Boise the City of Trees

David Martin: This is the good government show.

Lauren McLean: We want our neighborhoods to be healthy, vibrant, connected places where residents can save money so they’ve got money to spend on housing and everything else they need. It’s all connected. Parks, open space, tree covers, clean water, public safety. It’s all connected. It’s an investment. Cities need to make. I am inspired almost every day by residents that just show up.

That local government is your neighbor, your family member, your friend. And it’s made possible by residents. It’s made possible by volunteers who now fill all of our commissions and provide feedback and guidance. And then it’s made possible by council members and the mayor that are just like each and every one of us are just working day in, day out for the place they love.

David Martin: One tree seedling for every resident around Boise, Idaho. That’s over 140,000 trees. That’s the goal for the City of Boise. It’s an ambitious goal for the mayor of Boise, but they’re doing it. It’s working, and more trees are on the way in this city of trees. Welcome to the Good government show. I’m Dave Martin. First, help us share the message of good government by liking us and showing us where we are.

Facebook x YouTube, Instagram and blue Sky. Please share a show with your friends. One of us where you’re listening and join our good Government show community. Check out our website for the link. At a recent conference of the Conference of Mayors. I attended a session called Climate Resiliency and Community Engagement. One of the main topics of the session was trees, planting trees and how trees make a difference.

I got to talk to a few mayors about trees. You’ve already heard from the director of American Forests that helps cities plant trees. On this episode, I talked to the mayor of the City of Trees. As Boise is known, Mayor Lauren McLean. Talking trees. Mayor McLean says planting trees has so many benefits. You hear her say it starts with cooler streets and neighborhoods, which in turn saves residents money.

Start there. Listen to her explain how trees actually make neighborhoods. Well, just better. She also talked about a new housing complex that just opened and a park inside the project. That leads to a conversation about parks. She has a goal. Parker greenspace within a ten minute walk of every Boise resident. And the mayor is almost there. Since we talked, the mayor announced a $6.7 million grant for more affordable housing that’s bringing the city’s total housing investment to 68.4 million.

That’s good government. And listen to what she says about reimagining what a park is. And since Boise is an Idaho, we had to talk about potatoes, French fries, gems. Just listen. Coming up, the mayor of Boise, Idaho, Lauren McLean of the Good Government Show, is sponsored by our. That’s o u r for our community. Get involved. We hear that all the time from government leaders.

Our co-branded with your governments name and logo. Your staff and the people you serve are connected and part of your community. From any device your members provide reliable data and meaningful feedback. Ask a question like do we want more parkland or better homeless services? More engaged conversations come through the our app. Visit our Co that’s ou rco.com and book a demonstration.

Once you wrap up this episode of The Good Government Show, give a listen to our friends over at Good News for lefties. This daily podcast highlights news stories that show there’s more good news out there. Other people in government are really trying to do the right thing. That’s good news for lefties. Listen, we’re listening now. I’m happy to have with me Laura McLean, the mayor of Boise, Idaho, our first guest from Idaho.

So thanks for joining us on the Good Government Show.

Lauren McLean: Well, thanks. It’s great to be here.

David Martin: Yes, it’s good to have you. Now, we are here at the Conference of Mayors, and we were just at a conference, breakout session where we talked about trees. And I believe that you have made a commitment to plant 100,000 new trees in your city. Is that correct?

Lauren McLean: We made a commitment. So I’m the mayor of Boise, Idaho, and we are the city of trees. And I made a commitment, a twofold commitment, one, to plant a seedling for every resident in the national forest above Boise. That’s about 140,000 seedlings. And then to double our tree canopy throughout the city.

David Martin: So I got it all wrong. So we way more trees. And I have a.

Lauren McLean: Lot more than 100,000.

David Martin: Why is this important?

Lauren McLean: Well, this is important for so many different reasons. I’ll first start with just the nuts and bolts of days are getting a whole bunch hotter and our evenings are to. And cooling our neighborhoods with trees saves people money, gets people out on the streets and in the shade enjoying each other. And so keeps our communities safe and connected, protects our health because they scrub our air from and just makes a nicer place to live.

