Moving to Boise - What do I need to know?

[Conundrum]

Bumping this as I am interviewing for Boise positions.
Lots of mags still in Boise?
Is North End still the place to live?

And where is everyone touring right now with the lower snow fall?

And can you get good turns at Banner Summit / Sawtooths without a sled?

There's a few.
It's one of the places to live. Boise real estate is getting spendy but there are deals if you are handy. I live east end/downtown and like it. I've lived in the same house for 15 years now. If I were to move, I'd look along Hill Rd., north end, SE Boise, east end and the Bench. There are other cool nooks if you don't mind driving more.

Touring-there's turns to be had but the snowpack is shaping up to be a bit unstable. With what's predicted for snow, it could get a little scary.

Banner/Sawtooth-yes. You don't need a sled. The zones close to the roads are seeing more people but I guess that's what we get with more people moving here. A sled will really get you away from folks and into some really cool lines. I don't tour as much as I used to when I had a sled. If I were going to starting skinning more than 10-20 days again, I'd get a sled again for sure.

[Toadman]

Idaho is the number one state for percentage increase in population growth.

[Conundrum]

Idaho is the number one state for percentage increase in population growth.

Which is a bummer. But whatever that number is, it will always be N - Benny.

[snoqpass]

my family have parked it in boise for 20+ years now and haven't moved away. hyde pk. neighborhood is great for living boise proper, suburbs are more hit and miss except garden city, stay clear of garden city it is a miss.
dawson taylor for coffee
co-op for food supplies
barbacoa for hot rock steak

My mom lives in Garden City

[iceman]

I was only there once but Boise seemed pretty nice. McCall I liked a lot as a place to visit.

[Timberridge]

Idaho is the number one state for percentage increase in population growth.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.de1c7a2e530d

[Supermoon]

After starting this thread five+ years ago, we got sidetracked and moved to Portland. We literally just moved to Boise for good this fall. Life is funny that way.

North End is pretty much the only place we looked for a house. Not sure where you’re coming from, but if you don’t want suburbs that’s the place to be. Plus it’s much closer to recreation as well. Some people like an area called the Bench, which is approx five or ten minutes out of town, but it doesn’t have walkable restaurants/bars/shopping which was a no go for us.

Many more mags with more knowledge than I have about he area, but happy to help where I can.

[Conundrum]

Some people like an area called the Bench, which is approx five or ten minutes out of town, but it doesn’t have walkable restaurants/bars/shopping which was a no go for us. .

Pro-tip for the Bench. If I were to buy a house in Boise today or in the near future, I'd buy on the bench. Our local government development corp is naming a new development district on the Bench in the next year or two. When that has happened in other areas in Boise, new parks, open space, mixed use development, and restaurants and bars follow. The bench is a <5 min bike ride downtown and the bus line is improving and there is going to be plenty of walk to drinking, eating, and shopping in the next 2-4 years. Plus, Vista is the road from the airport to downtown and Vista is a shitty welcome mat. The city knows it and is going to start taking efforts to spruce it up. This is all second hand info but I'd bank on my source.

Garden City isn't as bad as it used to be. Gentrification efforts are in full force down there especially around the whitewater park. The horse track is out and now the city and county are trying to figure out what to do with it. There are still some seedy areas but nowhere I wouldn't ride my bike through at night.

East end is starting to catch up with north end in pricing. As close or closer to downtown, same access to trails and doesn't carry the "north end" stigma that the conservatives have about the north end being a bunch of pot smoking hippies. I for one like the stigma. North end is district 19 which outside of the Wood River area is the only all democrat representation in the legislature. Funny how the all democrat area has some of the highest wealth and education in town...there are other pockets but it is certainly the highest concentration. It really is a cool area. I'm a little jaded-we used to stop at the bars after bike rides. Then we started noticing people from west Boise and Meridian park at the nearby parks and ride down to the bars in their new fancy bike gear and get beers. That's when it jumped the shark. Now I'm over my jadedness and still like the area.

