ACHD
Group Opposes St. Luke’s Street Closure
May 10, 2016 
The following guest opinion is written by a group calling itself “KEEP BOISE CONNECTED.” A spokesman for KBC asked to remain anonymous for fear of political retaliation. The opinions expressed are those of the group, many of whom are bicycle advocates.
The enormous planned expansion of St. Luke’s Regional Medical Center in downtown Boise is nearing the end of its approval process with the most crucial decision still on the table: the Ada County Highway District (ACHD) ruling, slated for June 22, on the permanent closure of Jefferson Street.
Acquiring a portion of Jefferson is the linchpin to St. Luke’s planned expansion.
File Photo view of St. Luke’s Boise Regional Medical Center looking west.
This acquisition could forever cede that street and the public right-of-way from the citizens of Ada County to St. Luke’s. When St. Luke’s previously acquired and closed three blocks of neighboring Bannock Street, Jefferson became the only low traffic route that connects east and west Boise through downtown – and St. Luke’s says it now must have Jefferson, too.
St. Luke’s would have us believe that the expansion is a “health care decision” and that because they save lives, they should be given carte blanche to expand in any way they wish. However, this is not a health care decision:
–It is a land-use determination that sets precedent for how and why public resources are allocated and relinquished to private hands in our county.
–It is a public decision that highlights how local government addresses a massive project promoted by a powerful and extremely aggressive private, tax-exempt institution.
Downtown residents are understandably very concerned about increased traffic and “blockade” between east and west downtown that the massively expanded St. Luke’s campus would create with the closure of Jefferson Street. However, there is ample cause for all other Ada County residents to be concerned, whether as taxpayers, patients or employees of St. Luke’s. We believe it’s important to look at this decision in terms of who wins, who loses and who pays:
Who Wins
Highly-compensated St. Luke’s executives living in the adjacent Boise Foothills would win, commuting to a consolidated medical campus in a matter of minutes.
Who Loses
Most St. Luke’s patients – those who drive from areas other than Boise’s north and east end – would lose. To call the planned changes at St. Luke’s a “hospital expansion” is misleading. Fully 44 percent of the new square footage in St. Luke’s submitted plans is set aside for “medical office buildings.” Outpatient services provided in these medical office buildings would account for roughly 64 percent of the increased traffic volume; St. Luke’s proposal requires them to provide over 1,800 parking spaces of which over 1,100 would be specifically for outpatient services. For routine, non-emergency office visits, Ada County citizens would be forced to trek across the valley to an already crowded location, navigating a complex medical campus with multistory parking structures.
For emergency care, when seconds count, critically ill patients would race across the city, exit the highway, and then navigate congested urban streets to access the hospital. There’s a reason our other hospitals with emergency services like Saint Alphonsus or St. Luke’s Meridian locate themselves adjacent to highway exits.
Citizens who have relied on elected officials to exercise due diligence and ask tough questions when considering a public taking also look to be on the losing end. Despite repeated inquires as to “why” the entire expansion had to happen at a location where a public street has to be vacated and the associated costs to the taxpayer look to be significantly higher, St. Luke’s has yet to be compelled to place before the public any robust analysis of other obvious, possible options. When a national expert on urban health care design weighed in and said he believed better options for the community could be found, citizens were told his input came “too late in the game.” Officials dismissed the concerns of certified bicycle safety instructors, who questioned the safety of the much-touted “cycle track.”
To those who have dared to question the expansion proposal, including other medical providers and some St. Luke’s employees, the message to this point of the process has been clear: insider politics and “done deal decision-making” look to be alive and well, particularly when faced with the substantial political wherewithal of Idaho’s largest “non-profit” organization.
Who Pays
In a nutshell, the St. Luke’s expansion would increase the burden on Ada County taxpayers, including the cost of increased traffic. Estimates have the hard-pressed Warm Springs/Broadway intersection even busier than the current 27-lane Franklin/Milwaukee intersection near the mall (by 10,000 daily trips), when the expansion is complete in 20 years.
More traffic and more congestion would require substantial new traffic infrastructure, including proposed additional pedestrian and cycling facilities to be owned and maintained by the taxpayers. These efforts would increase ACHD’s work load due to added construction, maintenance and administration. As proposed, this project is a significant long-term responsibility and liability for the taxpayers with no additional revenue attached. Many more of ACHD’s resources would need to be focused on downtown Boise, making it more difficult for ACHD to address needs elsewhere in the County.
