Aaron Stone

I grew up in a family that sometimes relied on assistance to make ends meet. My parents applied for a lottery program called “Dollar Home,” which allowed selected families to purchase dilapidated homes for $1, provided they restored them to livable condition. My parents took out a loan and did most of the reconstruction themselves, with some help from friends. One year, we relied on a local association that provided children with clothes for school. Experiences like these taught me how important such programs are. They give people the opportunity to improve their own situations and, through that growth, strengthen the community as a whole. I will do my best to ensure that these types of groups continue to thrive in Boulder.

To me, the answer is more nuanced than just a simple yes or no. First, let’s agree that having homeless people sprawled all over downtown causes some Boulderites to fear for their safety. Second, let’s agree that the homeless have a 1st Amendment right to be there, but not to sleep there. And third, let’s point out that their presence is negatively affecting the economic and social vitality of downtown. On freezing nights when the All Roads shelter is full it would be cruel and heartless to prevent people from camping. Do you want to cost someone their life? And yet, the mere presence of the homeless impacts the ability of some people to enjoy downtown. So what to do? I propose the establishment of a sanctioned encampment in North Boulder with insulated tents provided by the city where homeless folks can sleep in relative comfort, with security guards for public safety, social workers for assistance, showers and laundry facilities for cleanliness, and food trucks with free food for those who sleep there. I like to motivate people with carrots, not sticks, so let’s make this encampment comfortable and inviting so that people will be glad to go there, and camping ban enforcement will become a relative breeze.

I don’t think we should be pushing these costs on to current homeowners. We can subsidize or offer incentives to those who wish to do it voluntarily while creating natural barriers to fires where homes are currently located. In addition we need to ensure that infrastructure exists so that firefighters can rapidly reach areas they need to if a wildfire occurs.

Yes, we are witnessing a genocide being aided by our federal government through weapons and funding. In a recent forum, both current council members and candidates said foreign policy is out of the city’s scope. Yet, those same people pledged to protect undocumented residents during ICE raids — also a federal issue. The hypocrisy is striking. While we cannot control federal foreign policy, we do control our investments. We have the power to divest from entities complicit in genocide and should exercise it. Council meetings must remain safe and inclusive, while I do not choose to personally disrupt council meetings, I have witnessed a council that is ignoring the people and taking active steps to silence speech. Including threatening to remove public comment and not showing video of people who are speaking. I certainly understand the passion behind why some are choosing to disrupt.

I disagree with the premise of the question. If Boulder constructs thousands of new homes it will no longer be Boulder. We might as well change our name to San Jose. In the discussion of affordable housing the question I haven’t seen anyone on city council ask is, “How many people do we want to live in Boulder?” Currently we have a little over 100,000. Do we want 150,000, 200,000, more? I think we need to face that question head on before we continue what we’re currently doing: building housing willy nilly, wherever a developer can find a building or two to demolish. In all my time in Boulder I’ve never seen such intense development. And let’s face it, the demand for housing will never abate until Boulder is so built out, dense, heavily trafficked, and ugly that no new people want to move here. I’d like to cap development to a fixed number of housing units before we allow the revolution of newcomers to determine what that number is, because then it’s too late. We need to be smart about how we develop. What I propose is a radical reprioritization. Let’s increase the percentage of affordable units developers have to build.

The city council has already closed the 7.4 million dollar shortfall. However, I think we should: 1. Target the homeless issue. This issue affects public perception of safety and directly ties into the vitality of downtown. 2. Helping the middle class afford housing in our community. There are several options available including reducing regulations on creating Tiny Homes, ADUs, and removing red tape on building in certain areas already slated for development. 3. Commercial Rent is too high. The cost of doing business is driving restaurants and local shopping out of Boulder. I think we can find creative ways to help.