My own no-longer-private Idaho
Book Ranks Boise 10th Best U.S. City
By J. Gelband, 5-07-07
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Most Boiseans already know that Boise is a wonderful place to live, but now it’s official and public. The Boise area is ranked the number 10 best United States city in which to live, according to the newly published “Cities Ranked & Rated, 2nd Edition,” a book published by Frommer’s, the popular travel guide experts.
“Cities Ranked & Rated” analyzed more than 400 metro areas in the States and Canada and ranked each one on ten major criteria: economy and jobs, cost of living, climate, education, health and healthcare, crime, transportation, leisure, arts and culture, and overall quality of life.
Those are categories in which Boise would, to the untrained eye, obviously do well. Not the transportation category, as any car-less chump has already learned, but that’s why Boise’s not numero uno.
Perhaps surprisingly, Gainesville, FL, was ranked the number one best city. The authors say Gainesville is tops because it has “gained popularity among northern migrants seeking a Florida climate and intellectual stimulation without the high prices, tourist bustle and stigma most commonly associated with the state.”
A hearty handful of Northwest cities round out the top ten: Bellingham, WA, in second place; Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton in third; Colorado Springs, CO, in fourth; Ann Arbor, MI, fifth; Ogden-Clearfield, UT, sixth; Asheville, NC, seventh; Fort Collins-Loveland, CO, eighth; San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA, ninth; an Boise-Nampa in tenth.
The book offers detailed descriptions of the cities, including a metro-area profile for each that cites statistics on white- versus blue-collar jobs, the number of below-zero days each year, the cost of an average doctor visit, and total number of Starbucks coffee shops.
According to Frommer’s, one in seven people moves each year, and 40 percent of Americans’ relocations happen between states or counties, not neighborhoods.
The nation’s least desirable place to live, according to the book, is Modesto, CA, which scored a zero on the 100-point scale.
Co-author Peter Sander has written numerous books concentrating in the areas of business and personal finance, including “Frommer’s Best Places to Raise Your Family.” Co-author Bert Sperling has been speaking about cities and quality-of- life issues for more than 20 years and developed the methodology for his “Best Places to Live” software, which is now the standard for studies in this area.
Get details and more travel info at Frommer’s web site.
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Comments
"Boise sucks!" And then the author details the many grievances about the place.
So... why not move someplace else? (And take 100,000 or so others with you!)
Back to the City I am ....
You also have an inversion each winter which forces you to breathe smog for months, then in the "spring", which is actually early summer it gets so damn hot with no cloud cover or rain for, like, 6 months out of the year. I lived in fear of skin cancer since i'm so pale!
Small town minds, SUV driving whitebread yuppies in their subdivision mcmansions, suntanned shallow girls, not much intellectual freedom of thought or expression, precious little artistic creativity, and God Help you if you're a vegan!
PORTLAND: I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!
I will NEVER go back to that ugly ugly pathetic conservative waste of time!
However, I'm afraid Boise isn't nearly as pretty as I hoped it would be. Many people don't realize that Boise sits on the edge of the VERY DRY northwest desert. Consequently, it's a hopelessly brown city and hardly lives up to its billing as the "City of Trees". (I'm sorry, but lawn irrigation is the only reason that anything green is able to live in Boise.)
For my part, I prefer a city with more size. Boise is hardly a cowtown, but it still has a lot of growing up to do - it simply doesn't have the variety or metropolitan flare of larger cities like Seattle, Portland, or Salt Lake.
Traffic is horrible. Everyone swerving all over the roads. I guess according to Idaho law, you have to be drunk in order to drive here. Drivers are either overly agressive or extremely slow.
One commenter mentioned above that the green belt is a good quality, so are the neighborhoods in the north end. But you can only explore the green belt so much until you get tired of it. Not to mention the ample amount of perverts that roam around the Boise river.
Then there's the schizophrenic weather year round, but I guess that's been covered here already, as well as the low paying jobs. All my money I have been saving up is going for my move out of this hellhole and go to school. BSU has nothing much to offer (no Music Technology programs). Seattle, here I come. Sure it rains a lot up there. I'm aware of that, but I'd rather live somewhere that has more happening and more opened minded people than burning to death in 106° weather half the year.
My wife and I have been here about 9 months. It's been challenging. Fall was nice - everything has a golden hue to it. Winter wasn't bad (I grew up in Colorado and no where near as much snow) BUT, we didn't have any of the infamous "inversions". I had one person tell me they can last a month or more and that so much smog and air pollution is in the atmosphere that it looks like fog. This summer the air was BAD. My wife and I had to quit running outside because we couldn't BREATHE. Smoke from forest fires, controlled burns, and agriculture contribute to some of the worst air I've seen - and I grew up in Denver's "Brown cloud".
