West End Neighborhood Association
To better our neighborhood
July 22 at 9AM – Fairview Park
Don’t miss our Pilates/Yoga session with Carla. Join us under the trees for combinations of several yoga poses and Pilates exercises, including core, balance and stretching. All fitness levels are welcome and will benefit from this one-hour session. Bring your mat and water, and wear stretchy clothing Donations accepted.
Tuesday, July 18, at 6:30PM. Fairview Park
Tentative agenda
6:30pm- Welcome to neighborhood members and attendees
6:35pm- Approval of May AGM Meeting Minutes and June Meeting Minutes
6:40pm- Update on Stewart Street Apartments Completion
6:45pm- Storage Shed Purchase Discussion- Grant Approved, Vote on Purchase
6:50pm- Planning the Neighborhood Night Out event (Tuesday, Aug 1st at Fairview Park)
7:20pm- Committee Reports
7:45pm- New Business
This is a new agenda item where new topics can be brought up by board members or other members in attendance. If action will need to be taken on an item it will be added to the agenda for the following meeting.
Fitness at Fairview – July 22 at 9AM – Fairview Park
Pilates/Yoga session with Carla. Join us under the trees for combinations of several yoga poses and Pilates exercises, including core, balance and stretching. All fitness levels are welcome and will benefit from this one-hour session. Bring your mat and water, and wear stretchy clothing Donations accepted.
Happy Fourth!
Thank you, Ally, for leading a high energy, High Fitness session on Saturday, June 24.
From the City of Boise:
After three days of public testimony, City Council unanimously passed the Modern Zoning Code with an effective date of December 1, 2023 with several changes. The changes that City Council made can be found on the Modern Zoning Code website. The code was modified to reflect council’s changes and can be found online here.
What’s Next?
Planning and Development Services will complete three readings at upcoming City Council meetings, with an effective date for the Modern Zoning Code on December 1, 2023.
City Council also directed staff to bring forward minor amendments to the code November 2023 and bring the code back to City Council in one year from the effective date to evaluate the effectiveness and make the appropriate amendments.
We want to ensure each neighborhood has the opportunity to engage and ask questions during this transition. You will be hearing from staff in the coming weeks to continue education and outreach so our neighbors know what to expect with these changes in the coming months.
Fitness at Fairview – Saturday, July 8, at 9AM. Join us for Gentle Morning Yoga Flow with Carolyn. We’ll meet under the trees.
WENA Board Meeting – Tuesday, July 18, at 6:30PM. Fairview Park. Agenda to follow.
Agenda
6:30pm- Welcome neighborhood members and attendees
6:35pm- Approve May AGM Meeting Minutes
6:40pm- Discuss the appointment process for new board members
6:45pm- Update of Zoning Code Rewrite
6:55pm- Board Officer Elections- President, VP, Secretary, Treasurer
7:10pm- Appointment of Committee Chairs
7:20pm- Committee Reports
Community Building- Rachel Rudeen
Communications- Lauren Pennisi
Housing and Development – David Anderson
Street Signs- David Anderson
Fundraising and Grants – Anita Claridge
Neighborhood Watch- Cecilia Lopes
Elections Committee- Chris Testa
7:45pm- New Business
This is a new agenda item where new topics can be brought up by board members or other members in attendance. If action will need to be taken on an item, it will be added to the agenda for the following meeting.
Join us for High Fitness. Aerobics is back! Bigger, Better, and HIGHer! Experience a modern twist on aerobics in a non-stop action-packed hour of cardio and toning tracks that will take your fitness to the next level. Adaptable to all levels of fitness, you can go high or you can low but you will always leave feeling HIGH!
Participants don’t need to bring any equipment. Supportive shoes, water, and maybe a sweat towel are highly recommended. We will meet on the tennis courts and Ally will give us an overview of the class and go through a few tips to make everyone feel more prepared before class begins. It’s a super fun workout that is meant to get your heart rate up and endorphins pumping!
by Chris Testa, President of West End Neighborhood Association
You might get a double take when you say you surf in Idaho but surfing is a key element to the West End Neighborhood’s culture. Having Whitewater Park aka “the wave” is an asset that we don’t take for granted in the West End. Whether you are just stopping to watch during your walk along the greenbelt or braving the cold of the Boise river to surf the wave, our community creates energy and enjoyment through this recreational activity.
My first experience at the wave was more intimidating than I had expected. Being an experienced ocean surfer, I was immediately drawn to this sport, but despite my experience battling overhead ocean waves, I was not fully prepared for what the wave had in store for me. Armed with a wetsuit and a rental board from Corridor Surf Shop, I was ready to tear up this wave (how hard could it be?) Standing in line for my turn, I was visually nervous. I studied the experienced surfers in front of me to mimic their every move. Likely seeing my jitters, a fellow surfer struck up a conversation with me while we waited our turn. I mentioned it was my first time and his response was a welcoming demeanor and overwhelming support for giving it a shot (a response I continue to pass on to newbie surfers).
