It shouldn’t be legal to hold two offices, but apparently it is. It shouldn’t be legal for developers to contribute to campaigns for local office, but apparently it is. It shouldn’t be legal for a current member of the City Council to be able to develop two tall buildings downtown, but apparently it is.

Our power brokers move effortlessly and unashamedly back-and-forth between the boardrooms and the legislatures to do the rigging on behalf of each other — and then boast that they made their fortunes purely through hard work and good old-fashioned American gumption.

I’m not saying that there aren’t good people in business and government, but the American system in general seems fundamentally flawed in that what should be called illegal and corrupt is enshrined in law and flaunted as virtuous.
I could go on and on about solutions, but will try to wrap things up with one example.

When I started a petition against the proposed CVS store at State and 16th/17th, I thought it important to include the firm intent to withhold our dollars from CVS with a boycott and to withhold our votes from local politicians at the ballot box.

Our dollars and our votes seem to be our only effective weapons of peacefulness to stop unwanted development that benefits only a tiny elite to the detriment and distress of Reading the response of the editor, David Frazier, above, is an indication of the absolute necessity of unity when we citizens have lost our uphill battles of local democracy time after time after time.

I could very well be missing things, but it seems we the people of Boise are doomed unless we come together across various diverse neighborhoods and national political differences in an exceptional display of solidarity.

Otherwise, we’ll be dismissed and ultimately crushed, as all of our separate protests will be exercises in futility and frustration.
This is perhaps my final plea — as I’m ready either to move out of the area, or to resign myself to making the best of the tragic defacement and despoilment of a wonderfully special place.
For the last time, perhaps, I’ll say what I would like to see on thousands of bumper stickers in this region: Keep Boise Unique!!! If real unity will somehow come about (and my wife agrees), I would gladly give $1,000 to the cause.

I feel that passionate about Boise and its people — but my health is quite iffy, and I need others to step up big time as regular residents on behalf of regular residents, without ego or territoriality or ideology getting in the way.

High density apartments and other multi-residential projects are not examples of responsible growth. These projects have numerous negative effects, such as overburdening a school district, increasing traffic congestion and air pollution, straining our waste water treatment plants, and challenging our public safety programs. Is it time for a citizen petition to implement a moratorium on high density housing? Or, will Boise City institute a moratorium in response to its concerned citizens?

Maybe it i time for the state of Idaho to pass legislation requiring cities of a certain size to have district representatives in their city council. This would require representatives from West, SW Boise, NW Boise be on the council. Current law does not require representation by district.

EDITOR NOTE–If memory serves correctly, I think citizens can propose a referendum via petition to get such a measure on the ballot. It is important to retain city vote while having district resident requirement. Generally speaking, Idaho Code allows cities and counties to create their own form of local government.

From the perspective of the North West Neighborhood Association, I can only echo the concerns of Kris. Our neighborhood, having been recently annexed in a process guaranteed to make us feel powerless, now under a Comp plan that was written before we were part of the city, and without an active neighborhood association, has simply been an easy mark for developers, or a ‘land pipeline’, as some commercial interests put it.

But, we are changing that. We have a very active neighborhood association now, and Boise at large is starting to wake to the realization that we aren’t special just ‘because’, but due to our quality of life, natural beauty, and small town friendliness — traits that can so easily be bought and sold to leave us like any other strip-malled city of sprawl.

I know to those with long memories this is just another battle in a long war. But there have been victories — some foothills protection, some river protection — that have helped to make Boise so ‘livable’ and desirable to those who have squandered such gifts. Now we need to realize we have the last farmland to foothills connection in all of Boise on the chopping block here along Old Hill Road (check us out on FB!).

There is a zoning meeting each Monday. There is a council meeting each Tuesday. There are over 30 associations. It would behoove you (us all) to be at each and every meeting, sticking up for each other. Just go out on those nights and do something useful. Hey, there are good bars and restaurants down there, and night parking is free. Really, this could be a more persistent presence if it could be made to be more fun. I challenge 5 of any NA to go to PZ on Monday this next week, and council on Tuesday. In fact, great interest could mean better meetings. Better jokes, more sarcasm, more calling out the half-truths and the non-starters. Pengilly’s at 5, and PZ at 6. One drink minimum, one drink maximum. Sit near the front. . .

I like the suggestions from ‘To all Neighborhood Assn.’s’. All politics is local. Good government requires diligence of the citizenry, not abdicating to the elected and appointed officials.

I’ll be there Monday after next. Pengilly’s first (haven’t been there in 30 years), then City Hall.

Westsider

When your at a meeting if you don’t get Dave Bieter or a council member’s attention tell them you’re a developer from Alabama and you want to build a mall, with a food court, by the Capitol. That’s in the CCDC area isn’t it? I think citizenry stopped involvement has more to do with apathy as opposed to a fear of having the BPD follow them. However, if you are driving east on the interstate near mile marker 15 and are being followed by a law enforcement officer there could be some fear levels running HIGH!