A City of Boise program designed to give residents more say in improving their neighborhoods is expanding to three new areas.
Energize Our Neighborhoods kicked off in 2014 with the Vista area selected as the first neighborhood. City officials say Vista saw success with several projects like new children’s educational programs, new stop signs and safer sidewalks.
Nikki Drake, the program’s coordinator, works with a team that combines public and private resources to fund these changes and to provide services.
“Energize Our Neighborhoods is really a community development platform and strategy to invest in and strengthen neighborhoods in Boise,” Drake says.
Part of the strengthening process involves getting people in neighborhood associations to start conversations on what needs to be improved.
“The residents were really the ones that provided that framework of these focus areas and these categories to really view our neighborhoods and the livability in them,” Drake says.
The program will now extend to the West Bench, South Boise Village and West End neighborhoods. There are already meetings underway between city officials and residents to start planning potential initiatives.
It’s unclear how much money the city will chip in for this expansion since funding comes from a combination of public and private sources, and because funding will depend on the projects that each neighborhood pursues. However, the program infused $200,000 into projects throughout Vista over the past four years.
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