[mtnjam]

Yeah, I've always loved the Vista Avenue welcome mat ever since I came here the first time in 1995. Welcome to Boise, would you like to buy a bag of meth on your way downtown, we'll be passing right through that district.

I like the other welcome mat on the freeway from Mountain Home, here's some old gravel pits and a highly industrialized area for you to enjoy on your final approach into BSU.

You mean all the Barbie 4x4 drivers and high end, long travel Santa Cruz's bought from JoyRide that maybe see 2 days on dirt riding Crestline a year each clogging up SunRay?

[Conundrum]

Yeah, I've always loved the Vista Avenue welcome mat ever since I came here the first time in 1995. Welcome to Boise, would you like to buy a bag of meth on your way downtown, we'll be passing right through that district.

I like the other welcome mat on the freeway from Mountain Home, here's some old gravel pits and a highly industrialized area for you to enjoy on your final approach into BSU.

You mean all the Barbie 4x4 drivers and high end, long travel Santa Cruz's bought from JoyRide that maybe see 2 days on dirt riding Crestline a year each clogging up SunRay?

It was well before Sun Ray. The influx was back in the day when Lucky 13 was the hip place to hang out in lycra. I think the phenomenon dipped when Sun Ray came in but it seems to be back in full force every time the temp gets above 80.

[mtnjam]

Oh, yes, I remember the influx well, I used to hang out in that "seedy" house on 12th behind Lucky13, cook up Alaskan salmon with those boys, talk to Scotty while he was making his instruments for Nada Brahma and laugh my ass off before String Cheese shows.

[DBdude]

Yeah, I've always loved the Vista Avenue welcome mat ever since I came here the first time in 1995. Welcome to Boise, would you like to buy a bag of meth on your way downtown, we'll be passing right through that district.

I like the other welcome mat on the freeway from Mountain Home, here's some old gravel pits and a highly industrialized area for you to enjoy on your final approach into BSU.

You mean all the Barbie 4x4 drivers and high end, long travel Santa Cruz's bought from JoyRide that maybe see 2 days on dirt riding Crestline a year each clogging up SunRay?

another disgruntled 'LOCAL'. stringcheese - wash much?

[mtnjam]

Why yes DBdude (does that stand for douchebag?) I do wash everyday. How long have you lived in Boise? Let me guess, you've been here 5 years and you've never seen it snow like this in town. Do you drive a Barbie 4x4 flying a "Don't Tread On Me" flag with bed stacks to compensate for the size of your dick and complain about the price of diesel?

[DBdude]

no my friend - i don't live in boise

the db stands for what ever you want it to

besides bad taste in music you seem to be detail oriented or reading impaired. i smoke a shit load a weed but have the capacity to read location.

being a fry cook doesn't take much I guess

[mtnjam]

Why yes, I am detail oriented, it's part of what I have to do everyday in my profession.

So which is it, a shit load a weed or a shit load of weed? The Robert hasn't helped you much has it?

[Timberridge]

(the funny thing about being a miserable shit is that everybody knows what's wrong with you except you)

and the corollary: the funny thing about being a pompous ass know-it-all, is everybody...

ah, nvrmnd.

[Timberridge]

It's good to be the king.

[DBdude]

And the king of banality steps up to defend a fellow, miserable troll.

i'm not a troll fuck face, i find it funny someone talking about back in the day about a town they moved to not that long ago

[mtnjam]

So I suppose you've been living in your Mom's basement your entire life?

Let's see, 23 years in Boise, I'd consider that a while, given that I've lived here half of my life as a refugee from Wisconsin.

[GeezerSteve]

What about in the Sawtooths in general?

I ski toured in the ID Sawtooths a few times and that was long ago. See Conundrum's note re unstable faceted snowpack.

Honey and I spent a week backpacking the Sawtooths in early September, mostly off-trail, fishing high lakes. Fantastic area with lots of solitude if you get off trail, great camps, oodles of stocked high lakes, IME most cirque-to-cirque off-trail travel is straightforward routefinding, class 2-3 scrambling over ridges dividing cirques (moderate snow earlier in the season), subject to usual caveats re interior west mountain swampy conditions earlier season. Lots of peaks to bag if you're into that.

