Jail bond missed by only a few votes. We advise sheriff and county officials to renew efforts to force the state of Idaho to take the daily 100 inmates that belong in the prison, but the state refuses to pick them up. The issue is NOT the super majority, it is the people of Ada County subsidizing the state.

KTVB-7 had the best coverage by far. Their crawler at the bottom of the TV screen kept folks informed of election results and reporters at key venues contributed to the evening’s information. They also did a nice job tracking results throughout their coverage area all the way to SE Idaho.

BOISEDEV had big boy coverage with a television-style anchor desk commenting and covering the races.

Secretary of State Phil McGrane made guest appearances with the media folks, including KTVB and BOISEDEV. Keep your eye on this guy he is looking like a valuable public asset for all Idaho.

The claim of powering the airport and sewer plant with solar is like saying the water we get from the Boise River is “spring water.” Sure, there are springs that contribute to the river flow, but the water is mostly snow melt runoff, and from whatever sources drain into the river.

The truth of the matter is McLean is claiming “credit” for an amount of solar power consumed, but that amount was mixed in with electricity generated by numerous sources including that generated from coal, gas, hydro, solar and wind.

THERE IS NO WAY TO FILTER POWER SOURCES OR THEIR ULTIMATE USER. THERE IS NO CABLE FROM THE SOLAR FARM TO THE AIRPORT.

Here is the mayor’s claim sent out from her public office Thursday–just three weeks prior to the election.

MESSAGE FROM THE MAYOR
“This week, our City Council approved the City of Boise’s participation in Idaho Power’s ‘Clean Energy Your Way’ program. This allows us to fully transition both the Boise Airport and the Lander Street Water Renewal Facility to clean electricity – a giant leap toward our goal of achieving 100% clean electricity across city government operations by 2030.

I appreciate our partnership with Idaho Power in getting us so much closer to our clean energy goals through the purchase of power from a new solar facility. The Clean Energy Your Way program may also allow other Idaho Power customers to purchase clean electricity, helping residents and business reach their climate goals as well.

Together we are leading the way to a cleaner, healthier future for our children.”

BOISEDEV reporter Margaret offers more details of the financial deal which is a long term agreement with Idaho Power.

MORE APARTMENTS for Crescent Rim residents to view in the Lusk area.

We took a little tour of our downtown area recently and sadly realized it is nearly impossible to see the foothills or much of any horizon thanks to the big city apartments and other structures.

The state capitol used to be the centerpiece of the Boise skyline, but it is pretty much obscured today unless you happen to be in the middle of Capital Blvd looking north.

Our city fathers and mothers have carried on a love affair with developers to the point Front Street is a deep canyon with tall buildings crowding the street. They have given away several traffic lanes on both Capital and often on Front.

While the zoning ordinance is about to undergo wholesale changes, it is not an understatement to claim that nearly every development in the past ten years included “variances” for everything from parking requirements to building materials. So much for the rule of law. If it doesn’t fit, change the rule.

The upcoming election for councilors and mayor are of particular importance. We get to vote for only one of the six councilors. Here are some views of our fair city as it continues to grow like cancer.

FRONT STREET canyon looking east

NO VIEWS from street level, no horizon.

LONELY TREE downtown.

CAPITOL PEEKS from behind downtown apartments.

ORCHARD AND FRANKLIN apartments on city land partnering with developer.

Guest Opinion by
KATIE FITE

Why I will urge the Planning and Zoning Commission to Reject the Upzone:

Tyranny. It’s top-down tyranny for Boise leaders to impose a Code re-write cutting the public’s voice out of development decisions that will profoundly alter our Boise neighborhoods.

Transparency will be lost. Developers will push projects on city staff with no public hearings, increasing potential for corruption. Projects will be set in stone, and the public’s only recourse will be expensive appeals. Crucial development decisions that could drive us out of our homes or apartments will be made behind closed doors at City Hall.


Teardowns will multiply. Existing affordable housing will be hauled away as trash to the landfill and replaced by new much larger structures with a bigger carbon pollution footprint. How not to get to net zero.

Tree canopy cover will be chopped down. The City of Trees will become the city of stumps, harsh concrete, and an unhealthy environment.

Temperatures will shoot up. The urban heat island effect will rise as green space vanishes.



Trauma. The social fabric of our community will be ripped apart as predatory speculators swoop in – turning Boise into a city of transitory renters, where regular folks can’t afford a home, and workers live in fear of rent skyrocketing and impending homelessness.