Better Options
It seems obvious, but ACHD’s and taxpayer’s burden likely would be greatly reduced if parts of the expansion were located closer to major thoroughfares that can already accommodate increased traffic, or where responsibility is shared with the State of Idaho (state highways and interstates).
A better plan would be to locate some of the proposed facilities at the multiple and various properties that St. Luke’s has collected over the years on the west side of downtown near Americana Boulevard and 27th and Fairview, near the connector. These locations would be more convenient for the vast majority of patients and employees in Ada County, given the county’s population growth west of downtown. This arrangement would also reduce the new traffic construction needed with the downtown campus, as well as the tax burden associated with the long-term maintenance.
Conclusion
Quite frankly, we’re baffled. We can’t understand why St. Luke’s and the City of Boise are okay with squeezing so much new non-emergency office space and its associated traffic in a constricted campus with local streets when “community owned” St. Luke’s owns extensive, more centrally-located property closer to existing, high-volume transportation infrastructure. As St. Luke’s continues to insist that there is one, and only one, way for them to accomplish their expansion, it’s time to ask more questions, not fewer of them. As with St. Luke’s ill-conceived acquisition of Saltzer Medical Group, or its systemic violations of the Family and Medical Leave Act, citizens and officials need to question St. Luke’s practices and intentions to assure equitable and excellent results for our community.
Please let your voice be heard! Please tell your ACHD commissioner that you want to know why St Luke’s can’t put these non-emergency office buildings on more centrally located property that it already owns, thereby improving access for many patients and employees, and reducing the need for extensive new traffic construction needed with the downtown campus, and the tax burden associated with the long-term maintenance.
The meeting to consider the permanent closure of Jefferson Street is scheduled for June 22, 2016 starting at 6:00 at the ACHD auditorium located at 3775 Adams Street in Boise.
To insure more advertising-free Boise Guardian news, please consider financial support.
Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
May 10, 2016, 7:47 pm
Very well said.
May 10, 2016, 8:26 pm
Full disclosure: I can’t stand Boise cyclists.
This isn’t even about connectivity or convenience. This is about letting a private company and a group of elected officials do what they will because the working class doesn’t have the time to tell these self-serving jerks otherwise.
Jefferson will be closed, so a private company can make more money.
May 10, 2016, 11:28 pm
Is there some reason we can’t just bike patients in to the hospital? I think we need a new community hospital that is truly non profit.
A community hospital would fit very well on the car lot sites of Orchard and the freeway that are currently car lots and drug infested apartments.
Any input on an idea like that?
May 11, 2016, 6:23 am
According to Idaho Code 40.203,
“…..highways and rights of ways may be abandoned or vacated only upon formal determination by the commission that retaining the highway or right of way for use by the public is not in the public interest.”
We should all hold ACHD to this burden of proof!
May 11, 2016, 8:51 am
It would be interesting to know St. Lukes’ Plan B, if there is a Plan B. Or is it more likely there is only Plan A and they know that we will ultimately capitulate?
May 11, 2016, 9:26 am
“The opinions expressed are those of the group, many of whom are bicycle advocates.”
I don’t see why the bicycle advocate clause is needed in this disclaimer. Could we also get a disclaimer related to their ethnic makeup, income, and stance on climate change?
EDITOR NOTE–They self-identified.
May 11, 2016, 9:48 am
The real way to rein in the St Luke’s Mafia is to remove their non profit status. Every citizen and taxpayer would then benefit not a few fat cats.
May 11, 2016, 10:33 am
I am not so much against St.Luke’s expansion, just the process and vacation of Jefferson.
I spoke at the March 30 meeting when the development agreement was approved by ACHD. We were not allowed to testify about the Jefferson vacation as the petition had not been submitted. Yet reviewing the petition, ACHD had received and discussed the Jefferson vacation as a utility but not as a governing body. It should of been mandatory for the vacation to be decided in conjunction with the development agreement.
The other major flaw in the development agreement is ignoring the Broadway/Warmsprings intersection. This intersection is bordered by St.Luke’s on 2 sides and increased traffic volumes due to expansion will greatly impact the intersection. The excuse was that ACHD already had been planning a revamp of this intersection. The Open House was held on March 31!
