Not so rural

This article from the Daily Yonder website breaks down the voting patterns of rural Democrats on last week's health insurance reform vote. For Gem State residents, the most interesting point is that Idaho's 1st Congressional District is not among the 100 most rural in the nation. Only about a third of the district is considered rural; the rest is urban. And yet Idaho politicians and parties consistently focus their appeals to the rural and small-town vote.

Why is this? Perhaps it's because all Idahoans, no matter where we live, identify with and love the outdoors - our magnificent mountains, our wild rivers and canyon lands, and the high-desert stillness abundantly available just minutes from our largest metro area. But the fact is, Idaho is increasingly urban, with the sort of issues - traffic, clean air and water, crowded classrooms, economic development - that dominate metropolitan life. We play in the mountains and enjoy small-town weekends, but we live, work, and go to school in cities and large towns.

Our state's current political leadership is rural in the extreme, with ranchers running the show. When will Idaho's metropolitan population rise up and vote for representation that identifies with the state's increasingly urban needs?

"Pick us! Pick us!"

It's been six weeks since Google announced its plan to build a super-fast fiber network in one or more communities across the country. Communities have until tomorrow (March 26) to submit their bids. Boise, Meridian, and Nampa are teaming together to try and convince Google to "pick us! pick us!" I'm sorry to say, however, that we seem to be doing a fairly lame and belated job of it, unlike - say - Duluth.

However, there are very good reasons why Google ought to consider the Boise metro area's bid. Although we are the most geographically isolated metro area in the Lower 48 states, we have a strong history here of high-tech innovation. As Meridian's website says, "The Treasure Valley boasts the second most patents per capita in the country, it is the birthplace of the laser jet printer, and the home to the top semiconductor chip company in the country. We take pride in our innovation and creating our own destiny."

As well we must, given that our state's lopsided, reactionary political culture has been way more interested in laying asphalt than building broadband. So scoot on over to your city's website - Boise, Meridian or Nampa - to help show Google why a dose of fiber here would go a long way to create jobs and harness the power of the Treasure Valley's potential.

The facts might set us free

The Idaho Statesman's Kevin Richert penned a column in today's paper about new research from a Brookings Mountain West report showing that the Treasure Valley faces a highly uncertain path to economic recovery. Kevin does a good job outlining the study's findings, which included the sobering statistics that the Boise Metropolitan Statistical Area has seen some of the nation's steepest declines in housing prices and employment levels. (In both areas, we rank among the worst six of the nation's Top 100 metros.)

The Brookings report also was the topic of yesterday's Urban Lunch at the Boise Watercooler, featuring talks by Dean Melissa Lavitt of Boise State's College of Social Sciences and Public Affairs and Boise City Councilman David Eberle. My main take-away from the session was that - for the first time ever - the Boise metro area has extensive, fact-based research with which we can compare ourselves to other metro areas in the Intermountain West.

For as long as I've lived in Idaho (21 years this spring, including six years in Boise and 15 in Twin Falls), we've considered ourselves too small and too remote to be included in serious public policy research, and outsiders have certainly seen us that way too. But Lavitt and Eberle both made the point that BSU's participation in the five-school Brookings West consortium - coupled with the Boise metro area's population growth - make that serious research possible for the first time.

Unfortunately, the results may not please us as much as the myriad (albeit subjective) Top Places to Live-type lists that Boise has deservedly found itself on over the past decade. But facts are facts, and Boise's abysmal placement in employment and housing value metrics - together with Idaho's long-term lack of support for higher education and blurry economic development vision - should make us all take notice. We know what a great place Boise is to live, but it won't stay that way if we don't realize that this is the first recession that we can neither build our way out of nor solve through outdated economic development policy.

Update: The Idaho Business Review's Robb Hicken has a report on the study, too.

Spring cleaning, with a smile

UPDATE - March 9, 2010: Here's a video clip of the Maytag Lady in action - and with a new spring green frock, too.

Boise has spring fever. We have had it for weeks now, due to the combination of unusually warm temperatures paired with mostly gray skies. Early spring means crocuses popping out of the dirt, corn skiing at Bogus, more hours to walk and bike the Greenbelt, and thoughts of proms and graduations. It also means spring cleaning - but we can do even that with a smile, like the Vista Maytag Lady.

The skies were gray when I snapped this pic last week, yet the Maytag Lady was wearing the spring frock she's had on for a few weeks now. Come on, sunshine ... stick around a while!

Also worth noting: Food writer Guy Hand gave the Maytag Lady's neighbor, Cucina di Paolo, a fabuloso write-up last Friday in the Idaho Statesman. Mary Jean and Paul are on vacation this week, but they'll be back March 9 to bake the lasagnas and pot pies we all know and love. (Yes, these are the same folks who sell their homemade goodies at the Capital City Public Market each Saturday in the summer.)

Something new to do in Boise

UPDATE: The next Impromptour is this weekend ... Saturday, March 6, 2010, at 2 p.m. on The Grove. Come enjoy a springtime urban stroll with us. $15 cash or pre-pay online (see below).

I'm pleased to say I have a new gig as a partner in Boise Walking Tours, which will be officially relaunching this spring. Linda Byron and Judy Secrist started the historical strolls in 2000, and I've joined them to help take the venture into a new decade.

While the tours are mainly going to be geared to groups visiting Boise, we'll also be holding drop-in tours once or twice a week (to start, anyway) for Boiseans who are looking for something fun to do. The first of these "Impromptours" will happen at 4 p.m. this Sunday, February 28. That's right - after the Olympic men's hockey finals.

