BOISE, Idaho — The Delia Dante Gallery has called the Linen District home for three years.
The welding and enameling workshop planted its stake at the corner of 14th and Main Street. But the gallery's founder, Delia Dante, quickly learned the intersection has a history.
"I thought, 'Oh my gosh the cruise. How cool!' I didn't know that was still going on," Delia said.
Idaho kids and young adults circle the downtown block on weekend nights, socializing and showing off their cars. It has been going on for decades in the City of Trees.
But security footage from the gallery shows the corner of 14th and Main has also become a popular hangout spot in recent years. Sometimes, people are loitering at the corner until 4 a.m., according to Delia.
"It's whatever they can do to leave their mark," Delia said.
The group has left tire tracks up and down the sidewalk; Delia has scrubbed the sidewalk, but the tracks will not come off.
Delia has also replaced a tree out in front of her building twice already, after finding knife marks and screws drilled into the bark.
"I'd never seen that before," Delia said. "It eventually kills the trees."
Delia often finds garbage stacked along the sidewalk of her building throughout the summer months.
"It's the bottles, cause it breaks my solar panels when they throw them up [on the roof]. I don't think they know that [solar panels] are up there," Delia said. "I always wonder, 'Well, what am I coming to work to see Monday? What have they done now?"
The broken solar panels cost $5,000 to replace. Delia has been in close contact with Boise Police, however, the solution is not that simple.
"I think their hands are a little bit tied," Delia said. "They have to see people do it."
Boise Police cracked down on cruising and traffic concerns earlier this summer, according to BPD Communications Manager Haley Williams.
"For example, during a targeted enforcement Friday 8/19 and Saturday 8/20, BPD along with support from Idaho State Police and Nampa Police made 114 traffic stops," Williams wrote to KTVB in an email. "They handed out 74 speeding citations, 13 citations for equipment violations for things like exhaust and lighting and over 20 other citations for various traffic issues."
Police also responded to concerns by closing parking spots near 14th and Main Street on Friday and Saturday nights.
"They're trying at least to make a dent in it right now - just to slow it down," Delia said. "It almost makes me wanna leave and that's terrible. That's a bad place to be, because I worked so hard to get here."
BPD will continue to focus effort to minimize the impact of noise and traffic concerns in downtown Boise, Williams wrote.
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