{"id":16434,"date":"2017-11-01T21:04:08","date_gmt":"2017-11-02T03:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/?p=16434"},"modified":"2017-11-01T23:06:44","modified_gmt":"2017-11-02T05:06:44","slug":"rip-van-winkle-returns-to-boulder-musings-on-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/?p=16434","title":{"rendered":"Rip Van Winkle returns to Boulder: Musings on 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reprinted with permission. Originally posted at the author’s blog<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t know your past, you don\u2019t know your future\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014 <\/em>Ziggy Marley<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After about a decade of working on political issues and campaigns at the state and federal levels, I took a job this year writing Boulder City Council candidate profiles for the Boulder Blue Line<\/a>. I covered Council for the Colorado Daily from 2003-08, and my 2017 experience dug up long-repressed memories of people and issues \u2013 but it also exposed me to some new issues and ways of thinking. Learning is good!<\/p>\n

To get this out of the way, I am not using this piece to endorse candidates. I had a wonderful opportunity to sit down with every one of the 14 candidates, in most cases for about an hour, and there is nothing like getting to know a person in a casual setting where you sit face to face and talk about their lives, not just positions on a few hot-button topics. I am probably too much like Will Rogers (\u201cI never met a man I didn\u2019t like\u201d) for my own good, but I know from deep experience that politicians are people and I prefer to judge them on their merits, since we need talented officials to make wise decisions on broad arrays of issues over extended periods of time.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Rip Van Winkle, new kid in his old town: By Arthur Rackham<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

But this does not mean that I don\u2019t have political opinions. I have told people that I felt a bit like Rip Van Winkle when I stopped working in Denver in 2016 and started spending most of my time in Boulder again. Van Winkle, in short, fell asleep for a long period of time, then woke up in a changed village and didn\u2019t recognize the townspeople. I will assure everyone that I did not fall asleep while working in Denver \u2013 in fact, I probably suffered from lack of sleep \u2013 but I do believe I came back to a changed village.<\/p>\n

The Boulder we have today is the way it is, physically, thanks to the vision of some of our past leaders. Unfortunately, I sense a growing willingness to write off some of the local people and organizations associated with the efforts that helped get current residents such a wonderful place to live. I am a student of history, yet while I don\u2019t believe people need to know all of their past, it hasn\u2019t been bad for Americans to get a fresh reminder of who Alexander Hamilton was thanks to the work of Lin-Manuel Miranda \u2013 and I wonder if recent arrivals (regardless of age) to Boulder know that much about the people responsible for their environment. So, join me in a quick review!<\/p>\n

\"\"

Behind me \u2013 a city of 106,000 people!<\/p><\/div>\n

THE PLAYERS:<\/h2>\n

Al Bartlett and Bob McKelvey \u2013 Boulder Blue Line<\/strong>: No, not the website. The actual Blue Line \u2013 in essence not allowing city water service above roughly 5,700 feet elevation \u2013 was adopted in 1959 and was in response to the threat of construction in and on Boulder\u2019s foothills, which today forms our visual backdrop. The two CU professors and others founded what is now PLAN-Boulder County and ran a successful ballot measure establishing the Blue Line (click here for lots more<\/a>), and since then, Boulder has enjoyed its beautiful backdrop, which is unfortunately easy to take for granted.<\/p>\n

Oakleigh Thorne, Ted Tedesco, Ruth Wright, many others, Open Space<\/strong>: In 2017, folks living in Boulder City\/County and visitors just walk out on countless acres of Open Space, but it took a 1967 election with new taxation to get the whole thing really rolling. Tedesco was City Manager at the time, and convinced a \u201creluctant\u201d Council<\/a> to put the Greenbelt-Open Space measure on the ballot. There is no doubt that lots of the Open Space we have today would have been developed without public ownership of the land \u2013 and it\u2019s prevented sprawl, it\u2019s where we get our exercise and sunshine, it\u2019s protected plant and animal species living near the city, and it\u2019s kept parts of our city and nearby areas as beautiful as folks with idealized notions of Colorado envision. It\u2019s Open Space\u2019s 50th anniversary this year, so next time you\u2019re on Enchanted Mesa, try to remember that you could have been looking at a hotel up there instead of glorious nature.<\/p>\n

Ruth Wright, building height limits<\/strong>: Most Boulderites are quite familiar with our current height limits, but less so with what could have happened without them. In the late 1960s, it was truly possible that Boulder could have had 100-140 foot skyscrapers in its downtown, blocking foothills views. Ruth Wright spearheaded the successful 1971 ballot measure creating our current height limits, and authored an interesting paper explaining the issue<\/a> and her rationale. Today, some recent developments are impacting views in isolated areas, but you fortunately still don\u2019t have to walk that far to see something beautiful to the west.<\/p>\n

