Urban Economics at Boise State

New Downtown Boise apartments fill fast, fill need | Boise, Garden City, Mountain Home | Idaho Statesman

2012-01-12T11:21:00.000-07:00

New Downtown Boise apartments fill fast, fill need | Boise, Garden City, Mountain Home | Idaho Statesman

Developers eye housing near Boise State | Boise, Garden City, Mountain Home | Idaho Statesman

2012-01-09T13:59:00.000-07:00

Developers eye housing near Boise State | Boise, Garden City, Mountain Home | Idaho Statesman

Boise writes new city blueprint | Boise, Garden City, Mountain Home | Idaho Statesman

2011-11-08T10:35:00.000-07:00

Boise writes new city blueprint | Boise, Garden City, Mountain Home | Idaho Statesman

Bike Sharing in Paris

2011-07-20T13:21:00.000-06:00

Paris’s bike-sharing system, the Vélib’, lets users rent any bike from their ubiquitous stations in increments of 30 minutes each, and you can return the bike at any of their locations for 1 euro. 8 euro for a week and 19 euro for a year. Only catch is that Vélib’ bikes require a credit-card deposit, and the on-location machines accept only cards with embedded chips. American cards all use magnetic strips, about as archaic in Europe as feet and inches.

What's Next in Public Transit? Urban Gondolas!

2011-05-06T01:18:00.001-06:00

Gondola service pondered for N.W. Calgary - Calgary - CBC News

What

2011-05-06T01:18:00.000-06:00

Gondola service pondered for N.W. Calgary - Calgary - CBC News

How History Killed the Suburb - The Atlantic

2011-04-25T21:42:00.001-06:00

From the Atlantic:

For today's entry I am happy to return to Washington Post commentator Roger Lewis, whose April 23 column analyzed market forces now favoring walkable neighborhoods over the automobile-dependent, sprawling subdivisions that characterized most U.S. land development in the late 20th century. In particular, Lewis—sounding very much like the esteemed professor of architecture that he is—says that now-declining "suburban planning and zoning templates were predicated on four key assumptions":
- America had an unlimited supply of land;
- Automobiles and road building, thanks to inexpensive and presumably inexhaustible supplies of petroleum, would forever satisfy metropolitan transportation needs;
- Grouping homogeneous land uses, not intermixing them, would best protect property values, especially for residences; and
- The only way to realize the American dream was to own and inhabit a mortgaged house.

Today, all four of those assumptions have collapsed or are in the process of collapsing. We now know that much of our land, especially in and around metro areas, should not be developed, because of risk (flooding, wildfire, landslides); limited resources (water); or ecological value. There is considerable variation in these factors from one place to another, but the supply of land in regions experiencing growth can no longer be seen as "unlimited." Gasoline prices are back up to four bucks a gallon and, as global supply declines and demand for oil grows in developing countries, are surely going to continue to grow over the long term.

Read full story here.

Forty Strongest U.S. Metro Economies: 2009

2011-04-13T12:19:00.000-06:00

The Brookings Institution ranked the 100 largest metros by averaging the ranks for four key indicators:

- employment change
- unemployment change
- gross metropolitan product and
- home price change

Employment was measured by the change from the peak quarter for each metro to the second quarter of 2009. The peak was the quarter in which the metro had the most jobs during the past five years. Unemployment was ranked by measuring the percentage-point change from the first quarter of 2009 to the second quarter of 2009. Gross metropolitan product was measured from the peak quarter to the second quarter of 2009. And the ranking of home prices compared the second quarter of 2009 to the previous quarter. The employment data were provided by Moody's Economy.com, the unemployment data were collected from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the home price index came from the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Using data and analysis from the Brookings Institution's new MetroMonitor study, BusinessWeek.com ranked the nation's top 40 economies based on job growth, employment, economic growth, and home prices. And Texas seems to be the clear winner with San Antonio at the top of the list and five metros in the top 10.

Here's the top 10:

1. San Antonio, TX
2. Austin- Round Rock, TX
3. Oklahoma City, OK
4. Little Rock - North Little Rock - Conway, AR
5. Dallas - Fort Worth - Arlington, TX
6. Baton Rouge, LA
7. Tulsa, OK
8. Omaha - COuncil Bluffs, NE-IA
9. Houston- Sugarland - Bayton, TX
10. El Paso, TX

Except Ogden MSA, UT, none of the Western metros made it on the top 40. To see which metros made the list, read on.

Ed Glaeser on John Stewart - talking about...

2011-04-12T15:19:00.000-06:00

what else but cities?

Watch interview here. The interview was broadcast/recorded in February I believe.

Ed Glaeser on the Future of American Cities, with an Emphasis on Housing Policy

2011-04-10T12:32:00.002-06:00

In a roundtable interview with MacArthur President Jonathan Fanton, Harvard University's Edward Glaeser discusses the future of American cities, including housing in Dec 2008. (length: 22:21 min)

Housing discussion in the clip starts at 4:58.

Curitiba's Success in Congestion Management

2011-04-08T15:15:00.000-06:00

Here's a short video clip from the DVDe watched in class on Tuesday, April 12, 2011. Curitiba, Brazil is a city of more than 2 million people. Over the years, it has been a trail blazer in designing and implementing sustainable urban development strategies. This video clip highlights Curitiba's achievements in congestion management using integrated Bus service.

Glaeser's new book "Triumph of the City"

2011-04-06T12:26:00.000-06:00

Professor Glaeser is one of the world's foremost economists. A wide-ranging thinker, he is particularly noted for his leading work on economic geography, urbanism, and the life and growth of cities. With politicians of all parties searching for new ways to think about growth and job creation, his thinking about how to reform planning and regulation is particularly relevant today.

His new book 'The Triumph of the City' synthesises a lifetime of thinking about the root causes of growth, and how and why cities work. With over half the world's population now living in urban areas, the question of how to make our cities work well has never been more relevant.

Here's a link to a presentation he made on his new book for Policy Exchange UK. (length 1:26 min)

New zoning fad creates old-style business districts

2011-04-04T15:39:00.001-06:00

By Dan Bobkoff
Marketplace, American Public Media, Monday, April 4, 2011

City planners increasingly wonder if traditional zoning laws lead to sprawl. So more cities are turning to "form-based" code, which focuses on a building's look, rather than its specific commercial/residential use.

BOB MOON: This land is your land, this land is my land. But the government can decide how it gets used. More and more communities are looking to the future, and getting a little nostalgic about the way things use to be. They have visions of nice shops and busy sidewalks, maybe apartments on the upper floors, and homes a short walk away. There's just one problem: zoning laws.

Dan Bobkoff, of the public media project Changing Gears, tells us why.

DAN BOBKOFF: Before big-box stores and strip malls and a car in every driveway, it was normal to live in dense neighborhoods.

ANTHONY FLINT: A place where they can walk to a corner store, maybe live above a store. And those kinds of things, that's illegal in America today in so many of our communities.

Illegal because of zoning. Anthony Flint is with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. He says cities have spent much of the last century separating the shops and factories and homes. And that made sense in the beginning.

FLINT: You didn't want to have a slaughter house next to a residential apartment.

But the effect was an almost complete segregation of uses.

...Read full interview here.

Urban renewal bills clear Idaho Senate committee | Idaho Legislature | Idaho Statesman

2011-03-21T12:11:00.000-06:00

From the Idaho Statesman, Mar 16, 2011:

Two bills aimed at urban renewal reform cleared the Senate Local Government and Taxation Committee on Wednesday. HB 95 would require a citywide election to form a new urban renewal agency. It also would limit bonds and districts to no more than 20 years; require an annual public hearing on the district's finances and projects; and prohibit district expansion once boundaries are set. HB 110 would require a public hearing before an urban renewal plan is implemented. Both bills were sent to amending order for possible amendment to clarify language.
The House unanimously passed both bills March 1.

Accessed at Idaho Statesman

Why Urban Renewal is Unpopular in Idaho

2011-03-16T12:14:00.003-06:00

From the Idaho Statesman, Mar 13, 2011:

Supporters say it’s a valuable economic development tool. Critics say it siphons off property taxes with little accountability.
...
Lawmakers and other critics cite these complaints:
- Cities create urban renewal agencies without a vote of the public. The boards of the agencies get to spend property tax dollars and have power to condemn property, but are appointed, not elected.
- Once created, agencies can start up urban renewal districts and go into debt without a public vote.
- Urban renewal districts keep the property tax money generated by new development, leaving others to pick up the costs of fire, police and other services that new development demands.
While some lawmakers are champing at the bit to curtail the agencies, others urge caution. Sweeping change could make it difficult for cities and urban renewal agencies to do their jobs — attracting businesses, creating employment and boosting the economy.

