Small town flavor pretty much gone thanks to dictator Dave Bieter.

Reality check — the Guardian’s tipster got a number of things wrong, at least regarding ACHD. A list:

1. The project is the Royal Boulevard Extension, from 9th to Capitol Boulevard. It comes out of a program started in 2013 that allows cities to request projects based on economic development goals.

2. Boise City’s application said it wanted to relieve congestion at Capitol/University and improve pedestrian and cyclist access to Ann Morrison Park — things the project will undoubtedly do. The benefits for the Lusk area’s redevelopment were also played up.

3. The project is currently a concept only, will be designed later this year and will be built in 2016 — all part of ACHD’s normal process, no vaulting.

4. ACHD builds sidewalks and bike lanes that meet or exceed safety standards; the only dysfunction here is the tipster’s take on what’s real.

Cynic: Small town flavor pretty much gone thanks to dictator Dave Bieter.

My take: Bieter has definitely taken that torch and run with it… but it was passed to him by Coles… who had it passed to him by Kempthorne.

Kempthorne wasn’t a Boise resident – he came here from California by way of Moscow. He had no sense of “small town Boise,” and to me that seems to be the era in Boise history when we turned our backs on small-town. We got our big climate-controlled mall and Pavilion and flying wye, and 500 new national-chain stores and restaurants. Quality livin’!

I s’pose somebody relocating to Boise from a Los Angeles or Seattle or Bay Area would still find it quaint and small-town-like… the same way I’d find Parma or Buhl quaint and small-town-like.

As a California transplant, I cringe at the broad brushstroke used to supposedly describe “me.” I was born/raised in Pasadena, CA. Parts of BoDo very much remind me of Old Pasadena, and especially comparing historical/architectural context of what we have here and visualizing future potential. In Old Pasadena, it took planning and progressive thought to revitalize what had become a dump (‘70s)…then replete with drug dealers, bums, crime, boarded up/crumbling structures etc.

That sort of discussion vision development needs to take place in Boise now, else we risk losing some of the soul remaining. The reason I don’t venture into Meridian much is just as many reference….no personality, block-after-block of non-descript stucco box stores and chain restaurants (what’s with all the fast food joints there?), traffic and poor road/circulation planning.

Whether from CA or other state, the majority of “transplants” are not as you generalize….. most of us moved out for a reason and moved here for a reason…and that reason is not to sell you on traffic and big stucco boxes. Recognize that in Boise, change and growth are certain just as in most of the world. And that is a good thing. Would you prefer the alternative (Detroit?)? Rather than touting the “back in the good ol’ days” philosophy that any one of us can use to describe our earlier years, why not embrace and participate in positive change that allows for responsible growth (see Old Pasadena http://oldpasadena.org/ or Old Towne Orange, CA…or any number of similar towns in the US)? An opinion might be more valuable in the process of positive and well-thought change than it is as an anonymous voice of dissent on The Guardian.

I agree with many of what is said regarding trolleys and huge road projects…building for the sake of building is backward, and building anything because there is some sort of partial government money is not resulting in a free-money windfall if we don’t need the project, it is not well thought, and we waste local funds to supplement to cost. The old adage “form follows function” needs to be revisited here as it seems in some projects, someone (developer) is defining form first, then trying to force it into a need/function after the fact (the political angle).

Regarding one-way v. two-way streets: the “Boise, Idaho Downtown Walkability Analysis” produced in 2013 by Speck & Associated LLC indicates that:

“Like many American cities, Boise in the 1970s (?) replaced its two-way grid downtown with a fairly comprehensive system of one-way pairs. This transformation, by eliminating left turns across traffic and by allowing for synchronized signals, helped to speed the motion of cars through downtown. Unfortunately, it did so at the expense of pedestrian comfort and business vitality. Drivers tend to speed on multiple-lane one-way streets, because there is less friction from opposing traffic, and due to the temptation to jockey from lane to lane. In contrast, when two-way traffic makes passing impossible, the driver is less likely to slip into the “road racer” frame of mind. One-ways also have a history of damaging downtown retail districts, principally because they distribute vitality unevenly, and often in unexpected ways. They have been known to harm stores consigned to the morning path to work, since people do most of their shopping on the evening path home. They can also intimidate out-of-towners, who are afraid of becoming lost, and they frustrate locals, who are annoyed by all the circular motions and additional traffic lights they must pass through to reach their destinations.”

I believe the idea of a concentrated downtown has long since past. The reasons why city-states developed long-long ago have been invalid for 60 years. Evidence of this statement resides with the downtown’s inability to compete with the suburbs… and the need for all the funny-money and taxes to keep the lights on.

