“A pregnant pause is a silence full of potential in the way a pregnant body is full of a new human being.   A pregnant pause leaves the listener full of anticipation, just like a pregnancy is full of excitement about the forthcoming baby.”[i]

Mayor Lauren McLean knows how to use an “unpregnant pause” to cause Boise communities to lose their sense of anticipation and to dissipate all excitement about that which they oppose.

The Mayor first paused the development of Murgoitio Park on the afternoon of July 19, 2021. One day later, at a City Council Work Session on July 20, 2021, the Mayor and Jennifer Tomlinson notified the City that the annexation and map amendment of Murgoitio Park was still coming before the Planning and Zoning Commission on August 9, 2021, as originally planned.

On July 29, 2021, Murgoitio Park was removed from the August 9, 2021, Planning and Zoning Commission annexation and map amendment project.  The implications of the August 9, 2021, Planning and Zoning Commission Hearing were inexplicable as far as Murgoitio Park was concerned.

Pause Three: August 17, 2021, at another City Council Work Session, McLean said, “we have no intention of annexing the Murgoitio property at this time.” However, she gave this us assurance knowing that the City may not legally annex Murgoitio Park and amend the community plan until Feb. 2022.

The Mayor’s office announced that they have no plans to remove the covenants that prohibit development. However, the City is waiting advice from its FAA legal counsel to try to unravel its web of troubles over Murgoitio Park, which is owned by the Airport Authority and subject to FAA assurances.

At the same August 17, 2021, Work Session, Council President Clegg, who has been virtually conjoined with Mayor McLean on Murgoitio Park (publicly and privately), confirmed her vote against building the promised regional park based on the estimated green up costs that Jennifer Tomlinson inflated 156%–from $13,650,000 on March 8, 2016, to $33,000,000 to $35,000,000 on June 17, 2021. It is hard to believe McLean and Clegg are no longer of the same mind about our regional park.

Nevertheless, on Aug. 17, 2021, within minutes of the end of the Work Session, the press reported the city does not have resources to take any further action on Murgoitio Park.

The City’s website unambiguously sets forth the Mayor’s intent to develop Murgoitio Park and her hopes to finish planning this year:

“I believe we can accomplish a variety of goals with the 157-acre Murgoitio parcel. This includes prioritizing housing at affordable rates that is desperately needed for Boise residents and the desire for a park at the site… I have asked for this planning to be completed by the end of the year.”

Keeping in character, Mayor McLean has tapped the brakes with the Library Project and with the relocation of the Interfaith Sanctuary, where it effectively killed citizen momentum and budding energy.

A boxer hits the canvas because of the punch they never saw. They deflect or absorb the shots they see coming. Their vigilance to stand guard is the difference.

Mayor McLean and the City of Boise continue to pursue the development of Murgoitio Park, and all her future unpregnant pauses should be the met with the same skepticism. Any vote to annex Murgoitio Park and amend the community plan would have to take place after the Nov. 2 2021 city council elections, and all candidates should be pressed on this subject.

[i]  Jon Baker, The Pregnant Pause – How Staying Silent Can Help You Sell More, accountingweb, Aug. 8, 2016.