REASONS LEGISLATORS WANT CHANGES
- Debt: According to the Idaho Constitution, a city or other local government that wants to build a new building or other capital project must pay cash or get two-thirds voter approval to incur debt.
Urban renewal agencies do not need voter approval to issue bonds — take on debt — to finance a project. Those agencies should be “treated like every other taxing district,” said Rep. Phil Hart, R-Hayden. “They’ve got to get voter approval before they go into debt.”
- Over-broad powers: All it takes to create an urban renewal agency or a district is a city council vote. Under state law, urban renewal areas are intended to address blight. But in the past, farm, forest and even desert land has been deemed blighted. The city of Nampa took a chunk of agricultural land to build the Idaho Center; Coeur d’Alene created an urban renewal district next to a resort.
- Board accountability. Last year, the 40 urban renewal agencies in Idaho took in about $52 million in property taxes. The boards for school, highway and irrigation districts that control how property tax money is spent are elected. But mayors appoint urban renewal agency board members, who also have the power of eminent domain.
- Unfair distribution of taxes. New buildings in an urban renewal district place new burdens on fire, police and roads. But the tax revenues from those new buildings go back to the agencies to finance urban redevelopment, not government services.

WHAT PROPONENTS SAY
Urban renewal supporters say that all these criticisms miss the mark. Cities, counties and the state ultimately benefit from the new development — and urban renewal spending — through increased sales and income taxes.
“Urban renewal has been one of the cornerstones of economic development in this state and a proven jobs generator. Look at Twin Falls last year, where an urban renewal project created 700-plus jobs in the depths of the recession,” said Mark Rivers, who developed the BoDo project in Downtown Boise and is working with the Twin Falls urban renewal agency.
Proponents also note that the property tax diversion is temporary. Urban renewal districts use that “incremental” property tax for the 24-year life of the district (although legislators want to change that to 20 years). When the district expires, the gains in value are added to the tax rolls.
“Many of Boise’s best projects were made possible through urban renewal, including The Grove Plaza, the Wells Fargo and One Capital Center buildings, BoDo, the 8th Street market, the Basque Block, the Convention Center, and a long list of others,” said CCDC’s Kushlan.
Proponents note that mayors and city councils are the elected officials who oversee urban renewal agencies — and do answer to voters. Agency board members often are selected for their business, legal or financial expertise.

WHAT’S LIKELY TO HAPPEN?
Because it’s hard to change agencies retroactively — many are in the middle of decades-long bonding projects — urban renewal critics are likely to return in future legislative sessions for more tinkering. No law changed this session will end the debate.
Rivers, who testified last month at a House committee hearing, said he came away believing “legislators themselves don't even understand the policy.”
Critics’ misinformation, he said, hurts cities that are trying to increase jobs, investment and economic activity.

Access full story here.

Urban Housing Crisis: The Case of Peru

2011-03-15T12:21:00.000-06:00

In Peru it is estimated that up to 80 per cent of the country's population could be living in urban areas by 2030.

With half of Peru's economic activity based in the capital, Lima, it will put enormous pressure on the city's already floundering services.

Many of the country's poor come to Lima in search of work. As the city cannot accomodate the numbers, many migrants end up building their own homes in run-down areas on the outskirts of the city.

Most of them lack basic services like running water and sewage systems.

Here's a video clip on the urban housing crisis in Peru but the country is not an isolated. A large of part of the rapidly growing developing is experiencing a similar crisis.

How urban renewal districts work:

2011-03-13T12:12:00.000-06:00

Example: THE C.W. MOORE PLAZA, 250 S. 5TH ST.

In 2010, the Capital City Development Corp. collected $9.1 million in property taxes on about $528 million worth of new, or “incremental,” property value in Boise’s urban renewal districts. Here’s a look at one property.
1994: The River/Myrtle urban renewal district is formed. The assessor establishes a “base” value for each property in the district. The vacant 1.25-acre lot is assessed at $217,800.
1999: The C.W. Moore Plaza is completed.
2010: Moore Plaza land and building are valued at $13.5 million.
2024: District will sunset and all governments will again share the tax revenue on the property’s full value.
C.W. Moore Plaza 2010 property taxes: $231,698
Seven taxing districts receive property taxes on the 1994-set value of $217,800:
- $1,520.40: City of Boise
- $1,214.88: Boise School District
- $666.56: Ada County
- $258.78: Ada County Highway District
- $35.21: College of Western Idaho
- $33.56: Emergency medical services
- $7.49: Mosquito abatement
CCDC receives the tax on the difference between the 1994 and 2010 values, which is $13,286,500:
- $227,962.53: Urban renewal district
TREASURE VALLEY URBAN RENEWAL
Boise, Eagle, Garden City, Meridian, Nampa and Caldwell all have urban renewal agencies.
The oldest and biggest is Boise’s Capital City Development Corp., which has three urban renewal districts totaling 518 acres, with a fourth under consideration:
- The 34-acre central district Downtown is set to expire in 2017.
- The River-Myrtle/Old Boise district is 340 acres; it expires in 2024.
- Westside is 144 acres; it expires in 2025.
- In July, the Boise City Council directed CCDC to prepare a study and plan for a new district, the 573-acre 30th Street area. The detailed urban renewal plan would have to be approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission and the council.
CCDC also owns and operates eight parking garages.
CCDC receives about $9.1 million in property taxes annually. By comparison, property taxes generate $105.8 million for the city, $81.7 million for Ada County and $31.7 million for the Ada County Highway District.

Accessed here.

Boise to retool 30th Street neighborhood

2011-01-23T21:54:00.001-07:00

From Idaho Statesman, Jan 23, 2011

Rarely does a city get a chance to create almost from scratch a new central district within the core of a highly urbanized area.
Boise is getting that chance — and it won’t be just new housing, retail and commercial development. This new district will include the city’s first whitewater park, a new road with Boise’s first major roundabout and two more new parks.
The city hopes this unique combination of amenities will fuel economic development and serve as a catalyst to revitalize the 30th Street neighborhoods.
The city’s goal is to “allow the area to achieve its full potential, particularly in the commercial areas,” spokesman Adam Park said.
The district extends from the Boise River north to Irene, between Veterans Park and 23rd Street. Its central location — abutting Garden City, North Boise and Downtown, with the Bench nearby — make it a regional attraction, not just a neighborhood.
The city’s plan calls for commercial development on the northern and southern edges — the State Street and Main/Fairview corridors — transitioning into high-density residential areas in the core with parks, the river and the Greenbelt along the western edge.
The area has several large vacant properties. The city owns 9-acre and 3-acre undeveloped parcels along Fairview Avenue. The 10-acre former Bob Rice Ford dealership at Main Street and the river recently went on the market.
Three undeveloped parks, the Boise River and the Greenbelt provide existing and future recreational infrastructure.
Linking it all together will be a new five-lane road connecting State Street and Fairview, which provides another north/south transportation corridor and access to the new city parks.
Making this dream come true will take public and private investment. The city is providing parks. Ada County Highway District is putting in the new road.
A team of stakeholders has been assembled to determine how best to fund or encourage other development.
Unlike Bown Crossing or Harris Ranch, conceived by and largely financed by private developers, this neighborhood plan being shepherded by the city still needs a mechanism to get private developers involved.

Check the map.

Read more:
Boise to retool 30th Street neighborhood |

Falling home values and rising property taxes

2011-01-10T16:24:00.000-07:00

From the Idaho Statesman, Jan 9, 2011:

