For three years a stretch of Idaho Street downtown has been a fence line. Civic & Policy has the city's move: a call for contractors to secure the Union Block facade so the sidewalk and part of the street can reopen, with proposals due October 15. The Market covers the other end of the growth math — Brighton's Ibaia application north of Meridian, 471 lots arriving at 60 to 80 a year.
We told you two teams that hate giving the ball back were meeting in Kalamazoo. The Bench has how it went, and a new ranking. The Vitals up top hold a stretch of quiet, sunny days.
Boise wants a contractor to reopen the sidewalk it fenced off in 2023
Boise has put out a call for contractor teams to abate what it calls dangerous conditions at the Union Block Building, 710-722 W. Idaho St. — a request for qualifications first reported by KTVB on Monday. The city says the work secures the facade first, and proposals are due October 15. The goal it names is narrow and physical: reopen the sidewalk and part of Idaho Street outside the building. In a city email to KTVB: "Since the Union Block's closure in 2023, reopening the street and sidewalk has been of critically high importance." That closure is three years old.
The other side deserves its full weight here. Ken Howell, who owns the building through Union Block Associates LLC, has argued in court that the city violated his constitutional rights when it moved against the property. His version starts in 2023, when the city inspected the building after he proposed a plan to structurally support it, then issued a Notice of Violation and Order to Vacate. Businesses and offices inside shut down abruptly. Howell and his LLC sued the city on January 22, 2024, alleging constitutional violations, and he has kept fighting through every ruling since.
Howell appealed the vacate order, then skipped the January 30, 2024 City Council hearing that upheld the dangerous-building designation on the strength of engineering reports. After he missed deadlines to get permits and make repairs, the Council in October 2024 approved about $2.7 million to stabilize the structure, secure the front facade and stabilize the alley — and planned to bill him. The legal fight kept the work from starting. On March 31, 2026, U.S. District Judge David Nye dismissed the federal claims, ruling the city had enough evidence to call the building dangerous. Howell has appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Howell filed two more suits in Ada County District Court this year: one in May naming former Boise Planning and Development Services Director Tim Keane, and one against the city after Nye said the due process claims could be refiled in state court. Both are ongoing. The city told KTVB that an Ada County judge issued an August order affirming it can make repairs while one of the cases plays out. Who ends up paying — Howell or the city — is a question a court decides later. Howell did not respond to KTVB before publication.
The closure carries a price the courtroom doesn't tally. Shane Rose, operations manager at Diablo & Sons Saloon next door, told KTVB, "Not having this walkway active for the past three years is hard for us." Albert Frates, a Boise resident who counted the shuttered Mai Thai among his and his wife's favorites, told KTVB he wants the block back either way: "I would like to see the block one way or another, whether it's replacing the building or actually getting it fixed, reopened." The building went up in 1902 from Table Rock stone. And the city is plain that repairs needed to let people back inside are not its focus — when, or if, that happens is unclear.
October 15 is the date to watch. Proposals close that day, and the city expects to release repair details and a timeline once it reviews them. On this block the order is set: court fight or not, the sidewalk moves first and the bill gets argued later. Boise wants the fence line gone by fixing the facade and the street, the building's fate is still open, and a judge sorts out who writes the check.
471 lots north of Meridian, and the first keys are two years out
471 residential lots — that's the number Brighton Corp. put in its formal application to the City of Meridian for Ibaia, the north Meridian community it once called Basque Ranch. BoiseDev reported the filing September 24. It sits east of Highway 16, north of Chinden, between the Phyllis Canal and the Boise River, above the Spurwing area. The plat also carries 4 commercial lots. This is a supply story, and the supply arrives slowly: Brighton hopes to deliver its first homes in 2028, then 60 to 80 a year across six phases until it's done.
Do the arithmetic on that pace. At 60 to 80 homes a year, 471 lots take roughly six to eight years to fully deliver. That is a steady trickle for most of a decade. The homes are planned at 2,500 to 5,000 square feet, mostly single-level with two- and three-car garages, sizes that point to move-up buyers. A separate 55-and-older neighborhood, Cadence, on just under 48 acres, drops the size to 1,500 to 2,100 square feet with its own pool and clubhouse.
Something changed since April. The pre-application showed about 570 home sites, including 152 units on 50.5 acres marked medium-high density. In this plat, most of the southern edge moved from medium-high to medium density, except a southwestern tip slated for townhomes and duplexes. Neighbors objected to density back in June. Leslie Landry told KIVI, “Large estate lots, you know, one home per acre, large lots, nothing high density. Everyone here feels absolutely blindsided.” Jack Van Berkel, whose backyard overlooks the site, told KIVI it “will have a huge negative impact on everyone living in this city.” The record does not say whether one led to the other.
The infrastructure math is worth flagging. Building requires extending Black Cat Rd. and Joplin Rd. plus sewer and water, and Brighton's application says it will bear the cost of those extensions. The land straddles Meridian's and Star's areas of impact, so the application also asks for a comprehensive plan amendment to pull all of it into Meridian; Brighton says it has spoken with the City of Star. In the pre-application window, Meridian Fire Deputy Chief of Prevention Steven Taulbee wrote that the proposed access points didn't then meet fire code for emergency access, and planning staff asked how the project squares with the area's low-density designation.
It is still an application. It needs a Meridian Planning and Zoning Commission hearing and City Council sign-off, and no hearing date is published. Same median, different market: nobody can price a north Meridian house in 2028 from today's numbers, and 471 lots arriving 60 to 80 a year are a slow addition to the valley's supply.
THE TRAILHEAD: Boise State went to Michigan, kept the football for 36 minutes and 46 seconds, won 32-7, and walked out ranked No. 22 for the first time this season. Now the games that decide the year begin.
