BOISE WEEKLY LOCA L A N D I N D E PE N D E N T
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What’s In Store
Our love affair with retail is alive and well at Boise Towne Square Mall
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Sculpting Scapes
From delicate to dynamic, artist Francis Fox showcases the internal and external
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Recipe Meet forBoiseSuccess Co-op head baker extraordinaire Daryl Vickers FREE TAKE ONE!
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BOISE WEEKLY.COM
BOISEweekly STAFF Publisher: Sally Freeman sally@boiseweekly.com Editorial Editor: Amy Atkins amy@boiseweekly.com News Editor: George Prentice george@boiseweekly.com Senior Staff Writer: Harrison Berry harrison@boiseweekly.com Staff Writer: Lex Nelson lex@boiseweekly.com Listings Editor: Jay Vail Listings: calendar@boiseweekly.com Contributing Writers: Minerva Jayne, David Kirkpatrick Interns: Drew Dodson, Sami Godlove, Veronica Lemaster, Gustavo Sagrero, Samuel Wonacott Advertising Account Executives: Jim Klepacki, jim@boiseweekly.com Kathleen Karpal, kathleen@boiseweekly.com Classified Sales/Legal Notices classifieds@boiseweekly.com Creative Art Director: Kelsey Hawes kelsey@boiseweekly.com Graphic Designers: Bingo Barnes, bingo@boiseweekly.com Jason Jacobsen, jason@boiseweekly.com Contributing Artists: Glenn Landberg, E.J. Pettinger, Ted Rall, Jen Sorensen, Tom Tomorrow Circulation Man About Town: Stan Jackson stan@boiseweekly.com Distribution: Tim Anders, Char Anders, Becky Baker, Andy Hedden-Nicely, Stan Jackson, Barbara Kemp, Warren O’Dell, Steve Pallsen, Kara Vitley, Jill Weigel Boise Weekly prints 30,000 copies every Wednesday and is available free of charge at more than 1,000 locations, limited to one copy
EDITOR’S NOTE TALKING TURKEY The holidays are nearly upon us. Though the twinkle of tinsel and cheer of Santa-related tchotchkes started to fill store shelves immediately after Halloween, it doesn’t really feel like the holiday season until around Thanksgiving, after which the days until Christmas seem to pass by at light speed. For many, those days are full of parties, shopping, projects, travel, family and (at Boise Weekly, anyway) busier work schedules. For us, there is a benefit to the long hours and early deadlines, though: time off. For Thanksgiving, Boise Weekly will be closed Thursday, Nov. 23 and Friday, Nov. 24, and to celebrate Christmas and New Years, the office will be closed Friday, Dec. 22-Monday, Jan. 1. For the issues of Dec. 20, Dec. 27 and Jan. 3, the deadline to reserve ad space is Monday, Dec. 11, and ads are due Friday, Dec. 15. The deadline for calendar submissions for all three of those issues is Saturday, Dec. 9. Movies are another thing that often fill people’s minds and schedules this time of year. The holiday season is historically packed with some of the greatest flicks, and this season promises to be no exception. To help you sort through the slew of big screen offerings, Boise Weekly News Editor George Prentice put together a helpful list on Page 18 of films coming out in the next several weeks, including opening dates, genres and whether he thinks it’s a movie you can’t miss. Last but not in any way least, we need to make a correction. In “Boise Fall Food Roundup, BW, Nov. 15,” we incorrectly reported that Wild West Bakery and Espresso in Eagle will be closing in 2017 and reopening in 2018 as Mama Italia’s Trattoria. Restaurant Owner Matteo Raymond explained that Wild West will remain open, breakfast and lunch service will continue as usual and new Italian items will join old favorites on the menu during a transition period. We apologize for any inconvenience our error caused. From all of us here at Boise Weekly, happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. Bring on the holidays!
per reader. Additional copies of the current issue of Boise Weekly may be purchased for $1,
—Amy Atkins
payable in advance. Boise Weekly is owned and operated by
COVER ARTIST
Bar Bar Inc., an Idaho corporation. To contact us: Boise Weekly’s office is located at 523 Broad St., Boise, ID 83702 Phone: 208-344-2055
Cover art scanned courtesy of Evermore Prints... supporting artists since 1999.
Fax: 208-342-4733
E-mail: info@boiseweekly.com www.boiseweekly.com The entire contents and design of Boise Weekly are ©2017 by Bar Bar, Inc.
ARTIST: C E Rachetto TITLE: “Truth Or Consequence” MEDIUM: Oil on canvas
Calendar Deadline: Wednesday at noon before publication date. Sales Deadline: Thursday at 3 p.m. before publication date. Deadlines may shift at the discretion of the publisher. Boise Weekly was founded in 1992 by
ARTIST STATEMENT: This is an object painting with each holding its own symbolic meaning. Festive holiday meals can be anticipatory, connecting and fulfilling. A family is complicated with generational secrets, relationships on the mend and hopefulness. The intent is to eat, drink and be merry!
