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32 Things to Consider Before Moving to Boise

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Thousands of settlers bypassed Boise on their way west. Generations later, their spawn are correcting this mistake and heading back to the Treasure Valley. Like moths to the flame of tech jobs and outdoor recreation, these immigrants arrive in Boise like so many waves of Basque and Mormon pioneers did before them. The 15th fastest growing city in America, Boise is appealing for its comparably low taxes, affordable real estate, good schools, and low crime. Boise has a lot going for it, but is it enough to get you to move to mysterious Idaho? Here are 32 things to consider before making Boise your home.

FINGER STEAKS

Do you like steak? Have you ever had it deep fried? Boise is the high-calorie heaven that made deep fried steak a delicious reality. Long a staple of Boise’s bar scene, these delicious deep-fried finger steaks are as delicious as they are unhealthy. Allegedly invented at Milo’s Torch Lounge, a Boise restaurant that’s now a strip club, finger steaks are narrow strips of steak that are seasoned and chicken fried to perfection. You can find them all over town, including a tasty version at Lindy’s Steak House, or check out this delicious recipe for them from One Crazy Cookie.

FAMOUS LOCALS

  • Actor Aaron Paul Sturtevant—Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad
  • Former Red Sox player Bill Buckner lives in the Boise area and makes $$$ in local real estate.
  • Robert Adler, inventor of the remote control, passed away in a Boise nursing home. Why hasn’t the city built a statue of him using his fantastic invention while eating a TV dinner in a recliner?
  • Former NFL quarterback Jake Plummer is from Boise.
  • Actor George Kennedy (pictured below) lives in the Boise area.

BEER PARADISE

At the rate breweries are opening in Boise it won’t be long until the only place to sleep is on stacks of kegs. Treasure Valley has become a BeerVana thanks to the fine works of Crooked Fence Brewing, TableRock Brew Pub, Kilted Dragon Brewery, Slanted Rock Brewery, Highland Hollows Brewhouse, Big Horn Brewing/The Ram, 10 Barrel Brewery, Cloud 9 Brewery, Bogus Brewing, and Sockeye Grill & Brewery.

OUTDOOR RECREATION

Boise’s unique location and climate ensures locals can enjoy outdoor recreation all year long. Winter snow offers plenty of skiing and snowboarding opportunities, while miles of trails and dry weather are great for running, biking and hiking. In addition, there are mud runs, rock climbing, hang gliding, kite skiing, kayaking, canoeing, hunting, fishing, floating the river with a cooler of beer, hot air ballooning, golfing and disc golfing, horseback riding and more. Check out other outdoor recreation options at Boise.org.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

Locals pronounce “Boise” as “boy-see,” not “boy-zee.” The name “Boise” comes from the French word for “wood” or “wooded.” The name is not derived from the Hong Kong Cantopop duo BOY’Z, which tragically broke up in 2008 so Dennis Mak could move to Switzerland to study hotel management.

CITY OF TREES

Boise is best known as the “City of Trees,” a title shared with numerous other towns and cities (see photo above). Newer nicknames include:  B-Town, Zzzzzzz, BroncoVille, and Big Buck. Boise is a dynamic and creative town so surely somebody can think up a better nickname for the place than these.

IDAHO’S HATERS

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there are 17 hate groups in Idaho, mostly in the northern panhandle region. While this is higher per capita than other northwest states, it is certainly lower than other parts of the country, making Idaho’s reputation as a haven for neo-Nazis and anti-government militias a bit unfair. If there’s something that Idahoans hate nearly as much as these mind-numbingly moronic hate groups, it’s constantly being asked about them by people from out of state. Speaking of out-of-state people…

CALIFORNIA LOATHING

There’s one xenophobic trait many in Boise share—it’s a resentment of Californians. Just as in Seattle and Portland, the large influx of Californians moving to the area has definitely changed things. They brought money, jobs and yoga, but they also brought McMansions, manic driving, frosted tips, and traffic.

POLITICALLY PINKISH

In the 2012 presidential election, only two Idaho counties went for Barack Obama. Ada County, where Boise is located, was not one of them, providing Mitt Romney with 54% of the vote. Overall, 64.5 percent of Idaho’s vote went to the republican candidate, something that leaves Idaho’s Democrats feeling very blue. One of the last bastions of Idaho progressives are holed up in Boise’s North End, making an Alamo-like last stand against a rising sea of red voters.

LOCAL MUSIC SCENE

Built to Spill is Boise’s best known local band, but it’s also the home of Paul Revere & the Raiders, Finn Riggins, Le Fleur, Kazmere, Youth Lagoon, Curtis Stigers, Hillfolk Noir, Caustic Resin and a whole bunch more because, wow, this is a really incomplete list.

BOISE’S BLUE GRASS IS BANJO-FREE

At first glance, most think the blue turf at Bronco Stadium’s the result of some prank pulled off by rival university, or possibly the scene of some grizzly Smurf slaughter. It is not. The color was intentional and intended to gain BSU some national notoriety. And it worked.

TACO BELL ARENA

The Taco Bell Arena in Boise is…

  1. A modern gladiator arena where the morbidly obese battle for Doritos Locos Taco Supremes
  2. A multi-purpose indoor arena at B.S.U. used for concerts and basketball games
  3. A small, igloo-like structure made from stacked burritos
  4. A convalescent home for those who can longer Live Mas

The answer is #2.

LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE BASQUE

Despite the lack of racial diversity, Boise’s community is made up of a variety of people from different cultural backgrounds. Boise is home to the largest Basque population in America, has a Basque Block downtown, and it hosts the Jaialdi International Basque Cultural Festival every five years. While it’s a vibrant and fascinating culture, be warned that they do mix red wine with Coca Cola.

MORMONISM

Boise is located in Ada County, of which 15.15% of the population is Mormon. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a large temple in town—the Boise Idaho Temple. Church leaders are planning to triple the amount of missionaries to the Boise Mission so there might be even more Mormons in the future.

JUDAISM

Boise is home to Ahavath Beth Israel, the oldest synagogue in continuous use in the United States west of the Mississippi River. The effort to build the synagogue was led by Moses Alexander, a local Jewish resident who became Boise’s mayor in 1897 and Idaho’s governor in 1914. Local Rabbi Dan Fink estimates the local Jewish population at 1,500-1,800 people, considerably more than in the past.

FESTIVALS

Since Jaialdi only happens once every five years, Boise fills the festivity void with a variety of annual festivals and celebrations…

PRO SPORTS

Boise has pro teams in all the major sports, but most of those are minor or development leagues. Check out the Idaho Stampede (NBA Development League basketball), Boise Hawks (minor league baseball), Idaho Steelheads (minor league ice hockey), or the Treasure Valley Spartans (semi-pro football). Aside from the Broncos, the best team in town might be the local flat track roller derby team—Treasure Valley Rollergirls. Made up of appropriately named players like Heapa Trouble, Demolition Barbie, Mia Wallups, Udaho, and Shebrew Hammer, the team is basically a swirling tornado of elbows, body checks, black eyes and badass women.

SKIING / SNOWBOARDING

Just 16 miles from Boise is Bogus Basin Mountain Recreation Area, a haven for city’s skiers and snowboarders. In addition to a great name, the area boasts 200-250 inches of snowfall per year, seven chairlifts, and an 800 foot tubing hill. There are also 900 acres of groomed runs, 23 miles of Nordic trails for cross-country skiing, and a variety of employment opportunities for aspiring ski bums.

ZOO BOISE

Zoo Boise got its start when local citizens rescued a chimpanzee in the Mountain Home Desert after it had escaped from a traveling circus. Other interesting Zoo Boise facts….

  • Animal numbers are growing thanks to a captive breeding facility that churns out endangered Southern Idaho ground squirrels.
  • In addition to the penguins, check out the poison dart frog, Visayan warty pig, two-toed sloth, burrowing owl, giant elephant shrew, and the kangaroo rat.
  • For $25, visitors can “adopt any animal from Zoo Boise,” but it’s some kind of sick trick because they won’t let you actually take the animal home.

GO TO JAIL

You don’t have to get arrested by Boise’s finest to visit the local jails. Instead, tour the Old idaho Penitentiary and see where some the West’s most desperate criminals once lived. Obviously, the place is haunted.

POTATOES: GET THE FACTS

Idaho is potato country, and even though Boise isn’t the center of potato production, spuds are still a large part of the local culture. Here are some facts…

  • Idaho produces more potatoes than any other U.S. state, and more than all but three countries in the world.
  • Only 0.5% of the state is planted with potatoes.
  • Idaho grows more corn than potatoes.
  • Potato is spelled P-O-T-A-T-O and pronounced p?-t??t?.
  • The Famous Idaho Potato Bowl is the longest running outdoor cold-weather college football bowl game.
  • Potatoes are 47% more delicious when coated in bacon grease prior to baking.

NICKELBACK FANS ARE UNWELCOME

Most citizens of Boise, like people with functional hearing everywhere, do not like Nickelback. They do not like them in a crowd, they do not like them played aloud. They do not like them on a stage, they do not like them on this page… of the Boise Weekly.

CHRISTINA HENDRICKS IS AN IDAHO GIRL

Actress Christina Hendricks (Mad Men) is not from Boise, but she spent most off her childhood in nearby Twin Falls. Maybe she has some old friends from there who have since moved to Boise? Maybe she’ll return to visit them someday? It’s possible you could meet her in Boise. Not likely, but possible.

CRIME

Boise’s violent crime rate in 2010 was 35.2 percent lower than the national average, and 5.8 percent lower for property crime. Amongst local criminals, larceny and theft were by far the most popular crimes to commit.

CLIMATE

Do you like your climate all hot and dry in the summer? Ice cold in the winter? Overall, probably kind of semi-arid with lots of sunshine? If so, then Boise’s weather might be just right for you.

MUSEUMS

The two-headed calf at the Idaho State Historical Museum is the most iconic/macabre Boise museum item, but there’s no shortage of great museums to explore. Check out the Basque Museum and Cultural Center, Boise Art Museum, Idaho Botanical Garden, and more.

BEST CITY LISTS

Boise routinely shows up on various lists of best cities, such as….

REAL ESTATE

The average listing price for homes for sale in Boise is around $282,000, considerably more than John O’Farrell spent on the first home built in Boise (pictured above). There are currently 560 houses, 50 condos, and 55 townhouses for sale listed on Estately within Boise’s borders. View Boise homes for sale here on Estately Real Estate Search.

Did we forget anything from this list? Let us know in the comments.

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Ryan Nickum