Paul Danish, The Danish Plan<\/strong>: According to Paul Danish himself from a story in the Boulder Weekly<\/a>, \u201cduring the first six years of the 1970s, (1970 through 1975) Boulder\u2019s average annual growth rate was 3 percent plus.\u201d You don\u2019t need to be Al Bartlett to understand that extended growth by a given percentage compounds to create larger growth than the original measurement every year. And, here\u2019s a quick snapshot of Boulder\u2019s population growth by decade, to help illustrate where the concern was coming from:<\/p>\n

Census Year\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Population\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Percentage Growth<\/strong>
\n1950\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 19,999\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 54.3%
\n1960\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 37,718\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 88.6%
\n1970\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 66,870\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 77.3%<\/p>\n

The Danish Plan, passed by voters in 1976, had some hand in slowing the growth, though Danish noted that the Council in 2000 amended city growth control by exempting \u201call residential construction in certain business zones \u2014 like the 28th\/30th street area \u2014 and on any property rezoned as residential.\u201d But the growth rate by census decade has yet to exceed 14.7% since then, and to date Boulder maintains some semblance of small\/medium-sized city character.<\/p>\n

Gilbert White, floodplain planning<\/strong>: We all learned about Boulder\u2019s vulnerability to dangerous flooding for sure in 2013, but it\u2019s been no secret since long before then. Canyon Boulevard was once known as Water Street for a reason, and we have a number of other major drainageways coming down with momentum from higher elevations throughout town. Gilbert White once studied floodplain management along the voluminous Mississippi River, and eventually came to Boulder and lent his expertise to help make sure we make practical plans for the inevitable \u2013 in turn minimizing hazards to human life and encouraging hard thought before developing in or near a floodplain.<\/p>\n

THE PARADIGM, AND THE PARADIGM SHIFT<\/h2>\n

In short, the above all added up to create a broad structure, or even a paradigm, of slow growth. Call it \u201csmart growth,\u201d \u201cmanaged growth,\u201d \u201cgrowth limitation,\u201d whatever suits your frame, but we\u2019ve had a history of making development decisions with careful thought, a framework of standards, and community involvement or activism. Unlike other growth-hungry cities in Colorado, we turn something down or adjust its size once in a while. We\u2019ve approved a lot too, and I\u2019ll get to that.<\/p>\n

But when Rip Van Winkle came back to Boulder, he noticed a new appetite for growth and to fight against growth management. Perhaps it started in the 2015 election, when I started reading unfair and mean-spirited comments about NIMBYs. There is power in the choice of words, so ask yourself \u2013 what is the difference between a \u201cneighborhood activist\u201d and a NIMBY? Boulder has long been a community of activists, often leading to good results, yet all of a sudden it started to seem as if homeowners who have paid their 30-year mortgage with all associated taxes should no longer have an opinion about the neighborhoods they have lived in for decades.<\/p>\n

There are serious debates taking place on social media right now (October 2017) about the technical positions Council candidates are taking on some of the growth measures I listed above. It\u2019s fair to say that the 2017 candidates don\u2019t publicly favor overturning voter-approved City Charter provisions, with perhaps small hints that building height limits might not be eternally sacred. However, I\u2019ve lived here for a long time, and I\u2019ve heard plenty of anecdotal support in the community for taller buildings in town \u2013 at least one candidate mentioned it to me on the record back in 2007 \u2013 and for up-zoning low-density neighborhoods. Whether serious proposals or not, the Camera reported on a concept for 90-foot buildings in East Arapahoe, a Better Boulder founding member tweeted that Boulder should grow to 250,000 people, another Better Boulder member somehow channeled Ruth Wright (I assume she was not interviewed) to suggest there should be no impediments to 5-story buildings, and for God\u2019s sake the Hogan-Pancost proposal is still alive despite decades of warnings about the impact development there could have on property due to groundwater and flooding issues.<\/p>\n

Also, Hogan-Pancost is back under discussion again despite lessons learned during 2013 in Boulder County, and fresh examples of the dangers of water in 2017 from Houston, south Florida, and Puerto Rico. I feel awful for the poor Hogan-Pancost neighbors who have had to attend hearing after hearing every time there\u2019s a new proposal, giving the same common-sense warnings, and I hope Council will have the sense to put this thing down for good.<\/p>\n

