A growing Boise meets the Limits of Growth series: Intro and a welcome to Californians

A new day, a new building popping up in downtown Boise

Boise’s growth has always required the movement of people from outside the state.  My first brush with, umm, I guess the tension this can bring dates back to the ‘80s.  Driving with my uncle down Emerald St., about where it turns into Americana, a car zipped past us.  Without losing a beat my uncle leaned out the driver side window and yelled, “Fucking Californian!”  And on we went.

This series of blogs won’t solely be about these minor tensions.  Instead I would like to see how Boise’s history and how its contemporary state intersect with larger trends.  I would like to hold the example of Boise, Idaho up to the critical light of various thinkers such as James Howard Kunstler, Derrick Jensen, etc.  This town needs to pay its pound of flesh when it comes to explaining its existence.  When does the conversation about acceptable levels of growth begin?  Is Boise immune from any concern over global warming/climate change?  As Boise exists in a liminal space – where the desert meets the mountains – the city also exist in a nexus where the local meets world events and trends.

So what of that Californian-in-migration flash point?  Let’s clear the air.  There does seem to be a perpetually nascent “Idaho native” movement.  In the constant low-level conversation that takes place via bumper stickers, I noticed maybe less “Idaho Native” stickers over the last 20 years.  You still see this sentiment represented on hats and in conversations, however the “Fucking Californian” sentiment has been replaced with a passive, non-critical acceptance.  Plus, if you lived in Boise for a spell, you probably know some California transplants and perhaps realize their non-insidious nature.  And I would say this is due at some level to people basically realizing what side their bread is buttered on: while Californians (specifically) bring some perceived negative qualities, they also bring a lot of money. 

Yes, money.  As a measure of influx, in 2014, 2,806 Californians exchanged their Cali drivers licenses for Idaho ones.  The year before it was 2,629.  These are tax payers whose existence in Boise means more money in the tax bucket.  Idaho state does not have a property tax but Boise sure does.  House prices have increased 10.5% within the past year with expectations of 4.9% increase in the following year.  Where a place like Flint, MI cannot provide drinking water for its citizens, Boise debates about which gentrified neighborhood will get a new sidewalk.

This first post in what is hopefully a series is just laying the basic framework: Boise currently and in the last few decades has relied on growth for its prosperity.  At some level all these posts will take to heart the dictum, “It’s the economy, stupid”.  And if, in some fanciful manner, in-migration was blocked, the shiny city amongst the trees would begin to stagnate.