Comments on: Boise Greenbelt Gets Attaboy

By: Gary Segers

Gary Segers — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 13:45:26 +0000

Good piece on the Greenbelt in Boise. Unfortunately Garden City elected officials, unlike Boise, has thumbed their collective noses at the public and banned bike riding on the Greenbelt in Riverside Village. Go to the Citizens for an Open Greenbelt website (www.idahocog.org) and you’ll learn much more. Please join us on our fight.

As to the public access in Plantation – that is a rather convoluted issue but again, has to do with Garden City’s attempt to keep the public away from those pricey riverfront properties and golf course only to serve their political interests. The public access that James Bond is referring to is likely to be State land below the high water mark. That is public land but land above the high water mark can be private and must be planned by the controlling jurisdiction – in this case Garden City. From our research Garden City ignored what was being done in the rest of the TV Greenbelt and elected to not develop a greenbelt through Plantation and the golf course – just like in Riverside Village. Why? It’s all politics.

Regarding the Youtube video. Did you notice that there was a caution about developers trying to restrict the public use of the greenbelt? Unfortunately John Evans and the Idaho Forest Industries got away with this in Garden City.

BTW, we really appreciate the BG’s past coverage of COG’s campaign to open the Garden City greenbelt to all users. Thanks for the support Dave!

By: James Bond

James Bond — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:17:15 +0000

Dave, do you know anything about the public easement that runs across all the back yards next to the river in the Plantation subdivision? I just found out this week that all those properties have a “public” easement that is obviously some kind of pathway, yet there is no access and no apparent plans of any kind to use it. Plus, who owns this “public” easement” It just seems very odd. These homeowners have a significant cloud on their titles because of this, and the public has no access whatsoever. It’s crazy.

EDITOR NOTE
Mr. Bond–
Sounds like some covert operations are in order. Suggest you contact the LAND RECORDS people at the Ada County Assessor office–they are likely to be quite helpful as it is not boring routine. Call them at 287-7200, suffer the recording and go for the LAND RECORDS people. Then, report back to the GUARDIAN, it sounds like potential fun for the Greenbelt biker crew of which I assume you are one.

By: Clancy

Clancy — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:02:50 +0000

Good to see the police helping to educate the bike going populace. Now if they could only show their volunteers how to wear a helmet.

By: Gordon

Gordon — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 06:40:25 +0000

Damn it, Guardian! I can’t find anything to complain about in this post.
You gonna ruin my reputation!

By: Cyclops

Cyclops — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:03:33 +0000

Tango, you make some valid points. I fail to see how anyone with history in the valley could be happy with the current situation. I do believe we will experience a certain level of growth, but at the same time we have done a miserable job of managing that growth. A substantial number of people were very happy with this valley 30 years ago. Those same people were concerned about where the valley was headed 20 years ago. 10 years ago we were upset with what the valley had become. Today we are just plain pissed at what the valley is, and very worried about what it will be like 10 years from now. Maybe that’s a function of aging,of both the valley and us. There just seems to be a better way to run this railroad.

By: Boise "Whining" Tango

Boise "Whining" Tango — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 23:09:00 +0000

P.S. Good thing that whole “Love It or Leave It” mentality hadn’t prevailed when the Greenbelt was being considered, or we’d all still be dumping cars, trash and “foaming phosphates” into the water and along the banks.

I mean, it had been good enough up until then and was better than L.A. (5 years after Watts).

Right?

By: Boise "Whining" Tango

Boise "Whining" Tango — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:21:39 +0000

Antiphobe, et al-

“…there are plenty of folks in LA who would love to trade places with you!”

Well, Duh! I’m sure many Baghdadians and Somalis would also.

“Welcome to Boise – We’re not as Bad as L.A.” should make a wonderful sign out on the Connector!

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I never drew a comparrison between L.A. Proper (where I lived and worked for 3+ Years, enduring the Rodney King Riots, Northridge Quake, etc…) and Boise. What I’ve said (and will continue to say) is that Boise is increasingly looking like a SUBURB of Los Angeles.

Not a good thing for anyone, except perhaps cookie-cutter developers and aspiring gang-bangers (Note the exponential increase in Tip-of-the-Iceberg Gang Tags / Graffiti).

————-

Bogus Basin and the Payette River are indeed beautiful; but NOT part of Boise.

Many fine restaurants are folding and / or leaving for Eagle, leaving behind chains. And the proliferation of Gin Mills is good for whom, exactly?

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Ah . . . The moldy, oldie “Love It or Leave It” gambit never fails to amuse.

What you fail to grasp is that I DO love Boise. Dearly. And I refuse to blithely accept it’s continued slide into homogeneous mediocrity.

Which is why I proudly, enthusiastically, and at every opportunity cry: “The Emperor Wears No Clothes!” when the Emperor is bare ass naked.

By: Cyclops

Cyclops — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:49:54 +0000

The Guardian and the Phobe are right on with their assertion of how much the greenbelt means to all of us. Right after we get the sign for the MK Nature Center, maybe someone could convince the mayor and city council of Garden City, that they really don’t have the right to “close off” bike traffic through River Run. Then the greenbelt would be on the way to be even a greater “jewel” in the entire valley’s crown! That was the vision of the people that started the process, and that vision should be realized.

By: Brent Thomas

Brent Thomas — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 19:02:28 +0000

As an Fish and Game employee I’ll see what can be done about improving signage for the Nature Center. Great idea! I’ll keep you posted.

By: boisecynic

boisecynic — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:31:11 +0000

Guardian;

I never knew about the daily paper photos, do you have any copies you can post here? I found this video at parks and rec, created by former city Councilman Bill Onweiler in 1970. If you haven’t seen this, any of you, it’s worth a look. The quality is not very good but it’s the content that matters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dskPRdi2k9I

EDITOR NOTE–Chances are better than even that I was sitting next to whomever shot the movies. They were probably shot from the same chopper as my stills.