MAYOR Lauren McLean Talks 2022 BY APRIL NEALE
Boise is no ordinary capital city. Instead, the dynamic City of Trees is where many people want to live, work, and recreate. And because a river runs through it, the residential communities in town are right alongside glorious hiking trails and open spaces, playgrounds, and parks. This visionary preservation of open urban adjacent spaces owes a great deal of debt to the current mayor, Lauren McLean. In 2001 and at age 27, McLean spearheaded the historic Boise Foothills Open Space Campaign to protect the Boise Foothills for future generations. In 2011, she entered local politics and was appointed to Boise’s City Council, was twice re-elected, and then was selected to become Council President in 2017. In 2019, she routed the deeply entrenched mayor, David Bieter, with 65.5% to his 34.5% in a historic race to become the city’s first female and youngest mayor. Boiseans seem to share a deep sense of local pride. Mayor McLean, born in Boston, has proudly PHOTO COURTESY CITY OF BOISE called Boise home since graduating from college. “I was told once by the director of a foundation PHOTO STOCK.ADOBE.COM that he’d never heard anyone talk about the city where they Then, I talk about open spaces, and of course, I talk about the lived in the same way that I talked about the city that I love so energy that we bring to this place and how that impacts the endmuch, and that’s when I was on [city] council,” says McLean, less sense of opportunity and possibility that we as Boiseans have adding, “I talk about our people first and how committed because we’re so intentional in loving and protecting this place we are to each other and how the Boise way of life includes that we call home.” opening your arms to friends, neighbors, and new arrivals.
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