Edit: 25th Anniversary
Edit: 24 years on, the Broadway Chinden Connector revisited by a New Yorker
Bumping thread in response to Don Day covering the new emphasis on doing something about Front & Myrtle. If history is any indication, any revamp will take 20 years or more.
Don Day article of Oct 3, 2016:
http://boisedev.com/news/2016/10/1/a...usiest-streets
Short synopsis. City of Boise and CCDC have hired NYC planner Sam Schwartz aka Dr Gridlock to take a look at Front & Myrtle. Issues arise because of multiple jurisdictions. ITD in particular owns Front & Myrtle signed as US Highway 20/26.
My point here, we need to look at history to see how we got here. Before the Broadway Chinden Connector we had only the Fairview Main couplet to handle traffic to and from the west. As early as the 70s and certainly by the 80s traffic on Fairview Main was becoming unmanageable. Simple as that.
Furthermore, much of the renaissance of downtown Boise can be attributed to the Broadway Chinden Connector and its ability to move people in and out of downtown.
I'm asserting the only reasonable, albeit very expensive solution is to bury Front and Myrtle for some number of blocks east of 13th.
August 1976
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