Thread by @shayshinecastle

Hey, #Boulder, did you remember that the city manger finalists public q&a is tonight? Prob some time for last-minute registrations here: bouldercolorado.formstack.com/forms/city_man…

You can learn more about the finalists — Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde from Austin, TX and Kevin Jackson from Long Beach, Calif. — in this story. I'm also going to share a bit more of what I know about both cities in this thread b4 the meeting starts.

First of all, they're both WAY bigger than Boulder, which is interesting. Some stats:

Austin
Population: 950,807
Square miles: 326.51
Budget: $4.2 billion
City employees: ~13,500

Long Beach
Population: 466,776
Square miles: 80.35
Budget: $2.8 billion
City employees: 5,581

For comparison, Boulder
Population: 106,392
Square miles: 27.36
Budget: $341 million
City employees: 1,376

Like many cities, they're dealing with some of the same issues (which means these candidates will have some familiarity with them). I talked with city reporters from both places (the "me's" of Austin and Long Beach, though of course there is only one Shay Castle)

Affordable housing was a big one, as is the opposition to it. Long Beach voted down a zoning change to allow more than just single-family homes; Austin's development code update was messy and still in process, I believe.

Two reporters from that city said the word NIMBY in discussing housing.

Police reform tops in both places, and both candidates were more directly involved with that.

Homelessness, another big one.

Austin repealed its camping ban and bought 4 hotels to house people. Long Beach has also been buying up hotels, and has been specifically referenced as doing positive things by national homelessness experts.

Budget challenges have faced both cities in the pandemic. Long Beach is additionally dealing with more long-term declines in certain revenue sources, which is relevant to Boulder.

Oh, one tidbit I forgot on Long Beach and policing: Sounds like the police dept. there (which is WAY bigger) is also WAY more powerful than in Boulder. Like, they endorse city council candidates and play a big role in policy.

Transit: Austin just passed a huge transit package, which includes light rail.

Neither Austin nor Long Beach's transit systems today are anything to write home about, from what I gather.

OK, we're getting started. I'll share all this and more in my story, with links to news coverage so you can check things out for yourself.

I know this is more info about the cities than the candidates themselves, but I think that's very helpful to know where they're coming from because it will show what they've worked on, what solutions they're familiar with, etc.

Engagement Manager Sarah Huntley says 300 ppl signed up for tonight's event. Yay, Boulder! Look at us go!

Looks like we'll do this one candidate at a time. Rivera-Vandermyde first, who will do an intro then answer qs, and then Jackson, who will do the same.

"Many, many insightful questions" have already been submitted, Huntley says. You can also ask real-time qs if you're into that.

I'm gonna switch to first names for candidates bc I don't feel like typing out Rivera-Vandermyde a million times. Plus Nuria = a great name

Nuria up first. She was an attorney before working in municipal gov't. She's from Puerto Rico; she worked for the Dept of Justice there before moving to Minnesota.

In Minneapolis, "I started with a department that needed organizational change." 5th leader in 3 years "There was healing, there was mending, there was a transformation of a dept that was more community focused."

Nuria also worked on racial equity, minimum wage, supplier diversity in Minn. — projects that were "compelling to me personally."

Nuria moved to Austin to follow the city manager from Minn. "I will confess that while I was not looking to leave Austin, Boulder on a personal level was a city that my husband and I visited once and fell in love."