Western Michigan had the ball for 23 minutes and 14 seconds. It scored with 63 seconds left. That gap — 36:46 to 23:14 — is how the Broncos win, and Saturday at Waldo Stadium was the clean version of it. When you hold the ball, the other offense stands on the sideline, and the Broncos are built to keep it there. Western Michigan converted just 2 of its 11 third downs. You can't move a game you never touch.
The drive that told the story came in the second quarter: 15 plays, 78 yards, 7 minutes and 51 seconds, capped by Dylan Riley's 5-yard touchdown run. Riley finished with 138 rushing yards, 103 of them before halftime. Maddux Madsen threw for 204 yards and three touchdowns on 16 completions with no interceptions. Boise State outgained the Broncos of Kalamazoo 377 to 223. It led 15-0 at the half and never let the door open — Broc Lowry threw for 110 yards and an interception, and Roman Tillmon grabbed his first career pick in the fourth.
The man who quietly ran off with the day was Matt Wagner. Seven catches, 94 yards, two touchdowns — all career highs for a tight end who caught Madsen's 34-yard strike to open the scoring and stayed open all afternoon. Ben Ford added a 6-yard touchdown catch in the third, Zeke Martinez ran in the two-point conversion after the first score, and Canaan Moore hit a 25-yard field goal with 10 seconds left in the third. This was a spread-it-around win, and the tight end was the headline.
The AP poll came Sunday. Boise State entered at No. 22 with 221 points, up from 48 the week before, and sits No. 28 in the coaches poll — the first Group of Six team into this season's Top 25, and still the only one. The Broncos are 3-1 on a three-game winning streak, with 11 straight wins over MAC opponents behind them. The conference record starts at zero on Saturday. Utah State visits The Blue on October 3 at 5:30 p.m. MT on CBS Sports Network, and it's Boise State's first Pac-12 Conference game. Conference play starts now. Everything before it was the audition.
Ranked yet, Bronco Nation? Reply with one word: believer or wait-and-see.
The big white B on Table Rock is older than the cross by 25 years
That big white B up on Table Rock, the one you can spot from just about anywhere in the valley? Four teenagers dug it by hand, fresh out of Boise High in 1931, because they wanted to do something for the town. Ward Rolfe rounded up his friends Bob Krummes, Kenneth Robertson and Simeon Coonrod, and up the hill they went, per the Idaho State Historical Society by way of BoiseDev.
Now sit with the year. 1931. The Depression had already landed on Idaho, and by the end of 1932 Boise sat at its lowest economic point of the whole thing, according to Simon Clifford, who wrote a book on Boise and the Great Depression. No money, no work, and four new graduates spend ten days carving a B-shaped trench into the hillside. Seventy-five feet long, thirty-five feet wide, packed with loose rocks. The historical society says they wanted to put their mark on the town they loved, and it's been up there ever since. Schools paint it their colors most springs. Red and green, orange, once purple for Alzheimer's Awareness Month.
Then came 1970. Somebody slipped up the hill and shuffled all those loose rocks into an N. The Idaho Statesman ran a photo on May 12 under the headline "Work of Nampa Supporters?" — and whether that was true, nobody's ever confirmed. Two days later the rocks moved again, this time into a peace sign. Members of the Intercollegiate Knights, a fraternity at what was then Boise State College, hiked up and spent about an hour and a half wrestling it back into a B, then repainted it white. Eventually the trench was filled with concrete to preserve it. The cross above it? That came late — the Boise Jaycees finished it January 8, 1956, about 25 years after four teenagers beat them to the hill.
📍 How to Visit — The trail starts at the Old Penitentiary parking lot, off Old Penitentiary Road on the east edge of town. A little more than a mile and a half to the top, rated "difficult" by Ridge to Rivers, so go early while it's cool. Stand at the top and look down at the B set in concrete. That's the exact loose-rock trench four kids dug in 1931, minus the rocks somebody kept rearranging. The cross itself marks the old quarry that sent Table Rock stone down to build many downtown Boise buildings, worked by Basque, Italian and Swedish crews.
The 1970 prank ran on a two-day clock: an N in the Statesman on May 12, a peace sign two days later. The frat needed about ninety minutes to put the B back. The concrete needed forever.
That's the one you tell at dinner.
- ●BSU Pac-12 transition — Boise State is 3-1 and No. 22 in the AP poll after a 32-7 win at Western Michigan. The first Pac-12 game is… (watching since 6/23) · Δ 9/25: 2026-09-25: preview ran; first meeting ever with Western Michigan, both 2025 conference champions; BSU leads the nation in time of possession (37:24).
- ●Red Ridge Village — DF Development's 722-unit 'new city' on 2,250 acres near McCall — The Valley County Planning and Zoning work session September 24 on DF Development's outstanding information… (watching since 9/3) · Δ 9/25: watch date passed (2026-09-24) — resolve or renew
- ●Boise School District long-range facilities master plan — closures, 9th grade to high school — Fall survey results; the February/March 2027 recommendation to the board of trustees; any bond discussion a… (watching since 9/25) · Δ 9/25: 2026-09-25: opened by the Quick Hits civic beat
- ●Idaho Opportunity Zones 2.0 — 25 candidates sent to Treasury — Treasury designation; whether Caldwell/Nampa/Garden City tracts are in the final 25; designation effective… (watching since 9/25) · Δ 9/25: 2026-09-25: opened by the Local Hustle beat
- ●Dunkin' — first Boise location, 6940 W. State St. — City approval or denial of the drive-thru; the franchisee's name; an opening date (watching since 9/25) · Δ 9/25: 2026-09-25: opened by The Table