Council Connects

Interesting study in a journal of the American Heart Association demonstrating that affordable housing policies (in this case, inclusionary zoning) improves health outcomes. It concludes: "Inclusionary zoning policies are poised to address complex health challenges among economically vulnerable populations, particularly if those policies are designed to create equitable, mixed-income communities in metropolitan areas plagued by rising housing costs. In this observational study, we found that these policies, and characteristics associated with those policies, are key factors related to cardiovascular outcomes among the US population. The results suggest that some jurisdictions may have a bent towards creating housing policy that is more focused on low-income residents, but in practice, the health impact of those policies is greater when affordable housing is intentionally constructed for residents of municipalities more generally. Larger implications of this work tie both housing and health policy together—IZ policies are designed to both deconcentrate low-income and moderate-income households as well as deconcentrate affordable housing within the city, but they can also simultaneously provide improved access to health-promoting amenities and opportunities to a population that typically experiences enhanced health and chronic disease risks." https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCOUTCOMES.120.007807#

Denver is considering a flavored vaping and smoking ban to protect youth from becoming addicted on flavors such as “cotton candy.”

From the article: The U.S. Surgeon General has declared e-cigarettes an epidemic.

On Sept. 30, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration issued a report that showed an estimated 2 million American middle and high school students used e-cigarettes in 2021, with eight in 10 of them preferring flavored e-cigarettes — with fruit, sweets and mint being the preferred flavors. More than one in four high school students and one in 12 middle school students use them daily.

E-cigarettes are loaded with highly addictive nicotine, a chemical that harms the developing adolescent brain, the CDC and FDA report said.

https://www.denverpost.com/2021/10/25/denver-flavored-tobacco-vape-ban/

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/permissible-concentrations-air-pollution-mortality-risk/...“We found that among elderly patients enrolled in Medicare, small increases in long-term exposure to both particle and gaseous air pollutants increased the risk of death, even at levels deemed safe by current regulations.” “The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to protect sensitive populations with an adequate margin of safety. It is time for it to do so.”

Roundabouts: I get questions and concerns about these. Here is some interesting information:
"The Insurance Institute reported, when stop signs or traffic signals were replaced by roundabouts at intersections, overall crashes dropped by 37%, injury crashes by 75%, and fatalities by 90%."
Source: Denver Post, Saturday, October 23, 2021, " Keeping older drivers protected on the road"

Important national context for our trash woes: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/24/us/garbage-delays-labor-jacksonville-florida.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuonUktbfqohlSFUZBybIRp8opweMjPfChbAxgnbvN22RQDxF1aEXCoOD4EDLe6tnY9Z20TCcXt5NOfkvWPl2hKd5DnBadjOJ8NGCiYhXZGI8s56yVWc7mMzAUO9przTnKzO0Juk6mebi71fWOmG-RKKI0HJwIg1lp5djIEq4miBdntezGeV_2dZ61fYzVNstFXpbOn7877S_AA5-Od6Fchne9gIwPulSUjzQltOYgKkSJEQQURmVCSMivhtvrY9UK9gVP67gLxY_ecSYgbUZD2RgKYnBFIRjOGm4cPbXht1MBEz_3Gpv&smid=url-share

Inadvertent sugary drink email to all of Council: Sorry for the email. I try to make sure I only email one other Councilor but I had fat fingers.

Rimrock JCOS and potent city collaborative projects:
Below is a perspective that we should consider and share with our JCOS colleagues. "Carrying Capacity" relates to the "Tragedy of the Commons". This was included in an email exchange between myself and Suzy Stutzman that she said I could share. As Council knows, Suzy has served on the PC and HPB amongst other contributions to our city and brings a important perspective:

"As for the wildlife and other impacts, indeed, after my 35 years planning parks and designing facilities for the National Park Service I know how hard it is to manage carrying capacity. It is extremely difficult to arrive at a magic number of cars or people that can coexist with wildlife, not lead to trail degradation, etc. There are also visitor experience degradations that occur with too many people. Why not 31 cars instead of 30? Why only 500 people per day when it could be 525? I do know that you can't put the genie back in the bottle once numbers have exploded. Look at our national parks today - totally hammered and overcrowded, but you politically can't turn anyone away. It's a crude tool, but access facilities can go a long way in managing visitor use. That's why I recommend not pushing for a total build out at this time to 45 cars. Build conservatively and see how all this parking and use affect the open space before building more. Don't kill the goose that laid the golden egg."

