Issue #11

Ryan’s Review

A monthly update from Ryan Schuchard on Boulder City Council

Hello Boulder!

Here’s your newsletter for October.

I continue to hold office hours twice per week and would love to talk with you there.

You can also reach me at schuchardr@bouldercolorado.gov and all of City Council along with key staff at https://bouldercolorado.gov/contact-city-council-and-staff.

Please visit www.ryanwithboulder.com/officehours to check for updates. 

Interpretación en vivo español-inglés está disponible a pedido. Para tener una conversación con un intérprete, por favor envíeme un correo electrónico a schuchardr@bouldercolorado.gov y trabajaré con usted para programar una hora que sea conveniente.

Note: This newsletter contains hyperlinks indicated with underlines. If underlining does not appear, please try the online version at at www.ryanwithboulder.com/newsletter.

SPECIAL NOTE ON THE ELECTION

Please make plans to vote by November 5 if you are eligible and haven’t already done so! Most of what you need is at the county’s voter webpage. And here’s a guide from Boulder Reporting Lab.

I am endorsing the three items Boulder City Council has placed on the ballot: (#1) Increase pay for Council to 40% of the area’s median income for future Councils starting in 2026 after my term ends (Yes on 2C), (#2) allow Council to hold executive sessions in accordance with state law, (Yes on 2D) and (#3) create administrative flexibilities to help Council better manage recruitment and effectiveness of Boards and Commissions (Yes on 2E). More: Boulder Reporting Lab.

I also join my Council colleagues to endorse an official “yes” vote by Boulder City Council for the state measure to secure critical funds for public transit without raising taxes (Yes on 7A). More: Colorado Public Radio and Keep Transit Moving.

Finally, in my personal capacity I wholeheartedly endorse the state measure to protect women’s right to control their bodies (Yes on 79), the state measure to protect marriage equality (Yes on J), and Kamala Harris for president.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

HOUSING: City Council directed staff to proceed with a package of policies to legalize greater numbers and kinds of housing within the city, especially near downtown and transit connections, as part of our Family-Friendly Vibrant Neighborhoods program (October 17). Staff estimated the amount of time it will take for residents to notice changes from this “upzoning” will likely be years to decades. Staff will now develop an official proposal which is expected to come back to Council in early 2025. More: Boulder Reporting Lab.

INTERGOVERNMENTAL ADVOCACY: Council updated our policy statement to advance more than 70 positions with federal, state, and county agencies in 2025 (October 24). Top priorities include state legislation to protect vulnerable road users by allowing cities to assess fees for vehicle heights and weights, state legislation to establish an on-bill repayment system for energy upgrades, state legislation to fund and protect the city’s ability to reduce and prevent homelessness, and federal funding to expand intercity bus and passenger rail corridors in our region.

Some of our new positions for state legislation include deliberately designing our transportation system for options besides cars by establishing mode-share targets, creating assurances that transit service will take care of vulnerable groups during emergencies, and ensuring utility investments reduce wildfire risks while minimizing disruption around public safety power shutoff (PSPS) events. 

The policy statement also supports new national motor vehicle testing and performance requirements to minimize the risk of pedestrian and bicyclist death and injuries, particularly attributed to the weight, design, and height of large SUVs and trucks, something the National Highway Safety Administration has recently opened a first-ever proceeding to consider. More: The Verge.

HOMELESSNESS: Council gave input to shape the recently-launched regional homelessness working group led by the county (October 10). Council agreed with the initiative’s focus on leading local, state, and federal level advocacy; supporting the creation of affordable housing to address homelessness; and providing supportive services to improve housing stability and decrease returns.

Council also has requested the following enhancements for Councilmember Lauren Folkerts, who represents Boulder on the regional working group, to take back: 

• Include behavioral and physical health;

• Include financial literacy and workforce training;

• Include a collective approach to raising the needed revenue;

• Clarify that “affordable housing” means a broad range of costs and diversity of housing types;

• Strive to increase collective regional action, such as by encouraging and supporting all towns in the network to build more permanently-supportive housing, shelter spaces, and other crucial services; 

• Coordinate with DRCOG on housing strategies; and

• Tighten the mission statement (“the why”) to more concretely say we intend to resolve homelessness challenges.

Related, Council introduced an item to advance housing, homelessness, behavioral health, and other human services at the county level in the city’s intergovernmental policy statement mentioned in the previous item (October 24).

