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Few things are more divisive than a “cruise” on downtown nights.
For some people, the weekend is a time-honored pastime where high-performance vehicle owners gather in downtown Boise to show off their rides, talk shop and socialize, keeping the kids busy and out of trouble. He says the car community is an integral part of their world and Bossians who have lived here for decades have fond memories of driving through the downtown streets as teenagers.
But, not everyone sees it that way.
Downtown business owners and visitors have long complained about car-centric gatherings. They say the loud noise from cars around 14th Street and behind businesses like the Modern Hotel disturbs pedestrians and creates a safety hazard in the densely populated area. Business owners reported participants or spectators at The Cruise driving around corners and revving their engines, so smoke would pour into the yard. There have been reports of vandalism, littering and misbehavior with some downtown businesses saying employees feel uncomfortable when they close at night.
The cruise has been the subject of several attempts to regulate or end it over the past decade, and now the Downtown Boys Association is trying again to make changes after growing complaints from business owners. The organization doesn’t yet have a specific proposal for a new ordinance or city policy to try and crack down on at the meeting, but they are working with City Council President Pro Tem Holly Wooding, who represents the city’s downtown core, to gather input from business owners. Bring a new voice forward.
Woodings and the DBA held a meeting for members at The Cruise on Wednesday afternoon, where business owners voiced their grievances and a few car enthusiasts spoke about what the event means to them and their attitudes. Jennifer Hensley, DBA’s executive director, said her organization is studying what systems other cities have in place to address the effects of similar car enthusiast gatherings in their cities.
“We don’t want law-abiding people who drive downtown to go, we just want to solve the problems,” Hensley said. “We’re going to start trying to figure out what tools we can put in place to deal with this.”
A long history of stress
The tradition of car enthusiasts hitting the streets of downtown Boise and people getting upset about it goes back decades.
At the conclusion of Wednesday’s meeting, Hensley told the crowd that DBA’s research uncovered stories about the cruise law that was enacted in the 1980s, but was repealed a few years later. Cruz used to snake through Ann Morrison Park before moving downtown after the city made changes to the park’s trail network to stop the practice.
The city of Boise passed a new ordinance in 2017 that prohibits certain modifications to cars to make them louder or other modifications that affect the public. It’s another tool the Boise Police Department can use against speeding laws, but fines for illegally modified cars are $67, the Idaho Statesman reported in June.
Sometimes officers pull over the same cars multiple times on the same night, but the minimum fine (mandated by the Idaho Legislature) and no penalties on insurance policies or other impacts make it difficult to deter drivers. They break the rules by walking around downtown.
This latest talk about the cruise started in early July when Erica Hiner, operations manager of the Modern Hotel, relayed a negative comment from a customer who had been “all night” because of the noise from cars driving down the street. Next to the hotel to Cary Westergaard with the Boise Convention and Visitors Bureau. Westergarrard then forwarded the complaint to Boise Economic Development Director Shane Keightley, who then contacted the DBA to ask Hensley what she was hearing from business owners, according to public information obtained by Boisedev.
‘They own the night’
There may be disagreement over what should be done to address The Cruise, but many business owners shared stories of frustration on Wednesday.
Elizabeth Tullis, owner of the Modern Hotel and Tikikiteo on 14th Street, said it was a constant battle with The Cruise because both were running her business. She said the noise, littering and bad behavior of some attendees led her to close Txikiteo at 9 p.m. because diners sitting on the patio could no longer tolerate each other’s noise and The Modern had to gather customers at frequent expense. Rooms when complaining about the noise.
She said, “They own the night” in downtown Boise.
“As you all know, it has become a growing problem,” she said. “I felt that nothing would be done until something really terrible happened. There are children here at night, and those dangerous machines are driving at night.