Tobacco regulation impacting Youth usage of flavored nicotine cigarettes and vaping products.

Interesting perspective from Golden Health Professional and resident:
https://goldentranscript.net/stories/letter-to-the-editor-city-council-should-fight-nicotine-addiction,382461

PERZPECTIVES ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE WEST:
https://coloradosun.com/2021/09/27/michael-bennet-mitt-romney-float/?mc_cid=0c54716b95&mc_eid=1adde6f3a3

Policing in Communities of Color
(Greenwood Village, CO)

On October 6, 2021online at 7 p.m., former state representative Penfield Tate will moderate a public conversation with Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition Deputy Director Juston Cooper, former Independent Monitor of the Denver Police and Sheriff Departments Nicholas Mitchell, civil rights attorney Qusair Mohamedbhai, and Aurora Police Chief Vanessa Wilson. The conversation will include live Q & A with online participants on Colorado Humanities and its partners’ Facebook pages and YouTube channels. We’ll talk about the past, present, and future issues surrounding policing and public safety in communities of color and explore how to work together to enhance public safety.



Penfield W. Tate III

Attorney, former Colorado state representative



Founder of Tate Law serving individuals, businesses, and government agencies, Penfield was an aide to former Denver Mayor Federico Peña, in the cabinet of former Colorado Governor Roy Romer as Executive Director of the Department of Administration, and spent over six years in the Colorado General Assembly — four years in the House as the State Representative for District 8, and over two years in the Senate as the State Senator for District 33. Penfield is the founder of Tate Law, and his client-centered, problem-solving approach to his nearly 40-year practice focuses on serving governments in public finance and municipal law and people in corporate and business matters, such as wills, estates, trusts, and wealth preservation.



Nicholas E. Mitchell

Independent Monitor (of Denver Police and Sheriff Departments 2012-2021)



Nick is currently the court-appointed monitor of a Department of Justice consent decree with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Between 2012 and 2021, Nick was the Independent Monitor of the Denver Police and Sheriff Departments and oversaw all internal investigations into Denver’s approximately 2,300 sworn police officers and sheriff deputies. He received awards from the Denver Bar Association and the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement, and has been recognized as an expert on civilian oversight and law enforcement reform on CNN, in The New Yorker, and other national publications. Nick is a graduate of Fordham Law School and is a former Gates Foundation Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He was previously a member of the Board of Governors of the Colorado Bar Association and the Board of Directors of the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement.



Juston L. Cooper, M.P.A.

Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition Deputy Director



Juston Cooper graduated from Denver public schools in 1996, and holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Marketing from Metropolitan State University and a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Colorado at Denver. His varied career working on social justice issues through political engagement, public policy, strategic planning, organizational development, coalition building, and grassroots organizing has helped to build and implement public health and safety strategies that address criminal and juvenile justice reform. Justin asserts that it’s essential to build and mobilize political power in community in order to truly provide health and safety. He believes that in order to reconcile the harm done to communities by systems of oppression, we must understand the systemic issues and barriers oppressed communities face.



Qusair Mohamedbhai

Civil Rights Attorney



Qusair is a partner at Rathod | Mohamedbhai law firm. His practice is exclusively in the areas of plaintiff’s employment discrimination and constitutional civil rights litigation. He advocates for the rights of employees in the workplace, and for the civil rights of all individuals against governmental and institutional abuses of power. His awards include the Sam Cary Bar Association – Warrior for Justice award (2018), Lawyer of the Year - Law Week Colorado (2017), and Colorado LGBT Bar Association Ally of the Year (2017). He teaches (National Institute for Trial Advocacy, University of Denver Sturm College of Law and others) and publishes on civil rights issues in addition to representing his clients, most notably The Estate of Elijah Javon McClain, et al. v. City of Aurora, et al. (Police Violence Causing Death) in 2019.



