Posts tagged streets
Boulder: Climate Reality Project video story
Sep 18th
Video streaming by Ustream
You made today a success
POSTED BY MAGGIE L. FOX, PRESIDENT & CEO
In the months that went into planning 24 Hours of Reality, I saw firsthand the passion and energy of our Climate Presenters, staff and partners around the globe who are calling attention to the climate crisis and working to solve it.
Today, I was honored to see your passion and your energy. I can’t thank you enough for making 24 Hours of Reality a global success.
By the time our chairman, former Vice President Al Gore finished his presentation, the 24 hour long event had 8.6 million views.
I am incredibly proud that so many people around the world participated, but it’s also important to remember the individual actions it represents. There are countless stories of impressive grassroots mobilization. A company in Tel Aviv hosted a watch party at their headquarters. A group of graduate students in Athens, Georgia rented out a popular local movie theater. People across the world joined hands to say: Climate change is real, it’s happening now and the time to act is now.
But this is just the beginning. There are important actions you can take today:
Request a presentation. There are more than 3,000 trained Climate Presenters around the globe. Organize an event and invite a Presenter to come to your community.
Go local: Team up with our partners around the world and help solve the climate crisis. Visit our website to find a partner organization near you.
Moving Planet: On Sept 24, hit the streets with http://350.org for a global day of action. Find an activity near you.
Check our comprehensive video library to watch highlights from 24 Hours of Reality.
It is up to you to continue to stand up for reality and share the truth about the climate crisis. We will succeed because we must.
Posted by Maggie L. Fox, President & CEO
Mark Gelband Platform for Boulder City Council
Aug 29th
I am proud to announce my candidacy for November’s Boulder City Council election. Thanks to all of you who quickly stepped up and signed my petition to get on the ballot. The real work begins now. We have eight short weeks to get the message out and your emotional, organizational, and financial support is critical to my success. Boulder needs a new voice on council. There is a growing chasm between the city’s aging leadership and the young families, young professionals, creative class and students who represent the future of Boulder.
Perhaps, some of you are thinking: Why did I receive this e-mail when I don’t live in Boulder, don’t know your platform, or don’t even know you all that well?
The easy answer is that I am reaching out to folks with whom I have felt a connection in my life. Whether you live in Boulder or not, I can still benefit greatly from your financial support, if you can afford the contribution and believe in me personally or in my vision for the city. Detailed contribution information is included at the end of this e-mail.
For those of you who need more information before committing your support, here are the critical issues that constitute my platform.
Open Space Access
The aging hippies currently running the show look nothing like the younger, progressive versions of themselves that supported citizen initiatives to create the Blue Line in 1959 and the Open Space program in 1967. We owe them for their past foresight, but their vision today is nothing like it once was. They’ve recently begun a campaign to “reclaim” shared recreational land with the mindset that we are loving nature “to death .” Current Council is prejudiced against dog owners and mountain bikers, with an anti-recreation mentality. Much of the open space we have all paid for is off-limits, with little or no access. Open Space is house poor with 47% of its budget spent on debt service. Why are we buying land in neighboring Jefferson County when we cannot even maintain the most precious resources outside our door? We need to refocus our priorities and better manage our open space, but the solution is not to deny access to the many people who have chosen Boulder as their home for its recreational opportunities.
Core City Services
Current council is challenged to manage a single council meeting, let alone the breadth of our core city services. We currently have a $700,000,000 dollar backlog in deferred maintenance projects and, yet, these folks seem to prioritize efforts such as prairie dog relocation, the minute alteration of snow shoveling ordinances to which they themselves are unable to adhere, and endless pontification about Arizona’s Immigration laws. We need leaders who will fix our potholed streets, who will plow side streets in the winter so that children can safely get to school, and who will address the traffic problems around town, libraries, public safety, decaying infrastructure and the growing homeless problem.
