Blaser letter: Downtown stadium
Sports park foes are suffering from NIMBYism.
The City of Boise has long sought to build a sports venue in its downtown. The first media reports on such a project emerged six years ago. What’s new about the proposal now on the table is the very real prospect of bringing professional soccer to town and wrapping the stadium in $60 million in private investment.
This development, with residential, retail and office space, would help reinvigorate a part of downtown that anyone driving by can easily see is not keeping pace with the rest of downtown.
What isn’t new are the all-too-familiar symptoms of NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) syndrome. And what isn’t being reported is that the so-called Concerned Boise Taxpayers are created and funded by a few wealthy Central Rim residents who don’t want a sports park in plain sight. They’ve hired a lobbyist to turn up the volume on their fear-mongering and misleading arguments.
Keep this in mind the next time you hear these opponents share their “concerns” about the sports park proposal.
Scott Blaser, Meridian
This story was originally published November 27, 2017 at 11:09 PM with the headline "Blaser letter: Downtown stadium."