Thread by @shayshinecastle

Ok, Susan Peterson isn't here, nor is Andy Celani. So only 13 candidates. Susan sent in a statement: She's Scandanavian and her family were Nebraska homesteaders.

This is the new thread, btw.

Q for Swelik and McIntyre: What is the best way for council to promote equity?

McIntyre: Progressive income tax, progressive head tax (but we can't do those now under state law, he notes). A tax on expensive vehicles, we can, to fund transportation.

Swetlik: Stop the adding of luxury jobs and high-end housing so the area median income doesn't go up, bc that increases rents for subsidized housing.

Suggests head tax on large tech corporations to pay for housing and transportation.

Next q: Dolan and Yates
POC (particular Latinx) are highly represented as laborers in the fossil fuel industry. How does the city achieve its climate goals and support those workers?

Damn what a good question.

Dolan: Train them for other jobs.

Yates: Lots of industries have been disrupted. Our next step, and this is a good disruption, is moving from fossil fuels to renewables.

"As people are disrupted and replaced, it's our responsibility to help them through that transition."

Q: Friend and Orba
How do you involve all people's in decision-making process?

Friend: We do a pretty good job engaging ppl; there are ample opportunities to engage. We don't please everyone and we can't.

Listen with empathy. At the end of the day, do what is best for the community.

Gala's name means 'party,' apparently.
She's "really good" at active listening bc she's a life coach.

Her ideas: Listen to the city's engagement staff. And keep inviting ppl to come.

Next q for Wallach and McCord, about San Juan Del Centro. It may be near the end of its structural life. If it gets redeveloped, what uses will you allow? What would you do to replace 150 units of affordable housing?

Omg these questions. So good!

Wallach: "I would do whatever could be done legally to preserve the use that is here." References the mobile home zones which can't be redeveloped into anything else.

Also, "build more affordable housing." Talking about the airport, which he mentioned in our interview.

McCord: It's "important to not make assumptions about communities that don't belong to you."

"These ideas shouldn't be coming from me," they should be coming from the ppl who live here.

Cure and Joseph taking this one: Do you support a transition away from RTD? What would it look like?

(City has explored this in the past but decided it wasn't the right time. But they're going to keep looking at it.)

Joseph has taken public transportation all over the world, and locally when she first moved here and lived in Louisville.

"RTD is not as good as we want it to be, but it can be better." Provide for last mile, etc. to supplement what RTD is doing.

And we need more $$, support biking and walking. "We need better bike paths, safer walkways."

Cure referencing the mythical RTD train to Boulder. "There has to be an engagement with RTD."

Also references putting housing closer to jobs so ppl don't have to rely on RTD.

Hey, this is being live-streamed on the NAACP Facebook page. If you wanna watch.

Duran and Julca taking this: Council is a full-time job that doesn't pay. How will you ensure you're fully prepared to participate in all the meetings and answer emails?

Duran: I've thought about and planned for this the past four years. She has a job that will allow her time to do this.

She's also been on a ton of boards and such, so she's done this work for years and knows how to handle it.

Julca: I might be the perfect fit for city council. This is going to be the job of everyone one of you: The voters are going to decide. What we're presenting now is promises... One thing I can promise is transparency

Says the only candidate who hasn't agreed to an interview.

"Our gov't right now is terrible. Who is not disappointed by politicians? I am. But I'm here, promising things to you."

Brockett and Dolan get this q: How should Boulder deal with BI, Inc.?

GREAT questions. Ya'll are killing it tonight.

Brockett explaining the whole thing. The city doesn't have legal standing to not provide that off-duty police officer service, he says. The service was pulled and then re-instated without council input.

Council taking this up Oct. 1, FYI.

"We have no criteria to deny them." But he wants to redo that criteria bc he thinks it's a problem to provide service to problematic companies.

Dolan echoes Brockett: We need to change those criteria and "walk the talk."

Julca and Duran taking another q: What contributes to the lack of affordable housing in Boulder? What are you gonna do about it? (I'm paraphrasing.)