David Martin: I never thought that much about trees and about a city planning for a tree. You know, how important is this?

Lauren McLean: I think it’s really important because we want our neighborhoods to be livable and vibrant. We want folks out on the street talking to each other, taking walks, supporting small businesses, watching as kids run by the parks, eyes on the streets keeps everything safe. And you do that when you’ve got trees on your block. And you know when you’re looking at how much you’re spending every month on housing and transportation and all these other costs of living, any dollar you can save matters.

And so when we cool our neighborhoods with trees, all of our residents save money on their cooling bills in the summer. So those are the two things I’d love to highlight from the other day as well. It’s all about health care because we want our neighborhoods to be healthy, vibrant, connected places where residents can save money so they’ve got money to spend on housing and everything else they need.

It’s all connected.

David Martin: You are the city of trees. Do you really need that many more trees?

Lauren McLean: Yes we do. Many of the trees in our community are getting old. You know, they’ve been there for quite a while. And then, like every community in this country, there are areas of our city that don’t have the shade that other neighborhoods do. So I bet when you’re walking through a city in, you’re in different neighborhoods.

David Martin: I live in New York City.

Lauren McLean: You’ll notice that some probably have a whole bunch more shade cover than others.

David Martin: Okay.

Lauren McLean: And it feels really different to be in those neighborhoods without trees. In Boise itself, we’ve had we’ve done heat mapping where we’ve looked at, you know, temperatures of neighborhoods and then with city dollars. And people were prioritizing those neighborhoods that have less trees because it really does make a difference in how people feel about the place they live.

David Martin: Does anybody not like trees? Is this is this.

Lauren McLean: Mean to be? I’d be. I’d be very interested in being that person. That doesn’t be a fun conversation.

David Martin: But you still are spending city dollars tax dollars. I mean, is this money well spent?

Lauren McLean: It’s an investment in neighborhoods and an investment in people and place parks, open space, tree covers, clean water, public safety. It’s all connected. It’s an investment cities need to make their.

David Martin: Was one of the people, asked the question one another mayor and said, you know I’ve got I got nasty grams I think was his word from time to time. Have you gotten any.

Lauren McLean: You know, when he asks a question? I started trying to remember if I have I mean, you know, a lot of things, but.

David Martin: You must be doing a phenomenal job as mayor, I.

Lauren McLean: Think. Is that. And when he asked that question, I was like, I’m sure that I’ve gotten those, you know, we get a lot of calls about the city tree, you know, branch fell. Who’s going to clean it up? Can you come back? Clean it up? But when he was asking that question, all I could think of were all the emails of people asking how to volunteer to be a neighborhood tree captain and how to pick up a tree when we do tree giveaways at farmers markets.

Because. And then the third question I get asked a lot is how is it again that you said we could register our tree because we’re counting trees and we’re asking folks to register them? Okay, we get the positive questions because people get it like people want trees and shade in their neighborhoods.

David Martin: This smacks of good government all around.

Lauren McLean: You know what? When you ask me, as I come on this show, the Good Government podcast talking about trees, I was like, that’s interesting. But I guess it makes sense because it’s a good investment. Sure.

David Martin: I mean, and you just said it’s money well spent, is investing in good health and good future and good tree covers and and better environment. So yes, this is good government all around. Now as part of this I’m I understand you’ve just opened your. Are you just open or about to open your 101st park in your in the city of Boise.

Lauren McLean: Yes. We just opened our 100th park. Just a couple weeks ago. We got the birthday balloons, all the things. It was really exciting to be able to celebrate. And the last Monday in July, we will open our 101st park in the city of Boise.

David Martin: And I read somewhere I did a little research about you that you have, vowed to have a park within, ten minute walk of every citizen.

Lauren McLean: Yes. My goal, along with the city council’s goal, our goal is that every kid in Boise can walk safely to a park within ten minutes.

David Martin: How’s it going?

Lauren McLean: 74% of residents can do that right now. So it’s 26% of Boise. And that can’t. Just like we measure with heatmaps where we need to plant trees, we’ve measured where kiddos can’t walk to park safely within ten minutes. And that’s guiding our purchases of land to ensure that we’ve got parks in the future.

