Adaptation

Boulder has done a good job with long-term planning in a lot of ways, but it still faces real headwinds from long-term trends outside our control. In some cases, the landscape has changed a lot since decisions were made about how to design key parts of life here. We need to take stock of how those conditions have shifted, and be willing to make course corrections in how we plan and invest going forward.

What I’m Working On

Aging infrastructure. Helped elevate Boulder’s more than $500 million facilities maintenance backlog across 75 public buildings, rec centers, firehouses, and the police station among them, into a public conversation, and pushed for a ballot option to fund critical work before the cost keeps growing. Helped the city acquire more than 4,400 streetlights from Xcel, putting reliability and cost more directly in Boulder’s hands. Pushed for thorough due diligence on the airport’s long-term financial obligations, including a one-year moratorium on FAA funding so the city could catch up before committing to decades-long terms.

Climate stress. Helped expand the wildland-urban interface fire hardening zone from about 4,600 to more than 16,000 properties, supported new construction and landscaping standards, and backed updates to construction codes that strengthen Boulder’s standing with insurer rating systems. Helped complete flood mitigation protecting 2,300 residents and 1,100 homes from a 100-year flood, the final step in a project more than a decade in the making. Have been a leading voice in setting expectations with Xcel to end power shutoffs and elevating the threat of air and water pollution from the Valmont coal ash cleanup, calling for independent, real-time air quality monitoring beyond the permitting process minimum, and helped strengthen the city’s official coal ash position in its 2026 intergovernmental policy statement.

Evolving economy and technology. Pushed to deepen Boulder’s economic partnerships with CU Boulder in emerging fields like quantum computing and climate science, positioning the local economy around where the world is heading. Helped foster worker cooperatives, giving longtime business owners a path to keep a business local as ownership changes hands. Started working to get ahead of an uncertain, AI-reshaped job market already underway.

What’s Next

I’m working to:

☐ Build a public, cost and benefit-ranked list of fire-adapted investments, with need-based financial help so cost isn’t a barrier

☐ Create a redevelopment protocol in case a significant part of Boulder is affected by disaster, and update disaster planning to account for residents who can’t depend on a personal car

☐ Give residents the choice to address the facilities maintenance backlog through a ballot measure

☐ Expand neighborhood-scale clean energy like geoexchange, and push Xcel toward a grid that’s both more reliable and more resilient to wildfire risk

☐ Evaluate major long-term commitments, like airport obligations, for their full financial impact before Boulder commits

☐ Get ahead of an uncertain, AI-reshaped job market, and keep expanding worker cooperatives as a path to local ownership

What We Stand to Gain

Cut the costs of living. Wildfire hardening directly addresses rising home insurance costs and insurers leaving the market, and fixing infrastructure on a schedule costs less than waiting for it to fail.

Creating a trustworthy, effective government. A public, cost-ranked list of investments, made before disaster strikes, is what a government residents can rely on looks like.

Climate-aligned decisions. Wildfire, flood, and industrial risk are direct, worsening consequences of climate change, and preparing for them now is climate adaptation in its most concrete form.