Growth is driving housing prices up and pushing locals out
Re: “Housing crisis: Build our way out?” March 24 commentary
Steve Pomerance’s excellent coverage of Colorado’s shortage of affordable housing and its related problems is clearly on target regarding population growth and affordable housing.
Due to population growth, I don’t believe that using taxpayer money to build affordable housing is a sustainable solution to what has become a long-standing problem. On the contrary, Colorado’s shortage of affordable housing is symptomatic of the far more pressing problem of the vast income inequalities created by relatively affluent newcomers moving into economically poor rural areas. This influx of affluent people has the unintended effect of economically displacing long-time residents whose family incomes and retirements pale in comparison.
Case in point: I recently helped a disabled neighbor who was months away from losing his home due to a projected 100% increase in his home property taxes and insurance payments. Thanks to Colorado House Speaker Julie McCluskey and local officials, this situation has been remedied for the time being.
For those who believe that real estate inflation is a boon to Colorado’s economy, the rest of us aren’t reading from the same page. Trying to stay financially afloat in a community afflicted by rapidly inflating home values has become an exercise in futility for residents who have spent their lives living and working in rural Colorado.
In response to Steve Pomerance’s well-written article, when the big money comes in, the little money has to get out. End of story.
Gary E. Goms, Buena Vista
Thank you for the call-out. I do not understand why the current majority leadership in our state government at all levels is so intent on growth, more growth and regulation to spoil and destroy the quality of life here.
Front Range rail? Really? Ask Niwot or Longmont how that’s worked out. Craig rail service? To urbanize the Western Slope with no tangible benefits and collateral impacts from Denver? Forget skiing on a weekends in Colorado because of crowding, traffic and costs.
As a long-time resident, I find it appalling to see the decay in the quality of life here in Colorado. Nothing is preserving our beloved state, and greedheads are everywhere. Alternative states are looking better every day to escape the rape of this once pristine and cared-for land by its residents. Not that way anymore.
Grant Bayless, Masonville
Steve Pomerance wrote an excellent column regarding the affordable housing crisis in Colorado, and I couldn’t agree more with his thesis. The legislature is about to upend all restrictions on home building statewide. To be sure, there is an affordable housing crisis in Colorado, which has sharply worsened in the past five years. In my view, the crisis has more to do with the lack of permanently affordable housing. The current proposed legislation will create a bonanza for developers and not necessarily address the root causes. I agree with him that our long-term quality of life should not be based on creating more market-driven housing that could lure more high-income residents to the state.
Will it help to tear down small homes and have more luxury condos in the Washington Park area? Are more second homes needed in Summit County?
Let’s focus on what can be done for our current workforce. Health-care workers, construction workers, teachers, agricultural workers and many others are routinely priced out of housing. When big corporations like Amazon come to town, they may create thousands of jobs but their workers struggle to afford housing. Often the corporations are given big tax subsidies to locate in a particular city without having any responsibilities for impact on the infrastructure in the surrounding communities.
Real estate developers often don’t have to worry about the effects that their projects create after they’re sold. Colorado is an attractive state, and more people will move here, but let’s focus on the housing needs and quality of life of the workers who call this home. We must prioritize permanently affordable housing.
Elizabeth L. Ellis, Lafayette
Protecting democracy isn’t partisanship
Re: “Is state elections chief too political?” March 25 story
Jena Griswold floats in a dilemma. There was a time when championing free and safe elections was nonpartisan. But in the Republican’s new election-denier gangster culture, what was once simple Americanism is now condemned as liberalism. When Griswold acts as a diligent public servant, she does so at a cost. Today, the commitment to purely traditional democratic institutions is frequently dismissed as partisan. These are sad and convoluted times.
Scott Newell, Denver
The Catch-22 in energy needs
Re: “A new surge in power use is threatening U.S. climate goals,” March 24 business story
Did anyone else who happened to make it to the business section on Sunday find it ironic, and somewhat amusing, that the very actions our government is pushing are undermining its climate change goals? This quote says it all: “… the swelling appetite for more electricity — driven not only by electric cars but also by battery and solar factories and other aspects of the clean-energy transition — could also jeopardize the country’s plans to fight climate change.”
One alarming statement from an expert in power systems is that he can’t remember a time when he was “so alarmed about the country’s energy trajectory.” In one of many examples, we learn that a Kansas utility company had intended to close a coal plant, but will now need it to power an electric car battery factory.
The lengthy and informative article deserved, in my opinion, to be on the front page of The Post. I am curious as to where it appeared in The New York Times, the origin of the article. This story conveys a perfect model of unintended consequences and deserves to be read by policymakers and by everyone who is truly concerned about climate change.
Karen Libby, Denver
Honorable to the Grand Old Party
Re: “The battle for the soul of the GOP,” March 24 letters to the editor
Someone wrote a letter to the editor and said, “Krista Kafer calls herself an honorable Republican, but all she has done … is denigrate Donald Trump, the MAGA movement, and the Colorado GOP … .”
News flash: That’s exactly what makes her an honorable Republican. Trump was found to be an oath-breaking insurrectionist by two Colorado courts.
The letter writer refers to Biden’s “disastrous policies.” Those policies got us out of COVID hell with vaccinations in people’s arms. Those policies have led to lowering inflation and an unemployment rate that is at a 50-year low, and a stock market at an all-time high.
The writer also goes on to complain that Ken Buck didn’t vote to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. That’s because there was no evidence of him doing anything impeachable. Also, Congress had a good deal done for border security and Trump torpedoed it so he would have something to complain about when he campaigns. Buck left Congress because he was fed up with how Republicans couldn’t ever figure out how to govern. They are great at screaming and lying about Democrats, but they can’t do much else.
As long as Republicans continue to ignore facts, they should expect more and more of their ranks to leave the party. And it will be their own fault.
David Kelley, Northglenn
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