David Martin: Again, money well spent.

Lauren McLean: I think it’s money well spent. And I want to frame it this way. You know, I lived in a neighborhood when my kids were little where Aiden, who’s now 21. But when he was little, Holloway, he would run out the front door, could run safely on sidewalks in a tree shaded neighborhood to a park. Within ten minutes, I knew he was safe because there were sidewalks, because people would be out in their front yards.

Because the neighborhood.

David Martin: Oh, there you go.

Lauren McLean: Say there’s their good neighbor, Aiden. The neighborhood is shady. And so folks want to be outside because comfortable he can get to that park within ten minutes. And he’d be safe there. And every kid in our community deserves that same experience, and that’s what we’re striving for.

David Martin: You live in Boise. It’s a city. Certainly. I live in New York City, vastly different places. I mean, how can what’s going on in a, in a in a place that is not overcrowded, not overpopulated, that has good trick.

Lauren McLean: I would argue with you about not overcrowded and not overpopulated.

David Martin: So I’m come to Brooklyn, have them stop by. But you know, how does that how can you translate that? Or how can you share that with other mayors? You know, across America, does your example work in other cities?

Lauren McLean: Oh, I think it works in other cities if you’re willing to get creative. So oftentimes, even in Boise, people think of these like vast 50 acre plus parks. Well, nowadays you got to reimagine what parks look like as our city continues to grow and take advantage of the pieces of land we can find that create gathering places for residents.

So our 100th park in Boise is actually a linear park, and it came together and it’s really narrow, but it’s long, all right. And it came together because some neighbors approached me and said, look, we’ve got this like really dried up land across from us next to a canal. Is there any chance we could do something with us?

And we reached out to the canal company and said, hey, can we have a conversation? Is there any chance we could do something about this? We took this what we first called a linear park, this fallow piece of land along Canal invested in it with city dollars. It was donated by the canal company. The irrigation district neighbors got engaged with this beautiful park experience that’s very narrow, relatively long, that actually connects this neighborhood now to a larger park and to a wetlands and to some other pathways throughout.

Down the street from my house, we’ve got a teeny tiny park that probably 56 years ago, there used to be a house there, and now it’s a teeny tiny park. But it counts, okay, because kids run down there and they play. So you got to reimagine what that looks like. We just opened some affordable housing. I say we I was there for the celebration, but it was privately built.

But in that affordable housing, there’s this isn’t counting towards our park, but it can have more urban areas. There’s this beautiful green space on the building so the residents, kiddos, others can get outside and have an experience right there along a super busy road, but still be outside and have a place to gather, play, relax, and get to know each other.

David Martin: And he pushed back at all. Or is everyone? Yay for parks!

Lauren McLean: Boisians love parks.

David Martin: They love parks. They love trees.

Lauren McLean: We love parks. We love trees. We love each other. We love the place we call home.

David Martin: I’m sure I also heard you talk a little earlier about at the airport. You’re using 100% renewable energy.

Lauren McLean: Yep, 100% clean electricity. We now.

David Martin: Tell everybody how you were able to pull that.

Lauren McLean: Off. So we worked with the power company that provides us power. Idaho Power. And then we had to go to our Public Utilities commission, the PUC, to get permission to develop a power purchase agreement. And now solar power is being developed for the city of Boise, a very large company of Idaho Power, as well as two other customers of Idaho Power.

That is enough for us to power our airport, so it’s powered by 100% clean electricity and our water renewal facilities.

David Martin: Both 100% solar. What?

Lauren McLean: Yes.

David Martin: How were you able to do that?

Lauren McLean: Through partnership, I think is really the the crux of it. We said and we had goals that guided the discussions we had. So as a city we said by 2030 we want city government to be power by 100%. Clean electricity set down. We have a great partner in Idaho Power, our power company, the power provider. We said, look, we appreciate the partnership.

We’re really big customer. Let’s work through this together. This is what we are looking for in terms of power. And we worked it out.

David Martin: It’s easy to set a goal. Is it hard to keep a goal?

Lauren McLean: Oh, it’s a great question. I mean, I’m a person that we’re going to set goals. I’m not going to throw the goal away okay.

