BEST LOCAL WEATHERPERSON BEST WAY TO MOVE AROUND BOISE Scott Dorval, KIVI Channel 6 All hail Scott Dorval, seven-year first-place winner for best local weatherperson in the Best of Boise poll. This guru of the green screen, prince of prognostication, sultan of smoke advisories and wizard of winter weather warnings has proved his pride of place year in and year out as Boise’s most trusted storm tracker. jrn.com/kivitv
2nd Place: Larry Gebert, KTVB Channel 7, ktvb.com 3rd Place: Rick Lantz, KTVB Channel 7, ktvb.com
BEST LOCAL TV STATION KTVB Channel 7 What? There are other local TV channels? You wouldn’t know it from the past decade-plus of Best of Boise rankings. KTVB Channel 7 has demolished the competition in this category since the mid-’00s. The tagline for the NBC affiliate is “#1 for Idaho News & Weather,” and it’s not kidding. ktvb.com
2nd Place: KAID Channel 4, Idaho Public Television, idahoptv.org 3rd Place: KBOI Channel 2, kboi2.com
BEST PLACE TO SEE AND BE SEEN Alive After Five
Whether it’s a combination of biking and walking or biking and busing, or it’s biking nude, biking with beer (via pedal-pub), biking carefully, biking on formerly existent bike lanes, biking a tandem cycle, biking on the Greenbelt or using the upcoming Boise bike share program, Boiseans are clear: Two-wheeled transport is the way to go.
2nd Place: On foot 3rd Place: By automobile
BEST ADDITION TO DOWNTOWN BOISE Eighth and Main Tower Boise is obviously happy to be rid of its signature hole—so much so that we wonder if it really mattered what went into it. More than a few responses to this question referred to the Eighth and Main Tower simply as “the hole-filler,” or “the building in the hole.” We tend to think that Eighth and Main is a little more than that, with its gleaming glass and steel design, spiffy lightup spire and mix of restaurants. If you’re going to fill a hole, might as well do it with a skylinetopping tower. (And yes, we know that Trader Joe’s was a life-changing addition for many, but we didn’t include it in the top three because, of course, it’s not local.)
2nd Place: JUMP (Jack’s Urban Meeting Place), jacksurbanmeetingplace.org 3rd Place: Bike lanes KTVB
The nickname “city that never sleeps” is already be taken, but Boise is plenty lively after 5 p.m. Nowhere is that more clear than Alive After Five, which brings thousands to the Grove Plaza each week through the summer for open-air concerts, food, beer and community togetherness. If you don’t bump into at least three people you know at AA5, you need to get out more often. downtownboise.org
Ride Your Bike
2nd Place: Downtown Boise 3rd Place: Eighth Street
BEST FREE PARKING SPACE IN DOWNTOWN BOISE Tie: Bike Racks/Downtown Streets after 6 p.m. and on Weekends Let’s be honest. We all know there are plenty of secret free parking spots scattered around the city but, Best of Boise voters kept those havens close to the vest. One of the most common answers for this category was “I’m not telling you.” Regardless, survey respondents doubled down on their cyclophilia by pointing out that parking is always free for the two-wheeled set. For the car-bound, city streets seem to do well enough after hours, which suggests that Boise’s parking situation might not be as bad as some say—that or Boiseans are playing coy about their hidden fee-less haunts.
BEST LOCAL TV ANCHOR Dee Sarton, KTVB Channel 7
2nd Place: First hour in downtown garages
We might as well rename this category “Best KTVB Anchor.” For years, the top three spots have been a game of musical chairs between Dee Sarton, Maggie O’Mara and Carolyn Holly. In fact, we could have copy-pasted this blurb from last year, when the rankings were identical. Whatever these broadcasters are doing, they must doing it right. ktvb.com
3rd Place: Fourth Street
2nd Place: Maggie O’Mara, KTVB Channel 7, ktvb.com 3rd Place: Carolyn Holly, KTVB Channel 7, ktvb.com
WWW. B OISEWEEKLY.C O M
BOISEweekly | SEPTEMBER 24–30, 2014 | 11