As of today, Boise seems like a vacuum. Restaurants downtown (which is a neat little downtown) are closing at a record rate. I've never seen so many open lots, empty houses that are brand new, but haven't been lived in for two years. There's a reason some of the magazines say it's an entreprenuer's dream... There's a behind the scenes PR push (I have my suspicion) and there is NOTHING HERE. So yes, I guess if there's no competition than it's a great place for a business - if the population is here.
The most disturbing aspect is the pay rate. Salaries are much lower for comparable jobs than they are in neighboring states. Compounding poor pay, is the fact that there are basically two major health coverage insurers in the state. Our health benefits STINK.
Boise might be a great place in 5-7 years. Right now, people are leaving left and right.
True you could live in better climates like LA or San Diego, but you talk about smog and pollution have you ever seen the skyline of those cities. And I hear that LA has a problem with traffic, and I think Seattle does to if I remember right. Boise's traffic is nothing compared to those places. Spent a few months in Chicago during the summer 105 and 100% humidity isn't the greatest either.
While Boise doesn’t have all the exciting events that bigger cities do, you are literally minutes away from the most beautiful mountains and river valleys in the states. 30 minutes from skiing and miles of bike/hike trails. Just get out town.
For all you to complain about the people being so judgmental, what is bad about choosing to be different than the people around you and actually trying to change the culture of the area rather than complain about it and leave? It is always interesting to hear people judge someone as judgmental. How about educating instead of labeling.
I grew up in Boise, moved away for 11 years, and moved back because I couldn't think of a better place to raise my family and pursue my own success rather than feed off the visions of others. If you don't like it, fine, but don't say it sucks because there are far worse places to live.
I lived in Denver, Atlanta, LA and Seattle so I know the ins and outs of those places and cannot imagine that air quality and traffic in a metro of a half million or so is anything like mentioned above. I have spent 3 hours commuting 40 miles, destroyed a car with the accumulated mileage, been victimized by road rage, had 17 days of 100+ heat, 30+ inches of snow in early October and had automatic weapons used less than a mile from my home. The Idaho Stampede, walking the Greenbelt and a simple university sounds refreshing after all that.
WARNING - Health Alert!
Don't come for the air quality. We have the some of the worst air of any city our size in the country. You can't always see it from in town but go a couple of miles up into the foothills and look back down. Mostly it's a yellow haze followed by a black soot line that rolls in each morning, but often there is even more of a rainbow. If anyone cared we could have cleaner air here, but people would rather pretend it doesn't exist
Just bought a house out in Boise and preparing for the move. Can hardly wait!
Oh yeah, need a job if anyone is hiring!
The unemployment rate for the Boise Nampa MSA is supposed to be around the 10.4% rate, but I have heard that it is much worse and getting worse-Micron will be gone soon, Albertson's, Morrison Knudsen, Boise Cascade, all have either been bought out or have been cut in half. Those were the major players in the economy there and have made the city grow so fast over the years.
So you have no infrastructure there anymore, how are people there going to keep those restaurants running when those high wages are now lost and have left for other countries or other American cities like Phoenix(where I have moved my business)
As far as the weather, I never liked going from 82 degrees to 108 and then back to 92, it just freaks your body out, plus it is GREENER here in Phoenix, yes a city known worldwide for being a desert, plus my business is booming here and gotta enjoy the lower income tax, plus I can get across Phoenix in an hour and a half(90 miles) Meridian to Boise(9 miles)takes an hour.
August is starting here and I really have no problem with the heat, especially compared to Boise, where it's not much different(I check the temps over there and sometimes Boise is hotter, with higher elevation and more humidity to spare. With September coming I have to deal with all this perfect weather for 10 months, sucks that I moved here!
Things I don't miss about Boise: inversions, over abundance of mormans, ignorant people, retarded drivers, cheap people, low wages, high property-income taxes, poorly designed roads/freeways, weather, weather, weather, again-the one lanes everywhere with the low speed limits and brutal four way stops in Meridian and Eagle RD., lack of good looking and educated women, constant talk of the Broncos being considered an elite team when they only play one to two decent teams a year and that includes a bowl game, people that live in Eagle that think it's a high end city--I live in Scottsdale, Eagle would be considered a 3rd tier city here, probably where Mesa is, everything looking dead and brown for 7 months, no real sports teams and not being close to any, cliquish people(see mormans), depressed people on meds, it amazing how many there are there, it's an epidemic.
Things I miss: my parents, sister, the Liquid bar on 8th st.(I actually liked that place, good people that work there.
Great police officers, friendly store personnel, clean streets and neighborhoods, very happy with our decision to move here.