I spoke about safety in the proposed 2 way cycle track and how safe it may not be. It requires cyclist to ride on the wrong side of the road and allows vehicles to cross in order to access St.Luke’s. It will create situations where cyclist are coming from directions that motorist are unaccustomed to seeing similar to people riding bikes on sidewalks at fast speeds. 2 way cycle tracks should be designed for long stretches that are uninterrupted by intersections and driveways. The St.Luke’s cycle track will have at least 12 vehicle intrusions in just .6 mile. After my testimony on the safety of the cycle track, one of the commissioners had some questions about the safety of the 2 way cycle track. The Dutch (famous for cycling infrastructure) have quit designing 2 way cycle tracks because of safety concerns.
Lastly, St.Luke’s and the city talk about how this expansion fits into the Blueprint Boise goals. Now ACHD must plan on how this fits into the Downtown Boise Implementation Plan (DBIP) that was approved in 2013. Specifically, Jefferson being listed as a key bicycle route due to connectivity into the East-End. It also talks about Main and Idaho as being key east/west bicycle routes. Will ACHD decide against this key finding???
I think it is too late for KBC’s logic against the expansion. I would poke hole’s in the process, the cycle track and DBIP.
May 11, 2016, 10:50 am
Whereas Jefferson Street is not a popular throughway for drivers, used by about 25 cyclists during rush hour on weekday mornings and another 25 or so on weekday afternoons.
– See more at: https://www.stlukesonline.org/about-st-lukes/programs-and-capital-projects/st-lukes-boise-development-plan/jefferson-street#sthash.2SOGJwcS.dpuf
May 11, 2016, 10:55 am
I’ll 2nd the opinion to keep Jefferson open. BTW, work on converting Jefferson to 2-way traffic from 4th to 16th begins soon. So there’s that to consider.
More importantly, St Luke’s plans are in direct conflict with Blueprint Boise, the planning and zoning guidebook. Also known as The Comprehensive Plan. When P&Z makes decisions they are supposed to follow these policies, they themselves voted to approve.
Source: http://pds.cityofboise.org/media/151829/Blueprint_0.pdf
Specifically this Downtown Planning section :
http://pds.cityofboise.org/media/151829/Blueprint_0.pdf
Page 14:
DT-C 2.1: BLOCK PATTERN
(a) Retain a high level of connectivity in Downtown by maintaining the traditional street grid and block pattern (260 feet by 300 feet).
(c) Avoid development of megastructures on superblocks that create either real or perceived barriers to connectivity.
DT-C 2.2: COMPLETION OF STREET GRID
Where gaps exist in the street grid, work with property owners and developers to establish missing street segments when property is proposed for development or redevelopment consistent with the Downtown Boise Mobility Study.
May 11, 2016, 11:00 am
The reason people use Jefferson is because Main St and State St are such terrible routes for East-West movement (State is terrible for everything & Main is terrible for cycling). Closing Jefferson will make each of the alternative routes worse. Closing Jefferson does nothing good for traffic in East Boise.
I have zero confidence in ACHD doing the right thing (forcing St Lukes to expand within their street constraints) and I have no doubt St Luke’s will be able to throw their weight around to get what they want.
It’s just a matter of providing enough bed-side manners to get the patient to swallow the pill.
Example: ACHD publicly says they are planning Warm Springs intersection changes REGARDLESS of what happens with the St Luke’s proposal of Jefferson, as if the two are not “connected”.
May 11, 2016, 11:37 am
to B – remember cyclists OWN Boise and the city council and mayor and are a very, very special interest group that requires very, very special treatment.
May 11, 2016, 11:49 am
Full disclosure: I can’t stand Boise motorists!
(Just a joke, mostly for the benefit of ValleyBlues. I’d feel really stupid, painting “Boise motorists” with such a broad brush! In reality, it’s just the Boise giant pickup drivers who I can’t stand! grin)
I can’t add to the original posting. I agree 100%… and with most of the resultant comments.
St. Lukes could easily make due with a big tunnel underneath the pavement, and one or a dozen “sky bridges” above, as needed. Jefferson Street is a long-established community asset that would be sorely missed. (By Boise motorists… I ride a bike and I’ll get by fine, no matter what they do.)
May 11, 2016, 12:41 pm
It’s the only thing going in Boise; we got St. Luke’s, St. Al’s, or fast food and call centers.
Have you seen what Mayo Clinic did for Rochester MN or The Cleveland Clinic for Cleveland? Have you been to the sh$thole otherwise known as Phoenix lately? Not even the poor old retires want to go to Phoenix anymore.
Boise has potential to become the new retirement community for retiree refugees from States destroyed by liberals. Not only should we expand Luke’s and Al’s, but we should bulldoze most of those trashy old houses from Table Rock all the way to Gary Ln and over to the river making way for planned retirement communities with a trolley stops at Luke’s, Al’s, Norco, and the pharmacy.