After another year of falling home values, some Treasure Valley homeowners are again voicing their anger over higher property tax bills. Others, meanwhile, are actually paying less — but at the expense of dramatic decreases in the assessed values of their homes.
“I personally took about 200 calls from people,” said Canyon County Deputy Assessor Joe Cox after residents began receiving notices for the first half payment on their 2010 tax bill, due Dec. 20.
What made the difference? Budget decisions and the not-always-equitable real estate market.
Unlike income and sales taxes, which are collected at set rates, property tax levy rates are determined after budgets are set.
Cities, counties and other local entities decide how much they will spend, and then the burden is spread among all the property owners in their areas — based on assessments that are the county’s best guess as to how much the properties were worth on the previous Jan. 1.
So your final tax bill depends on:
1) Whether homes in your neighborhood lost more or less value than others.
2) How many taxing districts you live in and how much their budgets grew or shrank.
And after values have dropped as much as they have, No. 1 is having a bigger impact than No. 2.
Take the Ada County Highway District’s 2010 property tax budget request of $31.6 million. That’s identical to its 2009 request, but lower housing values required that the district’s levy rate rise by a whopping 16 percent in order to generate the same amount of revenue.
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
The median decrease in Ada County housing values for 2010 was 14 percent — but that varied by community, to as high as 18 percent in Eagle. (The median value means half of all homes saw decreases greater than the median decline in their district, and half saw lower decreases.)
A home whose values fell by less than the median decrease was likely to see property tax increases. Homes with higher percentage decreases in their assessments would have a chance of getting a lower tax bill, Ada County Assessor Bob McQuade said.
Plus, there are 38 taxing districts in Ada County, including cities, counties, and school, fire, highway, library, sewer, emergency medical and mosquito abatement districts. In 2010, 25 of those districts increased their budgets.
Of course, those districts have widely different budgets. “Twenty percent of the districts collect about 80 percent of the property taxes,” McQuade said.
The larger the district, the more impact it has on overall property taxes.
For example, the city of Boise increased its budget by more than $4 million in 2010, pushing its levy rate up by 19 percent, according to the assessor’s office.
The result: A home that paid $586.83 on $100,000 in taxable value a year ago received a $13.51 city tax increase — even after its value dropped by the city’s median decrease of 14 percent to $86,000.
City spokesman Adam Park said the council took the full 3 percent property tax increase allowed by law in order to maintain its existing level of services.
“The 2010 Citizen Survey shows almost 70 percent of residents say they are getting their money’s worth in terms of value of city services for taxes paid,” Park said.
Under Idaho law, taxing districts can increase their property tax budgets by 3 percent each year, along with an additional amount for growth and new construction.
However, a provision in the law allows districts that took less than their 3 percent increase in past years to go back and recapture that money in subsequent years.
That’s what Nampa did in 2010.
The city took its 3 percent property tax increase, plus another 2 percent it left on the table a year ago. So the city’s budget increased by $2.9 million and its levy rate rose by 23 percent — more than making up for Canyon County’s median 15 percent decline in housing valuations.
Let’s go back to that hypothetical home, but put it in Nampa. Valued at $100,000 in 2009, it had a city property tax bill of $828.28. The 15 percent median decrease dropped the home’s taxable value to $85,000 — and still the homeowner owes $863.26 to the city for 2010.
And that’s before taxes owed to other entities such as Canyon County, the Canyon County Highway District, the Nampa School District, the Nampa Highway District and the College of Western Idaho.
Cox attributed the jump in overall property taxes to the city’s decision to increase its budget by $2.9 million.
“What the city did was legal; I just don’t know that it was prudent, because it’s putting a heavy burden on taxpayers,” Cox said. “With a lot of people struggling to stay in their homes, it was a bad time to raise taxes.”
Nampa Mayor Tom Dale defended the city’s decision, arguing that it was either increase property taxes or cut police and fire protection.
“These are services that people have come to expect, and which have to be met,” Dale said. “We’ve delayed capital projects, street maintenance and not filled open positions. There was no place left to cut.”

Read full article.

Comparison of selected property taxes and school districts.

Median home prices up in 2Q in most US cities, but not in Boise

2010-08-11T14:17:00.000-06:00

The median sales price for previously occupied homes rose from year-ago levels in 100 out of 155 metropolitan areas.

From the August 11, 2010 Idaho Statesman:

Home prices rose in nearly two-thirds of U.S. cities this spring as buyers took advantage of tax incentives that gave the struggling housing market a temporary jolt.
The median sales price for previously occupied homes rose compared with last year in 100 out of 155 metropolitan areas tracked in the April-to-June quarter, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday. That compares with 91 out of 152 cities in the January-to-March quarter. Fourteen cities had double-digit price increases.
But the boost to the housing market in the second quarter faded shortly after tax credits expired at the end of April. Home sales fell in June and are expected to plunge further in July. Prices are expected to follow in the second half of the year.
The lowest mortgage rates in decades haven't been enough to energize buyers. Home loan applications were virtually flat last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday.
The national median price in the second quarter was $176,900, up from $174,200 in the same quarter last year and up from $166,400 in the January-to-March period.
The median price is the midpoint, which means half of the homes sold for more and half for less. It typically falls in the winter and rises in the summer months. That's because families with children traditional move during the summer and buy larger homes.
Home sellers, meanwhile, are being forced to cut their asking prices as demand remains weak. Among sellers who listed homes for sale at the start of this month, 25 percent had dropped their prices at least once, according to real estate website Trulia.com, which collects data from around the country.
That percentage had fallen as low as 19 percent in March, when tax credit-fueled sales were booming. The biggest problem, said Pete Flint, CEO of Trulia, is the lack of jobs.
"Until the employment market stabilizes, we don't see stabilization in the housing market," he said.
In the Realtors report, the largest price gain was in Akron, Ohio. Prices there were up 36 percent from a year ago. The San Francisco and San Jose areas, which have mounted a strong rebound from the housing bust, also saw prices rebound by about 25 percent. Prices in the Riverside, Calif. metro area were up 18 percent from a year ago.
The biggest price drops were in Cumberland, Md., Tucson, Ariz., Ocala, Fla. and Beaumont-Port Arthur, Texas. Prices in all of those cities were down at least 13 percent from last year.
If the broader economy sinks back into a recession, things will get a lot worse. Celia Chen, senior director of Moody's Analytics, projects that home prices could drop another 20 percent by early 2012 if there is another recession. If the economic recovery remains on track, she sees prices falling another 5 percent and hitting bottom early next year.

Here's a look which cities had the biggest yearly home price gains, and which ones had the largest declines:

BIGGEST INCREASES

1) Akron, Ohio, $119,700, up 36 percent
2) San Jose, Calif. $630,000, up 26 percent
3) San Francisco, Calif. $591,000, up 25 percent
4) Riverside, Calif. $190,200, up 18 percent
5) Elmira, N.Y., $99,200, up 17 percent
6) Lansing, Mich., $99,100, up 13 percent
7) San Diego, Calif., $392,600, up 13 percent
8) Palm Bay, Fla., $117,300, up 13 percent
9) Erie, Pa., $110,200, up 13 percent
10 Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., $94,1000, up 12 percent

BIGGEST DROPS

1) Cumberland, Md., $104,500, down 15 percent.
2) Tucson, Ariz., $150,200, down 14 percent
3) Ocala, Fla., $95,900, down 13 percent
4) Beaumont, Texas., $120,700, down 13 percent
5) Boise City, Idaho., $140,100, down 13 percent
6) Hagerstown, Md., $149,800, down 9.2 percent
7) Jacksonville, Fla., $139,000, down 9 percent
8) Daytona Beach, Fla., $117,000, down 8 percent
9) Salem, Ore., $176,800, down 7.5 percent
10) Biloxi, Miss., $128,500, down 7.4 percent

Read more: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/08/11/1299491/a-look-at-home-prices-in-us-cities.html#ixzz0wKXaDUd3

Chip shortage could benefit Micron Technology | Micron Technology | Idaho Statesman

2010-08-11T14:09:00.000-06:00

As back to school time sees an increase in demand for electronics such as laptops, flash drives, chip maker Micron could have something to celebrate. But that might not mean anything for Boise.

Read more here.

Idaho has a big labor pool, but a small talent pool |

2010-06-03T13:15:00.000-06:00

What I've been saying all along...

Idaho's unemployment is at a record level, yet Clearwater Analytics and other local high-tech companies are having a difficult time finding people for key positions. The area's labor pool may be big, but it lacks depth - experienced or specialized high-tech workers. And that could hinder the state's ability to compete nationally and globally in the high-tech industries.
"Without a doubt the prevailing opinion on the coastal states is you probably cannot grow a tech company very big in the state of Idaho because the talent pool isn't there," said Bob Lokken at a business innovation conference last week. Lokken founded ProClarity, which was acquired by Microsoft; he recently launched WhiteCloud Analytics.

Read full article here.

Idaho in the top 5 in 2009 for number of new startups | Idaho Economy | Idaho Statesman

2010-06-02T12:37:00.000-06:00

Hundreds of business start-ups in 2009 put Idaho in the top five states on the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity. The index calculated that about 450 out of 100,000 adults in Idaho started businesses each month in 2009.
Idaho also is making high marks on other lists recently. The state jumped to No. 7 from No. 14 on the American Legislative Exchange Council's Best Economic Outlook list. Boise came in at No. 16 on Forbes' America's Most Innovative Cities, which rates patents, funding, jobs and technology. The Economist praised Boise and Idaho's open space as "the final frontier in the Internet age."

Read full article here.

Boise school leaders protest change to school day | Local News | Idaho Statesman

2010-05-12T12:49:00.001-06:00

From today's ID Statesman: A real-world look into the complexities of urban public policy, with density issues, service levels and impact areas at the center of the argument. Just like we discuss in class!

