Comments on: Boise Attempts “Valentine Day Massacre” On ACHD, Shoots Mayor, Council In Foot

By: Cynic

Cynic — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 11:50:38 +0000

Hey Eastern, the Whole Foods accesses are onto State highways. That’s ITD’s jurisdiction, not ACHD’s.
The yellow sidewalk”pads” on sidewalk ramps are required by the Americans With Disabilities Act so if you don’t like these, talk to your federal lawmakers.

By: Cynic

Cynic — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 11:44:24 +0000

Eastern, you obviously don’t know much about ACHD. The communications dept goes far beyond communications. That dept handles notices to public required by law. Also extensive public out reach, including open houses, to gather the public’s input on projects, how the public wants Valley to function and look and the People’s PRIORITIES. All that information goes to the commissioners for deliberation on decisions.
ITD does almost no public outreach – just does what the board wants without asking public’s opinion.

By: eastern

eastern — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 02:11:32 +0000

ACHD – for anyone cheering for ACHD’s efforts, there are many places to look around to see their efforts are incomplete and inefficient.
Walgreen’s/Whole Foods access & regress being the newest one.

These yellow sidewalk pads all around town– How much money was that project? In many parts of town it makes absolutely no sense.

Granted the road business is a tough job – but between the City/ACHD planning cluster, the wasted money, the litigation tendency, the inconsistent treatment of applications, the lack of published policies, and the nonsense by ACHD- I think Boise City has good points in their ‘flyer’. Baker’s response and her letter proves many of the points against ACHD. It took her a week to the one page letter out.

Why is ACHD even hauling these people to the ACHD office? The Capitol has plenty of space to make a presentation to the committee – it just has some real crappy roads surrounding it, like State Street for example.

By: eastern

eastern — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 01:40:30 +0000

REMINDER- it was not along ago ACHD Commissioner openly slammed Mayor Bieter for his pay raise.

Instead of a “you’re wrong” letter from Cmr. Baker I would have like to see the answers to the questions.

Communications_ YES ACHD has more people in their communications department RELATIVELY than does ITD. ITD District 3 has 1 Public Information Officer. District 3 covers SW Idaho.
ACHD recently had SEVEN employees in their communications department. ITD for the WHOLE STATE has 12.
Break out the budget dollars and it’s obvious ACHD spends too much in trying to ‘improve their image’. Sounds a lot like Boise Council hiring contractors to sell their message.

By: JJ

JJ — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 23:34:21 +0000

Yes, bad for the city, lack of professionalism, dumb move by the mayor and his associates……but……ACHD’s impact fees are excessive, I believe the examples and had a similar expereince of my own. I was opening up a restaraunt in downtown boise, in a space previsouly occupied by a restaraunt, and was told to cough up $20K for ACHD impact fees. My whole business development budget was $100K, ACHD impact fees were 20% of my total budget, total killer, I walked away.

ACHD’s response disputes the dollar value reported for their administration, but they don’t tell us what they do spend on adminstration and how that figure coresponds to ITD or other benchmark.

ACHD’s response attacks the city’s position but fails on most points to effectively counter the argument.

Again stupid of the city, but ACHD could have countered with more facts, not general statements on how the City can not prove their points.

By: The Speckled Hen

The Speckled Hen — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 18:25:01 +0000

The comment that I find most entertaining is Boise City asserting that THEY do land use planning. They may plan for land use they fall flat on their face when it comes to land use implementation.

Look at the Whole Foods plot. Here a chain was allowed to plop down a typical suburban strip mall store design, filled with parking spaces, in a downtown area. What is walkable about that? Why would someone take the bus when they have to walk across a sea of parking to get to the front door? That’s why ACHD responds the way they do–Boise and the other cities implement only car-oriented development. Walgreens, WinCo, Chick-Fil-A, Whole Foods–just a taste of Meridian in downtown Boise (CCDC’s new slogan?).

By: boisecynic

boisecynic — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 18:16:59 +0000

You know what cynic, instead of being a smart aleck, how about quoting and then using a description such as “mid way down” or 4th paragraph.

By: Rod in SE Boise

Rod in SE Boise — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 18:16:52 +0000

What evidence is there that the Boise animosity to the ACHD is related to trains and trolleys? And if not that, then what is causing this?

By: boisecynic

boisecynic — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 18:06:06 +0000

I have read both of those 3 times, I don’t see it.

You know what, the better online sources and forums such as wikipedia and reddit and SSP have means of linking directly back to passages in question.

By: erico49

erico49 — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 17:08:13 +0000

Tom..doesn’t have to be Rainey.. or even an elected sheriff. Maybe we hire Masterson. That’s all on the table. It just seems like a lot of duplication. City residents pay for the Sheriff but get zip for their money.