[glademaster]

(the funny thing about being a miserable shit is that everybody knows what's wrong with you except you)

Yeah, gotta say, I would have been tempted to punch you squarely in the throat if you displayed this level of pompousness. That's seriously the kind of thing that you should lose some teeth for saying, fuckface.

[that dude who did that thing]

To get this back on track, and since the influx of people shows zero signs of stopping, I think TGR needs to expand its horizons when it comes to Boise. There is more than the North End. If I were a young person moving to Boise, like I was 20 years ago, I would be tempted to buy in the N.End, which I did, but I sure as hell wouldn't limit myself to that neighborhood. There are some serious myths floating around this thread, and several of them were repeated by Phildo/Elf, who just moved here a couple months ago.

If you want walkable urban living, you have several options. The N.End is one of them. Downtown is another, lots of new lofts and apartments getting built. Downtown Nampa is a third. The N.End snobs will lift their noses, but Nampa is booming right now, and currently sports one of the best coffeehouses in the Valley, and some good restaurants. Nampa is poised for growth, urbanization, and hipsterization. As conundrum correctly points out the Bench has some awesome days ahead of it in the near future. If I were a real estate investor (either commercial or residential), I'd be buying up there right now, especially since we just learned the neighborhood will NOT be destroyed by daily flights of F35s.

Anyone who tells you the N. End is special because it is close to trails doesn't actually understand our local trail system. I live in Eagle, as suburban as it gets, and I'm just as close to MTB and hiking trails as most of the N.End. Besides, MTBing is one tiny part of our recreation universe. If distance to your favorite outdoor sport is what matters, then you better decide what your favorite outdoor sport is. If it's whitewater, you want to be in NW Boise, Garden City or Eagle for fastest access to the Payette River (in fact, you should look at Avimor, which also has great MTB trails; or stick to Garden City and you could be walking distance ot the whitewater park). If it's flyfishing, Garden City and Eagle offer housing closer to the Boise River than almost anywhere else (I tried to buy a house <1/4 mile from the River in Eagle but got outbid). If you prefer to the S.Fork Boise, Columbia Village in SE Boise shaves 10-15 minutes off that drive. If you liv efor ginormous brown trout that still take dry flies, move to Caldwell and be 25 minutes closer to the Owyhee. If your poison is ski touring, you can live on east side and shave some time getting to More's Summit and Pilot Peak, or you could choose to head up into the Payette Country which is best accessed from W.Boise and Eagle. But almost nobody buys a hosue just to save 10 or 15 minutes getting to their recreation.

If you want some square footage and good value for the price, skip the N.End altogether, look at South Boise, SW Boise, Meridian to stay reasonably close in and get the most house for your buck, and an almost guaranteed ROI. Save even more money by looking at Nampa or Caldwell, but hopefully only if you work form home, the commute sucks. Finally, if you want o live IN the mountains, go out to Wilderness Ranch between Boise and Idaho City. Cool homes, reasonable prices, most with acreage, but not for families that care about education, since it's in the Idaho City School District.

Boise is a lot more than the N.End. And the N.End, although it's cool, and I loved living there, has its definite downsides (poseurs with bikes worth more than some of my cars being one of them).

[thebirdhunter]

You're going to have to buy a cabin in McCall. Everyone in Boise has one.

[gravitylover]

Not that I'm planning on moving to Boise or even ID but the next place we go I will be able to open the door and start riding on trails. No more putting the bike on the car unless I want to go somewhere different. Being able to ski out the door would be a bonus but not necessary, sight distance would be fine Ultimately I'd like to back up to open space but probably wouldn't mind a few blocks ride to the trails if it meant being able to walk to town for shopping and entertainment. If I can't have that I might as well stick with the no mortgage spot we're in now. These are the things I'll look for in the next 'landing spot.'

[Hott Butt Mud]

Boise seems like a slightly larger Ogden. Am I right?

How is the Mormon scene in Boise?