Vanessa Wilson

Aurora Chief of Police



Vanessa Wilson was sworn in as the 14th Chief of Police for the city of Aurora, Colorado on August 17th, 2020, and is the first woman to serve as Chief. She joined the Aurora Police Department on December 30, 1996, as a Patrol Officer. She served as the Interim Chief of Police starting on January 1, 2020. Chief Wilson earned a Bachelor’s of Arts, from the University of Wyoming, and in 2019 graduated from FBI National Academy Class #275. Highlights of her career include the establishment of the Aurora Police Department’s first Domestic Violence Unit, scheduled to become fully operational this year. Chief Wilson was also recently selected to be a member of the FBI’s National Executive Institute Association of key Federal, state, and local chief executives of the largest law enforcement agencies throughout the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Europe.



This program is the sixth in the collaborative Changing the Legacy of Race and Ethnicity – Conversations for One America series presented by Colorado Humanities and many partners to encourage understanding and discussion about the legacy of race and ethnicity in America. Conversations examine causes for current situations and offer ways to make changes now for a more just future. This program was inspired by summer 2020 events, when several violent acts of racism sparked an awakening in America and the streets were filled with passionate advocates who demanded the end of police brutality and systemic racism. Learn more or register at coloradohumanities.org or 303.894.7951.



[END]



For photos of panelists, interviews, or more information, please contact Josephine Jones at 702.489.7188 (cell) or jones@coloradohumanities.org.

Thoughts on the impact of tourism and lodging taxes:
https://coloradosun.com/2021/09/21/colorado-resorts-breckenridge-short-term-rentals/?mc_cid=10b7b27ed3&mc_eid=1adde6f3a3

A GOOD FIBER APPROACH THAT ALLOWS THE CITY TO HAVE CONTROL OVER THE FUTURE

Public Infrastructure/Private Service: A Shared-Risk Partnership Model for 21st Century Broadband Infrastructure
This report was written by Joanne Hovis, Jim Baller, David Talbot, and Cat Blake

Submitted on October 14, 2020
How can America’s communities secure the benefits of fiber-optic infrastructure?

One answer is that local governments need not accept a binary option of waiting for the private sector to solve the problem—which the private sector already would have done if it made business sense—or taking on the challenge entirely as a public enterprise. Rather, public-private collaboration can disrupt this binary and give communities options. Indeed, in recent months and years, a range of collaborative public-private models—involving various levels of risk-sharing—have emerged and proved worthy of emulation.

In some of the most promising of these partnerships, the public entity funds, builds, and owns the underlying communications infrastructure and the private entity does the rest: It provides the electronics and service over that infrastructure and deals with the complexities of running a broadband business. This Public Infrastructure/Private Service model puts the locality in the business of building infrastructure, a business cities and counties know well after a century of building roads, bridges, and utilities. The model leaves to the private sector most aspects of network operations, equipment provisioning, and service delivery.

The Public Infrastructure/Private Service model leverages the best capabilities of the public and private sectors. In this model, cities and counties do what they’ve always done: finance and build basic infrastructure, manage rights-of-way, and maintain that infrastructure over long periods of time—ensuring that the entire community benefits from the infrastructure and that government functions can happen over fiber that connects municipal offices, libraries, public safety agencies, and schools.

This emerging model presents a scalable option for communities that lack the expertise or interest to operate communications networks or act as internet service providers themselves but want to own and control the core communications assets in their community as a means of securing the benefits of the broadband internet.


PDF icon PPP3_final.pdf
How Can America’s Communities Secure the Benefits of Fiber-Optic Infrastructure?

