Business
“Vanishing Boise” Facebook Worth A Look
February 18, 2018 
The folks who organized to stop the CVS drive thru on State have established a Facebook site called VANISHING BOISE. They appear sincere in their efforts to preserve what many think is still the “small town flavor” of Boise.
VANISHING BOISE is worth a look as is Don Day’s BOISE DEV. Day tries to be objective as he presents the latest in planned growth via trolling the city building permit rolls and talking to retailers and developers. VB tends to be more in line with the GUARDIAN growthophobe philosophy which sees growth for the sake of growth as nothing more than a cancer. We welcome business or citizens who wish to pay their taxes and offer a fair wage, but if they expect “incentives” or tax breaks, they need to look elsewhere.
The Daily Paper ran a very lengthy story about VB and others who are part of a growing trend in folks who oppose the rapid growth. They will all be out in force at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday when the legislature considers House Bill 568 in committee which would eliminate citizen referendum in land use matters. The bill is a direct challenge to citizens who won a small victory in court against the Ada County approval of the Dry Creek development east of Highway 55.
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Feb 18, 2018, 3:22 pm
Much of what we are looking at is small business being killed off by changes to the laws over the past 40 years. As well as individual shopping habits.
The cost of doing business has gone bonkers and the competition has superpowers. So when the road gets wider, and it’s time to replace that disgusting 1970s dump of a building with something meeting new code, mom & pop don’t have the money to do it. With today’s overbearing government regulations only the corporate big box stores and chain stores can afford to contend with the multiple layers of government bullcrap. The corporate retail lobby may even have encouraged this overgrowth of regulation as a way to crush small business competition.
Questions: Did members of this activist group support the laws which took small business profits away, and now here they are bitching about the results of the policy changes they’ve have been voting for the past 40 years? Or am I mistaken? Obamacare anyone?
I watched my whole neighborhood shop Lowes for 20 years only to wonder why the local mom & pop hardware folded. Suggest this preservation group get focused on and attack the core problem. Hint: Look in the mirror.
Feb 18, 2018, 5:21 pm
Too bad VB eliminated 40% of their potential supporters by making it a Facebook site.
Feb 19, 2018, 11:43 am
Reflections- good comment. So many never consider the longer range impact of their actions. Small businesses operations these days is really tough. Hence, everything is turing corporate these days. The hard left stance of most companies, indicates who is buttering their bread.
Feb 19, 2018, 6:39 pm
Erico49 has a great point. Ironic as well.
“The industrial complex”
“losing our quality of life”
“losing our soul”
and support us on FACEBOOK…. (the epitome of what we are against)
Let’s throw in some “Fake News” Russian ads to make it perfect.
Thumbs down!
Feb 21, 2018, 12:34 pm
Reflections has a great point – Boise’s regulatory structure and permitting/zoning can be a barrier to individuals and smaller companies that larger companies can more easily comply with. My main issue, however, is the ‘uneven’ way the city can enforce it according to what they like or not, with their wide discretion in variances.
For example, check out the application for this taco place: http://pdsonline.cityofboise.org/pdsonline/details.aspx?id=DRH17-00410
It’s going to reuse an existing, old, single story building in the Lusk Street area, and make it a restaurant. According to Boise zoning, that size of building being converted to a restaurant requires 38 off-street car parking spaces. 38 off-street parking spaces will not fit on that property even if the building were demolished, so the owner asked for a variance to reduce the number to 4. The City granted this variance, which to me, means two things – the parking requirement section of Boise’s zoning is regulatory overreach, and Boise is using their regulatory structure (P&Z, design review) to parcel out advantages to businesses they prefer, and fall back to “it’s the code” as a defense to deny places they don’t prefer.
Feb 23, 2018, 3:58 pm
I see from the daily paper today that Booth Hospital has been listed to be sold by the Salvation Army. It would make a great homeless housing solution. Do you think the eclectic, peace, love, happiness Northenders or VB crowd would support that? Didn’t think so.
Feb 23, 2018, 10:23 pm
ppsel, Homelessness is about untreated crazy people using street drugs and booze. They don’t want a place to stay because they can’t have their drugs and booze with them. PLEASE, all doooogooders, please pull heads out as to what homelessness is about and how it will not be fixed with a place to stay. Junkies is a much more accurate label for it.
Feb 24, 2018, 6:14 pm
Aw guys I think you’re being a little harsh.
Vanishing Boise was started as a forum to document and discuss with others the negative impacts of growth such as traffic jams, overcrowded schools, increasingly dangerous roads, the disappearance of farmland & wildlife habitat that have been the drawbacks of Boise’s unbridled growth.
Creating a Facebook page for this forum was quick and easy. For those of you who criticize Facebook, we would welcome your expertise to help us create a website. We’ve only existed for 7 months and are just ramping up however, we embrace whatever methods that are most effective at reaching fellow Boiseans who share our concerns.
When the mayor appointed a big developer as the planning director in 2012, he essentially put out a welcome mat to growth. Along with the editor of the Guardian, we want to ensure that the planning process is transparent, that citizens voices are considered, and that there is no favoritism or conflicts of interest.
Besides scrutinizing development proposals to ensure that they meet the needs of our community and are in line with the comprehensive plan, Vanishing Boise also advocates for our mom & pop businesses that make Boise unique and try to tell their story. We are about to start a “support small businesses” spotlight series so that we can encourage others to do the same.
We are concerned about the poor people that are being pushed out as a result of stagnant wages and skyrocketing rent. People who own, may not realize it but by all indications, we are in the middle of an affordable and rental housing crisis! Not all homeless people are junkies. Some are working people who have been caught in the middle as newcomers who may be bringing higher wage jobs are squeezing out the working poor who are not able to budget for $1,000 a month rent.
I believe we are all on the same team: wanting Boise to remain an exceptional place to live!
Feb 27, 2018, 7:49 am
So Vanishing Boise will your group advocate for a low rent subsidized housing [for non-junkies only] use of the Booth Memorial Hospital building? If not why?
Mar 1, 2018, 4:24 pm
Folks, let’s not forget who it was who stood up and challenged the proposed CVS project at 16th and State that promised to throw 23 lower-income individuals and families on the street — many of whom work and are gainfully contributing to the economy but who are only one rent payment away from homelessness. It was Vanishing Boise and the good people of the North End who stuck up for tenants who the city’s corporate and governmental structure were all too poised to throw onto the street … until the citizens blew the whistle on immoral behavior.