Andy and Debi Hedden-Nicely. Larry Ragan had a lot to do with it, too. Boise Weekly is an independently owned and operated newspaper. ISSN 1944-6314 (print) ISSN 1944-6322 (online)
BOISE WEEKLY.COM
SUBMIT Boise Weekly publishes original local artwork on its cover each week. One stipulation of publication is that the piece must be donated to BW’s annual charity art auction in November. A portion of the proceeds from the auction are reinvested in the local arts community through a series of private grants for which all artists are eligible to apply. Cover artists will also receive 30 percent of the final auction bid on their piece. To submit your artwork for BW’s cover, bring it to BWHQ at 523 Broad St. All original mediums are accepted. Thirty days from your submission date, your work will be ready for pick up if it’s not chosen to be featured on the cover. Work not picked up within six weeks of submission will be discarded.
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PRESENTS
BOISEWEEKLY.COM What you missed this week in the digital world.
TURKEY DAY SOS THE FOOD NE T WORK HAS SOME L AST-MINUTE FIXES FOR “THANKSGIVING FAILS.” DRY TURKE Y? HAVE SOME CHICKEN STOCK ON HAND. GLUE Y M A S H E D P OTATO ES? M I X I N SOME GR ATED CHEDDAR AND AN EGG TO MAKE CHEESY M A S H E D P OTATO C U P S . RE A D MORE AT NE WS/CIT YDESK.
Each entry must contain exactly 101 words (not including the story title). Please confirm your word count using Microsoft Word. We will do the same. No handwritten entries. Entry fee is $10 per story. Submit your Microsoft Word entry to fiction101@boiseweekly.com and enter your credit card payment at boiseweekly.nolatepayments. com. If you prefer to pay by check, please send your entry fee to: Boise Weekly/Fiction 101, 523 Broad St., Boise, ID 83702. Your submission will be confirmed via email once entry and payment are received. Both must be received by 3 p.m., Friday Nov. 24. Cash prizes are awarded for winning entries. BW will publish winning stories in the Jan. 3, 2018 edition.
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TAX TUSSLE Reps. Raul Labrador and Mike Simpson joined the majority of their U.S. House GOP colleagues to pass a tax overhaul bill which is now being debated in the U.S. Senate. Read more at News/Citydesk.
SENSITIVE DATA Idaho Secretary of State Lawerence Denney pushes back against reports of Idaho providing sensitive voter information to the Interstate Crosscheck program. Read more at News/Citydesk.
POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE Boise State University President Dr. Bob Kustra announced he will retire from Idaho’s largest public university in June 2018. Read more at News/Citydesk.
OPINION
BOISE WEEKLY.COM
Boise shoppers support brick-and-mortar retailers, bucking the national trend
There are approximately 1,300 parking meters in downtown Boise.
GEORGE PRENTICE Last February, just as the holiday season was coming to a close, Darren Howard walked into the Boise Towne Square Mall office, where he serves as general manager, to tell his staff what was probably the last thing they wanted to hear: Exactly how many days were left until Black Friday. “It was a bit of a cruel joke because that was nearly 10 months ago,” said Howard. “But the holiday shopping season is something that never leaves our minds.” It will be all hands, minds and bodies on deck this year when Boise mall staff swing the doors open at 6 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 24. Long considered to be the busiest shopping day of the year, the day after Thanksgiving has become a critical turning point for many U.S. stores. The National Retail Federation forecasts that this year, an estimated 115 million Americans will shop on Black Friday, with holiday sales projected to approach $700 million, an approximate 4 percent increase over 2016. Even so, the increasing popularity of online sales means many U.S. brick-and-mortar stores, particularly national chains, are hurting. A report from Credit Suisse, a financial services company, published this past June indicated thousands of stores would close by the end of the year. On June 25, CNN Money posted a story with the headline “Malls are Doomed,” reporting that 25 percent of U.S. malls might be gone in five years. Fox Business News added to the avalanche of bad press on Sept.19, citing a pending “retail apocalypse” and listing store closures from Abercrombie & Fitch, American Apparel, JCPenney, The Limited, Macy’s and Sears. But at Boise Towne Square Mall, headlines have been the exact opposite. “Boise continues to have one of the most successful malls for General Growth Properties,” said Howard, referring to the Chicago-based business which owns 126 retail properties in 40 U.S. states. “We track the customer traffic here at the mall, right down to the hour of the day. We track the sales. We track every metric that’s measurable.” According to GGP statistics, approximately 13 million people visit the 195 retailers and restaurants in Boise Towne Square Mall annually, a significant leap from when the mall first opened its doors. BOISE WEEKLY.COM
KE L S E Y HAWES
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BUY, BUY LOVE
NEWS
CITYDESK
FEEDING MORE MONEY INTO THE METER IN DOWNTOWN BOISE
Darren Howard, manager of the Boise Towne Square Mall, said, “We’ll exhale after Christmas. Not the day after Christmas, mind you, because there are a ton of sales then, too.”