BTW: Will someone ask the Fire Chief which of the downtown buildings he is willing to be inside of during a 6+ earthquake. Point is the old junk is unsafe and should be abandon not fixed-up.

To have a city with a soul you need leaders that have the same. We are rapidly loosing both.

Editor: I believe one of the two images displayed in the story has be photoshopped?

Commissioner Baker, I like that you keep updated on the Guardian and you post here.

I also liked it when you did a blog for the inside information on ACHD. ACHD is one of the organizations that affects us all.

lol… yup that’s where the transom is….the stern…lol

Ugly Building. – I’m guessing you are referring to the “butt” view of the Aspen Bldg. The developer of that ugly thing got away with duping city planners with a one- sided shiny thing. Destroyed an iconic city skyline vista for that? Fourtunately the Zion’s building redeems the view. Glad someone knows how to design a building that looks good from all directions.

What makes downtown Boise cool is its mix of high density buildings and historic lower density buildings of character. In downtown Boise, modern urbanism such as the new Zions Bank building, merge with single story dive bars, craft breweries and independent retail stores and makes for an exciting mix and fun evening. Boise should continue to encourage high density development downtown on non-developed parcels. Doing so helps prevent urban sprawl and helps keep the rest of Boise to keep the small town feel. In short we can have both, a big town feel in downtown Boise, with the small town appeal outside the downtown.

Sara Barker: Good of you to listen and participate. I’d like to see you clean up most of your roadways. There’s lots of places where the brush and weeds are over growing the right-of-ways, trash has accumulated, gravel shoulders become muddy with a touch of rain, sign posts are crooked/missing etc. BTW: Chipseal causes vehicle tires to wear out faster and significantly diminished emergency handling/braking. We also know that chipseal is so dusty it’s contributing to are poor summertime air quality problems.

Rebecca: Yes, I know Baker was on City Council at the time. She was on City Council when council rejected the project in 1992. I doubt she voted to approve it. Is everyone denying Baker, while at city council, was one of the driving forces to make the Curtis extension only 2 lanes? And, are you saying City Council has no sway with ACHD? Like that traffic circle on Whitewater Parkway that held up the project for another year or two?

And Baker’s reply exemplifies her dismissive attitude– “Why not run for the ACHD commission in this November’s election and put yourself out there.” In other words, in politico-speak– “come at me, bro.”

She doesn’t attempt to justify ACHD’s role in increasing congestion to placate a small minority of street users, bicyclists. She doesn’t attempt to justify Speck’s plan and we sure won’t hear about Robert Bruegmann’s rebuttals to Jeff Speck from an ACHD that has it already made up its mind.

Dear ACHD and Boise City Council, why don’t you get Bruegmann to speak at the Egyptian? And who paid for Speck’s appearance here?

Moving on, what’s the whole point of parking meters? To aid downtown business by preventing downtown workers from hogging parking, right? By that reasoning, how could removing parking and giving it to bike lanes NOT be counterproductive to downtown small businesses?

Robert Bruegmann on Jeff Speck: (Note Bruegmann’s credentials are equal to or surpass Speck’s)

http://www.architectmagazine.com/books/how-smart-is-smart-growth.aspx

The following quote puts it in perspective: Speck being the American Idol winner and Bruegmann being the untrained heathen.

“When architects and social scientists debate a policy issue, any disagreement is among unequals. On one side is the American Idol winner; on the other is just some untrained heathen, no matter their credentials.”

Source of that quote: http://planning-research.com/smart-growth-and-one-of-its-mad-men/

This reminds me of Sara Baker’s attitude. She’s the elected commissioner and the rest of us are untrained heathens.

One last thing, no one talks about how the Curtis Extension helped improve Orchard St. Anyone remember how bad the traffic was on Orchard before Curtis connected the Bench to the Valley? Look how Orchard has improved and the Curtis neighborhood has not gone south as some predicted.

I have lived in Boise for over 64 years. It lost it’s small town flavor a long time ago. I used to take my grade school children for a bike ride after work… we would ride down Capital Blvd and around town. Would never try that with today’s traffic and mentality. “if you think that this traffic is bad, you should see it where I came from” No! I did not move to where you came from, jerk!
I have been waiting for over 40 years for Boise to be “bike friendly” (ever since I spent a few years in Eugene, Oregon) and finally realized that Boise is never going to be anything like Eugene. It’s just going to continue growing to be more of a car dependent California town in Idaho.
sorry for getting off topic.