We’re going to work towards it. Well, if we’re not making it. Yeah, but it’s better to have a stretch goal than to have no goal at all or to have like, why have a goal that you know you can make, right. So we we set goals that we know will be hard goals to meet. And we worked like hell to meet them.

We are on track with our 100% clean electricity by 2030, and I’m so proud of that.

David Martin: This sounds like a lot of good government going on in Boise. What are you doing right?

Lauren McLean: I am blessed to lead a city whose residents put each other and people first and are deeply committed to partnership alongside me and our council to meet the goals that we’ve all created together.

David Martin: I also heard you talk about geothermal energy. This is something you were able to tap into, sort of a new source of energy for, you.

Lauren McLean: Know, for for Boise. It’s not. This is a little fun fact. I love thermal. You know how Yellowstone has all those hot pots and like, the hot air coming out of the earth? Okay, well, throughout the West, there’s geothermal energy underground. We have hot water coming out of the earth, lots of hot springs in the mountains to go sneak around to and sit in.

And so Boise’s actually had a geothermal system. We are the largest in the country. The sixth largest in the world that provides clean heat. Their private systems are was on one. Our VA is on a system. The city of Boise has a system.

David Martin: And is this something you’ve expanded on or were able to build on.

Lauren McLean: So it’s it’s an interesting proposition that we have because we need to modernize and update the existing system. And so we’ve got to figure out, you know, it’s always kind of a challenge to figure out how we finance that, and then we extend it and expand it whenever we can, often with grants from the Department of Energy, because there’s a lot of demand for this right now downtown, we have 90 buildings on our geothermal system that are so think tall buildings, others that are heated with clean heat, geothermal heat, and we have 17 more buildings under construction or completed that would like to tap into the system if we can expand it.

We’ve even expanded it over to Boise State University, and we will continue to expand it as we have the funding sources and the water rights to do so.

David Martin: So it’s it is clean energy and it is.

Lauren McLean: It’s clean, heat.

David Martin: Free energy.

Lauren McLean: Well, we if we have a utility. Yeah. And so there is.

David Martin: It’s a lower.

Lauren McLean: Cost. It’s, it’s lower cost. It’s the this gets super in the weeds. But where we struggle to be there’s two much weeds. It is because it’s an enterprise fund. It’s a utility. Only the ratepayers can pay for the updates on the system. And so we’re always trying to figure out with our delegation and others how we invest in the system to update it, keep it modernize and then to grow it because there’s such demand.

David Martin: And a completely different topic. But I wanted to cover this because, again, more good government is going to be going on in Boise. You just opened something called the Wilson Station Apartments. Oh yeah, 100 units.

Lauren McLean: That’s where that outdoor play space was. What I was talking about. Okay. So that’s a you’ve done a lot of homework on Boise. These are all great questions. So the Wilson station is a great example of public private partnership with Boise, where we, the city had the land we put out for proposals. We said we want to see mixed income, but affordable housing, we want to see retail usage and what else can we see?

And we opened just in the last month, Wilson Street Apartments. It’s 176 units, I want to say 176 homes. Okay. I want to say 10% of those are dedicated to families exiting homelessness. Right. And the rest are average 60% area median income. But you’ve got some that are deeply affordable, some that are market rate on a transit line.

There’s a daycare, a child care facility on the first floor. It’s right next to a school so all those kids can run through the gate, get to school. It’s next to a community garden on a transit line. It’s a great example of affordability, the Boise Way with public private partnerships.

David Martin: And I do. I know we’re a little bit pressed for time and I want to get to something else, but I want to ask you first, why did you pick Syracuse to be a sister city?

Lauren McLean: Oh, sure. So because you don’t have many sister cities, micron technology. Yes. With the Chips and Science Act. So micron is based in Boise. They’re memory manufacturer, with the Chips and Science Act. They committed to, building a fab in Boise and doing their research and development in Boise. And then they also committed to building in Syracuse.

So currently under construction is in Boise, is a state of the art fab for memory manufacturing and office building for research and development. They will create and perfect memory, manufacturing technology, next gen stuff in Boise. And then they’ll take that. And when completed in Syracuse, mass manufacture in Syracuse. So there’ll be a lot of synergies between the two cities.