The original Boise Walking Tours route centered on Old Boise, but I've designed a tour that takes in a somewhat larger area, from the Grove to the Anne Frank Memorial to the Basque Block and the heart of downtown. We'll be covering about two miles total in 90 minutes at a nice leisurely stroll. Much of the information will be familiar to people who've lived in Boise a while, but I think you'll enjoy the walk (it's supposed to be in the 50s again on Sunday) and learn something new even if you've been here for decades.

The tours cost $15 per person, and you can either pay cash at the start or use the PayPal link on our website if you'd rather use your bank account or credit card. We're starting this somewhat quietly; you can think of the first few tours as a "soft opening." But I once led a version of this same tour for about 30 people on President's Day Weekend a few years ago, so I am ready for anything.

For more info or dates of other upcoming "Impromptours," see our website, Facebook fan page, or Twitter feed.

A sign of things to come

On a walk the other day, I noticed this sign on the south side of Federal Way near Protest and Kootenai. I don't know how long it's been there, but it's an indication of our neighborhood park-to-be, Terry Day Park. The Day family donated the land to the city more than three years ago, but the sign says it isn't going to remain developed for a while.

For all the great parks we have in Boise, the Overland-Federal Way neighborhood has no real park to call our own. Platt Gardens and the Depot are a brisk 15-minute walk from my house, but there's no slide or swings, and dogs aren't allowed, even on leashes. Manitou Park isn't much farther, but accessing it as the crow flies requires a scramble down canal company-owned land. Neither situation is ideal for children.

Bowden Park by South Junior High is a little bit closer, but it's nearly as undeveloped as the Day parcel. So it'll be a happy day indeed when Terry Day Park provides a playground and picnic spot for the neighborhood - and perhaps a community garden, as well, from the write-up on the Boise Parks website.

Transit: It's time to get creative

I grew up riding the Port Authority Transit trolleys in Pittsburgh. Two separate streetcar lines ran between Bethel Park (the suburb where my family lived) and downtown. The trolleys took us to Pirates games, movies and concerts. Even after I got my driver's license, I realized that it was way cheaper to take the trolley to my downtown summer jobs than to drive.

My childhood love for public transit hasn't let up. As an adult, I'm the sort of person who considers transit to be as much tourist attraction as transportation mode; I was almost as excited last summer to finally get a chance to ride the Salt Lake TRAX light rail as I was to see Green Day in concert that same trip. In other words, you'd think that I'd be a huge fan of the Boise streetcar concept, and that I'd be devastated at yesterday's news that our city lost out on the federal grant that would've underwritten a good chunk of its cost.

Nope. If anything, I was rooting quietly for the grant application to fail. For one thing, I prefer the idea of starting with a north-south line to connect downtown with our cultural district and Boise State. But beyond that, I question whether we ought to be pursuing any sort of fixed-line streetcar service when our bus system is so insufficient. I was far more disappointed to learn that Valley Regional Transit lost out on a $26 million grant to improve local bus service than I was to hear that the streetcar funds fell through.

Of course, I am familiar with the main reason our bus system is so bad: Unlike most states, Idaho refuses to let local citizens decide whether to pay a little extra in sales tax to fund public transit. Idaho was one of only nine states to get entirely shut out of yesterday's transit grants. Pointing to the four cities (out of a dozen applicants) that got streetcar grants yesterday, Boise Mayor Dave Bieter noted to the Idaho Statesman that Tuscon, Portland, Dallas and New Orleans all have local option authority.

Alas, living as we do in a state where legislators refuse to give citizens local control, Boise now has to get creative. The Statesman had an excellent editorial on Sunday pointing out how the city - faced with a strong vote of support for local libraries that still fell short of the unreasonably high two-thirds majority required - found a way to build the branch libraries we so badly needed in this city.

The difference is that 57 percent of Boise voters supported branch libraries, while nowhere near that high a percentage supports the current streetcar plan. It will also cost a lot more money to bring the local transit system into the 21st century than it will to build a few libraries.

But we have to start somewhere, and the answer - for Boise - is not a fixed-line streetcar route. It's buses that run past 6 p.m., and on Sundays, and more than once an hour mid-day. It's buses that serve the growing populations of Eagle, Meridian and Kuna.

It's temporary trolley service that runs at times when people are already downtown and want to have fun: First Thursdays, for example, or Morrison Center concert nights. We all know how popular the Boise State football game-day trolleys are; why not expand that concept?

Let's look at creative marketing and schedule tweaks that makes bus riding cool and fun. For example, how about special service that would allow people to take a bus between downtown Boise, Towne Square Mall and the Idaho Center (and back again at 11 p.m.) for big concerts? How about keeping bus service available until 9 p.m. on summer Wednesdays for Alive After Five or running buses until midnight for 10 days during the Western Idaho Fair?

Valley Ride is strapped for cash, and these ideas would require public-private funding partnerships along the lines of those that were envisioned for the streetcar route. But Boise's compact, walkable downtown doesn't need a permanent 2.3-mile streetcar running east-west or north-south so much as it needs a way to help people travel to and from downtown to eat, drink, work, shop and have fun in the first place.

Update 10:30 a.m. February 18 ... Here are some other thoughts on Boise's transit situation (h/t Treasured Valley):

Randy Stapilus at Ridenbaugh Press

Kevin Richert at the Idaho Statesman