Legal Issues in Broadband Public-Private Partnerships: Finding a Private Partner

The Emerging World of Broadband Public–Private Partnerships: A Business Strategy and Legal Guide

Why we should take budgetary action to address Climate Change - a perspective:
https://www.coloradofiscal.org/colorado-2050-climate-change/library/reports/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=cea72988-c5e2-4069-955e-6188568d9f53

CLIMATE CHANGE AND SOME ALL TOWNS THAT TOOK THE BRUNT:

Good morning. Remnants of Hurricane Ida barreled into the New York City region, killing at least eight people. And what happens when climate change comes to a small Southern town.


Damage in downtown Fair Bluff.
Climate bankruptcy
Fair Bluff is a small North Carolina town in an idyllic setting, amid cornfields and tobacco fields and alongside the verdant Lumber River. But Fair Bluff’s setting may also be dooming the town.

Like much of eastern North Carolina, it sits on a coastal plain, one that is increasingly vulnerable to flooding because of the rise in extreme rainfall and severe hurricanes spurred by climate change.

Almost five years ago, Hurricane Matthew flooded downtown Fair Bluff with four feet of water, buckling roads and destroying buildings. Three years ago, Hurricane Florence brought more flooding.

This summer, my colleague Christopher Flavelle traveled to Fair Bluff to see how it was recovering, and the answer is: not well. The high school, the grocery store and other shops never reopened after Matthew. Downtown storefronts sit vacant, with trash strewn about. The only local factory closed, too. The population, about 1,000, fell by half. Al Leonard, a town official, says the town may soon eliminate the police department — as well as his job.

“What started as a physical crisis has become an existential one,” Christopher writes.

Fair Bluff offers a worrisome glimpse into the future. The increasing frequency of extreme weather has left countless towns, in the U.S. and around the world, vulnerable to both physical devastation and economic insolvency.


Fair Bluff’s old Y.M.C.A.
In California, wildfires have destroyed much of several towns, including Greenville and Paradise. In Florida, a 2018 hurricane wrecked more than 80 percent of the homes in Mexico Beach. In Colorado, Boulder County has sued Exxon Mobil and another oil company over a devastating 2010 fire, saying that they should “use their vast profits to pay their fair share of what it will cost a community to deal with the problem the companies created.” And in Louisiana, North Carolina and other states, flood-prone towns like Fair Bluff are withering.

“Their gradual collapse means more than just the loss of identity, history and community,” Christopher explains. “The damage can haunt those who leave, since they often can’t sell their old homes at a price that allows them to buy something comparable in a safer place.”

What to do?
Many towns try to start again, often with help from government money. Fair Bluff is among them, with town officials hoping to rebuild downtown in a less flood-prone area and attract new businesses. Yet some residents have understandably decided to leave, also with help from government money. Rebuilding isn’t just expensive; it also often involves investing in a place at obvious risk of future destruction.

As the journalist Alexandra Tempus recently wrote for Times Opinion:

We are now at the dawn of America’s Great Climate Migration Era. For now, it is piecemeal, and moves are often temporary. … But permanent relocations, by individuals and eventually whole communities, are increasingly becoming unavoidable.

Some of the destruction from climate change is now unavoidable. The Earth has already warmed too much and will continue warming in the years ahead because of greenhouse gases. But there is still a very wide range of outcomes, from unpleasant if often manageable to truly horrific.

The House and Senate are putting together legislation meant to slow climate change, partly by subsidizing the use of clean energy and penalizing the use of dirty energy. To pass, the bill will need nearly unanimous Democratic support; congressional Republicans have signaled that they are likely to oppose it universally. Climate experts believe the bill could have a significant impact on greenhouse-gas emissions, especially in the electricity sector.


Cleaning up Fair Bluff’s old downtown will cost an estimated $10 million, which the town cannot afford.
For some places, though, it may already be too late to avoid a bad outcome. One of them is Seven Springs, N.C., a town about 100 miles northeast of Fair Bluff that Christopher also visited this summer. After each major flood in recent years, more people have left, and the tax base has shrunk further. Today, the town’s population is down to about 55.

