Has Garden City Had Enough?

Two recent stories in Boise highlight the sad case of Garden City. Two teenage girls robbed a Garden City Convenience Store and then there’s the body that was found today near 44th Street. I lived in Garden City for nearly two years in a mobile home park near 40th and Chinden. I’m very familiar with the Jackson’s food store in question. My wife and I have had sub sandwiches at the in-store Subway several times and we took a few walks near the area where the body was found.

I’ve got to tell you that those 2 years in Garden City had some frustrating times. When we got ready to buy house, we intended to buy a great almost new 3 bedroom Mobile. It went off the market (not sold as far as I could tell but off the market) about the time we started to look. It was a good thing. I looked at the MLS listings and saw that houses for Sale in our part of Garden City didn’t move very well. Who wants to move into that part of town? You’re going to be unable to move out unless you can payoff the house, because the odds of finding someone to live in that stretch of town is thin.

Garden City (with the exception of the ritzy part of town) is nowhere anyone would want to raise a family, or live as a long-term arrangement. Ultimately, it falls to the community (i.e. those folks who HAVE to live in Garden City) to take steps to change it, as well it falls to churches to become involved in restoring the area. Until that happens, Garden City is going to continue to deteriorate.