Economy

A strong Boulder economy is one where local businesses thrive, workers can afford to stay, storefronts are full of life, and the resulting tax base funds services residents count on. Getting there takes policies that lift everyone at once backed by real, long-term consensus about what will actually work that electeds are accountable to.

What I'm Working On

I've focused on improving the conditions needed to make Boulder's economy stronger and more durable for the people who depend on it, residents, workers, and business owners alike.

✓ Making it easier to do business. Downtown and Hill businesses have carried a disproportionate share of the hit since COVID lockdowns, and cutting the cost and friction of doing business matters most where that damage still shows. Supported the creation of a streamlined review category that cuts red tape and speeds up permits, led the effort to set clear expectations with Xcel after the 2024 mass shutoff that cost local businesses more than $1.6 million in a single event, work that's now put power outages on track to be solved within a few years, and pushed to weigh a proposed phase-down of gas-powered landscaping equipment against its real risk to roughly 2,000 to 2,500 small businesses with a largely Hispanic workforce, rather than treating it as an easy call.

✓ Building a balanced economy where wealth, wages, and affordability rise together. Pressed for housing and transportation options enabling employees and customers to live near business and job centers, supported raising the minimum wage to $15.57 and keeping worker gains, led the city's effort to foster worker cooperatives as a real path for aging business owners to keep their business going under local ownership, and supported a new metropolitan district financing framework to strengthen the city's commercial tax base, where growth pays for itself instead of shifting costs onto existing residential taxpayers.

✓ Putting Boulder's unique assets to work. Pushed to deepen Boulder's economic partnerships with CU Boulder in fields like quantum computing and climate science, backed new business licenses that make it easier for local entrepreneurs to take advantage of Sundance, and supported the University Hill Ambassador program keeping that district clean and safe.

What's Next

I'm working to:

☐ Cut business costs further, continuing to reduce red tape and taking a comprehensive look at city fees with an eye toward reform

☐ Create a cross-departmental customer service line that gets residents and business owners answers fast

☐ Simplify zoning and permitting through Title 9 reform, implementing the soon-to-be-adopted BVCP, so 15-minute neighborhoods have the local economy to support them and it's easier to build and do business

☐ Keep building an evidence-based understanding of why storefronts sit vacant, and target the policy measures that would have the greatest impact on filling them

☐ Support activation in Boulder's most walkable places, including exploring options like common consumption, lift up the Downtown Boulder Partnership's role in making that happen, keep downtown and the Hill clean and orderly, and use Sundance as a chance to experiment while extending new ideas that work to the whole city, year-round

☐ Invest in great urbanism to make downtown work better for business and everyone, including public restrooms and a transit circulator, longer-term investments worth planning for now

☐ Increase council's role and focus to help end power outages costing local businesses real money through a combined focus on legislation, public utilities regulation, engagement with Xcel, and the city's own direct programs

☐ Build local resilience in food and water, including a year-round farmers market and public food hub, while strengthening the water and agricultural systems Boulder's economy depends on

What We Stand to Gain

Cut the costs of living. Less red tape, fairer fees, and full storefronts instead of vacant ones put real money back in residents' pockets, business owners included.

Adapting to a changing world. A local economy grounded in real consensus, not scattered investment, is more resilient to whatever comes next, an AI-reshaped job market, a disrupted supply chain, or a single struggling sector.

Creating a trustworthy, effective government. Real accountability from elected officials on big financial commitments, and real public consensus before Boulder commits to them, is what makes economic policy trustworthy instead of just well-intentioned.

Climate-aligned decisions. A local economy built around walkable, activated places and simpler, smarter zoning is also a local economy that supports 15-minute neighborhoods, tying Boulder's economic future directly to its climate resilience, not as separate goals.