David Martin: All right. Does Boise State play Syracuse in anything.

Lauren McLean: I don’t yeah. You know what I’m terrible at sports trivia okay I don’t think so. All right. Because I think somebody would have pointed out to me. All right.

David Martin: Well good work on that. Not a matter. All right. That was the easy stuff. We’re gonna get to the hard stuff in just a second.

Lauren McLean: Okay?

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The book The Royal Cousins details the events and creates an alternative history. Imagine if World War One never happened. It didn’t have to just read it yourself. Download the book today on Amazon. It’s just $0.99 and a timely look at history.

After you get done with this episode, hear more good government stories with our friends at How to Really Run a City for mayors Kasim Reed of Atlanta and Michael Nutter, a Seattle delphia, and their co-host, journalist and author Larry Platt talk with guests and other mayors about how to really get stuff done in cities around the nation. Check them out where you’re listening now or through their nonprofit news site, The Philadelphia Citizen.

Dot org slash podcasts. So now we’re going to get to the real your real philosophy about government. Define good government.

Lauren McLean: Good government is government that works, that works with people for people to create opportunity and vibrant, strong cities.

David Martin: If people are frustrated by government or don’t like what you, as mayor or your administration is doing, what should they do?

Lauren McLean: You know, it’s always been really important to me to listen and to understand, to try to understand as best I can what our residents want, and then to balance that with what our residents need and what I believe our city needs in the long run. And so there are times when I will hear people and make decisions that are reflective of their requests.

And there are other times that I’ve heard people, but I need to make other decisions. I want to hear from folks letting me know what they think, when they’re happy, when they’re frustrated. But I also want folks to understand that I hear them and then make decisions to the best of my ability, with the knowledge I have for the future of the city that I love to call home.

David Martin: But you can’t make everybody happy.

Lauren McLean: You can’t make everybody happy. All right. But it is. It’s a it’s a challenging but fun process to be engaged so closely with people of all walks of life, in all neighborhoods throughout a city that I like to say, and I deeply believe, has a North Star of service and putting people first.

David Martin: How long does it take you to go to the grocery store.

Lauren McLean: To get out of the grocery store? Yes, it depends on if I were my reading sunglasses and a big yellow hat, or if I just go in after a run and everybody knows who I am. It’s so fun to have conversations in the grocery store because I mean, it’s just we’re all just regular people meeting regular lives to the best of our ability.

And the grocery store is one of those places where it’s more obvious than ever.

David Martin: All right. And they just excuse me while you’re here. I’m out of there. So you are the first woman elected mayor in the history of Boise?

Lauren McLean: Yes.

David Martin: What drew you to public service? What made you what inspired you to run for mayor or run for city council before it?

Lauren McLean: Yeah. You know, my granddaddy would say that I was always interested in these things. And, I would say I was always interested in policy, but I never I never saw myself in politics. I was interested in politics. I never saw myself in politics. My story is I started out first doing politics. I led an effort to, to pass a levy to set aside open space and foothills in our city.

When I was in my 20s. And from there I started volunteering on city boards and commissions. And one thing led to another, and there is nothing more challenging but more fulfilling than being able to work day in, day out in a way that impacts the place you call home. And the people that you live with and among.

David Martin: Who inspires you.

Lauren McLean: That can be such a loaded question because you don’t want to, like, not name the right people, or if people will feel bad that they’ve been left off. This might sound strange, but. And not true, but it really is. I am inspired almost every day by residents that just show up, and I say just because they think they’re just showing up.

But in that act of showing up, it’s so much more. And it’s a reminder even when they’re, you know, voicing concerns or opposition is something we might be working on. It’s a reminder of how much people care about their home. And if they’re doing it, we can all do it. And I find it really inspiring.

David Martin: When you present your high school class.

Lauren McLean: I was.

David Martin: Are you surprised? Or the one.

Lauren McLean: Time I forgot that when I went to my 20 of the reunion, I’d forgotten that I was president in my high school class. I ran for, like, student body, something I didn’t win. And then I ran for president on my high school class. And I did win. Yes. And my husband was a secretary treasurer. We met in high school.