Terrorized. How renters will feel when landlords keep raising rents and they endlessly have to move to survive. How seniors will feel when they can no longer stay in their homes as tax assessments climb and gentrification engulfs them.

Taking away a good place to live from all those who helped build this community over the 60 years that the existing Code and various modifications have served us well. Taking from those who invested their life savings to buy a house in a pleasant place. Taking from neighborhood groups who spent thousands of collective hours crafting plans for livable neighborhoods.

Taxes will go through the roof. Seniors and workers will be forced to flee to somewhere more affordable.

Traffic.

Jammed! Streets are already clogged, as our weak public transportation system falls further and further behind. 

Transfer of wealth will take place. High density apartments and Airbnbs will be owned by Wall Street speculators and transnational corporations. Money will flow out of Boise. Civic values will suffer.

Trickle down housing has failed to produce affordability wherever it’s been tried. 

This complex, confusing 600+ page Code change and 300+ Comprehensive Plan revision will foster a Wild West growth mentality and chaotic development. Robber Baron style developers will chart our city’s future, converting Boise to a city of renters at the mercy of landlords.

Any large-scale Zoning Code change should come up from the people and be conducted through close study of, and consultation with, individual neighborhoods. It should not be imposed top down using expensive consultants who spoon fed boilerplate growth industry schemes, resisted in other cities, to a committee weighted with development interests hand-picked by the Mayor.

Any change of this magnitude must be put on the ballot for a public vote, giving citizens and media the time to dig into what these vast regulatory changes will do, and how they will impact our community. Instead, city leaders are trying to rush this through, and put distance between the Code controversy and the upcoming fall 2023 local elections.

Guest Opinion by
RANDALL FRANCH, Esq.

The Legislature passed into law one bill to criminalize gender-affirming medical care and another to criminalize any person involved in interstate travel of girls for abortion. Gov. Brad Little signed those bills, although he did veto a bill criminalizing librarians for not engaging in certain book-banning.

Only one member of the Boise School District Board of Trustees, Shiva Rajbhandari, expressed his frustration with the Governor’s actions. He said aloud what many of us thought. Those thoughts were expressed with profane language, but they addressed the extreme threat that this Legislature had made to the health, safety and lives of too many young people in Idaho. That Gov. Little, supposedly the moderate Republican, would sign those bills, says much about the power that right-wing Republicans, controlled by dark money forces that they do not even know exist, exert on Idaho politics. Idahoans are not nearly as hateful as their Legislature makes them out to be.

The School Board reacted badly to Mr. Rajbhandari’s social media post. It determined that Mr. Rajbhandari had violated its Code of Ethics, although it did not identify any specific part of that code in its press release, or how and why Mr. Rajbhandari’s statements, made on his personal social media, should be subject to any action by the Board of Trustees. Free speech may make people uncomfortable; sometimes it must make people uncomfortable to force them to open their eyes to behaviors that must be stopped.

That Board should have expressed its own outrage at legislation that potentially subjects its most vulnerable constituency to harm and deprives them of the medical care designed and intended to save their lives. It should not have engaged in the bullying of Mr. Rajbhandari, who is still 18 years old, facing off, unfortunately, against a Board of much older, more experienced adults. This Board of Trustees should be vehemently opposed to bullying, even by this Board of Trustees, against one of its own members. Bullying must be opposed whether on school grounds or in Board of Trustee Boardrooms.

The steps that Mr. Rajbhandari is taking are not, as insisted by the Board, an exercise in rebuilding trust. It is simply punishment for free speech that they did not like.

There is no question that Mr. Rajbhandari had a first amendment right to address these matters, even in harsh terms. It is less clear that the Board of Trustees had any right to sanction Mr. Rajbhandari at all for his protected speech. Neither the School Board nor any other body consisting of elected officials should have any right or power to sanction another member for their constitutionally protected speech. The voters who elected Mr. Rajbhandari are the sole arbiters of sanctions to be imposed. That is what elections are for.

The School Board would have done far better to issue a press release criticizing language it did not like but strongly identifying with and expressing unyielding support for the LGBTQ+ community, as Mr. Rajbhandari wholeheartedly did. That it missed this opportunity shows a complete failure to stand up for the constitutional rights that all Americans, even board members, have and the rights of Idaho’s children to the medical care they may need.

