity in this area. Are there any plans to build an outdoor or indoor roller rink? If not, I would like to be a part of this. I am attending the parks and recreation meeting tomorrow and will also bring it up if allowed.

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