For certain long-term locals, myself included to a certain extent, the nibbling away at the old paradigm has been a shock to the system, and I believe some of the newer folks in town don\u2019t understand the internalized passion among people who actually fought some of the old battles. In local discourse, it seems like \u201cslow growth\u201d is getting demonized while \u201cgrowth is good\u201d has become slightly dominant \u2013 though the 2017 election results might show if that\u2019s accurate. The old Biblical word \u201cbegat\u201d comes to mind. Perhaps PLAN-Boulder begat Open Boulder, due to its long period of dominance. I\u2019d guess the formation of Better Boulder begat Livable Boulder and Ballot Questions 300 and 301. The One Boulder coalition of 2015 probably begat Together4Boulder of 2017.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019d suggest that the public entry of Dan Caruso of the Zayo Group into this election cycle, by forming Engage Boulder, begat some of the money being donated to T4B to counter the expectation of Caruso\u2019s riches putting a big thumb on the scale of campaign finance. As of Oct. 12, the T4B\/PLAN \u201cside\u201d was indeed out-funding the Engage\/Better\/Open Boulder side for the Council race, but Caruso and his wife had just put $4,000 into defeating the muni (we don\u2019t have campaign finance limits for issue campaigns), and of course it\u2019s premature to declare the Council fundraising battle over with a month to go in the cycle.<\/p>\n

WHAT PRICE GROWTH?<\/h2>\n

I will say for anyone who cares to believe that I\u2019m a slow-growther, not a no-growther. Since I\u2019ve lived in Boulder, it has never actually been a no-growth community despite perceptions. Last decade, I covered or witnessed the development of the entire new Twenty Ninth Street retail district and its new on-site housing, along with One Boulder Plaza, the Holiday Neighborhood, Cox Corner, Steelyards, St. Julien Hotel, the retail center across 28th from Twenty Ninth, Uptown Broadway, Wolf Law and new buildings on CU\u2019s East Campus, residential \u201cpops and scrapes,\u201d and more. Perhaps not everyone remembers, but the concept that density would be part of the future for areas near 30th and Pearl and to the east was in the news last decade as part of the Transit Village Area Plan (TVAP) process. I support having the new Google campus near there, which will be a new spectacular addition to the city, and must say that Google itself is not a new addition to Boulder since I worked across 26th from it last decade, and it then took over the old Colorado Daily building.<\/p>\n

There is no doubt in my mind that Boulder needs some amount of housing, and some of the development in the TVAP area will help with housing supply. However, I tend to differ with certain local opinions on the benefit of building as much as we can.<\/p>\n

First, it just won\u2019t create affordability by itself. Supply and demand is not some magic \u201cX\u201d on a chart that always produces optimal price results \u2013 since when in practice it\u2019s at times \u201csupply and demand plus a license to print money,\u201d the 2-dimensional model is no longer accurate or useful. When national-level investment firms can buy local apartment complexes for $3-400,000 per unit, there is simply no way investors looking for ROI will allow large amounts of attainable rental rates. I feel really bad for the young people and low-middle income earners who can\u2019t afford to live here, but do the investment firms? As it stands today, public-sector regulation or ownership remains the most significant factor in local affordable housing, and the slow-growth meanies in Boulder are among those who have supported our affordable housing programs going back decades.<\/p>\n

\"Denver

Denver rent \u2013 up more than 50% in 6 1\/2 years. No Blue Line. No Danish Plan. Something else is going on.<\/p><\/div>\n

Second, I take the notion that Boulder density will impact climate change with a big grain of salt. There\u2019s some truth to it if a person spends nearly all of their time in Boulder, and practices a car-free, energy-efficient lifestyle. But we talk about housing in context of 60,000 in-commuters coming into Boulder five days a week. They\u2019re in-commuters, and it\u2019s only a problem because they\u2019re driving \u2013 it\u2019s delusional to suggest that they\u2019re in large numbers just going to get rid of their cars if they move to Boulder. Higher population in our basically affluent city will certainly mean more local congestion, even if some small percentage of newcomers practice the stereotypical and somewhat oversold Boulder lifestyle. Boulder is also farther from Denver and the I-70 corridor than many Front Range cities, which means more VMT if a new Boulderite travels basically anywhere major in Colorado except Longmont or Ft. Collins by car. Boulder\u2019s population is just over 100,000, so again it\u2019s delusional to think that adding say 5-10,000 people here, even if everyone\u2019s on their best behavior (which they won\u2019t be), will offset the 6.6 million in Houston, or even the 600,000 in El Paso County, when it comes to global warming.<\/p>\n

