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State Workers Targeted By Boise Parking?
June 14, 2009 
Complaints from several state workers have reached the GUARDIAN regarding the following memo circulated among staffers regarding parking tickets from Boise City. They characterize the enforcement action as the work of Nazis, but we think it is just the Parking Czar’s people enjoying a fresh crop of cherries to pick. CAPITOL MALL PARKING NOTICE Concerning […]
Boise City Has Yet Another “End Run” Ready
Team Dave has found another way around the will of the people in the form of a Local Improvement District (LID)in lieu of asking for permission of voters–or even property owners to fund the Mayor’s pet “Folly Trolley” project. The GUARDIAN did some cursory research and finds the law to creat a LID has so […]
GUARDIAN Offers Yet Another Transit Plan
We don’t get paid for our services, but the GUARDIAN is able to provide thinking people of Treasure Valley with transportation alternatives much more logical than those being promoted by Team Dave and the CCDC. For the cost of the proposed downtown “Trolley Folly” we think a Bus Rapid Transit system (BRT)– similar to previous […]
Mayor Hotline March 16 to 20
BILL OR NO BILL?, MARCH MADNESS WITH WATER, FREE MERCEDES PARKING, TROLLEY OR STRUCTURE? BED BUGS. Thomas Thacker Old Houses: My concern is on north Maple Grove just north of Ustick Rd there are two old houses on the east side of the road that the fire dept has used for training and cut the roof up and […]
Guardian Sucks Up To Governments
We need to offer up some kudos to the local government types. First, the Ada Commishes will hold their first Town Hall meeting of the year on Wednesday, March 25 at 6 p.m. in the Meridian City Hall. Aside from a short presentation to begin the meeting ( there is no set agenda) they are intentionally keeping […]
Taxpayers Fund COMPASS Legislative Party
The GUARDIAN has obtained more information about the taxpayer funded party set for Thursday evening to curry favor with legislators to advance their “agenda” in the Idaho Legislature. While the invitation sent to COMPASS members said “We will have heavy hors d’oeuvres and a hosted bar,” we have learned from COMPASS executive director Matt Stoll […]
COMPASS To Provide “Hosted Bar” to Legislators
COMPASS, the Community Planning Association funded by local city and county governments throughout Ada and Canyon Counties has scheduled a 2009 Legislative Reception Thursday to include free booze. Each city and county pays dues to COMPASS which supposedly acts as a regional planning agency for things like Transit. Just in case anyone in the unwashed […]
Merchants Not Onboard 10th Street Bus Hub
Despite official claims to the contrary, based on what we have seen and heard about a transit mall on Boise’s 10th Street, it looks pretty much like a done deal. The goal is to get a federal grant from 2006 spent before a March 2009 deadline. Officials at all levels of government–and there are many–are […]
ACHD Chair Snubs Citizens, Denies Comments
Ada County Highway District Chairman Carol McKee went back on her word Thursday and snubbed at least two citizens who wished to share their thoughts about a proposed street closure relating to a “multimodal transportation center downtown.” When GUARDIAN readers expressed an interest in speaking at a Thursday joint meeting of the Boise City Council […]
ACHD TO Allow Public Comment Thursday
After the GUARDIAN contacted the Ada County Highway District in an attempt to secure “equal time” for the public at a Thursday 11:30 a.m. meeting, ACHD Commish Carol McKee said she would allow citizens to speak, even though the joint meeting with the Boise City Council is not an official public hearing. There are actually […]
Bungling Bureaucrats Botch Boise Buses
In a refreshing bit of local journalism, Cynthia Sewell of the Daily Paper detailed a pattern of BUNGLING BUREAUCRATS either unwilling or unable to put together a plan to spend federal funds for a downtown transit center. The fed money was earmarked for Boise in 2005, but Boise City, the Urban Renewal Agency (CCDC), Ada […]
Streetcar Desire At CCDC Prompts Notice
A short little legal notice in the Daily Paper Friday includes an invitation to engineering firms to submit a “Statement of Qualifications for conceptual design consultant services” for a downtown streetcar project. No budget is mentioned for the six month contract, but it looks like local officials are forging ahead with their “street car named […]
Plans For (Mark) Rivers City
We listened to BoDo developer Mark Rivers enthusiastic gushings about some vague plans for a “Library Blocks”–six to be exact–development at the Monday City Club of Boise luncheon. With numerous references to “instant gratification, A.D.D., three shot espresso, and strategizing,” it was hard to decide if the guy is “smooth” or “slick.” Regardless, he is […]
Mayor Hotline June 14 to 20
LECTURING COUNCILOR ON PARK PARKING, FIREFIGHTER FIGHTER, GRAFFITI 6/14/08 Mark Rinehart 5326 Kootenai Boise, ID 83705 Park Towing: It’s about 1:15 Saturday afternoon on the 14th. I have a comment after reading the Saturday morning edition of the Statesman; a comment regard Ms. Clegg’s irateness over the Parks and Rec.’s policies regarding towing and abandoned […]
Mayor Hotline June 7 to 13
Lengthy transcript this week. Support for trolley, motorcycle cops, unfair dog ticket, “Call me, I am Basque,” California Nuts, No free parking at Airport, Fairview-Curtis cell tower. Download file
Bieter Forgot To Ask Permission of ACHD
Not only did Team Dave’s four year target to build a trolley seem overly optimistic, it didn’t consider the streets or permission to use them. The GUARDIAN contacted the Ada County Highway District–the agency with authority over ALL streets in Ada County–asking about the Bieter trolley proposal. The response from an ACHD spokesman illustrates a […]
Boise Mayors and Trains Page Two
Someone PLEASE explain what it is with Boise Mayors and trains! Boise Mayor Dave Bieter is now floating another attempt at a downtown trolley to run from the Depot–which is closed to the public most of the time–to downtown among other routes. He tells the business “leaders” at the charity speech for the Chamber of […]
All Aboard! GUARDIAN Transit Line
The GUARDIAN has been making a lot of “casts” trying to hook some big fish as we angle for public transit and highway ideas. All we have seen from the politicos is a mad dash to continue to pollute the water and offer up bottom feeding trash fish. The ideas we have proffered come from […]
City Land Deals Raise Warning Flags
Since its inception the GUARDIAN has urged Boise City to get the heck out of the land speculation and development business. A recent story by Kathleen Kreller with a headline “BOISE AIMS TO PAY FOR BRANCH LIBRARIES WITH LAND SALE would make it appear the politicos have seen the light and will let the private […]
GUARDIAN Solves Bus Woes
Using the KISS (keep it simple, Stupid) philosophy, the GUARDIAN offers up the immediate solution to our transit woes…IF we can find buses that don’t burst into flames. This one has potential. The plan offered by our chief transportation planner is simplicity it self… a “surface subway” using existing resources–buses. We feel public transit needs […]
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