It Takes a Village

... to create a bottleneck

In this case, it's Riverside Village and their intrepid mayor (formerly their developer), who have bottlenecked the Boise Greenbelt, by declaring the stretch in their neighborhood a "nature trail," not to be ravaged by the unwashed bike-riding dregs of society. Having Garden City declare it off-limits to cyclists is akin to Glenns Ferry declaring that I-84 is off-limits to White Freightliners.



(For 2+ years I've been commenting on the issue - HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.)

So, what's new?

The Citizens for an Open Greenbelt group has announced a new campaign to pursue the unblocking of the contested stretch of pathway through legal channels.

From an emailed announcement:

Three experienced and qualified Boise attorneys devoted to our cause have come forward to help us. They have generously offered to contribute their time pro bono and believe a civil action is both sensible and winnable.

Even with our attorneys' generous donation of their time, we will need $4,000 to begin this action. This fund will cover hard expenses such as the cost of depositions, expert witnesses, filing fees, court costs, etc. This means we will need donations to support this cause. Whatever funds are not used will be donated to a local non-profit bicycle organization.

If you are interested and able, please visit the COG's website - HERE - to get more information and to donate to the cause. "Many backs make the burden light."

Full disclosure: I am personally unfamiliar with the bike path in question, other than by reputation. I'm not a member of the COG group, but I'm totally supportive of the concept of an uninterrupted bike path, from one end to the other. (If the problem is careless or aggressive cyclists, I would support measures to remove them. But you don't close the roads to all cars, to prevent DUI incidents.)