EDITOR NOTE–The GUARDIAN has also questioned the propriety of the school board meeting in a secret (executive) session to discuss the private activities of a fellow elected official.

The BOISE DEV piece is worth a look as it goes into detail about the matter.

The GUARDIAN confirmed the law firm burned through $500,000 in taxpayer funds investigating the potential possibility of racial issues after a retired captain was noted to be posting racially based messages on social media. The outside investigation is on hold at present and further funding will likely be discussed in May by the City Council.

To our knowledge, the investigation is not the result of a single complaint alleging police misconduct or racially motivated police action.

Guess Opinion by
KEN PIDJEON

Boise currently allows between 15 to 45 dwelling units per acre, sometimes more, and under the proposed Zoning Code those numbers remain but, in some cases, unlimited density is allowed.

Contrast Boise with all five boroughs that comprise New York City – the most densely populated city in the nation.

According to the 2020 Census, New York City, overall, has approximately 19 dwelling units per acre. Boise’s currently allowed maximum density and proposed maximum density is at least twice that of New York City overall and about two thirds the density of Manhattan which has 63 units per acre.

After New York City, San Francisco is the second most densely populated city in the United States.

So why is Boise attempting to surpass both New York City and San Francisco in density? Do Boise residents really want to live in the most densely populated city in America? As a 45 plus year Boise resident, who grew up in Philadelphia proper, I don’t think so.

It is time to make both rational and realistic decisions about population density. 45 dwelling units per acre is neither rational nor realistic. The same goes for unlimited density. Perhaps 10 to 12 dwelling units per acre would be sufficient. Dwelling units per acre in that range are more than double the 2020 Census reported dwelling unit density for Boise and they are more than sufficient to support a transit system per St. Paul, MN Metropolitan Council guidelines.

As citizens, we must speak out against the proposed city lead zone code rewrite, which seems to be based on a premise as ridiculous as the plot of the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”

Just like the three convicts in the film, we have been duped into believing that increased development density will magically bring affordable housing to our city. But let’s face it, folks, we’re not living in a fairy tale. Increased density only leads to increased traffic, noise, and overcrowding. And as for affordable housing, well, we’re still waiting for that treasure to be found.

Mayor Lauren McLean, who is playing the role of Pappy O’Daniel in this real-life drama, seems to be singing the same tune as the city’s new development director, Tim Keene, and the entire development industry. They’re all trying to sell us a bill of goods, folks. But we’re not buying it.

Former Boise Police Chief Mike Masterson is playing the role of Homer Stokes in this plot, trying to put a stop to this madness and save our city from the destructive effects of increased density.

We need sensible zoning policies that will protect our neighborhoods and preserve our quality of life. We need policies that will truly address the issue of affordable housing, rather than just promising us a treasure that doesn’t exist.

So let’s be like Homer Stokes, folks, and stand up for what is right. Let’s tell Mayor McLean and the city’s development industry that we’re not going to be fooled by their false promises anymore. It’s time to put the interests of the citizens first, not the interests of developers who are only looking to make a quick buck.

Affordable housing is a real issue, and it requires real solutions. Let’s work together to find those solutions, rather than chasing after a mythical treasure that will never materialize.

Here is his statement:

Statement from Mike Masterson
March 20, 2023

“I recently took the first step to run to be the next Mayor of Boise by filing a Declaration of Candidacy with the Secretary of State’s Office. In the coming weeks, I will be talking to as many Boiseans, organizations and businesses as possible to determine what my campaign would look like if I chose to move further with my candidacy.

It is already clear to me that in order to lead this incredible city into the future, we need a mayor who prioritizes public safety, affordable housing, fiscal responsibility within the city’s budget and mayor’s office, finds permanent solutions to address homelessness and, above all, who can restore public faith and transparency in our city’s government.

I appreciate the encouragement and support of so many of my friends, family, and neighbors who have expressed confidence and trust in my leadership abilities already, and am excited tcao explore this opportunity to once again make Boise the safest, most livable city in the country.”

Councilor Elaine Clegg is headed off to a high paying job as director of the Valley Transit bus system and Lisa Sanchez lost her seat when she moved out of her representative district.

It is unheard of to have 50 candidates running in an election, but when there is only a single voter in the “primary” (Mayor Lauren McLean) and four votes in the final “general” (the remaining seated city councilors) it is a no risk attempt at public office.

Rather than try to list those seeking office the easy way, we offer a link to the list courtesy of BOISEDEV.