We altered Roger’s schedule a bit so that he rode an extra 25 miles on Wednesday, and we arrived in Boise a day early. As a result, we’ve been enjoying not one, but two, rest days here. Our hotel room has a grassy area right outside the sliding door and a beautiful view of the Boise River, with the Boise Greenbelt (a 20-mile long bicycle/pedestrian path along the river) in between. The river is at a high level, but it is surprisingly quiet for such a fast-moving body of water. The flow is controlled upstream, and it’s currently rushing along at a rate of about 6,600 gallons per second, with 7,000 gallons per second considered flood stage.
Yesterday afternoon we met with our Neighborhood UU Church friends Sara LaWall and Michael Alvarado at a bustling pub in town called Payette Brewing Company, which had lots of tables indoors, but also a large lawn and patio with additional tables. Their family moved to Boise about four years ago when Sara was called as a minister at the Boise Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. Sara asked a couple of her bicycle-riding friends to join us so that we could include them in our Conversations Across America.
Sandy is a native of the state who grew up in Moscow, Idaho (pronounced MOS-ko, not MOS-cow). She is a retired health care data analyst who has lived in Boise since 1979. Another of Sara’s friends who joined us, Sue, moved from Montana with a two-year old in 2002 after finishing her CPA. She decided that since she had a new career, it was a good time to make a move, and after researching cities where she might want to relocate, she chose Boise. Sue is a triathlete. She had lived in Great Falls and Billings, Montana, and attended the University of Oregon in Eugene. She said that she prefers Boise to Eugene because of the dryer weather in Boise.
All three of the women talked about the current politics in Boise. It is a “blue island in a red sea,” as Boise has a liberal mayor and city council members who keep getting re-elected, while the rest of the state tends to be libertarian. Boise is 98% Caucasian, but it is also a Federal Refugee Relocation City, and refugees from Bosnia, Congo, Iraq and Afghanistan have found a welcoming reception here. Sandy teaches an ESL (English as a Second Language) class, and while there are many Spanish-speaking students in her class, well over half of the students are from Iraq or Afghanistan, many of whom had been interpreters for the US military in their home countries. There is more diversity in areas surrounding Boise, where many Latino agricultural workers live.
Homelessness is an issue in Boise. The city has been working on an initiative called Housing First that builds housing for the homeless. The city is growing, and new construction is everywhere. Unfortunately, the State legislature is at odds with Boise’s mayor, passing laws that cities in Idaho cannot be “restrictive.” These include laws that prohibit Boise and other cities from requiring developers to include a percentage of low-income housing in order to have their projects approved.
The women talked about how Boise has become very environmentally conscious. No one uses plastic straws anymore, and home waste collection bins now include a bin for compost trash in addition to containers for regular garbage and recyclables. Local businesses are attuned to environmental and social issues. The pub where we met has a weekly “Kegs for a Cause” night, where a percentage of sales go to different charities.
Sandy referred to Idaho’s economy as “chips and chips,” meaning potato chips and computer chips. Of course, Idaho is well known as prime potato-growing country, but in more recent years, it has also seen an increase in jobs due to Micron locating its computer chip manufacturing facility here.
After spending two days in this city, I’m impressed with the way that Boise appears to be dog-friendly, bicycle-friendly, environmentally conscious, and offers opportunities for outdoor physical activity, with skiing in winter, mountain biking in the foothills the rest of the year, and lots of walking, bicycling and water sports along the Greenway. If you can handle the fact that the average temperature in winter is in the 20’s and 30’s, Boise appears to have a lot to offer.