And let\u2019s be clear \u2013 some (no, not all) of the folks talking \u201cgreen density\u201d do not support doing whatever it takes to address climate change, since they\u2019re fighting against the municipal electric utility that could reduce a large percentage of the city\u2019s fossil fuel use for electricity every year.<\/p>\n

I am not an anti-capitalist, but I think it\u2019s time for Boulderites to admit that money is behind some of the calls for growth, and to stop falling for the misleading economic arguments and greenwashing. It\u2019s also time for areas close to Boulder to adopt some of Boulder\u2019s ideals. Couldn\u2019t 10 percent of the in-commuters find a way to use transit or carpool, offsetting the perceived need for a few thousand housing units in Boulder? Wouldn\u2019t a 15-minute neighborhood in Broomfield or Longmont do the same toward managing climate change as one in Boulder? Couldn\u2019t some of the larger businesses in Boulder buy a few electric\/hybrid shuttle vans and move employees from transit stations like NCAR does? I commuted for many years using public transit \u2013 it\u2019s not the end of the world \u2013 and if congestion and climate are really our issues, one isolated strategy can only dent the problems. In my opinion, it\u2019s somewhat misguided to castigate long-term residents for caring about growth and neighborhood character if the broader benefits of change are overstated and marginal.<\/p>\n

The most recent Daily Camera<\/em> City Council endorsement editorial in essence suggested slow-growth locals are campaigning based on \u201cfear\u201d and feel that Boulder\u2019s \u201cgoing to hell in a handbasket.\u201d Unfortunately, I know from experience as a writer that writers like functioning inside of a narrative. Perhaps speaking only for myself, I still love it here, and I\u2019ve been to a lot of other places in the world. I am comfortable in knowing that issues of the future will still need to pass through whatever remains of our demanding public process. I\u2019m in no way afraid of Boulder\u2019s future (though truly worried about the nation), but I will speak out if proposals seem extreme \u2013 and I think all but the hardest of the hardcore slow-growthers are more or less on the same page as I am.<\/p>\n

COUNCIL RACE: HOW FAR CAN THE SCALE TIP?<\/h2>\n

I started a few thousand words ago with the 2017 Council race and would like to finish there, beginning with one question \u2013 do you care about political balance? Let\u2019s look at the four sitting members who don\u2019t have to run again this year \u2013 Yates, Brockett, Jones, Morzel \u2013 and see if it doesn\u2019t look a bit like near-perfect balance among the four. Next, seriously imagine what happens to balance if either five-person slate wins all five open seats.<\/p>\n

I have my leanings, but also know that the next Council will do much more than encourage or limit growth. I want a group with skill sets, potential, the ability to listen, and diverse viewpoints since they will make big decisions on much more than a single issue throughout their terms. Former Council member Richard Polk once told me that while he believes in his own talents, he wouldn\u2019t want \u201cnine of me on Council,\u201d and that\u2019s about where I stand when it comes to my own political identity. I get that the existence of slates will naturally lead to people engaging in slate voting to offset the other slate, but I sincerely hope lots of people will look at our future a bit more holistically and think deeply about more candidates than the five in either slate.<\/p>\n

I look back with great fondness on covering local politics, because the issues really are more nuts-and-bolts compared to the sweeping value-based generalizations you get on the national scene. I loved the \u201chopper of ideas\u201d I experienced by interviewing 14 individuals and attending forums, as opposed to the tired and predictable Republican vs. Democrat dogmatic talking-point-heavy arguments (though we certainly have some dogma here). And all voters can still do some semblance of what I did without even leaving the house. You can read my candidate profiles and\/or those from Alex Burness of the Camera, or visit candidate websites \u2013 some of which will have questionnaire answers to help you really evaluate positions. It makes me sad to think some voters will decide on the future of their community based on \u201cI saw a slate on Twitter\u201d or yard signs, though I know it\u2019s sad but true. I sincerely hope people will instead apply some of Boulder\u2019s legendary scholarly rigor to the process of choosing our next Council.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reprinted with permission. Originally posted at the author’s blog. \u201cIf you don\u2019t know your past, you don\u2019t know your future\u201d \u2014 Ziggy Marley After about a decade of working on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1219,"featured_media":16,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1176,3],"tags":[11,12,1177],"class_list":["post-16434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2017-cc-candidates","category-featured","tag-city-council","tag-election","tag-election-2017"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16434","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\/1219"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16434"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16455,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16434\/revisions\/16455"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}