All you NorEnder locals can sell that dump of a house for big money and move to the new government rent subsidized soundproof row house labor camps built on the reclaimed bench property. Job options in Boise will be either refueling F-35s or changing geriatric diapers. (Seriously folks, a heavy snow would flatten many of those Norend dumps)
And don’t forget the tramway all the way to bogus for the grand kids… nothing for dangerous than the grand kids in Grandma Caddy racing up that road. Before he goes, we should propose a shovel read project to Obama to add 2500’ to the top of the mountain too.
Luke’s might be hogging the place, but she’s the only pig in the pen.
May 11, 2016, 12:50 pm
Oppression! We need special bathrooms for bicyclists!
May 11, 2016, 3:05 pm
Long time Guardian lurker, just tapping on the keyboard shaking my head at KBC (Team NIMBY) that thinks that by releasing these electrons into the cyberspace that they are going to make one bit of difference when faced with SW Idaho’s favorite “non-profit”. You neighbors needed to start saving your pennies years ago so you too could claim poverty while buying up land, influence and every elected official possible. I am sure you had a front seat to when Boise City Council rolled over and that vantage point won’t change when ACHD finishes their coronation of this beast of a plan. Goldtorpe, Arnold, Baker, and Woods all got in line to serve their master like the career politicians they strive to be. You KBC people should be happy to be in walking distance of the health industrial complex…when you get hit by a biker on the St. Lukes cycletrack at least you won’t die in traffic.
May 11, 2016, 3:26 pm
How did bicyclists even enter into this discussion?
May 11, 2016, 4:14 pm
If you ever travel through the St. Lukes citadel and if you think the major impact of letting St. Lukes get away with closing the road and expaning is just an impact to bicyclist you will eventually find out how wrong you are. Traffic in that area is already a disaster and its a disaster that directly impacts downtown. If St. Lukes gets it’s way, we all will be dealing with attempts to remedy the problem for the next 25 years. The hospital simply failed to take the city’s growth into account when it decided to build its tower rather than move. Now it is stuck with a facility in a bad location and it has no good options. Its time for the hospital to acknowledge its prior had judgement and not repeat its prior error. For better or worse St. Lukes needs to relocate.
May 11, 2016, 9:52 pm
cynic, Bikes are part of the discussion because the city made it a condition of the approval.
May 12, 2016, 8:46 am
I am an avid cyclist and I would keep Jefferson as is. Like Bikeboy, I don’t require much in special facilities to bike around. As far as motorists go, I only dislike those that are dangerous and inattentive. As far as other bicyclists go, I only dislike those that are dangerous and inattentive. St. Lukes is just like any other large sized economic actor, they get to call important plays due to their status. Even if they paid taxes, it would only give them more ammo as to who gets to decide how taxes are spent, but they would at least be paying taxes.
May 12, 2016, 12:23 pm
This is not a bicycle issue! St. Luke’s and the city would like it to be perceived as such as that diminishes the significance of their proposal to privatize a public roadway.
Fight your car vs. bike battles elsewhere.
May 12, 2016, 1:13 pm
As a long time multi-generational Boisean (many generations born and carried for at St. Lukes) I must admit that I have not been paying much attention to this expansion. I feel for the neighbors but I don’t think anyone can deny that Boise needs the best health care it can get. I assumed that our government would arbitrate whatever needed to be arbitrated, a decision would be made and we would all go on. However ever since I read this article in the Guardian, I had a hard time ignoring its message.
I don’t think it’s any secret that St. Luke’s should have abandoned that east end location a long time ago, much like St. Al’s abandoned their downtown spot many years ago. While it’s less convenient for me, I thought St. Lukes expansion to Meridian was absolute right move for our communities. What is really troubling me is the realization that a very large part of this expansion is going to go toward office buildings and parking garages. I don’t doubt if you asked St Lukes executives or their high end medical specialists that they would tell you the expansion they have prescribed is the best case outcome for them. What I am realizing that is that this plan is probably not the best case plan for everyone else. I am sure my life would be better if I drank less wine from a health perspective but drinking less wine its not going to improve my quality of life (lol!).
I know that both our local non-profit medical groups have a tremendous amount of money and influence but that way I look at it, by letting Lukes and Als operate as non-profits everything they have is a gift that was granted by the of the people of Southwestern Idaho. Who are all citizens, motorists, neighbors and taxpayers along with being patients! Buying property in other parts of Ada County (and taking them off the tax rolls) that are more central and would better service the populous all so they could just sit on them and then say that there were no other options for these offices seems greedy and pig headed to me – and by the way, “give me three blocks worth of a publicly owned street so we can make our dream happen.” I am having a tough time wrapping my head around this makes any sense.