MINIMUM WAGE: City Council voted to increase minimum wage, currently $14.42 per hour, the minimum allowed by state law. The wage will increase to $15.57 in 2025, an eight percent increase, then increase an additional eight percent each of the two years following. (October 10). More: Boulder Reporting Lab.

BUDGET: Council approved the 2025 budget of $589.5 million (October 3). The budget is leaner than previous years and comes in the context of aging buildings and fleets, flattening sales tax revenue, expiring federal pandemic-era stimulus funds, a reduction of more than $4 million in the county’s Community Partnership Grant program which funds human services through dozens of nonprofits, and climate-related economic stress or “headwinds.” More: Boulder Reporting Lab and Boulder Reporting Lab.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: Council discussed an economic development plan and program enhancements in an experimental “community forum” meeting format that involved significant direct input from community members (September 26). Thanks to all who contributed their time and energy. Watch for more to come on the topic of the meeting as well as continued innovation towards making city meetings more inclusive and accessible. More: City of Boulder, Boulder Weekly, and Broomfield Enterprise, and Daily Camera.

ANOTHER TRANSPORTATION DEATH: A driver traveling northbound on Broadway struck and killed 38-year-old Jennifer Newman near the crosswalk at Rayleigh Road in South Boulder. She is the third person to be killed on Boulder city streets this year, in addition to another death on a state highway just outside city limits and another death on private property. As of September 2024, more than 20 crashes have occurred on Boulder streets resulting in death or life-changing injuries. More: Boulder Reporting Lab.

MOBILITY ENHANCEMENTS: The city has improved the design of Baseline Road between Foothills Parkway and just west of Gapter Road to make the street calmer for drivers and more accessible for people walking, biking, rolling, and taking transit. The city made similar enhancements to Moorhead Ave over the summer. More: City of Boulder.

The city has completed the acquisition of over 4,400 streetlights from Xcel Energy, giving us greater control to use modern technology and approaches to increase efficiency, reliability and cost savings while reducing pollution from light and electricity generation. More: City of Boulder.

The new Vesper Trail is open, accessible near the intersection of 75th Street and Lookout Road. More: City of Boulder.

RTD has adopted a Vision Zero resolution to eliminate transit-related traffic fatalities and injuries. They have committed to identify funding for bus stop, rail crossing, and pedestrian safety enhancements. They also have committed to incorporate system safety feedback sessions into its ongoing community outreach while bolstering dialogue with disability rights organizations, transportation advocates, and individuals from disadvantaged communities throughout RTD’s service area. More: RTD

RTD has announced transit service improvements coming in January 2025. They include reinstatement of 30-minute airport frequency (AB1) plus a new airport route from downtown operating at 28th/Canyon (AB2). More: Colorado Public Radio.

WHAT I’M LEARNING

AFFORDABILITY: Nationally, one in five nonprofit workers cannot afford basic expenses. More: Nonprofit Quarterly.

CLIMATE: Climate science tell us making communities more compact will improve water and energy efficiency. Recent experience in growing towns around the southwest are demonstrating it. More: Colorado Sun.

Zillow now shows climate risks for property listings in the US. More: The Verge.

Property-by-property analysis for climate risk can be informative, but what it can show is limited. Resilience also depends on the wider neighborhood and community. More: Heatmap.

People are leaving communities that climate change is making more hostile. Stress is increasing on those left behind. More: NYTimes.

HOMELESSNESS: The number of people living without shelter in Boulder has gone down. According to the most recent point-in-time count, 122 people were experiencing unsheltered homelessness in July, compared with 171 the year prior. Sixty-eight percent of those surveyed had been homeless for a year or more, while 32% were newly homeless. More: Boulder Weekly.

Criminalizing homelessness leads to more crime. The consequences of even short-term jailing, like lost employment, separation from families, and fines and fees, increase the likelihood of future arrest while exposing arrested individuals to health risks and unsanitary conditions associated with jails. More: Governing.

Nationally, conflicting definitions of homelessness make it difficult to gain a good understand of the problem. It is a problem for Latino families. More: The Fulcrum.

HOUSING: Minneapolis has been building more housing than any other large city. How? According to its Director of City Planning, Dan Garodick: “No single legislative action did more to contribute to housing creation than the elimination of parking minimums.” More: Streetsblog NYC.

One possible solution to the housing crisis is a new kind of public housing for all income levels. More: National Public Radio (podcast).

INCLUSION: The Colorado Supreme Court has ruled that tenants have a right to a jury trial in eviction cases. More: Colorado Politics.

