Thread by @shayshinecastle

We're back to council member's suggested priorities / projects. Yates is passing along one from residents: Giving city authority to demolish derelict structures in the issue of health and safety.

He knows of 2 in NoBo. Young has one 3 doors down from her; this one has someone living in it, though.

"The person who is living there seems like she's being taken advantage of," she says. Lots of ppl coming and going; the woman was once forced out by squatters.

Young herself has never been in, but her other neighbors have. They report black mold from the 2013 flood. She's had "various meetings" with staff and there have been "attempts" to address this.

Wallach q for Carr: Most cities have police power to demolish buildings. We don't?

Carr: We have a public nuisance ordinance, but when it was negotiated, my reading is the landlords on the Hill were concerned it would be used by the city to take over party houses. "We've never used it. It's almost impossible to get a public nuisance order."

Carr, to Young: We've occasionally encountered a hoarding situation that becomes health and safety issue. We do have a protocol. It's an intensive process; we've successfully managed to clean up and help ppl.

"I wold like council to consider putting on their workplan having a convo" about this, Carr says.

Weaver: How intense would this be?
Carr: It depends how much we prepare.

Carr: "When this was drafted, there were riots in Boulder. It's a different time."

BURNING COUCHES!

We've apparently become much more subdued. (Read: Older.) Never seen old ppl riot.

Weaver: Small, medium, large?
Carr: Medium

Another Yates/resident suggestion: Cleanup of the Dark Sky ordinance. Passed in 2003, implemented fully in 2018 and enforced beginning in 2019.

International Dark Sky group has since released updated... whatever. Suggestions? Standards?

Interim Planning Director Chris Meschuk: Our ordnance has been lapped by the industry. Our standards work, but there are updates. So we've worked on this.

This makes me LOL. We spent SO LONG implementing this that ~1 yr after we did, they're already outdated. Unbelievable.

That is *so* Boulder.

Also (side note) Idk if it's bc I'm aware of Dark Skies, but I swear since my neighborhood replaced all the porch lights, I can see more stars.

Anyway, that update will be queued up for 2021-2022

A few council members had Vision Zero priorities on their list. Bill Cowern is joined by new transportation director Carlos Hernandez.

Other transportation priorities were Neighborhood EcoPass, first/last mile, parking.

Friend's suggestion is to expand the scope of Vision Zero to make sure it's capturing all the work being done, including transportation equity, etc.

It already does, Cowern. Vision Zero is just the most visible of those.

Friend: Do we have prioritization for intersections near vulnerable populations (elderly, schools, etc.)?

Cowern, Friend talking about this recent death: dailycamera.com/2020/01/13/cor…

Left turns are by far the most dangerous for pedestrians/cyclists, Cowern says. It dwarfs all other categorized dangers in Boulder. So city has pursued signal changes to give crosswalk users more time.

This particular intersection was ID'd for change. But the "structural integrity" of the signal means it would have to be replaced at significant cost and "there really wasn't a significant crash trend."

That was Cowern.

Things are being reconsidered given the fatality.

Including short-term solutions.

Cowern: What we're asking now is, are the factors there likely to lead to another, similar incident? Or was it a more unusual instance, unlikely to be repeated, and so we can wait until we have $$ to rebuild the intersection.

Short answer to Friend's original q: Yes, we consider and prioritize children, elderly and disabled in intersection changes.

Along with crash data, usage of intersection, etc.

Council roughly OK with Vision Zero work and how it's going.

Weaver bringing up this story I meant to share on Oslo's Vision Zero progress: usa.streetsblog.org/2020/01/03/vis…

They *actually* achieved Vision Zero (only 1 traffic death at all, of a driver hitting a fence). Largely by making car-free areas, investing in bike lanes, lowering speed limits and doing traffic calming near vulnerable populations.

Friend being a total DWEEB and reminding council that they have MORE work to do that they forgot this morning. Thanks, NERD.

Young bringing up EcoPass. We'll see where she's going with this; right now talking income-based fare.

OK, she's arrived: What's being done to address equity issues with EcoPass?

Except now we're talking Neighborhood EcoPass. 2020, staff will look at changes to that program, as established the other night at the council study session.

A couple boards and commissions brought that up in their letters to council: boulderbeat.news/2020/01/09/bou…

Well, TAB specifically did. I think another board did, too, but I could be wrong. Read my story and then lmk.

"Its the older, wealthier, established neighborhoods that have those," Friend says. As well as the BHP communities bc the city subsidizes those.

"Is there a more equitable way?"

Young jumps in to echo and build on that.

Hernandez: These issues are a "stopgap" to larger ones. And it extends beyond Boulder. "We live in a regional travelshed with jobs."

New word: Travelshed. Sounds like a tiny English village.

OK, we're taking a 20-min break and then tackling the big stuff: What gets priority in the workplan. Prob gonna do a new thread for that.

@threadreaderapp please unroll. Thanks!