Election 2015: Hey, Boulder, it’s up to you

Well, I just couldn’t help myself. I have to throw in my two cents about the upcoming Boulder municipal election in November, and here it is:

Generally, I like the slate of City Council candidates that Open Boulder has endorsed. If you haven’t seen it, you should check out their website, openboulder.org. The group of five they picked includes Aaron Brockett, Jan Burton, incumbent Tim Plass, Bill Rigler and Bob Yates. As an alternate, they have chosen Cha Cha Spinrad. I don’t know Ms. Spinrad, but I really think that our current council could use a little Cha Cha right now.

Then, there’s the two-headed monster of “Neighborhoods’ Right to Vote” and “Development Shall Pay Its Own Way.” Excuse me, but doesn’t development always pay its own way? If you’ve ever tried to develop anything in Boulder, the cost both physically and emotionally is huge. Development does pay its own way, and has as long as I can remember. Anyone aware of how much sales tax, property tax and miscellaneous development fees are collected here every year? We got through the 2008 economic disaster pretty unscathed; the rest of the country is still trying to dig out. Seems like this one isn’t the issue its proponents claim it to be.

Question 300, the “Neighborhoods Right to Vote” initiative, is akin to this: Imagine that a development deal is like a truck going under an underpass. In this case, the development deal is the truck, and the underpass is the current city approval process.  Typically, the truck will get stuck under the underpass, the city process will let some air out of the tires and the stuck truck gets to the other side. If Ballot Question 300 passes, individual neighbors can take turns blowtorching the truck, and the leftover detritus will be a pile of unusable garbage. In other words, all development and construction has the potential to be stopped and killed onsite.

Sounds a little harsh to me. I understand people’s frustration with change. Change is hard to come to terms with. But can you imagine if the founders of Boulder said in the late 1890s, “Hey, this looks good, let’s don’t build anything else”?  Nothing would be here. The thing about stopping is that it kills thought, process and forward momentum. It takes “cutting edge” and creates “dull edge” in its wake. That’s not what this city is about.

It wasn’t that long ago I remember a heavy industrial plant located at the corner of 28th and Pearl streets (right next to McDonald’s then) called Arapahoe Chemical.  They made the chemical that makes natural gas have its distinctive odor, or stink – and. Man. did it stink. So, in the old days, you would be sitting at McDonald’s eating your Happy Meal while smelling the nasty, gross fumes coming out of the Arapahoe Chemical plant, which was located on a railroad siding at the corner of 28th and Pearl. Then along came a developer who cleaned it up and put one of the most successful Target stores on a site where no man or beast would step foot. So, to those who would stop development in its tracks, what would you rather have?

What is a potential solution to some people’s frustration regarding development, right sizing and all of the other hot-button issues? I think that it’s time for a sweeping change to the city charter. I think we need to divide the city into wards or districts.  Neighborhoods would vote in (or out) their own representatives where they live.  Those council members would be accountable to their individual neighborhood constituents. What we have now needs to be more representative governance.

In tandem with that, I think it’s time that we elect our mayor. I think it would be a good step to have one person who truly represents all of what our great city represents. That would be a pretty interesting electoral process, to boot!

But hey, Boulder, it’s up to you. Everyone registered to vote in the city of Boulder needs to get out and do it. We need more contribution to the process from all of our residents. See you at the polls!

Geoffrey Keys is president of Keys Commercial Real Estate in Boulder. He can be reached at 303-447-2700 or via email at keys@keys-commercial.com.

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