What are neighborhood associations?
Before diving in, it is important to clarify that homeowner associations (HOAs) and neighborhood associations are NOT the same. HOAs are formed by subdivision developers and require following specific development codes. In comparison, neighborhood associations are formed by neighbors in urban areas. Neighborhood association members share specific goals, identities, and are formed independent of developers.
As of 2020, approximately thirty-six neighborhood associations are officially registered through the City of Boise. This research project highlights the Southeast, North End, and Boise Bench Neighborhood Associations, which are located within an approximately ten-miles radius of Boise's downtown core. Architectural historian Virginia Savage McAlester identifies four neighborhood structures: urban, rural, suburban, and post-suburban. The neighborhoods addressed in this study can be classified as urban rather than suburban and consist of various architectural styles, combined commercial and residential districts, and rectilinear city streets.
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Aerial photo of Boise ca. 1950
Photo courtesy of Idaho Transportation Department
Geographical Map of Boise's Neighborhood Associations
Photo courtesy of City of Boise
Logo for Boise's Sunset Neighborhood Association, 2020
Urban planner Norman Tyler argues that the American neighborhood is rooted in a deep sense of place. Tyler states that place can be defined as “a collection of structures and spaces that form, in some way, a community or cultural landscape.” A neighborhood is not just a group of houses. Rather, a neighborhood is an expression of values. The architectural styles, landmarks, and businesses within a neighborhood are reflections of the people living there. These neighborhoods are where people call home, recreate, work, and make their lives.
Neighbors feel an obligation to enhance and protect their communities because these places are reflections of themselves. The uniqueness of neighborhoods serves as inspiration for the development of neighborhood-oriented activist organizations.
“A community is a number of people who share a distinct location, belief, interest, activity, or other characteristic that clearly identifies their commonality and differentiates them from those not sharing it.”
- Mark homan
Defining neighborhood
Voices tell the history of boise's neighborhoods
Boise’s urban neighborhoods are where citizens go to school, play, work, and call home. They are spaces that reflect the unique and diverse identities of its people.
As the City of Boise continues to grow and expand, both recent transplants and natives desire to know more about their neighborhoods. Increased numbers of proposals for high-density housing projects, the compromising of natural resources, and demolition of historic buildings are issues that local neighborhood associations have fought against in the past and continue to face in the present.
This project documents the stories of Boise neighborhood veterans - community members who have played active roles in their neighborhood associations from the 1970s and into the present. These stories take the form of an oral history collection.
What's an oral history, anyway?
"Oral history is a field of study and a method of gathering, preserving and interpreting the voices and memories of people, communities, and participants in past events."
- Oral History Association