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[SIZE=4]Does anyone have any information on Boise. I am open for all the "good" & the "bad". I would rather know up front before I make this move. I have read about earthquakes, landslides crime etc...How cold are the river & lakes in the summer. Does Boise get snow? Do you get humidity? I have a million question. Oh yes, how about jobs & cost of houses?[/SIZE]
Pros: Not far from just about everything you could ask for outdoors.
To a person from a large metropolitan city Boise is small enough and big enough.
Plenty of jobs if you know how and where to look (the cities economy has recently slowed a bit)
Greenbelt and continued improvements for bike commuting
Cons: Traffic, Traffic, Traffic (live close enough to your work that you can bike I guarantee its faster than driving.)
VERY POOR city planning ie traffic, residential, urban sprawl, etc....
over inflated home prices and not a lot of rental choices if you have pets
BTW Boise gets snow not as much as when my great grandparents lived here but enough.... and its nosebleed dry here.
Boise has the worst city planning and zonning (lack there of) of any city that I have ever been to. I had a friend who worked in the county planning dept approx. 5-6 years ago and he was disgusted by the lack of any proactive long-term thinking or planning. Developers rule the roost in Boise/Idaho and it shows in having such bad traffic for a city it size and in the many un-sightly, poorly laid out developments. However, the downtown is not too bad and it there seems to be some more recent investments undertaken to make it more attractive and livable and a place for people to gather and enjoy.
Also, Idaho is the most conservative state in America, even surpassing Utah in that regard - I guess that could be good or bad depending on your political/social leanings.
However, Idaho is the only state in America that does not have a coal fired power plant within its boarders....so there has been some level of enlightenment there.
In Closing, Boise in very BROWN and DRY. Not much green there unless you travel about 20 miles north of town. There are many days when the air, ground and trees all seem to be different shades of brown....it is in the desert afterall, so nothing grows there without massavie amounts of water applied to it.
Boise has the worst city planning and zonning (lack there of) of any city that I have ever been to. I had a friend who worked in the county planning dept approx. 5-6 years ago and he was disgusted by the lack of any proactive long-term thinking or planning. Developers rule the roost in Boise/Idaho and it shows in having such bad traffic for a city it size and in the many un-sightly, poorly laid out developments. However, the downtown is not too bad and it there seems to be some more recent investments undertaken to make it more attractive and livable and a place for people to gather and enjoy.
Also, Idaho is the most conservative state in America, even surpassing Utah in that regard - I guess that could be good or bad depending on your political/social leanings.
However, Idaho is the only state in America that does not have a coal fired power plant within its boarders....so there has been some level of enlightenment there.
In Closing, Boise in very BROWN and DRY. Not much green there unless you travel about 20 miles north of town. There are many days when the air, ground and trees all seem to be different shades of brown....it is in the desert afterall, so nothing grows there without massavie amounts of water applied to it.
About the planning and developers, I've been screaming about that here for months on end. People here don't like to talk about it, and want to instead deflect it back onto you as just being a growthophobe. I'm glad I have a little outside corroboration.
I don't think we're necessarily the most conservative state in the union - we do have a strong mix of conservatism, libertarianism, and it is a Republican stronghold. But that's mostly due to the rural nature of the state. Most of our urban areas are increasingly Democrat and/or moderate (Boise, CDA, Moscow, TF, etc.). But yeah, you can definitely feel the political climate here.
The coal-plant thing is one of our greatest victories to date. Chasing Sempra away was just awesome!
I don't know about the brown comment. We are high desert, so certain areas of Southern Idaho will always be dry and yellowish/brown. Especially to the south and west of the Treasure Valley. But Boise is an incredibly green city, pretty much from April to early November. The foothills stay green usually to mid-June or early July, depending on how wet the spring is. Lately our falls and winters have been more and more wet, which also keeps things a little more green.