While the majority of Boise School District trustees voted to start and end the school day later at nine elementary schools this fall, two trustees lodged protest votes against the state mandate that forced the decision.
"Nobody squawks more about federal mandates and federal control than the Idaho Legislature, but they do the same thing to the School District," said trustee Rory Jones, who voted against changing the school day to 9:15 a.m.-3:45 p.m. The current hours are 8:45 a.m.-3:25 p.m.
If the district did not make the change, the state would have withheld the $385,000 it says the district will save in busing.
"The sad part for me is the burden falls on a limited number of families who don't deserve this," Jones said.
About 20 percent of the kids in the district, or about 2,295 students and their families, will be affected, he said.
In an audit mandated by the state, the district's bus contractor, First Student, said these nine schools were close enough to the ending locations of other bus routes that merging the routes could save miles.
The state pays for the majority of school districts' transportation costs, but so far, the Boise School District has been the only one in the state affected by legislation that triggers an audit when the cost to transport students exceeds a cap set by the state.
"The Legislature wanted to look at districts with high population density to see if they were operating their transportation efficiency," said state Department of Education spokeswoman Melissa McGrath. "When you're saving money on transportation, $400,000 is money that can go in to other education programs."

But the formula the state used to calculate the cap is flawed, said Boise School Board President A.J. Balukoff.
The state used the cost per mile and the cost per rider to calculate efficiency, but 85 percent of transportation costs are fixed, he said.
Many kids in the Boise School District walk to school, and many don't qualify for busing because they live within 1.5 miles of their school, he said.
That makes the cost per rider high because there are fewer riders, he said.
Inner city transportation also has its own hitches. A bus that starts and stops every three blocks is going to have low miles, compared to a bus that goes out to Orchard Ranch and back, which is a 50-mile trip, and will appear to cost less to operate, he said.
"What does that tell you about your efficiency? Nothing," Balukoff said.

Read full article here.

Good news for Idaho's Future?

2010-05-12T12:36:00.000-06:00

The future sure sounds promising, according to an ID Statesman article published today:

Idaho's green energy push is very different than that of other states and countries. It has offered few tax incentives and has never established so-called renewable energy portfolio standards - which require utilities to use so much green power- to promote the industry.

So what's Idaho got to sell?

Earlier this month, Chinese-owned Hoku Scientific began producing polysilicon for use in solar panels at its new $390 millionplant in Pocatello. Economic development officials there say they have three other energy companies looking to build in eastern Idaho that could bring more than $100 million in investment. Officials could know by June whether one has committed to Idaho, and by the end of the year for the rest.
"Hoku just fired up the plant and they're off to the races," Little said.
Micron Technology recently forged a partnership with Australian power giant Origin Energy to develop solar power technologies that is expected to lead to commercialization within 18 months. The U.S. Department of Energy, through the Idaho Office of Energy Resources, awarded Micron a $5 million grant to help it enter into the light emitting diode (LED) high-efficiency lighting market that is expected to take off by 2012.

Immigrants in work force contributing factor to urban growth: new study finds

2010-04-16T01:29:00.002-06:00

From the New York Times, April 15, 2010:

In 14 of the 25 largest metropolitan areas, including Boston, New York and San Francisco, more immigrants are employed in white-collar occupations than in lower-wage work like construction, manufacturing or cleaning.

The data belie a common perception in the nation’s hard-fought debate over immigration — articulated by lawmakers, pundits and advocates on all sides of the issue — that the surge in immigration in the last two decades has overwhelmed the United States with low-wage foreign laborers.

Over all, the analysis showed, the 25 million immigrants who live in the country’s largest metropolitan areas (about two-thirds of all immigrants in the country) are nearly evenly distributed across the job and income spectrum.

“The United States is getting a more varied and economically important flow of immigrants than the public seems to realize,” said David Dyssegaard Kallick, director for immigration research at the Fiscal Policy Institute, a nonpartisan group in New York that conducted the data analysis for The New York Times.
....

The analysis suggests, moreover, that the immigrants played a central role in the cycle of the economic growth of cities over the last two decades.

Cities with thriving immigrant populations — with high-earning and lower-wage workers — tended to be those that prospered the most.

“Economic growth in urban areas has been clearly connected with an increase in immigrants’ share of the local labor force,” Mr. Kallick said.

Surprisingly, the analysis showed, the growing cities were not the ones, like St. Louis, that drew primarily high-earning foreigners. In fact, the St. Louis area had one of the slowest growing economies.

Rather, the fastest economic growth between 1990 and 2008 was in cities like Atlanta, Denver and Phoenix that received large influxes of immigrants with a mix of occupations — including many in lower-paid service and blue-collar jobs.

In metropolitan Denver, where the economy doubled between 1990 and 2008, 63 percent of immigrants worked in jobs on the lower end of the pay scale.

Denver “did a great job of attracting people from other places in the world,” said Rich Jones, director of policy and research at the Bell Policy Center, a nonpartisan group in that city that focuses on the impact of economic and fiscal policies in Colorado. “They are coming with a variety of skills,” Mr. Jones said. “They created demand for goods, services and housing that began a dynamic.”

Read full article here.

Glaeser: "Anti-Urban Bias" in Federal Government Policies

2010-03-24T11:48:00.003-06:00

In a recent Boston Globe Op-ed, Ed Glaeser writes:

Over the past 60 years, cities have been hit by a painful policy trifecta: subsidization of highways, subsidization of homeownership, and a school system that creates strong incentives for many parents to leave city borders. Nathaniel Baum-Snow, an economist at Brown University, has documented that each new federally-funded “highway passing through a central city reduces its population by about 18 percent.’’

Subsidizing transportation decreases the advantage of living close together in cities, which should make every urbanite worry about the Senate’s fondness for using highway spending to fight recession. The current Senate jobs bill calls for a more than $30 billion increase for transportation over the next two years.

It is a mistake to think that spending on trains balances the scales. Cities will always benefit far less than exurbs from transportation because dense areas already have good means of getting around, like walking. Urban advocates would do better to either reduce highway subsidies or to balance that spending with more funding for urban schools.

Political leaders have long championed homeownership, but subsidizing homeownership is also anti-urban. Sixty-two percent of Boston homes are rented; 78 percent of Wellesley homes are owner-occupied. Cities are defined by apartments, and more than 85 percent of homes in multi-unit structures are rented. Suburbs are known for their single-family detached houses, and more than 85 percent of such homes are owner-occupied. Subsidizing homeownership, through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the home mortgage interest deduction, lures people out of cities.

Read full article here.

How Have Recent Rezonings in NYC Affected the City's Ability to Grow?

2010-03-24T11:46:00.000-06:00

Examining the effects of Rezoning: Case of New York City

A new report by NYU's Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy examines the rezonings that took place between 2003 and 2007, and finds that of the 188,000 lots that were included in a City-initiated rezoning action, 23 percent were downzoned, 14 percent were upzoned, and almost 63 percent were subject to a contextual-only rezoning (a term for a rezoning that does not significantly change the buildable capacity but otherwise limits the kind of building allowed). Despite the small share of upzonings, on net, these actions increased the City's capacity for new residential building by 1.7 percent, or roughly 100 million square feet of residential capacity.

''Given the scale of rezoning activity during this time, it is critical to take a step back and ask: 'what is the net impact on the City’s capacity to accommodate new growth?''' said Vicki Been, faculty director of the Furman Center. ''While we find that on paper, the upzonings have added more capacity than the downzonings have taken away, we also find reason to doubt that all of this new capacity will be built out for residential use, and it remains unclear whether we are on track for creating enough new residential capacity to accommodate the one million new New Yorkers that are expected to live in the City by 2030.''

Click link below to access article.

Smart Growth Resource Library: How Have Recent Rezonings Affected the City's Ability to Grow?

Boise No. 10 for falling home prices | Business | Idaho Statesman

2010-03-12T13:13:00.000-07:00

Sales of Valley homes increased 38 percent in February over a year ago, and the number of homes listed for sale decreased 22 percent. But median prices fell again in Ada County.

Sober sellers also are getting between 95 percent and 97 percent of their more realistic asking prices.

But the National Association of Realtors says the Valley's home-price declines this past year were the 10th worst among metro areas.

Read full story:

Boise No. 10 for falling home prices | Business | Idaho Statesman

Treasure Valley home sales rise 50 percent; median prices mixed | Idaho Economy | Idaho Statesman

2010-03-11T13:17:00.000-07:00

According to ID Statesman feature published on Mar 11, 2010:

The number of home sales in the Treasure Valley year over year in February were up 50 percent from 308 to 462, according to the latest data posted on the Intermountain Multiple Listing Service Web site.

