The City of Eagle was well on its way to becoming the first smoke-free city in Idaho ... until last week, at least. Councilman Michael Huffaker put a stop to the city’s Clean Indoor Air Ordinance when he changed his vote on June 23. The ordinance would have prohibited smoking at all businesses with more than five employees, including stand-alone bars, and would limit where smokers could light up outside within city limits. At the June 9 City Council meeting, the ordinance was read for the first time and passed with a vote of 3 to 2. It seemed as if residents would soon breathe fresh air in Eagle. There were few objections to the ordinance except for a sprinkling of residents who were concerned about over-regulation. Huffaker joined the skeptics last week when he changed his vote to oppose the ordinance, saying that possible detriments to the City of Eagle outweighed the benefits. Huffaker cited a study claiming that if barflies can’t smoke in their favorite bar in Eagle, they will drive to neighboring cities to get their fix and then drive home drunk. In a statement to the citizens of Eagle, Huffaker said, “I came to the Council meeting on June 23 fully prepared to vote the same as I did on June 9, but after listening to all the arguments again both for and against the ordinance, I felt myself being persuaded that although the intent and purpose of Ordinance 622 was good, that passing this particular ordinance was not the best way to accomplish that purpose ... It was a very difficult decision to make but I felt I had to vote my conscience and for what I thought would be in the best interest of the city as a whole.” Eagle City Council hasn’t quite stopped fighting for clean air altogether, though the ordinance has been tabled. They plan to send a resolution letter to the Idaho Legislature to encourage a statewide ban. —Brady Moore
BW PUBLISHER VOTED ON TO ALT WEEKLIES BOARD Boise Weekly Publisher Sally Freeman was elected to the board of directors of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies last week during the group’s annual meeting in Tucson, Ariz. Freeman will serve as an at-large member for the association, which is made up of about 130 papers from cities across the country. “As a member of the board of AAN, I will work towards catapulting alternative weeklies to continue to represent the cutting edge in media in both print and digital journalism,” Freeman said. “Though the association represents a coalition of many alt weeklies of different sizes and formats, our mission and challenges remain the same. Boise Weekly will continue to work toward being the best independent media source in the Treasure Valley representing our local community.” Alt weeklies have evolved in recent years as journalism has moved online. Much of the focus at this year’s convention was on new ways to present information, deliver advertising and engage readers. But alternative press fundamentals—the honest practice of journalism—remains the link between AAN papers: “What ties them together are a strong focus on local news, culture and the arts; an informal and sometimes profane style; an emphasis on point-of-view reporting and narrative journalism; a tolerance for individual freedoms and social differences; and an eagerness to report on issues and communities that many mainstream media outlets ignore,” according to the association Web site. BW Editor Rachael Daigle, Art Director Leila Ramella and citydesk curator Nathaniel Hoffman also attended the raucous confab in Tucson, earning Boise a spot in yet another Top 10 list, the Wisest Company Cost Cutting in the Alt Weekly Association list: While all the other, bigshot editors paid $6 for beers and $22 for steak sandwiches at the posh golf resort south of town, the BW crew holed up in our rooms with vodka and avocados from Safeway. It also may have bettered our chances of hosting the event in, maybe, 2011, after all the verdant golf resorts in Arizona dry up and whither. CONTINUED ON PAGE 12
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| JULY 1–7, 2009 |
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B Y NATHANIEL HOFFMAN
CRITICAL MASS Will Boise cyclists demand better facilities?