David Martin: Oh, really?

Lauren McLean: Interesting. Outside of Syracuse.

David Martin: Okay. What would you like people to know about government? You’re the mayor. You are on city council. What would you like as a government insider? What should people know?

Lauren McLean: Yeah, you know, I think about that often actually, because folks sometimes have this sense and more often now than not that like it’s something other that is like far away and not approachable. And it’s like, oh, government, that local government is your neighbor, your family member, your friend. And it’s made possible by residents. It’s made possible by volunteers who now fill all of our commissions and provide feedback and guidance.

And then it’s made possible by council members in the mayor that have just like each and every one of us, are just working day in, day out for the place they love.

David Martin: I’ve never been to Boise. We’re going to beat up. You’re going to take me out. Where are we going? And what’s the dish of Boise? What do we have for.

Lauren McLean: The dish of Boise? Yes. Probably lots of tater tots and French fries, although we call them jams and Boise jams.

David Martin: Tater tots are.

Lauren McLean: Jam, tater jam, tater tots. Tater tots are gems.

David Martin: There’s always sort of like me with gravy.

Lauren McLean: And she’s like, great. No, that’s like a Canadian thing, right? No, we just French fries with fry sauce. Okay, I’ll take you to Boise, fry. But, you know, I mean, it’s an interesting place. We’re in the northwest. We’re very like. We eat a lot of salmon, eat a lot of local food. We are known in theory for potatoes.

We have amazing mountains. But I sure do love French fries and tater tots. And I could take you all around a whole bunch of great ones.

David Martin: Okay, this is the good government show. We’ve talked about a lot of good government in Boise. We always like to bring it back to good government. Give me an example of a good government project that you’re excited about to be able to do.

Lauren McLean: Yeah. So I mean, you’ve touched on one of them I’m really proud of and excited about the housing that we’re doing. Wilson Street Station is one we just opened. We, I say week because I was there and help celebrate it, but it’s been developed privately. And we have another project, the Franklin, that’s very similar. And it’s even bigger with child care next to a park.

Our pathways work to expand pathways through neighborhoods, along canals, ditches, laterals and drains. And but housing is and the partnership that we have, is I believe an example of good government, good partnership, good community collaboration and ultimately, in fact.

David Martin: Lauren McLean, the mayor of Boise, thank you very much. I, I think I did this another the time I was allowed.

Lauren McLean: I appreciate it.

David Martin: It was a pleasure to meet you and keep planting trees.

Lauren McLean: Thanks so much.

David Martin: Take care. Thank you. Want to hear more about good government? Check out another show I host leading Iowa good Government in Iowa cities. I host the show with Brad Cavanaugh, mayor of Dubuque, Iowa, and the immediate past president of the Iowa League of Cities. Together, we talk to leaders in Iowa cities. We talk about what works and what good government looks like in Iowa.

Join us right here. We listening now that’s leading Iowa. Good government in Iowa. Cities.

Local government is your neighbors your friends. That’s as good an idea of what government is all about as any I’ve heard. And they’re working every day for a place they love. Think about it that way, and you’ll get good government setting hard goals and working towards them. Again, a good way to achieve good government stretch goals, she calls them.

I like that and jams. I mean, when you ask about a local delicacy and you get tater tots and French fries, now you got to embrace that. Pass the ketchup. And if you see Mayor Lori McLean fresh off a run, go ahead and ask her about trees. She really does want to hear from you and our online community.

We asked where you would put trees in your city. We got your responses. Our community was evenly split, with folks agreeing that streets, parks and playgrounds should have trees, but everyone agreed. Downtown areas definitely need more trees. Check out our Good Government show community. Join it on our website. Good government show.com and let us know what you think about the issues we discuss here in the show.

Well, that’s our show. Thanks for listening. Please like us and share this with your friends and our viewers right here. We listening and check out our website. Good government show.com for extras. Help us keep telling stories of good government and action everywhere. Join us again for another episode right here. I’m Dave Martin and this is the Good Government show.

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**This transcription was created using digital tools and has not been edited by a live person. We apologize for any discrepancies or errors.