Our View: Shining a social media spotlight on a local eyesore | Editorial | Idaho Statesman
Boise's vacant Downtown pit has long been an embarrassment. Only recently has it morphed into a Facebook phenomenon.
In two weeks, more than 2,200 people have joined a Facebook group that advocates turning the pit into an urban park - a noble but not necessarily simple aim.
The group's rapidly burgeoning membership speaks to Facebook's ubiquitous Internet presence. Of more significance locally, this group's popularity illustrates a justified impatience over a failed search to find a second life for the lot at 8th and Main streets.
Boiseans have a right to feel fed up, whether they vent online or not. Long before there even was a Facebook - and yes, there was life before Facebook - Boise had a pit problem.
Once home to the Eastman Building, the site has been vacant since 1987. The effort to build the 25-story Boise Tower project turned into a high-profile and heavily litigated flop. The pit is the tower's legacy, barricaded off with temporary walls, out of sight but not out of mind.
For all of its allure and attractions, Downtown Boise won't be quite right until things are made whole at the hole. On this point, more than 2,200 Facebook users can't be wrong. Their message and their passion should resonate with local officials, and with Robert Capps, the Californian who purchased the site a year ago.
A transition from pit to park isn't as easy as the Facebook campaign would suggest: "Fill it in with dirt, plant some trees, and throw in a bench!" Boise city officials, who are on the receiving end of a letter-writing campaign from park advocates, are quick to point out that the pit is private property. Capps has been noncommittal. "I'm not sure a park would be the best use for the property," he told the Statesman after purchasing the site.
The current and continuing non-use isn't exactly the highest and best use for the site, either. This is prime Downtown property, surrounded by workplaces, shops and restaurants. This site should somehow become a piece of an otherwise vibrant city center - not the actual and figurative chasm that it has been for too long.
How should that happen? Now, that is worth talking about, on Facebook and elsewhere.
"Our View" is the editorial position of the Idaho Statesman. It is an unsigned opinion expressing the consensus of the Statesman's editorial board. To comment on an editorial or suggest a topic, e-mail editorial@idahostatesman.com.
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