By Ron Aguiar
Once again the people of Boulder and the state of Colorado get to experience the joy of local elections and statewide referenda. I say, only with slight tongue in cheek, that trying to wade through the issues, compressed against the stated goals of politicians, is almost impossible. I will take a shot at trying to address what I see as major problems and my take on a solution.
First and foremost is the “ Affordable Housing” conundrum. I cannot see a way to deal with this, certainly none of the candidates have offered any kind of concrete solution, what I do know is that affordable housing means more growth and that is the only thing I can say with certainty that Boulder does not need.
Imagine if everyone who travels into Manhattan for work took the approach that they should live there! While some candidates talk about housing for all, they seem to overlook a very real demographic and that is people on a fixed income, yes, retirees and those homeowners who keep watching the annual cost of living in Boulder outpace income and savings. How about affordable living, instead of affordable housing?
It’s absurd to think that everyone who works in or simply has the desire to live here should be able to. I have had any number of people say that their friends, children or relatives “ deserve to live here.” Baloney, no one “deserves” to live in Boulder. I have lived in Boulder County since 1974 and in Boulder proper since 1988 and I don’t “deserve” to live here. I do so by making choices, none are cheap and some are difficult. What we need is much less growth, we are already a high-rise concrete town. There is precious little water and traffic already outpaces the infrastructure.
Many of the pro-high-density pro-growth (yes, if you are for affordable housing you are by definition pro-growth) people also tout their desire for arresting global warming and the myriad other fossil-fuel related problems — all related to overpopulation and yes, high-density housing. There is an expression that statistics do not lie, but the interpretation of statistics do. The high-density advocates will point out that a high-density living situation with, let’s say eight families on a plot of land roughly the same size as a large single-family home is more energy efficient than the single-family home. Well if you compare that to eight single-family homes of the same plot size, that is likely true, compared to one single-family home on the same-sized lot, it is not. The amount of fuel for heating and water use alone would be significantly greater. Almost all have the unicorn and faeries vision that these same eight families will not drive fossil-fuel vehicles and avail themselves of public transportation or alternative modes of transportation, such as bicycles. I don’t believe that is realistic in Boulder and Colorado in general. I am 69 years old and an avid cyclist, I do not however ride my bicycle in the winter very much even without snow on the ground, because it is uncomfortable to the point of being painful. While I am on the subject of bikes, where the heck did all of these white bollards come from, it’s like some traffic-impeding crop of mushrooms have popped up overnight!
I don’t really support any of the candidates running for election or re-election this year, but I will vote for the Plan Boulder Candidates — not that I am voting for them, so much as voting against the other candidates. Honestly, Cindy Carlisle was the last candidate who I felt had a good plan on addressing the runaway pro-growth City Council.
Finally the Blue Line and the height limits on buildings should be inviolate and Proposition 300 (Bedrooms) is terrible, please vote no. The Boulder everyone came to is very quickly going away and I see no effort by any of the current crop City Council members or the candidates doing anything to stop it. Don’t even get me started on homeless issues. And yes I am a Democrat and I am liberal. I just have my eyes open.
Ron Aguiar lives in Boulder
