OPINION SAFE ZONES IS NOT A SERIOUS SOLUTION BY BRIAN C. KEEGAN
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he Simpsons has a long-running gag centered on pearl-clutching busybody Helen Lovejoy exclaiming “Won’t somebody please think of the children?” The “think of the children” argument has become a rhetorical cliché and pop culture meme, but like a B-movie zombie it has been resurrected during this 2023 campaign season to unironically justify a City ballot initiative. Proposition 302 (“Safe Zones 4 Kids”) would “prioritize removal of prohibited items, such as tents, temporary structures, or propane tanks, within five hundred feet of a school or fifty feet of any multi-use path or sidewalk.” Proponents claim they want the City to do more to protect children and regularly accuse opponents of opposing children’s safety. According to CDPHE data, the leading causes of death among Colorado children are from preventable causes like suicide, motor vehicles, maltreatment, firearms and overdoses. Violence from unhoused people is not on the list. Why oppose this measure then? First, Safe Zones supporters want a blank check for enforcing their nebulous priorities over all the other demands Boulder faces. According to the City’s Safe and Managed Public Spaces (SAMP) dashboards, out of 2,192 assessments and 1,376 cleanups across the city between Oct. 21, 2021 and Oct. 18, 2023, approximately 650 assessments and 475 cleanups have happened in the area around Central Park, Boulder Creek and Boulder High School. If approximately a third of the City’s cleanup resources are already focused on this area, what additional amount of City resources would satisfy Safe Zones supporters? Should the City de-prioritize clearing encampments with dangerous items or violent behavior in residential areas? Most Boulder residents probably will not like how Safe Zones answers these questions. Second, Safe Zones would triple the area that the Safe and Managed Public Spaces team and Boulder Police would be required to prioritize without a corresponding increase in budgets. Under the current City policy of 500 feet around schools and playgrounds and adjacent to streams, there are a total of 13.7 million
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square meters the City is committed to prioritizing. But Safe Zones would add 50 feet within any sidewalk or path, an area of 41.3 million square meters. Tripling the area without tripling the resources is just diluting enforcement by a third. Third, the City just experienced a natural experiment involving enhanced antiencampment enforcement. Following an incident in which a man drove his truck through Central Park targeting people and encampments (luckily, no one was seriously injured), the City issued an emergency order and fenced the area off for two weeks to evaluate the damage. Astonishingly, fencing off Central Park for two weeks did not cause the people living in encampments in the area to evaporate; they were just displaced into other areas. This episode foreshadows the most likely outcome of passing Safe Zones. Finally, Safe Zones supporters cannot even agree on the legislative intent behind their efforts. Their branding says they want to prioritize the safety of children. Other supporters want to use the initiative to remove the “bike chop shops” or “meth camps.” Still others admit that the initiative will not fix the issues but will “send a message” to City Council. Safe Zones organizers failed to include any language in the initiative about prioritizing spaces with children. They also failed to propose any changes in raising or appropriating funds to achieve their goals. People are right to be upset about the deteriorating health and safety conditions in our city. After the millions of dollars already appropriated to manage encampments since 2021, ask yourself two questions: First, have these problems gotten better? Second, will more of the same expensive and failed enforcement strategies make children safer? Boulder’s forward-looking voters should reject this effort and elect a new City Council to pursue evidence-based solutions. Computational social scientist Brian C. Keegan is an assistant professor in information science at CU Boulder. His research resides at the intersection of human-computer interaction, network science and data science. This opinion does not necessarily reflect the views of Boulder Weekly.
A ‘YES’ ON BOULDER’S BALLOT ISSUE 2A HELPS BUILD A MORE VIBRANT, INCLUSIVE AND RESILIENT COMMUNITY BY DEBORAH MALDEN
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o paraphrase an old expression: In this election, you can fill your potholes and invest in the arts. This November, City of Boulder voters will have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to shape our City’s future by voting ‘yes’ on Ballot Issue 2A. 2A is not a tax increase: It extends an existing 25-year-old general fund sales and use tax of just 15 cents on every $100 of purchases and raises approximately $7.5 million a year for the City. Under 2A, 50% ($3.75 million) of these funds are dedicated to the City’s Office of Arts & Culture to strengthen Boulder’s arts and culture ecosystem and 50% ($3.75 million) to the City’s general fund. Most Boulder residents are surprised to learn that we spend less on cultural affairs than our Front Range neighbors: In 2023, Loveland, Arvada and Fort Collins will spend $3.2 million, $4.4 million and $5 million, respectively, versus Boulder’s budgeted $1.8 million. Chronic underinvestment in the arts leaves our cultural organizations, artists and arts educators struggling to make ends meet and risks hollowing out our arts and culture ecosystem. Of course, we have other important uses for limited City resources, from filling potholes to addressing homelessness. Fortunately, 2A will not result in any cuts to existing City services. This has been publicly confirmed in multiple City Council meetings by City of Boulder staff, mayor Aaron Brockett and councilmember Bob Yates, both of whom are running for mayor this November and support Ballot Issue 2A. This is in part because, starting in 2025, the first year of the tax extension, the City will have an additional $10 million a year in general fund spending power due to the new Boulder Public Library District, a separate entity that voters approved last year. The Library District shifts library expenses out of the City’s budget, in perpetuity. Although the amount of dedicated arts funding would be transformative for the arts and the community, it represents a mere 2% of the City’s general fund. Further, unlike the expense of
filling potholes and providing other City services expenditures, the arts are an investment with a clear economic return. A just-released study commissioned by the City shows that Boulder’s arts and culture nonprofits have an annual direct economic impact of over $115 million. This includes incremental spending by audiences ($61.6 million), household income ($80 million) and City and County taxes ($4.6 million). This is money that helps keep our businesses open, sustains our families and workers and provides incremental funding to address other city priorities (did I mention potholes?). Meanwhile, 2A also will provide a much-needed lifeline for Boulder’s long-underfunded arts and culture sector. The City’s 2015 cultural master plan clearly outlines the path toward investing in a strong arts and culture ecosystem. Unfortunately, since its adoption, the current budget has proven insufficient to meet our master plan goals. Finally, aside from the economic benefits to the arts that Ballot Issue 2A will help secure, I quote from the comments of Jude Landsman, vice president of our local NAACP: “Boulder’s Office of Arts and Culture has done more to support racial equity than any other City department to date.” Decades of research show that a thriving arts and culture landscape benefits the whole community — helping to bring us together, making us individually and collectively healthier, happier, more tolerant, more welcoming and more resilient. Ballot Issue 2A is a win-win for all Boulder residents. It will ensure the stability of essential services, sustain our arts and culture scene and build a more equitable, connected and vibrant community for generations to come. Please visit 2AYesforAll.com to learn more and join me in voting ‘yes’ on 2A! Deborah Malden is the arts liaison and advisor at the Boulder Chamber, a board member of Create Boulder, and chair of the Yes on 2A campaign. This opinion does not necessarily reflect the views of Boulder Weekly. BOULDER WEEKLY
