Comments on: Is Boise Losing “Small Town” Flavor?

By: stuffy joe

stuffy joe — Wed, 02 Apr 2014 21:20:35 +0000

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.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 17:47:17 +0000

boisecynic, thank you for the links. interesting reading. I’d like to see more of what Robert Bruegmann has to say.
as to changing vehicle lanes to bicycle lanes, I would not agree that ACHD has already made up its mind and I encourage you to submit your comments to ACHD on the proposals.

By: boisecynic

boisecynic — Tue, 25 Mar 2014 15:41:16 +0000

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.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Mon, 24 Mar 2014 18:10:33 +0000

Boise Cynic: Baker was not on the ACHD commission at the time of Curtis Road but she may have been on the Boise City Council at that time.

By: Zippo

Zippo — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 18:30:28 +0000

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.

By: David in Eagle

David in Eagle — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 15:17:46 +0000

The horizontal bar or member of a cross or gallows!

I think both apply to Boise Losing “Small Town” Flavor!

By: JJ

JJ — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 14:04:08 +0000

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.

By: Easterner

Easterner — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 04:00:47 +0000

For Rick
Unsolicited stuff-
http://www.rachellegardner.com/2009/01/it-came-in-over-the-transom/

By: Viewfinder

Viewfinder — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 02:56:03 +0000

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.

By: Zippo

Zippo — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 02:24:44 +0000

People, you are being robbed by politicians:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/mosques.asp