Over all median sale prices in Ada County were down $4,400, or 2.6 percent, from $167,900 to $163,500, the MLS reported. Canyon County experienced a slight increase of 1 percent from $99,000 to $100,000.

In Ada County, existing home sale prices in February were close to the five-year low of 160,000 hit in October 2009. The median was down $3,000, or 2 percent, from $165,000 in January to $162,000 in February.

Median sales prices in new Ada County construction also went down $9,000 or 4.6 percent from $194,000 in January to $185,000 in February.

In Canyon County, existing home sales hit a new five-year low of $94,900, dropping $1,100 or 1.1 percent below $96,000 in January. However, new home median prices rose 8.4 percent from $125,000 in January to $135,500 in February.

Be careful when you interpret the median home prices though. It is not the same as average home prices in our area.

Treasure Valley home sales rise 50 percent; median prices mixed | Idaho Economy | Idaho Statesman

Local Employment Dynamics data from US Census

2010-03-10T12:18:00.000-07:00

Here's the ON THE MAP website for the local employment dynamics data for Boise, ID. This is the GIS mapping tool I showed you in class that is going to eventually replace Census Bureau's "journey to work" data.

Downtown Boise condo sales are looking up | Business | Idaho Statesman

2010-03-05T13:09:00.000-07:00

Few if any condominiums in Downtown Boise were selling in August, but since then at least 25 sales have closed or are pending.

Lisa Lyons, director of sales for CitySide Lofts at Myrtle and 15th streets, where 10 units have sold since September and three sales are pending, said: "It seems we've hit a price, and with the combination of low interest rates and available FHA financing, we've found the market."

Units at CitySide Lofts sell from $159,900 to $350,000, down about 20 percent from prices of $199,000 to $450,000 two years ago.

Sales managers, agents and developers for five projects Downtown said most prices have dropped between 15 percent and 30 percent from 2007.

Read full story:

Downtown Boise condo sales are looking up | Business | Idaho Statesman

Recession and Recovery in the Intermountain West’s Metropolitan Areas

2010-03-02T16:23:00.002-07:00

Mark Muro, Fellow and Policy Director, Metropolitan Policy Program and Jonathan Rothwell, Senior Research Analyst of The Brookings Institution published a report titles the Mountain Monitor in Dec 2009 outlining the outlook for the Mountain West states.

According to this report:

Drawing on data covering the third quarter of 2009 (ending in September), the new Monitor documents that no multistate region has been hit harder by the last year’s economic crisis than the six-state Intermountain zone.

Across the region, the deflation of a massive housing “bubble,” widespread job losses, and the onset of a significant public-sector fiscal crisis have wreaked havoc on many communities. In many Intermountain region locations, the sheer abruptness of the shift from hyper-growth early in the decade to a severe contraction in the last year has spawned a sense of almost existential whiplash.

As the findings below highlight, even within the region the effects of the recession and recovery have not been uniformly felt. Phoenix, Boise, and Las Vegas, for example, remained three of the most troubled metropolitan areas in the entire nation in the third quarter, with all residing in the weakest quintile of metros on a combined measure of overall economic performance.

Read full report here.

Downtown Boise streetcar project fails to get stimulus funds | News Updates | Idaho Statesman

2010-02-17T10:29:00.000-07:00

The city's proposed Downtown streetcar project was not among the winners of a highly competitive federal stimulus grant for transportation projects. Boise had requested $40 million to help pay for a $60 million, 2.3-mile loop along Main and Idaho streets between 1st and 15th streets.

Full story... Downtown Boise streetcar project fails to get stimulus funds |Idaho Statesman

How America Can Own Its Transit Networks Again

2010-02-12T13:35:00.000-07:00

From the "Next American City" Blog, a look at how the U.S. can own its transit network and make them economically viable Next American City » Buzz » How America Can Own Its Transit Networks Again.

High Speed Rails... China is making progress

2010-02-12T13:25:00.003-07:00

President Obama is concerned, as are we, that the United States was falling behind Asia and Europe in high-speed rail construction and other clean energy industries. “Other countries aren’t waiting,” he said. “They want those jobs. China wants those jobs. Germany wants those jobs. They are going after them hard, making the investments required.”

According to a news report in today's NYT:

The Chinese bullet train, which has the world’s fastest average speed, connects Guangzhou, the southern coastal manufacturing center, to Wuhan, deep in the interior. In a little more than three hours, it travels 664 miles, comparable to the distance from Boston to southern Virginia. That is less time than Amtrak’s fastest train, the Acela, takes to go from Boston just to New York.

Even more impressive, the Guangzhou-to-Wuhan train is just one of 42 high-speed lines recently opened or set to open by 2012 in China. By comparison, the United States hopes to build its first high-speed rail line by 2014, an 84-mile route linking Tampa and Orlando, Fla.

Read full article here.

Heard about those "Starter" Mansions?

2010-02-10T23:20:00.006-07:00

Timothy Egan writes about abandoned rows of suburban houses in California. What will happen to the stock of houses that nobody wants?

Egan writes:

Drive along foreclosure alley, through new planned communities that look like tile-roofed versions of a 21st century ghost town, and you see what happens when people gamble with houses instead of casino chips.

Dirty flags advertise rock-bottom discounts on empty starter mansions. On the ground, foreclosure signs are tagged with gang graffiti. Empty lots are untended, cratered with mud puddles from the winter storms that have hammered California’s San Joaquin Valley.

Nobody is home in the cities of the future.

Read the full article here.

Urban Growth in Salt Lake City

2010-02-10T23:18:00.002-07:00

An interesting article on the plans for and controversy over a new development in downtown Salt Lake City, UT.

Santa Fe, NM: A success story of urban growth

2010-02-10T23:16:00.001-07:00

Check out the link to a New York Times article on Santa Fe, New Mexico: The Art of Being Santa Fe.

Enterprise zones in Idaho

2009-10-28T13:00:00.002-06:00

Canyon County, small towns eye 'enterprise zone' to encourage commercial, industrial development. From the Idaho statesman:

Still in the early stages, the envisioned zone would be the first in Idaho, offering tax relief and incentives to industry and business locating around and between the western Canyon County towns of Greenleaf, Wilder, Notus and Parma.

Agriculture advocates say they're wary of the economic development proposal's girth - an early estimate spans more than 30,000 acres, including some of the county's best farmland - but encouraged that they'll have a voice in the process.

The affected small towns -populations range from 650 to 2,000 - embrace the prospect of pulling in new jobs, swelling the tax base and making it easier for rural community residents to work near their homes.

Read full story here.

The truth about Grand Avenue Condos

2009-10-08T14:32:00.002-06:00

Dan Popkey of the Idaho Statesman's provides an in-depth look into the tragedy of uninformed real estate venturing in Boise.

Are "charter cities" the answer?

2009-09-29T14:42:00.002-06:00

Freakonomics Q&A with renowned economist Paul Romer, famed for his work in endogenous growth theory, who recently resigned a tenured position at Stanford to pursue the idea of "Charter cities" full-time.

Economist William Easterly (author of one of my favorite books, "White Man's Burden") calls this "walking the thin line between revolutionary and crazy". What do you think?

Ever wonder who will sort your no-sort recycling?

2009-08-24T01:39:00.002-06:00

ID Statesman explains:

The transformation of newspapers and shoe boxes begins in your recycling cart at the curb. After being dumped together into a truck, their first stop is Western Recycling, where they are pressed together with other recyclables into 1,200-pound cubes.

Since Boise's no-sort recycling program launched in June, Western Recycling has seen about a 40 percent increase in recyclable material, said plant manager Soron Root. The biggest problem so far? Residents don't seem to realize that glass still isn't accepted.

"The biggest deterrent is we're getting a lot of glass. We're ending up with glass on the floor, flat tires on fork lifts," Root said. "I realize everyone wants to recycle everything they can, but we have to do it the right way."

The bales are shipped to facilities in Tacoma, Wash., or Clackamas, Ore., where they are broken open.

The materials from the bale are put on inclined conveyor belts into several sorting devices.

Big things are separated from small. Newspapers are pushed to one side, plastic to another. At the end of the line, containers with magnets pull the "tin" cans out, and an electrical current pushes the aluminum away so it falls off onto another conveyor belt.

"Everything that comes off the conveyor, in theory, is plastic," Root said.

"Unfortunately," he said, "the quality of material you get has some contamination - with your cardboard you're going to have some junk mail. A tin can with a yogurt container in it may end up with the tin."

With other cities in the Treasure Valley looking into no-sort recycling, Western Recycling is considering buying land to build its own sorting facility, Root said.

"We would probably almost double our size," he said.

Boise residents have adapted quickly and easily to the new trash program, said Department of Public Works spokesman Vince Trimboli.

