Bieter can do a mea culpa and resurrect his campaign. There are some areas that I would consider important. One is McLean doesn’t want to continue the lawsuit to keep the homeless from camping on our streets. 2. She is probably nastier than Bieter and more progressive.

Look like the North End swept every race again.

A different perspective:
I don’t recall reading any comments such as IF [Coles and/or Arnald ] are truly concerned about
“safeguarding the city treasury and doing the honorable thing, [s]he will withdraw from the race, concede the victory to [Bieter &]McLean, and retain some dignity.”

Who really is causing the additional expense to taxpayers?

The upcoming runoff is due to Arnold and Coles jumping in the race.
Let’s say it might be their egos, lack of understanding, or the wth-factor. Did they really think they had a chance to win???
INSTEAD, they could have considered the impact on the outcome. Just more lack of positive leadership from those two. And we have seen this effect recently on the national level- it’s not a surprise.

The 10,000+votes could have gone to Bieter or McClean. If in the same portion as Bieter/McClean received, then McClean would have received well over 50% AND Bieter would be out the door.

Good job to Lauren McClean for the courage to run and running a good campaign.
On to December!

Bieter should send a “thank you” card to Arnold & Coles for keeping him in the game. Ergo those two were actually counter-productive to their own goal of getting rid of Bieter.
Way to go ____!

If Bieter did concede, would there still have to be a runoff election because by law the candidate needs to meet that threshold of receiving over 50% of the electorate vote? So if Bieter did concede, wouldn’t the runoff go to the candidate who finished below him? Then would there still need to be a McLean vs. Arnold runof?

What are the laws for conceding?

EDITOR NOTE–Your question is a good one and worthy of the legacy media asking the lawyers and County Clerk. Could there be an “unopposed election” given that the runoff is between the top two voter getters in the general election? Questions, questions!

$100,000 of taxpayer money is chump-change to Bieter. Like Arnold and Coles, Bieter’s overweening ego and desire for retribution—plus about $100,000 of his unspent campaign treasury—will propel him into a full-on effort to beat McLean.

Sorry, Bikeboy. Vista is way less than a nod to suburbs. Maybe Fairview and Five Mile?

Eric049: You are correct, of course. (Like ‘most everybody, my view is somewhat myopic and Vista is relatively close to my own domicile.)

P.E.F. – regarding canal service roads as bike/ped pathways – I’m TOTALLY in favor, and would love to see them developed! (I used to ride west on Victory, Lake Hazel, etc., all the time… but now instead of meadows and agriculture, the view is seas of rooftops. And WAY heavier traffic. Sigh…)
Here’s what I’m pretty confident of:
1) The canal companies are reluctant to “officially” grant access to their service roads. I’m sure it’s mostly a question of liability, although the Legislature indemnified them quite a few years back. (“rabula” probably understands this as well.)
2) “Unofficially,” lots of people use lots of canal banks. But in many cases they go past “no trespassing” signs or fences. Fences and gates, as well as road crossings, etc., are obstacles to using them as practical transportation routes.
3) You (we!) MIGHT have a new champion. On his campaign web page, Jimmy Hallyburton says, “There is massive network of canals that extend from the Boise River deep into neighborhoods across Boise. Each canal has a maintenance road running along side prime for creating off street walking and biking paths. We built the Greenbelt 50 years ago. We can honor that legacy by creating more off street walking and biking paths throughout our neighborhoods. It won’t be easy, but most transformative things aren’t.”

(Sorry to wax verbose, those who have no interest…)

The fiefs held by the canal companies are at least as obdurate, if not more so, as the highway district’s.

Statesman reports that elections office says runoff will be held with or without Bieter. If he drops out, #3 Arnold would be on the ballot. That would at least give us a meaningful choice, but there are money savings to be had.

Even though it seems like McLean should “coast” to victory, there are two things to remember. 1) More people can vote. It is a complete “do-over” since Boise doesn’t have an instant runoff, which would limit the results to those who voted yesterday. 2) Republicans and conservatives who would “never” vote for Bieter might prefer him to the more liberal McLean.

So, for you apparently enthusiastic bikers: No you cannot use the canal banks. They are extremely dangerous, as are bikes on the city streets. There are loads and loads of laws that make them (canal banks) off limits. It will not change because of enthusiasm. Get real with your direction and efforts.

Try to learn about zoning and how that is legally binding for cities, unless they just disregard it. That is potentially your challenge. You can’t just disregard what citizens have relied upon. You can’t disregard previous contract.

Developers met with DB prior to his previous terms, and said “we will develop” or our money goes elsewhere.

Go elsewhere, please, and let’s give someone else a chance to lead Blaise. (bla’-zea).

Boise, where the climate is nice. Not a factor the elected can influence.

Lauren McLean is Dave Bieter in a dress. As a city council public servant has she ever opposed the direction of Dave?
I agree that the NY canal should be used as a BIKE-PATH? As should I84 and I184. Car traffic should be directed to the green belt. What a piecefool drive into the most livable city in the country!

Bonnie brings up an interesting point. What will happen to the homeless lawsuit if McLean wins the run-off? Bonnie is a bit of a hypocrite though. Her posts on Facebook Old Hill Road group read like she is a pro-pollution, anti-infrastructure, anti-safety, car-centric wing-nut curmudgeon. She even surmised at someone’s death by riding a bicycle with a horribly nasty post.

The two libs on the commission are gonna build a Chicago style crime hub, err I mean a massive low income housing project. This way all the mentally ill addicts will be far away from the Boise parks.

We had very poor choices for all seats, for the most part, but I felt that Rebecca Arnold could have been a viable stopping agent to all others’ visions of candy cane progressives. It’s a shame that Wayne Richie didn’t have a prayer as we need a brick wall to prohibit further waste and palace builds. The big problem is that the real motivators lie BEHIND the proxies that makeup the City Hall members. Richie might have discovered this, perhaps Arnold as well.

I voted for City Council challengers that sounded like they were opposed to the Library and Stadium boondoggles.

McLean is only a better “choice” in that she may not be as skilled of a political machine operator as Bieter has been. She now has to convince Boise businesses to bending to her more radical progressive (read Marxist) plans. Just what IS her plan for the very homeless that decades long policies have created that ruined purchasing power in the name of “easy credit” plans? Is she merely going to let homeless camp where they want to and then when the piles of needles, poop and trash gets too big, demand that we adopt full on Socialism?

If every bleeding heart liberal in the North End were to adopt every homeless person for real, and take them in to their homes and shepherd them through life, I would admire their sincerity. But the answer is always spending OTHER peoples’ money via half ass policies that never work like as advertised. The problem is that there is never enough money when easy printing devalues every charitable dollar you raise privately or publicly.

There is no real good reason why we have so many homeless unless you are willing to look at how it got so out of control. I worked at a shelter for a short while and 90% of the residents HAD JOBS!!! Why is that? Ignorance is why this problem is with us, and McLean has NO CLUE how to deal with it. She will tax and spend it into a bigger problem than it already is. Look at California for the results.

All we did is trade some experienced Marxists for inexperienced ones that believe their own BS. I can say this because I was a big progressive for a long time, then woke up to the real reason why it exists in the first place.