Stephen Potter, the mayor, is hoping to replace some of the lost property tax by turning an empty lot into an overflow parking lot for some of the R.V.s that visit a nearby state park. “I really don’t want to be the mayor that presides over the death of Seven Springs,” Potter said.

For more photos from Seven Springs and Fair Bluff — as well as reporting from Princeville, N.C., the first town in America chartered by freed slaves, which is also threatened — click here.

The latest on extreme weather:

Flooding on Queens Boulevard. The National Weather Service issued a flash flood emergency in New York City for the first time.Dakota Santiago for The New York Times
Remnants of Hurricane Ida barreled into the New York City region, halting rail service and flights, and raising a tornado warning in the Bronx. At least eight people have died.
Buses turned into amphibious vehicles and subway stations roared with water: Here are the scenes from New York.
Fuel shortages are compounding the misery in Louisiana, which endured its third day of power outages after Ida.
Has climate change altered your life? Share your story with The Times.

Sustainability and Strategic Budget Approaches - Food for Thought
I noted in my previous post the impact we can/are making through composting. Other investments we can/should make to have a sustainable future:
1. Install LED fixtures in all our street lights & and advocate for use of LEDs throughout the city.
2. Build out of Fiber backbone with Fiber to all our homes and business through a PPP
3. Build our citizen approved Community Solar Garden

Community engagement for the budget is usually minimal. We'll be talking about outreach at our study session CIP discussion. Love the creativity of this budget video from Arlington - https://bloombergcities.jhu.edu/news/how-city-video-went-viral-and-what-you-can-learn-it

GREEN HOUSE GAS & WASTE MANAGEMENT: Thoughts on why we need our new compost approach in Golden:

"From the Colorado Greenhouse Pollution Reduction Roadmap Executive Summary"
Colorado also needs to continue efforts to better manage waste
streams through diversion, composting, and other initiatives, especially for
organic wastes that can form methane in landfills. In 2019, recycling and
composting in Colorado reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 1.92 million
metric tons of CO2e, which is the one-year equivalent of either removing
407,000 cars from the road, or removing 148,000 homes from the grid, or
conserving 2.34 million barrels of oil or 113 million gallons of gasoline.
Because Colorado’s recycling and waste diversion rates have been below the
average of other states, recycling and waste diversion provide critical
opportunities to reduce emissions.

5 G
From the NLC
https://www.emrindustry.com/4-ways-5g-is-changing-the-world/

Thoughts on Masks:
Last night I was attempting to address masks and mask use. First I should have said that Any Mask is Better Than No Mask. The blue surgical type masks like those that were available to use last night are functional. IMHO, the best info on masks is from a research engineer at Virginia Tech.
Linsey Marr, PhD. The below link talks bout some of her work. You can Goggle more of her work. She really know about aerosols!
https://eng.vt.edu/media-center/articles/2020/spurred-by-covid-19-researcher-linsey-marr-evaluates-efficacy-of-sterilized-n95-respirators-alternative-mask-materials.html
Basically, "N95 masks and KN95 masks are similar in many ways, but they are not the same. N95 masks meet a U.S. standard, and KN95 masks meet a Chinese standard (Also European and Australian standards-added by me from other publications). They both are rated to stop or capture 95 percent of particles down to 0.3 microns in size." SOURCE: Newsweek which cited reputable references.
BOTTOM LINE: "The main differences between N95 masks and KN95 masks matter in clinical settings(fluid splash resistant - clarification added by me), where the standards for mask effectiveness are stringent. In those settings, N95 masks are better and NIOSH-approved." (NATIONAL NEWS) KN 95 are fine for use in the non clinical setting.
I'll repeat: Any mask is better than no mask.
Thanks for reading

Thanks Council for bearing with me during my rant about public bathrooms tonight!

America Is Not Made for People Who Pee

https://nyti.ms/3kZaVcw