Read full story here.

With fewer miles driven, how does the govt make money for roads?

2009-08-23T01:45:00.002-06:00

Hal Bunderson, chairman of Ada County Citizens for Better Transportation, outlines five options for road revenue generation in an opinion piece published in the ID Statesman. Excerpt:

There is general agreement that Idaho has serious transportation infrastructure problems. Idaho is a large state with several thousand miles of federal, state and local roads and a relatively small population to pay the costs. It is critical that we develop a balanced, long-term transportation-funding model.

Our existing model - a fossil fuel tax and a vehicle registration fee - is fundamentally flawed. In the face of inflation and increased demand, improved vehicle efficiency is providing less fuel tax revenue per mile driven.

Gov. Otter has appointed a "Task Force on Modernizing Transportation Funding in Idaho." It is not the first time policymakers have studied transportation funding. Some argue that they have studied it to death, confusing effort with results. Hopefully this time, policymakers will avoid politics and parochial interests and reach conclusions based on agreed guiding principles, disciplined evaluation and objective analysis of probable long-term consequences.

Read full story here.

Ada County families may lose financial assistance for rent, utilities

2009-07-07T11:39:00.001-06:00

Families getting monthly financial assistance for rent and utilities were notified by the local housing authority late last week that their aid will be suspended on Aug. 1.

Deanna Watson, executive director of the Boise City/Ada County Housing Authority, expects that the wait for new families to get assistance could grow from about 2.5 years to 4.5 years. The program serves about 1,900 families, and another 4,700 are on the waiting list.

Boise Streetcar: Update

2009-06-15T13:03:00.004-06:00

Pasting an article from the ID Statesman archives (published Jun 14, 2009):
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Boise leaders raise streetcar concerns

Possible federal funding may alleviate the worries some Downtown powerhouses voiced this spring.

Some of Downtown Boise's biggest property owners and company CEOs laid out a series of high expectations they want met before the city moves ahead with one of Mayor Dave Bieter's top priorities - a 15-block streetcar loop through the center of town.
They want the city to better understand how many people may ride the streetcar, to develop a planon how to pay the operating costs and to make sure to take the time to do the whole thing right.
Seven members of the city's 36-member streetcar task force sent a letter April 23 with the litany of concerns to Gary Michael, chairman of Bieter's streetcar task force, and Capital City Development Corporation Director Phil Kushlan.
Many members of the task force "have become frustrated with the many questions and concerns that have been left unaddressed," said the letter, signed by Idaho Power CEO Lamont Keen, St. Luke's CEO Ed Dahlberg and others.
Bieter says the letter is "old news" because the city now plans to pursue up to $25 million in federal stimulus money, and that could help resolve one of the biggest concerns the business leaders have: How will the city pay for the $40 million to $65 million project?
At least one of the letter's signers, George Iliff, Colliers International managing partner, agreed that the federal money went a long way in answering his concerns.
But the question of funding may matter the most to the major property owners in town - like Rafanelli and Nahas, which owns the former Boise Cascade building and several surrounding blocks, and whose project manager Scott Schoenherr signed onto the letter.
The most likely source of the money discussed so far has been a "local improvement district," which would tax the landowners within it. And it can be created without a vote of those landowners - by Bieter and just three members of the City Council.
Plus, the letter states, the city has yet to make a plan for the operating costs of the streetcar: "This is an unacceptable response given the magnitude of the decision."
Bieter said he was confident he had the support of the business leaders because of the federal money.
"We went from zero (federal funding) to half - that's a fundamental change," Bieter said.
But that money is a long way off - even if all goes to plan.
Just Friday, Idaho's congressional delegation joined eight other federal lawmakers in asking the U.S. Department of Transportation to dedicate $300 million of its stimulus money toward streetcar projects around the country.
Boise's share would come from that money, but to get the full amount, federal officials would have to set aside a full 20 percent of the $1.5 billion the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act dedicated to surface transportation.
Still, the possibility does temper some of the concerns.
"CCDC and the city of Boise have been receptive to the concerns we addressed in our April letter," Colliers CEO Iliff told the Statesman. "The issues in the letter still need further resolution and are in the process of being addressed by the city and its consultants."
Keen, Schoenherr and John Lamb, senior vice president for U.S. Bank Plaza owner Unico, said they are waiting to receive more information before taking a position on whether the streetcar project is headed in the right direction. The other business leaders could not be reached.
In the letter, they said they also were concerned that the city had never conducted a ridership survey to see how many people would use the streetcar, and that the project seemed to be proceeding too hastily.
Bieter said reports and evaluations under way now will address these concerns.
Gary Michael and Kushlan started tackling the problems at a May 15 meeting of the task force, which is composed of business and civic leaders and has been meeting monthly since November. The meetings have not been opened to the public.
Iliff said he's confident the questions will be answered.
"In the coming months the task force will be able to reach informed conclusions and make recommendations about the viability of the project and how it will affect the Downtown stake-holders and the community as a whole," he said.

DETAILS ON THE MEMO:

A three-page letter outlining concerns with a plan to build a Downtown streetcar was signed by seven local business leaders:

- George Iliff, Colliers International managing partner;
- Ed Dahlberg, St. Luke's CEO and president;
- Lamont Keen, Idaho Power CEO and president;
- Jim Kissler, Norco CEO;
- John Lamb, senior vice president for U.S. Bank Plaza owner Unico;
- Doug and Skip Oppenheimer from Oppenheimer Companies; and
- Scott Schoenherr project manager for Boise Plaza owner Rafanelli and Nahas.

Cynthia Sewell
cmsewell@idahostatesman.com
Cynthia Sewell: 377-6428
© 2009 Idaho Statesman

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Previously on the Streetcar

2009-06-07T13:07:00.002-06:00

Below is an editorial published in the ID Statesman on June 7, 2009:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now's the time for pragmatism to transcend politics

our view - spending the stimulus

The mayor is working with Sen. Mike Crapo on securing stimulus dollars for the streetcar - in hopes that the feds could pick up half of the costs of a $40 million to $65 million project. In the state's senior senator, Bieter has an important convert.
"That is the kind of thing the stimulus package was intended to be used for, " Crapo said recently.
In February, Crapo voted against the stimulus package. Working now for streetcar dollars does not make Crapo a hypocrite. It makes him a pragmatist.
The fight over the stimulus proposal - as fiscal policy and as a prescription for an ailing economy - ended when the bill was signed into law. The deal is done. This overwhelming sum of money, to be paid by our children and grandchildren, has been committed. The job now is to identify projects that create jobs and maximize the long-range return.
The streetcar project fits the profile, in several ways. It would help boost the construction sector. It also would help boost property values along the 2.6-mile line, encouraging development on Downtown blocks that haven't been a part of the city center's rebound.
Bieter will still have to sell his plan - and the creation of a streetcar taxing district - to Downtown property owners who will want to see ridership and return on investment, if property taxes increase up to 30 cents a square foot. But federal spending has long subsidized modes of transportation from interstates to bus lines; an infusion of stimulus money into a transportation/economic development vehicle such as the streetcar is appropriate.
So, too, is the use of stimulus dollars to bring Boise a share of an Obama administration initiative: green energy. Local companies Inovus and Alloway Electric will share in a stimulus-funded project to replace 725 Downtown streetlights with energy-efficient LED bulbs; Bieter announced the project during his State of the City address Wednesday. "This will cut electricity costs to taxpayers, decrease our community's carbon footprint and help local companies and local jobs." The City Council will vote Tuesday on the $446,000 project, expected to protect 15 current jobs and create 10 to 12 new jobs.
It should come as no surprise that Bieter is moving to find potential uses for stimulus dollars. Nor is it surprising that, at the state level, Gov. Butch Otter has set aside his skepticism over the stimulus, and has the Idaho Transportation Department and other agencies working to roll out stimulus projects.
There is, to go back to the outset, a time for governing. From Boise City Hall to the state Capitol, this is a challenging time to govern, a time of dropping tax revenues and staff cuts.
The Monday-morning quarterbacking over the stimulus is still covered. Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele used Friday's news of a 9.4 percent unemployment rate as occasion to declare the stimulus plan "reckless and ineffective." A week earlier, an Idaho GOP fund-raising e-mail bearing a less-than-subtle subject line: "100-plus days of stimulus and other lies."
One stimulus truth, omitted in the e-mail, is that Idaho stands to receive more than $1 billion in stimulus dollars. At least some elected officials are trying to put the money to good use.
"Our View" is the editorial position of the Idaho Statesman. It is an unsigned opinion expressing the consensus of the Statesman's editorial board.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Treasure Valley housing market rebounding?

