A significant percentage of the inquiries I get at my "bikeboy" website are from people in places other than Boise, that say something to this effect: "We are thinking about moving to Boise, and want to know about recreational opportunities, what it’s like to live there, etc."  Sometimes they’ll even inquire about recommended neighborhoods to move to, which schools are best, which employers are hiring in Boise, etc.  I’ve prepared this as a somewhat generic response to those inquiries. You’ve asked me about moving to Boise. So here’s my answer. I’ve never moved to Boise; I was born here. At the time (1953), Boise had maybe 35,000 residents. It didn’t have a sports arena or an indoor mall or a megaplex cinema or even a freeway. As of 2001, Boise (and the unincorporated surrounding area) probably has 200,000 residents. If you include the communities within 20 miles, maybe twice that. We’ve got our mall and our Pavilion and our megaplex cinema and plenty of big, wide roads now. Every day, it seems we have more of those big-city amenities. The strategic vision of the planners seems to be one of colossal sprawl. BOISE CYCLING REPORT 2001 Road cycling around Boise. I used to enjoy cycling in the country. Still do. But depending on which way I’m headed, the country is anywhere from 2 to 20 miles further away than it was in, say, 1985. The meadows and open areas have been mostly filled in with suburban crackerbox neighborhoods and strip malls. Seas of alfalfa have been supplanted by seas of identical rooftops. Roads that formerly were 2-lane blacktop are now 5+ lanes of smooth asphalt, well-occupied by SUVs. I still usually start and end my rides at home (in the city). But many of my former riding partners have given up, or they transport their bikes to the edge of town, to start their rides. Sadly, it’s not that unusual anymore to hear of bike/car accidents and bike/car “road rage” incidents. Mountain cycling around Boise. There is a well-developed system of trails around Boise, especially in the foothills north of town. And on a nice day, they are very well utilized. I’ve heard of angry confrontations between the kamikaze downhill punks and the uphill yuppies. My closest mountain-biking friends have resorted to riding the trails at night, using powerful rechargeable headlights… it’s just too congested during the day. Or driving to remote locations before starting their rides. If you ask the Mayor’s office or the Chamber of Commerce, they’ll tell you Boise is as good as it’s ever been, and getting better every day, and only a fool would NOT live in Boise, if given the opportunity. They probably won’t mention that “affordable” housing is generally 15-20 miles from downtown nowadays. Or about the 5-mile-long traffic jam on I-84 between Boise and Meridian every morning and afternoon. Or that a meth lab gets busted about once a week in our fine community. Or that most every elementary school has several “relocatable classrooms” (double-wide trailers) to handle the student overflow. Boise is probably nicer than lots of places where people live. But at least in my opinion, it’s not as nice as it was 20, or 10, or even 2 years ago. Please forgive me if I don’t welcome newcomers with open arms.