{"id":12918,"date":"2013-10-06T20:37:38","date_gmt":"2013-10-07T02:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/?p=12918"},"modified":"2013-10-14T19:45:06","modified_gmt":"2013-10-15T01:45:06","slug":"john-gerstle-carrying-on-the-family-tradition-of-municipal-engagement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/?p=12918","title":{"rendered":"John Gerstle, Carrying On the Family Tradition of Municipal Engagement"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the second in a series of candidate profiles written by students in Instructor Jeff Browne\u2019s CU News Corps course at CU-Boulder. Gloria Dickie is a master’s of environmental journalism student. Originally from Ontario, Canada, she studied media, information and technology at the University of Western Ontario while working as an editor for The Gazette<\/em><\/a>, Western’s daily student newspaper, and freelancing for many other local publications.
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John Gerstle (from johngerstle.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

From the Himalayas to the Flatirons, Boulder City Council candidate John Gerstle can\u2019t seem to escape the mountains.<\/p>\n

The 61-year-old Boulder native, who currently acts as chairman of the Boulder County Planning Commission, has had an illustrious career leading up to his bid for City Council.<\/p>\n

In the 1980s, Gerstle served as resident adviser to the Royal Government of Bhutan, and then as the United Nations Himalayan regional adviser for the environment.<\/p>\n

Despite a bachelor\u2019s degree in chemistry from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a master\u2019s in civil and environmental engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Gerstle said he was ultimately given the job of resident adviser because of his age.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The government] had requested an adviser, but the adviser couldn\u2019t be older than the king,\u201d Gerstle recalled with a laugh. \u201cThey didn\u2019t want someone who would develop a patronizing relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

After spending a half-decade in South Asia, Gerstle returned to his roots.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoulder was always my home. It was time to come back,\u201d he said of his decision to swap snow-covered giants for the Front Range.<\/p>\n

Now, Gerstle hopes to carry on a family tradition with his candidacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family has been involved [in municipal politics] for a long time. Even as a kid I was carrying brochures on issues related to the first establishment of the blue line.\u201d<\/p>\n

The blue line was a city-charter amendment passed in 1959 that restricted city water service to altitudes below 5,750 feet to discourage development in the mountains.<\/p>\n

From 2002 to 2008, Gerstle served on the county\u2019s Mosquito Control Advisory Board, and has served on the BCPC since 2008, working on revisions of the Boulder County Comprehensive Plan and making decisions on land use and natural resources.<\/p>\n

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Gerstle’s family. From left, son Nicholas, wife Heidi, daughter Pia, and John (from johngerstle.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

Indeed, much of Gerstle\u2019s platform revolves around land use and advocating for Open Space\u2014and he has plenty of support from the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom my point of view, John is the best qualified candidate running for city council this year,\u201d Ray Bridge, co-chair of PLAN-Boulder County, said, pointing to Gerstle\u2019s track record on open space and land use issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis record in five years on the BCPC has been stellar. He has been thoughtful and collegial, but has been willing to stand his ground on issues he considered significant,\u201d Bridge continued.<\/p>\n

Moreover, Gerstle has a great deal of passion for the city he\u2019s called home for over 50 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoulder has a very responsive, active citizenry that participates in city government and is willing to adopt progressive attitudes,\u201d he said, acknowledging the city\u2019s physical location didn\u2019t hurt either.<\/p>\n

And Gerstle often takes full advantage of the city\u2019s \u201cpleasant climate,\u201d biking to work downtown, and hiking the Mesa trail in his free time.<\/p>\n

Though he never conquered Everest, Gerstle hopes to come out on top this election season.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the second in a series of candidate profiles written by students in Instructor Jeff Browne\u2019s CU News Corps course at CU-Boulder. Gloria Dickie is a master’s of environmental […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1161,"featured_media":12920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[881,3],"tags":[870,11,821,867,16],"class_list":["post-12918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2013-cc-candidates","category-featured","tag-boulder-county-planning-commission","tag-city-council","tag-election-2013","tag-john-gerstle","tag-open-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12918"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12931,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12918\/revisions\/12931"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}