2009-05-13T13:01:00.003-06:00

According to an article in the ID Statesman published today,

The number of homes sold in Ada County rose 12 percent last month, the second-largest increase from March to April in 11 years, the Intermountain Multiple Listing Service says. Sales in Canyon County rose 16 percent.

So, have we hit bottom then?

Read full story here.

Suburb in Germany bans driveways and garages...

2009-05-13T13:00:00.002-06:00

If you ask me - that sounds a little extreme. Read full story here and then feel free to leave your $0.02.

A case of too many cooks?

2009-05-12T11:16:00.003-06:00

It appears that there might be a reduction in the number of planning groups that operate in our area and make every decision as difficult as it can possibly be. ID Statesman has an article on how budget cuts might imply that some of these (what I have held for a long time to be quite redundant) groups may be done away with entirely while some (admittedly necessary ones such as COMPASS and Valley ride) will merge. Amen.

Urban farmers

2009-04-30T15:49:00.002-06:00

Here's an interesting article from ID Statesman about urban farming. What does this new type of demand for urban land (which is due to the increased demand for locally and organically grown foods) imply for urban land rents/land market?

The road.. less traveled: Interesting report

2009-04-23T15:33:00.003-06:00

Robert Puentes is a Senior Fellow at the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings Institute. He is an expert on transportation and infrastructure, urban planning, growth management, suburban issues and housing. His research focuses on the broad array of policies and issues related to metropolitan growth and development. He was recently a guest speaker at Boise State University.

In December 2008, along with co-author Adie Tomar, he published a report of U.S. driving patterns titled: ‘The Road…Less Traveled: An Analysis of Vehicle Miles Traveled Trends in the U.S.' as part of the Metropolitan Infrastructure Initiative Seriespublications from the Brookings Institute. According to the authors:

While all transportation modes have received their fair share of media attention, this report focuses on the VMT trends in detail. VMT is a pervasive measure used in transportation revenue, for both funding allocation formulas and planning and finance. With driving on the decline, the overall travel patterns will have profound impacts on how this nation pays for transportation and plans for future infrastructure needs. Furthermore, how much, where, and what we drive affects our energy consumption, carbon emissions, and land use patterns. Thus, VMT patterns inform the potential solutions to our national environmental and energy challenges.

This brief employs the latest federal data to construct a thorough picture of VMT patterns across the country, including roadway, vehicle, state, and metropolitan comparisons. It is intended to provide policymakers with a better understanding of American drivers’ behavior—what roadways they use, what vehicles they use, and where they travel the most.

This report presents an interesting analysis of American driving behavior and how it is evolving over time. Click here to download the full report.

Why HOV lanes allow motorcycles....

2009-04-23T11:37:00.009-06:00

This is from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority:

Why are motorcycles allowed in some HOV lanes?
Motorcycles are permitted by federal law to use HOV lanes, even though they typically carry only one passenger. The explanation for the federal law is that allowing motorcycles to use HOV lanes keeps them moving, and it is considered safer to keep two-wheel vehicles moving than it is to have them traveling in start-and-stop traffic conditions. The individual states can choose to override this provision of federal law, if they determine that there is an inherent safety risk by allowing motorcycles to use HOV lanes. In the State of California, motorcycles are permitted to use HOV facilities unless a traffic control device specifically prohibits them.

According to US DOT Federal Highway Program's website, the "primary purpose of an HOV lane is to increase the total number of people moved through a congested corridor ", and they are also an "environmentally friendly option" [1].

However, here's an interesting fact: Contrary to what a lot of us believe, regular motorcycles are not more environmentally-friendly than cars.

California's Air Resources Board has recently imposed standards [2] that cut emissions of motorcycles closer to car emission standards. Indeed, without these standards, "motorcycles now produce up to 15 times the emissions per mile as the average new car or light-duty truck" (also in [2]), despite getting better mileage. Some motorcycles have catalytic converters and other features which would vastly reduce emissions below car level, but they are not required. The EPA has followed suit in 2005 with similar NOx and HC restrictions [3] starting in 2006 and lowering again in 2010.

Most motorbikes (excluding those in California) do not have catalytic converters which greatly reduce pollution. Only BMWs come with them stock. Also, most motorcycles do not have a charcoal canister fuel vapor collector. This means a lot of evaporated gasoline goes straight into the air. Where you might get maxiscooters counted as green vehicles is in their much better gas mileage than the average automobile or SUV.

In related news, the state of California is the only state to allow motorcycles to lane-split, that is, motorcycles to pass between the lanes of congested traffic.

With the signing of the federal transportation bill by Pres. George Bush in Aug. 2005, states were allowed to issue stickers to owners of hybrid vehicles, allowing them to drive solo in HOV lanes.

Arizona, California, Colorado,Florida, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia allow hybrids in HOV lanes.

Several of these states regret issuing the thousands of tags to hybrid cars as HOV lanes are getting over-crowded.

Sources:

[1] US DOT Federal Highway Program, http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/operations/hovguide01.htm

[2] California Air Resources Board, http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/motcycle/onrdmc.htm?PF=Y

[3] EPA, here

AMTRAK in Boise?

2009-04-20T11:27:00.001-06:00

For the first time since the Chicago-to-Seattle train ended 12 years ago, there's hope for the return of the Pioneer. Amtrak has seen six continuous years of passenger growth, and with high gasoline prices and a decline in airline service to mid- and smaller-sized cities, there's renewed interest in passenger train service in rural America, including southern Idaho.

Read the full article here.

Era of the electric car?

2009-04-10T11:37:00.003-06:00

Electric cars have been in the news with China recently announcing their "vow" to take over the lead in this market. Now our neighboring state is in the news - both Nissan and Th!nk have been expressing an interest in the state. Nissan will introduce its 2010 electirc car in OR and Th!nk is looking at site options. And now Mitsubishi has announced their plans for a strategic partnership with OR. Read details of the story here.

If you are wondering what caused this recent flurry of planning and activity in electric car manufacturing - which has not enjoyed much attention in the past - it is this announcement from the government: e lectric cars get a $2.4 billion grant.

What do these upcoming techonological innovations in transportations mean for the future of cities?

Nashville's Gulch - any similarities with BoDo?

2009-04-08T13:27:00.011-06:00

From article published in USA Today on April 7, 2009:

Nashville took its time getting around to the concept of an urban lifestyle catering to active single professionals and younger couples who want to live and play close to where they work.
For years, the liveliest part of town has been Music Row, a stretch of hundreds of businesses related to country, gospel and contemporary Christian music. In the 1970s, the city saw the start of restoration projects of some old buildings. But laws limited the creation of apartments downtown, in part because of lingering worries the units would become flophouses.
As a result, there is practically no housing in the central business district, says Phil Ryan, executive director of the city's Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency.
"It was anemic," he says. "There were just a few condominiums and a scattering of mid-rise apartments."
Ten years ago, Nashville entrepreneur and philanthropist Steve Turner, whose family founded the discount stores Dollar General, and a group of developers began buying land in the Gulch. They wanted to create something new for Nashville — a pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use, mixed-income project — and were appointed by the city to make it happen in the 60-acre spot.
The development plan emphasized easy access to bus rides, more than 6,000 jobs within a half-mile walk and abundant bike and walking paths. Nashville, the nation's 21st-largest city with 650,000 people, anted up $7 million for new streets, landscaping and utilities. Construction cranes have dotted the landscape since 2001, and by the end of 2009, The Gulch will have one-quarter of the housing stock in downtown Nashville, the city says.
"It's a remarkable achievement," Mayor Karl Dean says. "As a city we needed to focus more on our environmental priorities and making the city a place where people would want to live."
Read full article here.

The Hole in BoDO has new owner but no plans

2009-04-08T11:06:00.004-06:00

The new owner has no immediate plans for the half-acre site at the corner of 8th and Main, where two developers in 10 years have failed to erect a building. Read more here.

AVIMOR

2009-04-08T11:05:00.004-06:00

This report about Suncor trying to sell Avimor was in the Idaho Statesman yesterday.

Contrary to popular belief, BoDo is not dead

2009-04-06T11:44:00.004-06:00

Apparently, we have all been mistaken to take our cues from closed store fronts in Boise Downtown. According to the news report in Idaho Statesman, vacancy rates show that the area is faring better than other Treasure Valley locations.

Census data on Racial composition

2009-03-18T13:29:00.004-06:00

As promised in class, here is the link to the U.S. Census Bureau website that contains the data on Population by sex, race and hispanic origin. You will have to click on the drop down list on the right hand side of the screen and select the datatable you want.

As for updated information on segregation at the Metropolitan level, this website from Brown University contains a rich assortment of data. You can find Boise city in there as well. The population estimates by race corroborate why Western cities have lower segregation indices.

