Dallin Snooks

Downtown Eagle has historically had a vintage look to the buildings. Recently, these vintage buildings have been redone and, due to the growing population in Eagle, new buildings have been added. The gentrification of downtown Eagle has been controversial, especially to citizens who have lived in Eagle for a long time.

The city of Eagle seems to be the basin for innovation as more companies build new offices. What was once small empty lots and houses with broken  windows have become homes, apartments and new businesses ready to get their starts here. Over the past few years, Eagle has found itself under extreme growing pains brought on by an influx of people to Idaho, a trend that has been finding more traction over the last few years. 

Moving to Eagle has never been easier, as developers take large tracts of unused land and turn them into suburban homes that are move in ready for any anyone that plans on finding themselves in Idaho. There has been a lot of construction, from expanding road lanes to building on the corners of empty lots, Eagle has found daily life both challenging and normal with the sounds of drills and dump trucks. 

According to idahonews.com, Megan Hoiosen, owner of Sweet Tea Living in Eagle, said, “With the moves of all the events, our business has been affected greatly. We are down probably over 30% from the year before. We’ve had to let some of our employees go.”  Many businesses are stuck under these same conditions as building is far from over, and roadwork a far cry from complete.

Hoiosen also said, “We’re managing on a smaller scale. When those events happen, they create that buzz of people coming into our shops. The problem was that once things were moved, those people didn’t come back down. They stayed down by City Hall, and they never ventured back down into the town.”  

Possibly one of the biggest challenges for this growing city is not that more people want to move in, it’s that other things have to be moved and changed according to construction schedules. Many small local businesses, like Sweet Tea Living, Again Consignment and Tasso, have found themselves struggling as construction work means it’s harder for consumers to get to their buildings, or for them to find good parking as well. Other companies nearby have found themselves falling behind as well. Even though the city has been trying to help as best they can to help these businesses to keep their footing, there’s only so much that can happen.  

Big updates to the City of Eagle can be found at www.cityofeagle.org.