Polly Christensen
for Boulder County Commissioner, D2

My Priorities

We need HOUSING we can afford

Sixty percent of Boulder County residents cannot afford our housing. Our neighborhoods are being hollowed out by real estate investors who have gobbled up an average of 35% of our housing, housing that could have gone to families to buy and build physical and financial stability, but they are now forced to rent. Those who cannot afford our housing become homeless. According to my latest sources, 800 BVSD children are homeless during the year, and 600 SVVSD children. Adults and children living under constant financial stress and housing insecurity have created a serious mental and physical health crisis nationally and in our county. It is unconscionable. Our housing crisis was created by bad public policy (federal, state, and local) beginning in 1970s. It can be healed by good public policy.

1. Use what we have:

• Repurpose abandoned and vacant buildings to single-room occupancy and studio apartments. It may be expensive, but it is less expensive than unhoused people, and it is less expensive than building from scratch.
• Support good upcoming state legislation such as Sen. Sonja Jaquez-Lewis’ “Local Governments’ Right to Property for Affordable Housing” (HB24-1175); and other good bills such as “Required Cause for Eviction of Residential Tenant” (HB24-24-1098); “Safe Housing for Residential Tenants” (SB 24-094).
• Protect mobile home residents from corporate takeovers and constantly escalating rents by zoning for mobile home parks, encouraging co-ops, and providing land buy-backs.

2. Government must return to building, maintaining, and managing quality public housing, both for rent and for sale. The “free market” has had since the 1970s to reign over our housing policy, and it has been a disaster. Support good developers who will truly partner.

We need TRANSPORTATION for ALL

1. RAIL: Front Range Passenger Rail (FRPR) is the future. We must plan not just for the next five years, but for the next 50. Our state legislature is currently in the process of the first restructuring of RTD since the 1980s. RTD needs to either build the rail they were legally required to build for east and north Boulder County or transfer to FRPR the millions of dollars that east and north Boulder County have paid.
2. BUS: North BoCo’s bus service has diminished not expanded as we have grown! This is an issue of equity and economic fairness for residents and businesses. I will continue to fight hard to represent all of Boulder County in improving public transportation, especially for north Boulder County.
3. BIKE & PEDESTRIAN: Let’s continue the interconnectivity of our county bike routes and increase their safety. Let’s make sure the vehicle to pedestrian balance is in favor of pedestrian safety, not just vehicle speed of transit.
4. AIR: Local airports near Superior and those in Boulder and Longmont are an important part of future transportation for residents and businesses. Local airports are also an important resource for training our future pilots. All three airports are under great pressure to change or disappear. Collaboration between dissatisfied residents and airport management and pilots will get us further than demonizing each other. With the rapid growth of electric planes, many noise issues will disappear.

SUSTAINABLE OPEN SPACE & REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE

Protecting and expanding Open Space is Boulder County’s true treasure. This must be balanced with the concerns and needs of the agricultural community who lease and work much of our Open Space. They are the people who feed us and regenerate our land into a circular economy moving us toward a future of greater climate stability.

Both these important resources in our lives are under pressure by competing land interests of developers that drive up the cost of land for both Open Space acquisition by Boulder County and also make it impossible for young farmers to acquire any land to farm. Many see Open Space as land that should be turned into housing. Many see agriculture as something that does not belong on our open space. In-depth collaboration on all sides is required to move us into a fair path forward that works for all our municipalities and residents on or using Boulder County’s rural land and Open Space.

CIVIL RIGHTS & MUTUAL RESPECT

 When the enormous surge of hate speech and violent incidents hit Boulder County following the 2016 election, I created a Longmont City Council Resolution which read, in part:

“We resolve to confirm our community values as a safe, healthy, respectful, and welcoming community with fair opportunities for all residents to live, work, and play in Longmont. We are not a town ruled by fear. We are not a town of bullying, threats, violence, and bigotry.

“The people of Longmont stand together to protect and respect each other, no matter what our differences. We celebrate our rich and abundant diversity, and we take pride in our strength together.”

As Dr. Marin Luther King Jr. said, we should be judged not by the color of our skin, but by the content of our character.

It is not a contest as to who is more hard-done by life. We must all stand by each other because we all belong here. Collaborate, don’t demonize.

OTHER PRIORITIES

HEALTHCARE ACCESS: Over 67,000 Coloradans were eliminated from Medicaid last summer due to Republican Congressional votes, forcing them off the rolls and forcing them to reapply. Most of them were not able to regain their Medicaid due to poorly functioning website forms and inability to navigate the system or find anyone to help them. The COVID pandemic proved just how essential public health departments and access to mental and physical healthcare is for all of us, especially the very young and the very old. 

CLIMATE CHANGE: Boulder County needs to do more to create a truly circular economy with careful coordination of our resources and future planning among the towns and the rural areas as well as collaboration with adjoining counties.

Boulder County needs our own composting facility. ASAP. All of us realigned our habits to compost household waste, much of which we now cannot compost. Businesses spent millions to realign their materials and procedures to include composting, and now that is wasted.

We must help people transition away from fossil fuels in their homes and transportation with meaningful incentives and assistance for those on fixed incomes and those with low-income.

EDUCATION: CU Boulder is an incredible resource for our county. We also need to support our community colleges such as Front Range Community College and other adult education resources such as Intercambio and El Comité so that our kids have a future after high school. Whether they choose to college, trade apprenticeships, or learn on the job, education is critical to their future. Education is to make happy lifelong learners and informed, participating citizens, not just to get a job.