on cycling and dramatically increasing the number of riders who feel comfortable riding on city streets. In Boise, there is a budding realization that cyclists must be part of transportation planning. The Ada County Highway District has adopted a long-range cycling plan for the entire n the last Friday of June, a pack of cyclists showed up county that envisions 95 percent of county residents within a at the band shell at Julia Davis Park, hoping to make a half-mile of a bike lane, route or trail. But the plan could take statement about bikes on Boise streets. The ride never 50 years to implement and while it assessed transit needs for happened. The half-dozen bikers realized that they did not re- cyclists and the practicality of building in bike routes, ACHD ally have a critical mass. did not take bike safety data into account. There were 798 crashes in Ada County from 2003 to 2008, according to the Idaho Transportation Department, including four fatalities. The corner of Orchard and Overland streets is where more cyclists have been injured than any other corner in Ada County since 2003. The Idaho Transportation Department reports 10 injury accidents involved cyclists there between 2003 and 2007. Yet ACHD considers that section of Orchard a long-term project which is not slated for bike lanes for 25 to 50 years. The City of Boise has convened a bicycle safety team to study ACHD’s plans and to work with police and prosecutors on recommendations for any legislative changes that might make it safer to ride in Idaho. “Part of the process going forward is where are improvements for bicyclists planned, and what’s the timetable for those plans and should those plans be accelerated for safety reasons,” said Michael Zuzel, adviser to Mayor Dave Bieter. Kevin Pavlis, 37, of Meridian, was hit and killed on his bicycle on June 11, eastbound on Hill Road at Smith Avenue. That committee will report to Bieter by the end of the summer. Critical Mass is one of the ways that cyclists express their Downtown agencies and some private property owners are right to use the road. In many cities, enough bikes gather once also building better bike racks. Portland has begun reclaiming a month to take over the streets, often raising the ire of motor- on-street parking for bikes; where one car once parked, 10 or ists and police but making their point nonetheless. more bikes can now be locked up. Despite the large number of cycling enthusiasts in Boise While the time is ripe to reassess cyclists’ needs in south—road and mountain racers, commuters, cruisers and kids— west Idaho, citizen-cyclists have not picked up the mantle. there has been precious little bike activism in recent years. “I think that there’s a lot of momentum built up,” said Even after cars killed three cyclists in May and June, police Stuart Bryson, organizer of a memorial ride that visited each and media have dominated the response rather than a strong, of the three crash sites after the third cyclist died in June. local bike advocacy group. Bryson said he organized his spontaneous ride out of Boise State philosophy professor George Knight, a cyclist, frustration and anger and he took a lot of flak for it, drawing has convened an annual Community Bicycle Congress for the the ire of some of the cycling clubs and racing groups in town, past five years in which he brings established cycling experts and some of whom boycotted the ride. planners to Boise. But Bryson is not heading up any efforts to increase aware“They see the things that we all know about, they see ness of cyclists or improve cycling infrastructure. the disconnect, yet they see a fairly vibrant cycling culture,” Kurt Holzer, a Boise attorney and cyclist, opposed Bryson’s Knight said. ride, calling it disrespectful to the deceased. Holzer has sugThe disconnect is the fact that bike lanes peter out, that gested going the legislative route, proposing a 3-feet-to-pass funding from the state for cycling facilities is nearly nonexislaw, as other states have been passing, and laws expressly tent and that only recently have the city and highway district prohibiting the harassment of cyclists. started to prioritize biking infrastructure. “Ten years ago, there was an instantaneous assumption that if Knight said that the idea of critical mass started in China, a bicyclist was involved, then they were at fault,” Holzer said. “I where bikers wait at an intersection until enough have gaththink it’s far better than I would have expected 10 years ago.” ered and then cross as a group, forcing cars to wait. The Treasure Valley Cycling Alliance is involved in ACHD’s In Boise, the routes bikers take are dispersed by sprawl, bike plan and on the Bicycle Advisory Committee but others leading to a proliferation of solitary riders, rather than groups in Boise are talking about forming a broader bike coalition to of cyclists. lobby and educate the public about sharing the road. “The critical mass is out there all the time,” Knight said. “If Without the gridlock of other cities, there is still road to one thing undermines the Critical Mass movement, it’s that we share here. all live too far away from each other.” “I think in a way, cyclists in Boise are higher profile. There’s As the number of visible bikes on city streets increases, more of us and less traffic,” said Patrick Sweeney, half of crashes actually decrease, said Shane Rhodes, education and Northstar Cycle Courier, the Boise bike messenger team. advocacy coordinator for GEARS, the Greater Eugene Area But his business partner again illustrates the disconnect. Riders, based in Eugene, Ore. “It also seems to me that every time I have a close call, I “One of the best things you can do to increase rider safety look up and the person is on their cell phone,” said courier is to increase numbers,” he said. Warren O’Dell. Eugene has long been considered a bike-friendly city, where O’Dell downplays the traffic, but admits he’s been hit twice cars yield to cyclists and pedestrians and where civic resources in the last two months and has a near-miss almost every day. are put into bike facilities. “I think most of it just comes down to awareness,” he said. But Rhodes said that in the last decade, Portland has “It doesn’t seem to me that there is a group that reps the guy eclipsed Eugene in promoting bike culture, doubling spending that rides to work.”
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NATHANIEL HOF FMAN
CITYDESK HUFFAKER FLIP-FLOPS ON SMOKING BAN
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