When it was finally my turn, I shuffled my feet up to the platform where the power of the Boise river started to jeopardize my balance. I could barely stand, how was I expected to surf! When I finally had myself situated, which seemed like an eternity with dozens of surfers watching me, I jumped onto my board and was immediately met with a faceplant of brisk river water followed by a rollercoaster of ripping rapids that sent me shooting down river toward Eagle. When I was out of the rapids and all in one piece, I was smiling from ear to ear. What a thrill! My adrenaline was pumping and I couldn’t wait for more.
The ease at which experienced river surfers walk out and jump onto that wave cannot be understated. The entry into this sport, and by entry I mean attempt after attempt of faceplants and wipeouts, is unmatched. But this (let’s call it a barrier to entry) breeds a sense of community that you feel immediately while on the wave. One fellow surfer, Mary, described the wave as “super supportive where instantly five people are stoked to teach you what to do.” The fact is that everyone is surfing their own wave, where progress is met with hooting and hollering from your fellow surfers regardless of your experience level.
On the wave, it is “intimate, a close-knit community like a family” as one surfer, Devon, described. Another tenured surfer, Gabe, told me about his love of the cold January surf session when wearing a “seal-like 5/4 wetsuit with booties, gloves, and a hoodie only slows the freezing numbness of fingers and toes, not stops it”. There is true dedication to the sport from this smaller ‘foul weather crowd’ but again the wave creates bonds between them as they shiver and smile after each ride while peering up at the white foothills and wondering if they could also fit in a ski at Bogus Basin later that same day.
To this day, I regularly look to the wave for a reprieve from the stressors of ordinary life. Every session is an opportunity to connect with fellow thrill seekers and appreciate the power of our natural resource here in Boise. Regardless of the season, ‘the wave’ brings me community and makes me grateful to live in the West End.
Subscribe to get access to the rest of this post and other subscriber-only content.
West End Neighborhood Board Meeting, Tuesday, May 16th, 6:30 pm, Fairview Park
The West End Neighborhood Association is your local advocate, striving to create a fun, safe, and wholesome community here in Boise’s West End. Our goals cannot be achieved without your input and involvement. Please join this year’s Annual General Meeting for an update on all the great things happening in our neighborhood and contribute to the future direction of our community.
This year we will be electing five new board members. You must be present to vote. If you would like to nominate yourself or someone else, please send an email to westendboise@gmail.com. Nominations will also be accepted at the meeting on May 16th. Join the board to get involved, make an impact, and meet great people with a minimal time commitment.
Look out for two exciting WENA events this year: Neighborhood Night Out on Tuesday, Aug 1st and the 4th Annual HalloWENA Event. Stay up to date on everything in the West End by subscribing to the WENA blog at westendboise.wordpress.com.
It takes all of us to prove why the West End is the ‘best end’!
Take a look at March’s minutes. Next meeting is April 18 at Alchemist Coffee on Stewart and 27th Street.
You may have noticed that the garden is expanding! This means we now have more room for community members to have their own garden boxes!
It also means we’ll need more help with garden maintenance, particularly during the summer months.
If you’re interested in a garden box or would like to help out, please fill out this brief survey: https://forms.gle/odJbjqN5DJZhRzbg9 or email whittiercommunitygarden@gmail.com.
In closing this long and demanding year, I can think of nothing better to write about than gratitude.
Gratitude for all the goodness in our lives as Americans as well as gratitude for the challenges we have come through–hopefully with growth and understanding–but most of all gratitude for people of service who make differences in our lives. That includes the men and women in the Armed Forces who protect our country and the world, and others such as the volunteers who greet us at hospitals or who help our children find books at the libraries or citizens who protect wildlife and care for injured animals at the many rescue centers. It would include people like my fellow neighborhood association members who enrich our communities with their time, knowledge, hard work and innovation.
On another note, I wish to recognize the police force that protect us on our streets, day and night, and at their peril. And a group that I am eternally grateful for, the firefighters and paramedics. I have a long history with Los Angeles firefighters as wildfires increased in the northern region over the years and eventually took our beautiful canyon home. These firefighters were not only brave risk takers, but they cared so deeply about the people who had incurred misfortunes. They stayed after days of putting out spot fires around existing structures but most of all to be present with open arms and encouraging words for homeowners when we returned.
The Idaho brand of firefighter is cut from the same cloth. I have experienced their commitment of service and caring nature several times as they responded to our calls of help for my elderly mother, who suffers from dementia, when she had fallen, slipped off a chair, or had a hard time recovering from a seizure. They came with their steady strength and good humor as an old woman who is not in her right mind would flirt and ask them out for dates. They would play along and make her feel special. We all have had many good laughs, which relieved pressure from a situation that could otherwise be bleak. These men and women of Stations 1 and 5 and Medic 15 know my home, my dogs names, and always remind me to never hesitate to call for help when needed. Our wellbeing is important to them.
It takes a special breed to live one’s life in service of others. I would recommend that you do yourself a favor and get to know these people, their names and their stories, and be richer for it. Get to know what impassions them to do the work they do and perhaps how you can follow your own voice into a life of service in whatever way, big or small.
The human factor and connection are what make a community great. That is what I see in our neighborhood in Boise.
Thank you for allowing me to express my thanks. Here’s to a great beginning to the New Year and to a life full and rich with gratitude.
Anna Rapagna Cox
West End Neighborhood Association 