Julca: Preserve the housing we have, including middle-income earners who don't quality for affordable housing but "fight to make a living here."

Referencing opportunity zone.

Where she lives; this is her big issue.

"A greener building is one that is already built."

Duran: Opportunity zone is not a mistake. Boulder's was designated bc of Diagonal Plaza.

She worked for the state Econ development commission that helped local municipalities nominate and designate these.

Back to affordable housing: ADUs, co-operative housing. "So it's repurposing our existing housing in different way."

Also says Alpine-Balsam is a great opportunity to include lots of diverse housing.

Orba and McIntyre: How are you supporting minority-owned businesses?

Orba "actively looking" for existing small biz owners to mentor minorities and women to run businesses. "That's my big idea."

McIntyre again acknowledging his privilege and how it played into his business ownership.

His ideas: "Modify our taxation policies" with an equity lens. And reducing regulation on small businesses.

Wallach and Yates: Do you support policies to increase density? If so, which ones?

Wallach, a former real estate developer, "there is absolutely no connection between density and affordability."

"Affordable housing is not a function of density; it's a function of the will to build it."

Also: land banking, joint developments with private developers

There is actually a tie between land use and affordability. It's a bit more nuanced than just density, but it's there: Communities that zone for single-family homes have higher housing costs. Here's a memo from the Obama admin: obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/…

Also the Brookings Institute: brookings.edu/blog/the-avenu…

These have to be combined with the things Boulder already does: Inclusionary housing, etc. and other government interventions.

Yates plugs the middle-income down payment assistance. Density does make sense some places, but not everywhere, he says.

Joseph and McCord taking this q (that I kinda missed) but McCord is talking about the city's affordable housing goal: "15% is not going to meet the need in this community; it's just a number we came up with."

"This community is great at talking about things. Not so much at implementing them."

Light applause from the audience.

Referencing her work as a lobbyist as proof that she can get the affordable housing done despite community pushback. "We're not putting all affordable housing out east bc we're not going to create ghettos."

Repeats her promise to add 256 units of affordable housing each year.

OK, here's the q: What's your balance on neighborhood interest and community goals on affordable housing?

Joseph currently lives in an affordable rental. It's $1,200 a month.

We don't have enough $$ in our budget to provide the affordable housing we need. We have to look at ADUs, and "we have to look at how we use space."

References reducing parking minimums and other "restrictions" we put on creating housing.

Q for Cure and Swetlik from a mobile home resident whose rent was just raised and can't afford city affordable housing. What can be done to stop gentrification?

Cure name dropping, like he do.

I'm not really sure what his answer is... ? Maybe changing city policy to change how much rents can go up each year in affordable housing. (It's currently tied to AMI; it used to be a hard 3% annually)

Swetlik: Overturn Colorado's ban on rent control. If we can't do it for everybody, let's get it just for manufactured housing.

"I've already proven I'm willing to go to the statehouse and fight for what we need. Unfortunately, a whole lot of people in Boulder who have more power than me, chose not to do that last year when the bill was on the floor."

Do you favor unionization of city workers?
Brockett: Our city workers are already unionized. "I'm very supportive of that."

Friend: We're already unionized; if any other groups wanted to unionize, "I wouldn't fight it."

She's jumping back to the BI, Inc. q. She's been advocating for the city to end that service; she's an immigration and asylum seeker attorney.

Swetlik and Cure again: Would you support new commercial development having housing with it?

Swetlik: We require commercial development to pay $30/sq ft into the affordable housing fund. He would raise that.

Also wants to do a head tax on biz with 100+ employees.

Cure answering with his trademark "there's a sense of" and then referencing someone else. Would not raise linkage fee.

References the change last year to require first-floor retail on East Pearl, with housing above/behind.

We're doing closing statements but I'm really not interested in tweeting it. It's all the same stuff you've already heard.

@threadreaderapp please unroll.

Thank you.