Transit gains while peak-hour congestion drops: National news

2009-03-18T13:18:00.002-06:00

Although high gas prices until late last year and the increasingly painful economic crisis curtailed the nation's vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and boosted transit ridership, neither the steep gas-price plunge since the fall nor disastrous job losses have stopped transit gains or diminished the urgent need for investment in transit upgrades and expansion, a long-overlooked policy requisite once more documented by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) in its newest report, which shows that Americans "took 1.7 billion trips on public transportation in 2008" -- 4 percent more than in 2007 and the most in the 52 years.

Read full article here.

Moreover,

Last year, peak hour congestion on major urban roads in 99 of the 100 largest metro areas, except Baton Rouge, Louisiana, decreased 30 percent -- being 15 to 60 percent lower each hour of every day depending on day and time -- not because of road expansion, but because of some 3 percent fewer vehicle miles traveled (VMT), an unprecedented decline forced by higher gas prices and economic hardships, and a kind of incidental "transportation demand management," writes CEOs for Cities chief economic analyst Joe Cortright in an Infrastructurist guest commentary on Kirkland, Washington-based INRIX' second annual National Traffic Scorecard, built on many billions of real-time travel data sent from nearly a million GPS-equipped cars and trucks.

Read full article here.

Federal Stimulus for Boise

2009-03-17T12:56:00.003-06:00

Mayor Beiter sends out an email newsletter every week. This week's newsletter included a link to the City of Boise website where Boise citizens can find out how the stimulus dollars are being spent in their city. The site is called Accountable Boise. You will also find a funded projects list here.

Idaho History: Manufacturing in Boise area in the days before the car

2009-03-17T12:53:00.003-06:00

Here's a link to today's ID Statesman article titled: "Necessity was the mother of invention in early Idaho". An excerpt reads:

In 1890, the Idaho Statesman pointed out that "Boise is becoming quite a manufacturing center in the way of wagons, carriages and stage coaches, especially the latter. Several were shipped west yesterday from one of the largest factories. They are models of workmanship and strength."
In the horse-powered world of the 1890s, all kinds of manufacturing flourished that was related to horses. In 1892, Boise's newest industry was a factory for the manufacture of horse collars. The Statesman said the company had six employees but was expected to grow. "The Boise City Manufacturing Co. Ltd." advertised In the 1893 city directory that it was the manufacturer of horse collars of every description and that it operated its own large tannery for the manufacture of the leather it used in its products.

Boise Streetcar

2009-03-13T13:07:00.003-06:00

All that you ever wanted to know about the Streetcar plan in Boise, you can find here.

Is sprawl an American problem?

2009-03-11T14:56:00.002-06:00

In light of one of the questions raised in class on Tuesday, check out this article from slate:

Suburban Despair - Is urban sprawl really an American menace?

You asked: How can 1 gallon of gasoline cause 20 pounds of GHG emissions?? Answer is....

2009-03-10T22:27:00.002-06:00

Although it seems improbable that a gallon of gasoline, which weighs about 6.3 pounds, could produce 20 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) - the greenhouse gas or GHG in question - when burned. However, most of the weight of the CO2 doesn't come from the gasoline itself, but the oxygen in the air.

When gasoline burns, the carbon and hydrogen separate. The hydrogen combines with oxygen to form water (H2O), and carbon combines with oxygen to form carbon dioxide (CO2).

A carbon atom has a weight of 12, and each oxygen atom has a weight of 16, giving each single molecule of CO2 an atomic weight of 44 (12 from carbon and 32 from oxygen).

Therefore, to calculate the amount of CO2 produced from a gallon of gasoline, the weight of the carbon in the gasoline is multiplied by 44/12 or 3.7.

Since gasoline is about 87% carbon and 13% hydrogen by weight, the carbon in a gallon of gasoline weighs 5.5 pounds (6.3 lbs. x .87).

We can then multiply the weight of the carbon (5.5 pounds) by 3.7, which equals 20 pounds of CO2!

Commuting Data - Sources

2009-03-10T16:24:00.004-06:00

1. Journey to work and Place of work data from U.S. Census Bureau

2. Census Transportation Planning Project (CTPP 2000) - the American Community Survey (ACS) from Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)

Unhappiest city: Portland, OR

2009-03-04T14:36:00.002-07:00

BusinessWeek.com came up with a list of the 20 unhappiest cities. These are major cities that were ranked based on their rates of suicide, depression, divorce, unemployment, job loss, population loss, crime, amount of green space, and cloudy days. According to the Businessweek article, "We gave most emphasis to suicide and depression rates, crime, and economic factors. The city with the highest overall score in our index was Portland, the beautiful Oregon city that also has very high depression and suicide rates. St. Louis, New Orleans, and Detroit were high on the list largely because of their rates of crime, unemployment, and population loss. Other cities such as Las Vegas, Tucson, Sacramento, and Jacksonville, Fla., ranked high because of their suicide rates and difficult economic conditions".

Cities vs. suburbs - from Pew trends project

2009-03-03T15:51:00.000-07:00

The City Fix blog highlighted the recent Pew trends report on whether Americans want to live in cities or suburbs. It turns out that they want both. Read the blog post here.

Bus Rapid Transit resources at CCNY

2009-03-03T15:43:00.001-07:00

University Transportation Research Center (UTRC) @ City College of NY has some research publications on bus rapid transit as well as congestion pricing available here.

Urban Mobility Report from TTI @Texas A&M

2009-03-02T13:13:00.004-07:00

Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) estimates that congestion is costing Americans more than $78 billion a year. Urban travelers are delayed in rush hour traffic nearly 40 hours a year. TTI has been publishing their annual urban mobility report since 1982. This year it is due out in April. Meanwhile, you can find data from previous year's report here.

Apart from mobility, there is a plethora of research publications from TTI on integrated public transit and even specific policy measures such as the effectiveness of HOV lanes in TX. Enjoy exploring the site on your own!

Science magazine special issue on: Cities

2009-03-02T12:58:00.002-07:00

By 2030, nearly 5 billion people, or 60% of the world's projected population, will live in cities. As described in a special section of the 8 February 2008 issue of Science, these hot spots of production, consumption, and creative thinking present both the problems and solutions to the sustainability challenges that face an increasingly urbanized world.

In this video presentation, Michael Batty of University College London, Jesse Ausubel of The Rockefeller University, Nancy Grimm of Arizona State University, and Science's Asia news editor Richard Stone discuss the implications of the mass embrace of city life around the globe.

In the same issue, there are several very interesting articles on cities - including what the city of the future will look like.

Our own private melt-down

2009-03-02T12:33:00.003-07:00

With unemployment nearing 7 percent and major valley employers continuing to slash jobs, Idaho Statesman provides insight from a few of the Valley's business and political leaders on what could be causing the treasure valley's once promising economy to gradually disintegrate.

Idaho's Neighborhood Stabilization Program

2009-03-02T12:28:00.003-07:00

Here's a link to details on the $17.6 million housing program to buy, fix and resell foreclosed homes will put low- and moderate-income families into houses they can afford and create jobs for contractors.

Clusters Mapping

2009-03-01T13:33:00.002-07:00

Here's the website for the Cluster mapping project, Institute of Strategy and Competitiveness at Harvard University. We explored this website for Boise MSA cluster data. The site contains information/data on all U.S. MSAs.

Land Use Maps - Boise

2009-02-28T13:29:00.002-07:00

Courtesy of City of Boise website:

Land use (existing) map for Boise
Land use map - future/proposed Boise

Other area maps are also available at the city of Boise website. Feel free to explore.

Zoning Maps - Boise, ID.

Some interesting finds from last week.

2009-02-27T14:20:00.003-07:00

Planetizen article: Look South! by Barbara Knecht.

Saudi Arabia plays "SimCity" for high stakes from Matthew Kahn's blog. If you scroll down, there is a second blog post (by Kahn) that talks about SimCity Societies and how the game integrates the concepts of economic externalities and trade-offs into gameplay.

A zero emission city in the desert: from technology review.

This one is particularly interesting: A city made of waste - the case of Tijuana.

Clusters

2009-02-10T16:26:00.000-07:00

Research Triangle Park, NC

North Carolina Advanced Materials Cluster.

Welcome!

2009-02-01T13:52:00.000-07:00

I created this blog as a supplement to the course I offer every Spring semester at Boise State. I will use it to compile relevant links to data sources, publications and other academic materials as well as news items that are of interest to our class.

Feel free to leave your comments on the posted links and my blog posts in general. But comments are moderated, so keep them relevant and concise.

I am looking forward to discovering the potential of this blog in making our class more interactive and in stimulating dialogue on urban issues in Boise and elsewhere.