Boise has the worst city planning and zonning (lack there of) of any city that I have ever been to. I had a friend who worked in the county planning dept approx. 5-6 years ago and he was disgusted by the lack of any proactive long-term thinking or planning. Developers rule the roost in Boise/Idaho and it shows in having such bad traffic for a city it size and in the many un-sightly, poorly laid out developments. However, the downtown is not too bad and it there seems to be some more recent investments undertaken to make it more attractive and livable and a place for people to gather and enjoy.
Also, Idaho is the most conservative state in America, even surpassing Utah in that regard - I guess that could be good or bad depending on your political/social leanings.
However, Idaho is the only state in America that does not have a coal fired power plant within its boarders....so there has been some level of enlightenment there.
In Closing, Boise in very BROWN and DRY. Not much green there unless you travel about 20 miles north of town. There are many days when the air, ground and trees all seem to be different shades of brown....it is in the desert afterall, so nothing grows there without massavie amounts of water applied to it.
Boise can do better with planning, but much of what you are referring to is probably in Meridian, Eagle and west of Boise city limits, where there has and is room for growth. The city limits of Boise are pretty much maxed out with development and the city is pretty densely populated. The growth in Boise took off and exploded, so the city planners have had to scramble to keep up.
Remember the Boise area has been one of the fastest growing regions of the country for a number of years. Downtown isn't "too bad", it is great and most cities, even larger cities cannot hold a candle to Boise's downtown in terms of cleanliness, attractiveness, vibrancy, array of restaurants for a smaller city, activities, the list can go on.
People have been gathering and enjoying downtown for a very long time and downtown Boise has been mentioned often as a model for other cities to look to.
I don't think Idaho is the most conservative state, in fact most people I know here are just themselves, not classified as republican or democrat. Have you ever lived here? I can think of a handful of other states I have lived in that I consider more conservative, and some of those are eastern states.
Your comment about the coal fired plant is true, but Idaho is probably more "enlightened" than most other states. Conservation is big here, and this state has some of the largest national forests, and wilderness areas in our nation. Some of our nations most precious natural lands are in Idaho and protected.
Your comment about Brown is very naieve. The last time I checked trees have green leaves, so they have never looked brown to me If you discount Boise because it is in a desert, then you have to include most of the Western US in your classification. Boise is a very green city and the trees are everywhere here, and they don't take massive amounts of water to keep alive, it is natural. The Boise valley was full of trees when it was discovered by white man. (I have an excellent history book of this area) Even the farm lands outside of city boundaries are lush and flowing with water. The desert area Boise is in is high desert and not as dry as southwest desert. Boise is lush, even by northeast standards. When I visited Boise to see if this was where I wanted to move, I was blown away by the greenery, the beautiful mountain backdrop, and the clean river which is another luxery Boise has. When you live here the beauty of the foothills and mountains above the city is amazing. They turn colors with the seasons.
Boise is great and has much natural diversity= we have the desert, which is full of deep canyons and mystery at our doorstep as well as very expansive forested mountain areas at our other doorstep. A lot of other cities cannot make that claim.
Last edited by Syringaloid; 09-19-2007 at 09:54 AM..
Reason: spelling
I think Boise is is a great place to live!!! where people are getting dry and brown well not sure what side they live on. Never seen Boise brown, its a great city!!! So much to do there you will never get bored. Camping fishing skiing you name it!!! all kinds of shopping, Art museums, Zoo, Parks, floating the river is great too!!! the river can feel cold in the begging but on a hot day its a great way to cool off. Movie threaders you defiantly got your options there. I plan to retrier there hopefully some day!
The homes-for-rent situation Hi, everyone. I am moving to Boise this summer and would like to rent a cheap and smallish (I'll be on my own) place for myself. Since I've heard traffic can get heavy in Boise the best thing for me would be to get something downtown, where I'll probably also work. Being from out-of-state, I have no idea where to start looking, so I hope you can help.
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