[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: Study session feedback

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Weaver, Sam

Fellow Council Members and HOTLINE followers,

I apologize for not attending last night's study session in person.  I have a stomach flu that is on the mend, but I did not want to spread the wealth to any of you or staff or the public.  I did watch the session on Channel 880, which with its high definition allowed me to feel like I was almost in the room.

I have a few thoughts to share on the discussions, which were all very productive in my opinion.

Open Space flood repairs:


1)      Kudos to staff for having kept focused on this very important long-term investment in flood recovery.  The amount of recovery work that has been accomplished, including some improvements long desired, is impressive, and staff diligence in receiving FEMA and state reimbursements is greatly appreciated.  It has clearly reduced Boulder's financial losses from the flood, and allowed our open space restoration to proceed apace.  I agree with Council Member Burton's suggestion that we should highlight staff financial diligence and land restoration in a public newsletter.

2)      I appreciated Council Member Young's concern with the potential for user conflict on the newly restored Chapman Drive.  This is an area of interest for me as well.  While there are sometimes inconsiderate users, generally as I walk and bike on the many paths within Boulder, I see users managing the many modes of travel there with grace and courtesy.  I support the staff suggestion of monitoring the situation on Chapman Drive for any increase in user conflicts, and reporting any changes (or not) to the OSBT for review in the next year.

Resilience


1)      Kudos to staff for refining the larger resilience concepts into more concrete examples for implementation.

2)      The part I most like about what I heard last night is around the addition of modes to increase community connectivity.  In my years as a firefighter in the County, I saw fires, flooding, and massive spring snowstorms that could shut down the transportation network for days.  What was most important in these situations was neighbors helping neighbors.  Emergency response is critical, but in widespread events responders cannot be everywhere at once, so the more able people are to help each other prepare ('go' kits, spare food) and respond, the better off the community is.  To the extent the resilience effort builds inter-connection, the better for Boulder.

Transit


1)      Kudos to Kathleen Bracke for a nuanced and fluent presentation of these complex and interconnected transportation issues.

2)      I want to second the comments of Mayor Jones near the end of the session about what a long view we have to take about Boulder's transit issues.  Major improvements can take decades of dedicated effort, and often need to be handed off to successive Councils.  We have to stay engaged at all levels to continue to improve transit access and service.

3)      Regarding the HOP discussion, integrated with the larger transit mode discussion, I think we need to improve transit service to the 55th and Central/Flatirons area of Boulder.  If we look at the walkability and bike-ability and transit indexes for areas of Boulder, we find the Flatirons Park area in the red in all of those.  I work in that area, and know the issues well, and am hopeful that we can continue to improve service there.  I understand that is a regional service issue as well, but it is also has important local components.  Perhaps the HOP discussion can improve the local portion of the transit services to east Boulder.

Again, apologies for not attending the meeting in person, and I hope these comments are helpful.

All the best,

Sam Weaver
Member of Boulder City Council
weavers at bouldercolorado.gov<mailto:weavers at bouldercolorado.gov>
Phone: 303-416-6130