public safety
Daily Camera - October 17, 2023
"I believe there is a general feeling that public safety in Boulder is at an all-time low, accompanied by a rising frustration at government’s inability or unwillingness to address the problem. The frustrations of this community do not come from a place of hatred…They are frustrations with a state of affairs in which clearly impaired and dangerous individuals….do not seem to suffer any consequences for activities that are demonstrably harmful to the safety of the remainder of the community. The NAACP of Oakland said it best…They wrote the following: ‘There is nothing compassionate or progressive about allowing criminal behavior to fester and rob Oakland residents of their basic rights to public safety. It is not racist or unkind to want to be safe from crime.’
my viewpoints in writing
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small business/restaurants
City Council Hotline - August 20, 2024
"The minimum wage conversation requires maintaining a careful balance between increasing wages for our lowest income earners, while providing appropriate protections for our small businesses, restaurants, non-profits and other vulnerable enterprises, such as childcare businesses. It should also be remembered that our retail and hospitality businesses make up a significant segment of our business community, and too significant a raise could result in trading our current mix of restaurant entrepreneurs for national chains. This should not be an ideological conversation; it should be based on what is best for minimum level wage earners, the businesses who will absorb the increase and even the City, which will incur a financial impact from any increase."
move forward on CU South
Daily Camera - September 11, 2022
(co-written by Rachel Friend)
"In September of 2021, Boulder entered into an Annexation Agreement with the University of Colorado to incorporate approximately 308 acres of land known as CU South into Boulder. This action was the critical step in a process that will…permit the construction of a flood mitigation dam to protect several thousand Boulder residents in Frasier Meadows and surrounding neighborhoods, enable the development of 1,100 housing units for students, faculty and staff on a portion of the property, and result in the City acquiring more than 100 acres of dedicated Open Space. The Annexation Agreement produces very significant benefits for our city and will protect thousands of our fellow residents from a devastating future flood."
City Council Hotline - February 6, 2024
"There is one overwhelming conclusion to be reached from reading the staff memo: the scope and range of the many programs supported by HHS is really quite extraordinary, as are the efforts of the staff dedicated to making them work. We can disagree over the relative effectiveness of one program over another, or the funding of one program versus another, but it cannot be said that we are not seriously addressing the problem of homelessness. For a city of 108,000 to be providing the panoply of programs described in the staff memo is to show a municipality punching way, way above its weight class. For anyone who thinks differently, please read the entirety of the 82-page memo submitted for this meeting and then make that argument."
maintaining public decorum
Daily Camera - April 29, 2025
(co-written by Matt Benjamin)
"The partisans for Gaza…have become increasingly frustrated at the unwillingness of our Council to be coerced. As a result, they have resorted to guerilla tactics intended to disrupt our ability to conduct the business of Boulder: The ability to have rational discourse on most issues has been degraded almost beyond recognition. But while there is always room for substantive — even hotly contested — debate on the issues of the day, there should be no room for political discourse that promotes threatening behavior and can instigate violence."
data driven
City Council Hotline - January 15, 2024
"At our next Council meeting we will be addressing the issue of a sanctioned campground in Boulder. Having read the staff memo on this subject, I must say that there is a great deal of additional information I believe we require in order to make a reasoned decision on this subject. At the moment, we appear to be pursuing a solution based on an instinctive belief that it is the proper course of action, without much data in support of that decision, or analysis as to why it is better than other alternatives."
snow plowing
City Council Hotline – January 19, 2025
"First, [City staff], thank you for the swift (almost immediate) response to my Hotline on snow removal during small snows: those under 3 inches. As you are all too aware, the problem with not plowing secondary streets in small snows is that this includes steep streets that do not receive adequate sunlight, and quickly become sheets of ice. In your defense of our current policy you raised a number of points in response to my previous Hotline, but I believe that you left out a few considerations, as follows: 1) The current policy is just not working. Sorry, it is not. You note that the new policy is the result of a data driven approach through the Snow and Ice Response Review Project which included community engagement efforts and was brought forward to the TAB and City Council last fall prior to being implemented. Well, all I can say in response is that all of those bodies were wrong, and the community response we received to the last snow is indicative of that collective error. 2) By my count we received approximately 80 letters to Council complaining about the new policy, and this does not count the many comments and posts on other forums. The tenor of those comments was unanimous: when our steep streets became ice slopes, the community was telling us that they did not appreciate sliding down those slopes sideways in their cars. When studies conflict with common sense, I choose to align with common sense."
preserve our local restaurants
on West Pearl
Daily Camera - February 27, 2025
"A group of citizens is working on an initiative to permanently close West Pearl to vehicular traffic…leaving it open only to pedestrians, and emergency traffic. Cutting restaurants off from older, less mobile customers, particularly in bad weather, will have a terrible economic impact on many of them. How do I know? Almost every restaurant in the area has told us so and has appealed for support against this initiative. I entered public service to help people, and to make their lives better, not to cause business closures and put people out of work."