The Boulder bike shop, Freedom Folding Bikes, has new owners, a family that fled Ukraine and has taken the reigns as the previous owner has retired. Welcome! More: Colorado Public Radio.

The Onondaga Nation has accepted the return of Ancestral land in upstate New York. About a thousand acres, it represents the largest giveback of Indigenous land in the history of New York and one of the largest in the United States. More: The Nation.

Climate denialism appears to be trending down, but it in its place we are seeing a concerning new pattern of intolerance in the form of anti-immigrant hate. More: ProPublica.

SAFETY: Our streets are dangerous because they’re designed that way. We can design streets to be safer. More: The White Line Foundation (video).

Transportation professionals are working to integrate a growing appreciation that lower vehicle speeds and fewer miles traveled make people safer. More: Victoria Transportation Policy Institute.

Conventional approaches to U.S. highway planning lead to traffic models that produce false results. The result is billions of dollars spent on road expansions that fail to cure congestion and make it harder to get around without a car. More: Dissent Magazine.

The increasing bloat of SUVs, vans and pickup trucks is worsening a chronic roadway safety crisis that collectively takes over 40,000 lives annually, enabled by inadequate regulations and outdated policies. More: National Safety Council.

Car bloat is dangerous. A proposed rule could force automakers to downsize the largest of their vehicles, which is needed to save pedestrians. More: Slate.

The state with the lowest rate of traffic deaths is Massachusetts, an achievement credited to their using the “Safe Systems” approach which emphasizes infrastructure as well as relatively slow speeds, which is due partly to congestion. More: Governing Magazine.

TRANSPORTATION: Nearly every household in America has a car. But the trend of one car for every adult is changing, led in part by parents with small kids. One of the keys is where you can afford to live. More: Washington Post.

U.S. households can move past automobile dependence if we choose to design for it. Boulder local Dan Sturges shows some options for doing so in his book, Near to Far, and he has summarized the concepts in a video production. More: Dan Sturges’ YouTube channel (video).

The battery-electric revolution makes ultra-efficient mini-cars possible, and they are flourishing in places that make way for them. More: Bloomberg.

The United Kingdom is using “modal filters” to create low-traffic neighborhoods and make communities stronger. More: Shifter Youtube Channel (video).

COMING UP

MEETINGS HAPPENING SOON: There is no meeting on October 31. In November, Council will consider a resolution to re-affirm the city’s commitment to Vision Zero (November 7), hold a joint public hearing with Planning Board to consider initiating a community needs study for the Area III Planning Reserve (November 14), hear an update on the city’s engagement strategy (November 14), and consider next steps for for municipal broadband (November 21).

MEETINGS FURTHER OUT: Topics for December include landscaping and wildfire hardening (December 12), traffic signal practices (December 12), and the next climate action plan (December 19). Topics for early 2025 include an homelessness programs, behavioral health roadmap and the CARE program, the manufactured home strategy, the Access Management and Parking Strategy (“AMPS”), and racial equity.

IMPLEMENTATION OF COUNCIL PRIORITIES: A dashboard with the list and real-time status of City Council’s workplan priorities is live. More: City of Boulder.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR FUNDING: Rolling applications for City of Boulder Human Relations Fund (HRF) events occurring January through May 2025 are now open. They will be accepted until March 28, 2025. More: City of Boulder.

OPPORTUNITIES TO CONTRIBUTE: City staff have begun the process of community engagement to improve safety and connectivity on the north end of 30th Street, between Arapahoe Ave and Diagonal Highway (CO 119). The section is a top city crash location, part of the High Risk Network, and a priority for improvements in the Core Arterial Network. Provide comments at Be Heard Boulder. More: City of Boulder.

City staff and Council have begun the process of updating the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan. A Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan update webpage inviting community input is now live.

One of Boulder’s longest-running and most unique preschools, Alaya, needs help to continue. Naropa University owns their property, a small lot on 19th near Iris, and is selling the land. Alaya needs to raise about $2 Million over the coming months to stay. More: (Save Alaya.

SPECIAL DAYS: Enjoy the events of Halloween and Día de los Muertos! Lots is happening around Boulder. And for those driving around town, please be very careful (see image). City of Boulder.

And one more time…please make plans to vote by November 5. :)

Thanks for reading! A more comprehensive view of City Council business is available through our meeting materials here and meeting recordings here.

Please continue to let me know what worked and what you’d like to see more of. And feel free to send any specific submission items. Whatever you have, your feedback is invited here.

Subscribe and view all published issues at www.ryanwithboulder.com/newsletter.