It’s not just drivers who cause problems in business. Some car enthusiasts like to set up lawn chairs on the sidewalk and watch The Cruise loop downtown, which Jeremy Laws says creates a problem for Delia Dante Gallery. On weekend nights, the corner in front of the business regularly draws more than a dozen people, he said.
“It’s the worst we’ve seen this winter,” he said. “We’ll be there on Friday and Saturday, expecting it to be a war zone with a dump on Monday.”
He pointed out that there were no garbage cans in that corner or nearby and suggested that the DBA should put some there to provide a place for the spectators to throw garbage.
Todd Hurles, owner of Hurles Bros. Auto Repair, was adamant at Wednesday’s meeting that a greater police presence is needed to control ZCruise. He said the “quality of people” participating in the cruise has “decreased” over the years and a quick and heavy response from Boise police is necessary to stop it.
“I think because the cops are cops, they should be able to beat anybody to the ground,” Harless said. We must trust whatever they do for whatever reason. You don’t know the background to everything you see that you disagree with. You don’t know the story. We have everything they need to work downtown.
Cruisers want “self-management.”
DBA and Woodings may have intended Wednesday’s meeting to be for business owners only, but few attendees in Cruz showed up to voice their opinions.
Zach Neagle, the proud owner of a 1990s Mazda Miata, loves to cruise the streets of downtown Boise in his car and meet other car enthusiasts in Boise on the weekends. Managers at waste and car park sites have condemned the actions of some business owners who have accused car park operators of using their trucks to knock down poles in the car park, but say the city center’s high traffic lights have kept the roads away. Residential neighborhoods make it an ideal location for the car to meet.
“I’d love to find another location, but you’re looking at places that have or can’t afford housing,” he told the business owners. “They’re looking at a lot more residents. And if you do that on the highway, you have higher speed limits and a lot more danger.
Justin Gates says he regularly goes out on cruises and has seen attendees and police engage in behavior they don’t think is appropriate. He stated that there are some people who cause problems in the event, but in general, the event is positive and the city cannot stop people from driving on city streets.
“I would suggest that a lot of it is about self-management,” Gates said. “These kids were jumping on the street on the corner, and they were right there pissing somebody off, and I went up and said, ‘Guys, that’s not good,’ just as I saw an officer kicking a kid over the curb because he was pissed off. “There was no interaction with him and I told that officer, ‘That’s not right.'”
After Gates and Neagle continue to share their thoughts, Wooding walks in and asks them what kind of business they have downtown, and they explain that it’s a DBA members-only meeting. Neagle and Gates responded that the meeting, which was billed as a town hall meeting, was based on a story written by the Idaho Press and published by KTVB about the city’s efforts against The Cruise.
Hensley explained that while the text said it was a town hall meeting, it was intended for downtown business only.
“Thanks for coming, but I’m looking for feedback from DBA members,” Woodings said.
What is happening now?
While DBA and Woodings offer potential options for new ordinances or other strategies, BPD is making some changes on its own.
Ed Moreno, BPD neighborhood liaison officer for Downtown Boise, said the department’s plan now is to limit overnight parking on 14th Street through the weekend to prevent people from parking on the street and congregating around cars participating in The Cruise.
BPD spokeswoman Haley Williams told Boisedev last week that over the weekend, BPD partnered with ISP and the Nampa Police Department to conduct 114 traffic stops Friday and Saturday night during Cruz’s “targeted enforcement.” They issued 74 speeding citations, 13 citations for equipment violations for cars with modified exhaust and flashers, and more than 20 other citations for “miscellaneous traffic issues.”
Moreno said one of the challenges in solving the craze is how it’s not something for most high school students anymore.
“To understand where cruising has changed, when I started in 2002, we had a special distribution station in the town hall to handle minors (taken by The Cruise in the afternoon). We don’t because we don’t see that problem anymore. Most of the people who are roaming here are 18 to 24 years old and they come out here in different style of cars. No more ’66 Chevelles. It’s the 2020 Subaru STI. That is what evolution has done.
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