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Originally Posted by s.p.hansen
Yeah, I'm totally guilty of having zero local perspective when it comes to Boise, but you're guilty of thinking local means that your will for the district in question is the will of the "poor". In urban planning language it's usually called "working class." I'm sure the industries that once occupied that area helped a lot of working class people in Idaho get their slice of the American Dream. Remaking a neighborhood into a real diverse community means mixed uses and mixed use doesn't just mean retailing the bejesus out of every ground floor of every new apartment building or warehouse being converted into lofts. It means creating a community that has everything close by and creating a diverse offering of jobs and thus creating a robust local economy that isn't so dependent on commuting.
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Using some of these old warehouses for a UPS distribution center or a light rail or bus maintenance facility brings working class jobs to that location. It means that many people without college degrees can get good paying jobs in the city. Now consider that Boise has a University and a White Collar downtown core and I think this helps balance out the city.
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We have no old warehouses available. By your own words above, I'm pretty sure Boise's Mayor and council prefer more housing and mixed use development downtown and west downtown rather than just employment venues which require commuting from outside. I find it difficult to imagine how a rail maintenance facility, baseball stadium and community college will provide any housing, except by spin off to nearby lots. But there's only so much land available. And there's the URD issue which I get to below.
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Next, really what are these transit structures? They're giant storage facilities, mechanic shops, and detailing facilities. This isn't polluting or heavy industrial. No steel is being made. So lets keep our categories realistic. If you guys get with the program and put in a light rail system people are going to be able to commute downtown with more options and the light rail creates no exhaust.
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I'm not against rail in Boise, but that's not at all the issue I'm raising. It's land use and how it will enable the URD to create a new neighborhood of people who have a vested interest in the neighborhood. Renters and absentee landlords do not have much vested interest.
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So here's my prognosis, the "poor" would do well to ignore your NIMBY gentrifer musings. I think Bozeman, Montana would be more your speed. It's super white, skewed toward people with 4 year degrees, and full of granola places and places to hike.
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Um, what? All I'm asking is where is Boise going to put the maintenance facility? There are no viable warehouses anywhere downtown. They're all gone. So a new one will have to be built from scratch and the only location available is west downtown. West downtown recently got rid of most of its old abandoned warehouses. Ditto that for downtown Boise. All the old run down warehouses were the impediment to all the shiny fancy new development which is garnering so many accolades. Don't shoot the messenger.
I don't know where you got NIMBY gentrifier from. It's not clear what insult you're trying to make. Am I a NIMBY? Am I for or against gentrification? What do you stand for? Urban renewal or not? If so, surely you must agree the devil is in the details. Therefore, my call for a discussion about the details. If not, then I'm confused.
One thing is for certain. Downtown Boise's renaissance is partly or even chiefly due to the Urban Renewal District created years ago. It subsidized much of the downtown building boom of the last 25 years, including the Class A office space Zion's Bank Tower. The subsidies include many things the gentry loves such as brick paver sidewalks and irrigated Silva Cell tree planting wells and bike lanes and crosswalks and flowers...
So, if the west downtown urban renewal district's funding is gutted by tax exempt entities how does that help west downtown get those amenities that the gentry love? Let's face it, any new housing will be quite expensive. Only the gentry will be able to afford it and they're going to want their street trees, brick paver sidewalks, cafés and such.
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I would rather see that instead of a deer stuck on the fence, and I have seen deer run across the Boulevard before. 
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