City Council Elections 2021: a huge opportunity for progress
We hope everyone has been having a good summer so far! We're covering a lot today, so let's get this party started...
A Help request:
Potential candidates for City Council are starting to make themselves known (see below: Raucous Caucus). The election is on November 2, which means we have less than three months before ballots drop in mid-October! We need YOU to join us in our campaign to make Boulder’s legislative branch progressive.
There are a variety of ways you can help. We’d love to count you as a volunteer, but other organizations will also need assistance. We’ll be working with Boulder is for People, United Campus Workers, South Boulder Creek Action Group, Better Boulder, and Open Boulder to support a great slate of candidates. Or you can throw in with the candidates themselves! (see below: Endorsements). Are you ready to flex some progressive muscles? Fill out this form and we’ll plug you in.
Awesome:
On June 23, Boulder Progressives and United Campus Workers Colorado co-hosted the second-ever Raucous Caucus, with 10 potential City Council candidates participating. Award-winning independent journalist, Emma Athena moderated the event, and panelists discussed issues from Equity to Housing to Transportation. Here are some ways you can catch up on it in case you missed it:
Read Shay Castle’s write-up in the Boulder Beat
Watch clips and discuss them with others in a newly established Facebook group, Make Boulder City Council Progressive 2021
Not Awesome:
Anti-housing advocates in Boulder are starting to co-opt social justice language in their public hearing and op-ed commentaries opposing housing development. It’s a disturbing trend that Claudia Hanson Thiem covers in her latest column here: “When developers first proposed building apartments and townhomes near Celestial Seasonings in 2020, dissent followed the traditional script (prairie dogs also featured prominently). But when the project returned to the planning board for approval last month, opponents were speaking a different language. Borrowing concepts from racial and economic justice movements, they sought to block housing to protect the people who might one day end up living there.”
Up Next:
As Boulder Progressives moves towards endorsing candidates for City Council, we are guided by our mission statement, which emphasizes elevating voices of underrepresented communities, human rights, and social and environmental justice. Additionally we look to needs expressed by underrepresented groups in our community, and weigh candidates’ commitment to supporting them. Watch for our endorsements in the coming weeks, in this newsletter, on our website, and on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
As we are going through this process we’d love to hear from you! Did you watch the Raucous Caucus (see above)? Let us know what you think about the possible candidates so far!
Interesting:
It’s hard to get statistically significant polling data for a city of Boulder’s size, but thanks to a survey commissioned by Jan Burton - former City Councillor and member of Open Boulder - we have an opportunity to see the direction residents would like us to move. Sixty-eight percent of respondents supported allowing for more affordable attached homes (du/tri/quad plexes) and ADUs to be built in zones where currently only single family structures are permitted. Seventy-six percent favored increasing housing density around transit corridors, and eighty-one percent favored the University building more housing for students. Three-quarters(!) said they would vote for the Bedrooms are for People initiative to allow more people to share homes. And 65% percent agreed that the police budget should be reallocated to better address the needs of unhoused people, in contrast to the approach City Council embraced last month. Is it any surprise only one of five incumbents is seeking re-election?
These results confirm what we’ve been arguing for years, that Boulderites truly want to live our progressive values. The 2021 election is an opportunity to choose leaders who will steer policy forward.
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As always, find us on our social channels for the latest news and views.
Till next time,
BP