Shame on me for not being involved sooner. I hope that the commissioners of ACHD will make the effort to get to ask the hard questions as to why all these office buildings have to be built there and not elsewhere – and don’t settle for “it’s for medical reasons, you are too dumb to understand.” ACHD commissioners seem to be a more independent group versus our elected Boise officials so maybe they will have the backbone necessary for the job. It’s crazy to give up one of our streets just to build office buildings, even if it supposed to be for health reasons.
May 13, 2016, 12:09 pm
I was talking to some friends after reading this article in the Guardian. Since two of them are in the medical profession, I asked why half of the St Luke’s expansion was for medical office buildings. Both of them basically said, “You know it’s all about the money. St Luke’s can charge a lot more for the same outpatient procedures, imaging, and medical tests when performed on a hospital campus.” They suggest I Google it for myself. Within 10 minutes I find an article talking about why hospital outpatient departments are more costly than doctor offices. The following is a short paragraph I copied from the article. “A new study from the National Institute for Health Care Reform (NIHCR) suggests that the easy buck helps explain the current wave of physician practice acquisitions by hospitals. Researchers found that hospital outpatient departments may charge 2 or 3 times more for common diagnostic imaging, colonoscopies, and lab tests than if those services were rendered in community settings such as a physician’s office or a free-standing imaging or ambulatory surgery center.” Has anyone received a St Luke’s medical bill that was sky high?
May 13, 2016, 2:20 pm
Thank goodness all you liberal idiots elected Obama to fix all this waste and expense in the healthcare industry. LOLOLOL all the way to the offshore bank!
Oh dear, St. Luke’s needs your donations to build a new wing… come to our fundraiser walk and save an executive / doctor’s vacation home.
May 14, 2016, 9:31 am
Just be happy. Last I saw Idaho was a Republican State. Run ruled and corrupt as they come.
May 14, 2016, 11:33 am
Should of figured non-sensical, illogical behavior such as this would have its roots in the Obummer/Bieter administration. As always, follow that money. But to pull off what our patron Saint of Bullying is trying to accomplish with this ill conceived expansion (unless you’re one of the few remaining cheerleaders for Obamacare) you need all battalions marching in lockstep both in public and behind the scenes.
Roll call! All the smaller non profits that depend on Mother Lukes for funding? Check. Fans of Dave Frazier memorial downtown train circular? Check. Baseball/Soccer fans who like their Stadiums attached to malls? Check. Real estate developers and supporting industries? Check. The other paragon of virtue called St Al’s? Check. The Boise City political machine? Check. State board of Education? Check…and finally, our very own office of the Governor of the great state of Idaho? (hustling back from weighing in on the latest schhol board election). Check and Mate!
Today’s lesson: Cash money is best but land and influence work as nicely as currencies as well.
The irony in all this is that the second President Trump takes a chain saw to ObamaCare there stands a great chance that St Lukes won’t be able to gouge it’s poor customers for office visits as anticipated.
Then what? Dollars to donuts your elected officials havent thought about it and you can be sure that the Board and highly compensated staff of St Lukes RMC don’t worry about it because their non tax paying advantage allows them to move on to the next scam.
Politics over free market economics.
May 15, 2016, 9:16 am
With overwhelming public opposition to this proposal, particularly by the neighboring public, how could it possibly not be in the public interest to retain public ownership in and access to Jefferson street?
May 16, 2016, 5:29 pm
This weekend, a friend of a friend told me to check out a Facebook page “Paying Till It Hurts.” It’s a follow-up to a series of New York Times articles focused on the price of healthcare in the United States. I recommend people check out both the Facebook page and Google “New York Times Paying Till It Hurts” for the series of articles.
Someone posted an article titled “HOSPITALS ARE ROBBING US BLIND Forget Obamacare. The real villains in the American health care system are greedy hospitals and the politicians who protect them.” After reading this, I’m curious what is the real motivation behind St Luke’s and St Als buying so many doctor offices and outpatient clinics. The article states, “From 1999 to 2013, the cost to employers of an average family health policy increased from $4,200 to $12,000 per year.” As a middle-class family, we are experiencing the cost issue first-hand through ever increasing employee contributions, larger deductibles, and co-pays. Here are a few excerpts from two articles.