SOMETHING NEW IN STORE FOR BOISE visited Boise Towne Square for its grand opening. In the mid-80s, newly-elected Boise Mayor Dirk Kempthorne spent a fair amount of time flying to New York City and Seattle to woo retailers, likely to put paid to his city’s reputation of having, as Spokesman-Review reported, the lowest retail sales per capita of any city in the nation. While Kempthorne courted retailers, the Boise City Council updated its zoning laws, clearing the way for a new mall even as Kempthorne worked to convince developers to build it inside Boise city limits rather than within the growing city of Meridian. “The message is that the welcome mat is out in Boise,” said Kempthorne in a December 1986 press conference. “We want that regional shopping mall built in the capital city.” Soon, retailers were telling developers they wanted to be located in Boise, not Meridian. “We have been asked by some of the major tenants who remain committed to our company in the Boise market,” wrote John Price, president of the Salt Lake City-based Price Development Co., in a letter to Kempthorne. “There are a number of tenants who now believe [Boise] is the best location for development of the regional shopping center.” The new mayor got his way. Twelve months later, construction of Boise Towne Square began on the northwest intersection of Cole and Franklin roads, and on October 19, 1988, the mall opened with anchor stores JCPenney, Mervyn’s, Sears and The Bon Marche. A total of 67 stores were located at the mall on opening day, barely a third of the number there today, and mall officials estimated 10,000 people
The first major expansion came in 1998, when Dillard’s was added as another anchor store. An expanded food court came in 1999, and further growth followed in 2006, 2007 and 2008, far surpassing Karcher Mall in Nampa, the first indoor shopping mall in Idaho, built in 1965. “My family moved here in 1992. I went to school in Eagle and then Boise State. It’s particularly fun for me to be the mall manager today because I remember walking these halls,” Howard said. “To see the mall’s progression is amazing and for me to be sitting here today is an honor.” There’s little time for Howard to reflect though, given that this is his busiest time of the year. “We’ll exhale after Christmas. Not the day after Christmas, mind you, because there are a ton of sales then too,” he said with a laugh. “But after the new year, maybe we’ll breathe a little.” Howard and his team of 35 full- and parttime GGP employees (their ranks swell during the holidays) work for months to prepare for the holiday season. Plus, extra personnel are brought in to help decorate the 1.2 million-square-foot mall landscape. “I even begin having conversations with Santa sometime during the summer,” Howard said. “As you can imagine, Santa has a pretty unique resume. We’ve been lucky because he’s been with us for a long time.” A new survey from Washington State University Carson College of Business 6 indicates 7 out of 10 Pacific Northwest shoppers plan to buy holiday gifts in-store
The constant conversation about parking in downtown Boise and the challenge of finding a space will circle the block a few more times in the coming weeks, and if city planners have their way, parking rates and fines will be higher, and metered parking will no longer be free during evenings or on Saturdays. Beginning in December, the Boise City Council will be asked to consider some dramatic changes to downtown parking regulations. The public will get to weigh in on the proposal sometime in mid-December, and new rates could go into effect Feb. 1, 2018. The on-street meter hike comes in the wake of increases approved by the Capital City Development Corporation at eight downtown parking garages, which also go into effect in February. The first hour will remain free, but hourly parking rates would go from $2.50 to $3 per hour. For metered parking, the first 20 minutes will remain free, but in Zone 1 (those meters closest to the downtown Boise core), the rate for the first hour would increase from $1.50 to $2, and the second hour rate would increase from $2.50 to $3. In Zone 2 (a little further from the core), the first hour would increase from $1 to $1.25, and the second hour would increase from $1.25 to $2. Meters in Zone 3 (still further away from the core) would see no change. “We never considered taking away that first 20 minutes that’s free,” said Craig Croner, administrative services manager and the man who oversees Boise’s parking systems. “It’s very unique compared to other cities, and I don’t see us getting rid of those free 20 minutes anytime soon.” However, city officials said something had to be done to “churn” more of the downtown parking spaces. Simply put, too many people were parking their cars all day or all night in front of parking meters on weekend evenings or Saturdays, distressing merchants who say they need those spaces to accommodate their customers. “Look at these numbers,” said Lana Graybeal, communications manager with the departments of finance and administration at City Hall. “We surveyed the downtown parking 6 meters and discovered that a number of the meters were at or above 90 perBOISEweekly | NOVEMBER 22–28, 2017 | 5