Homelessness
Boulder bears a disproportionate share of the county’s homeless problem. The county homeless shelter is in the city, and the city has become a “convention center” for chronic vagrancy and associated crime. We need to distinguish the working poor and the transitionally homeless in our community, and to ensure that they are first in line to receive the resources to help feed and clothe them, get them jobs and into affordable housing. But let’s confront chronic vagrancy head-on by actually enforcing the existing loitering, panhandling and public intoxication laws that are already on the books.
Overregulation
People in glass houses should not overregulate. Current Council “manages” meetings by restricting public input; this limiting approach to community involvement is just the tip of the iceberg. The council has now spent several decades implementing solutions in search of problems. As the city regulates and regulates and regulates, it continues to squeeze the working class. Their growing list of regulations is hurting those of us least able to afford it. For example, the city has 100 of 10,000 homes that are larger than 5,000 square feet (50% of them built prior to 1940) and, yet, our council has spent countless hours in the last few years developing an onerous, inflexible McMansion ordinance that has only served to ‘handcuff’ young families interested in expansion without relocation. The council’s “obsession” with controlling individual choices in the absence of a viable long-term city plan has led to a scary sort of Big Brother government.
I am interested in hearing your thoughts on the key issues that are facing Boulder and about proactive paths toward solutions. If you are unable to support me financially, maybe you would consider hosting a meet-and-greet, spreading the word about my candidacy, putting a yard sign up, or simply sending the campaign some good energy.
If you are in a position to help financially, Boulder campaign finance reform limits individual contributions to $100 per person. If you have a husband, wife or partner, and can contribute more than $25, it helps to receive two checks, one from each of you. This allows me to better access city matching funds, should I choose to go that route. I am currently working on a campaign website and should have it finished in the coming week or so. Until that time, I can only accept checks – payable to:
Gelband for Council – A Good Sign
Please mail checks to 505 College Ave, Boulder, CO 80302.
If you live locally and want to donate to my campaign, call me at 303-522-1192 and we can meet. Same limits and rules apply to locals.
Boulder City Council approves several ballot questions for voter consideration
Aug 16th
- · Creation of a local electric utility (municipalization) and the expansion and extension of the Utility Occupation Tax to raise interim funding;
- Issuance of bonds to fund capital improvement projects without raising taxes;
- Clean-up of Charter provisions; and
- Local resolution for an the amendment of the U.S. Constitution to abolish corporate personhood.
Municipalization
Council approved ballot language that will ask voters two separate questions related to the possible creation of a municipally run electric utility.
In general terms, one question asks voters to decide whether to authorize the creation of a locally run electric utility. Based on specific limitations in the ballot language and a related ordinance, council would not be permitted to issue bonds until all start-up costs are finalized, and only if customer rates would be no more than those charged by Xcel Energy at the time of acquisition.
Another question asks voters to consider extending and increasing the Utility Occupation Tax for a limited amount of time to fund the costs associated with determining those concrete start-up expenses and taking the interim steps to set up a local utility.
Capital Improvements
Council agreed to ask voters if the city should issue bonds of up to $49 million to catch up on significant deficiencies in its infrastructure. These capital improvement projects could include repairing and maintaining streets, structurally deficient bridges, repairing aging city facilities, and replacing outdated software systems.
If approved, the bonds would be paid for through existing revenues without any increase in any city tax.
Charter Changes
Council agreed to ask voters if they would approve updates to the Charter. The provisions would allow the clerk to rename city positions and departments to reflect the titles that are in use today; to change the fine from $100 to $1,000 for any violation of the Charter; to update election practices and terminology; and to amend the requirements for submitting initiative petitions to the city.
Corporate Personhood
Council agreed to ask voters if they will approve a measure that calls for the amendment of the U.S. Constitution to reflect that human beings, not corporations, are entitled to constitutional rights and that money (specifically in the form of political contributions) is not a form of speech.
Election Information
This year’s election is by mail-in ballot. Ballots will be mailed to active voters between Oct. 10 and Oct. 14. People will be able to return the ballots by mail or drop them off at Boulder County’s Election Division anytime after receiving them until 7 p.m. on Nov. 1.