“Obamacare law reinforces the trend of providers, including doctors and hospitals, to merge into large regional health systems that dominate local markets. The law also introduces new rules and restrictions that will reduce the degree of competition in the insurance market.”
“This growth of monopoly power is not the result of free-market forces, but the deliberate product of public policy. Instead of honestly budgeting in order to finance health care, policymakers have repeatedly sanctioned monopolistic hospital markets in the hope that dominant providers will use higher revenues to cross-subsidize indigent and emergency care.”
“The New York Times reports that hospitals have been buying up doctors’ offices, because doing so allows the exact same offices to charge Medicare higher prices for performing the exact same services, because the government has decided that hospital-based care is intrinsically more expensive than office care.”
“As for why hospitals charge such high prices, it’s fairly simple: They do it because they can. In a competitive market, a provider who jacks up prices risks losing customers to competitors who charge less. But what if incumbent providers have the political muscle to keep competitors out of the market?”
EDITOR NOTE–Becky, we will let your comment stand, but the issue is not Obama, the NYT, or hospital monopoly. The issue is closing Jefferson St. in Boise, ID. Future commenters,PLEASE PLEASE stay on topic!
May 16, 2016, 6:28 pm
Sick and tired of Luke’s handing out free soccer balls and putting their name all over green bikes while socking it to us health care consumers with medical bills that only skyrocket up and up. St. Luke’s employees aren’t happy either from what contacts are telling me. Many are bailing to Als. In-the-trench workers getting insulting raises–or none at all if they’ve topped out–while executives continue to get double digit hikes yearly. Used to feel like a family they say but no longer. And to add insult to injury they get asked over and over for donations back to help the Luke’s “cause.” And now they want yet another public street to add to their portfolio? Hope ACHD doesn’t roll over and play dead like City Council. Shame on them.
May 17, 2016, 7:39 pm
Dave – far be it from me to defend NYT quoters like Ms. Becky while potentially incurring the wrath of our own Guardian Angel – but I think her point is we can dispense with the “because of our 125 year history of selflessly saving the sick and dying we have decided in our unquestionable infinite wisdom we need your public street” shtick. That hog wash needs to park itself behind the real reason – the feeding the gluttonous non-profit beast. Of course, in this day and age and with St Lukes current leadership that should have been obvious from the get go. I just wish Boise City Counsel would have taken 10 minutes to do what Becky did – their own googling so they wouldn’t have bought that “fairy tale” hook line and sinker. Further adding to my frustration is they probably have the NYT site bookmarked anyway!
So Dave it is agreed that the task at hand is what is going to down on June 22nd. When our state legislature, in its infinite wisdom, decided that it needed to save Idaho construction interests…er, the rights of the disenfranchised of rural Ada Co. from noted city slickers Comrades Richardson/Eastlake, they made sure that the expanded representation of ACHD would include sensible people because they would be elected by sensible people.
Yet here we are, the first session of the Lukes/ACHD charade passed with a 4-1 vote in favor of “giving and spending” with only the one for sure lib, Jim Hansen, the lone dissenter. Was frankly assuming that the Commission was going to end this nonsense right then and there back in March. Like Private Pyle says, “surprise, surprise.”
The only thing that is going to save those neighborhood NIMBYs and us tax payers is that I still can’t figure out what tangible benefit those commissioners can hope to get by letting Lukes slam that scoop shovel into Jefferson. City of Boise has clocked in with its 40-pieces-of-silver wish list (re: baseball, facility for the college and “choo choo”) but less clear is what is in it, besides more work/less budget for ACHD.
There is no question that the diamond producing pressure of $t Luke$ has been and will continue to be at play – its whats gotten this whole charade to this point. No, the real question is how our county wide commission responds for the vote that truly counts – the vacation of public property in the form of Jefferson Street.
Guess I’ll be grabbing a lemonade and will watch the show…
Jun 21, 2016, 8:48 am
The Statesman has once again demonstrated their absolute lack of ethics. After an editorial endorsing the Jefferson Street closure, an opponent of that closure, Eric Kingston, wrote a Guest Opinion in response.
On the Statesman web site, they have the anti-closure title, and then–immediately beneath it–a giant picture of St Lukes’ paid consultant, along with a video promoting the insane “cycle track”.
You must continue below that big picture to actually read the guest opinion.
Talk about “bait and switch”!!!!!!
Thanks, Statesman, you’ve done it again.
Jun 22, 2016, 2:03 am
Does the Statesman still have employees in Boise?