Boulder Action was fortunate to have the opportunity to interview City Council candidate Mark Wallach recently for a discussion of city issues as our local election heats up. Below we record his views on the same issues we discussed with Jenny Robins and Rob Kaplan.On homelessness, Mark feels a greater obligation to people who have lived and worked in Boulder before becoming losing their housing, and would redirect services from the significant proportion of unhoused people who have been in Boulder only briefly, often only a month or less. Although the City of Boulder is weighing an updated $13M a year strategy to end unsheltered homelessness as soon as 2028, Mark finds this to be fantasy, with the greater needs to be treatment for drug addiction and mental health issues as opposed to housing. He favors an emphasis on family homelessness. He supports a reduction in rough sleep (sleeping on the streets or in places not intended for habitation), noting it will result in reducing the danger of wildfires from smoking, drug use, and the use of propane tanks for cooking and heat. He also supports a diversion policy, saying that such a policy that cuts the homeless population by even a third would be helpful. It would permit fewer turn-aways at the shelter and better use of scarce resources.
Further, Wallach points out that we need to have a better police presence on the Pearl Street Mall and the Boulder Creek Path. He’s not looking to arrest people but feels they need to be arrested if their behavior involves criminal behavior. It's just not acceptable to residents, visitors or the people who will be coming for Sundance Film Festival and other events.
Although a better police presence is needed, it is not just an enforcement issue. Instead, it is also the result of a lack of resources and appropriate legal basis. Funding and staffing of the police force has not been a high priority of the recent city council progressive majorities, making it difficult to enforce what laws are available to police criminal behavior.. When a homeless person who is ticketed tears up the citation in front of the police officer and dares the officer to arrest them for littering, it is disheartening. With the County reducing social services by $4M last year, at present we can rely on their support even less. The County is putting forth Ballot Initiative 1B to which Mark offers qualified support: the County would have three years to come up with a mental health and treatment plan. At present, the State doesn’t fund the unhoused at all, and all we have for repeat offenders is the overused jail. Wallach does stress, however, that this would be the last time he would be willing to give the County a chance to demonstrate their responsibility with productive and fair allocation of funds. Mark is also concerned about the Community Culture, Resilience, and Safety (CCRS) Tax Extension passing in our City elections. If it doesn’t pass, he indicates that people have no justification in requesting repairs or refurbishment to the South Boulder Recreation Center or new pickleball courts. We just won’t be able to afford it.
On climate change, Wallach stresses a practical rather than ideological basis for decisions. On climate action, the present Council majority wants a big switch to the electrification of the entire city. Apparently, it would cost approximately $4.5B for the community as a whole to become electrified. Mark wonders why 92% reduction of greenhouse gases could not be viewed as a success. He wonders why incentivizing EVs, rather than claiming cars are evil, would not be a practical solution. He finds that staff is extremely committed to this unrealistic goal; however, many of them don’t live in Boulder. They also disregard the fact that 80% of our greenhouse gases come from agriculture, which we don’t incorporate in any greenhouse gas reduction measures. Diving deeper, Wallach sees that replacing a gas stove with an electric model could well cost up to $20,000 when all the associated costs of converting to electricity are considered. Xcel’s costs of burning coal to produce electricity are also not considered in this scenario. Though staff advocates heartily for this move, it is an impractical goal. Wallach is the only City Council member running who is opposed to the Transportation Maintenance Fee. He feels that the bike lanes on Baseline are underused and confusing and does not support the changes proposed for Iris Avenue considering how many cars use Iris daily (20,000) and how few bikes use it daily (130). Boulder Action asked Wallach the degree to which staff influences City Council or vice versa. Wallach responded “Quite a bit.” Staff have a lot of their own ideas on vehicle speed and housing density, for example. A lot of what staff does is the result of Council priorities, however, as established during Council’s retreat at the beginning of each term. There is seldom any pushback from staff, the exception being when the city lacks the resources to do what Council wants. Mark responded that much of the reason for significant increases in staff and budget in recent years is due to the increase in the work program approved by the council. As one example, this increases the need for community engagement, and a correspondingly large communications staff. In terms of housing, most housing that is being approved and built is market-rate (expensive) housing. Wallach finds this unsatisfactory and says that what we are building is unsuitable for middle-income families, our greatest area of need. Present development cannot satisfy this need as it is not profitable for developers to build housing that suits families, which means larger spaces than apartments with no yards. Single-family houses cost an average of $1.5M, and it’s obvious that ADUs offer no solution with an average price of $1.3M. Both nationally and in Colorado, ~65% of housing is single-family housing, and ~80% of families would like to live in a single-family house, yet Boulder continues to build market-rate housing and affordable housing for low and very low income residents to the exclusion of middle-income housing. Trying to rezone for reduced pricing as other Council members suggest is unrealistic and will not result in $600,000 single-family homes. Though now looking more difficult to achieve, the Boulder Airport would provide a realistic location for middle-income housing since the City owns the land, thereby potentially reducing the cost considerably. Area III - Planning Reserve also proves difficult. Of the 500 or so acres, 200 are designated as park land and of the remaining 300 acres, most is owned by individuals. That, along with the fact that the City has never done a study of our capacity to supply water for a development of this size, makes Area III – Planning Reserve as a location for middle-income housing unlikely. Boulder Action asked Wallach about the Council voting by consensus (joining the majority in a vote he may disagree with). He claimed that occasionally this was necessary so that as a member of Council, he can keep good working relationships with the council majority. However, when it is a serious issue, he will strongly supports his viewpoint. As for voting by emergency, Wallach points out that there needs to be good and sufficient reason to do that. He is not troubled when occasionally it is necessary in order to avoid delays but regrets missing the opportunity for in-depth discussion and citizen input. He advises that this could be avoided if Council took on fewer issues and left some issues for the subsequent Councils to work on. The final question that Boulder Action asked was about small business: Some small businesses are finding it difficult to remain or locate in Boulder. Some cite higher rents while others fear their locations will be targeted for zoning changes to make way for more rental housing. What would Mark propose to do to protect and promote small businesses? He answered that he is emphatically pro on small business. He added that “if people are afraid to go downtown, we're not going to have many businesses on the [Pearl Street] Mall. That includes restaurants whose workers are feeling unsafe, management feels unsafe and patrons feel unsafe. It's not acceptable.” “I don't go in for exotic solutions like rent control. I've lived in New York. It doesn't work. In Boulder when you see a problem, there must be a solution, and we must implement the solution to fix the problem.” Some problems are more difficult than others, and staff is frequently much too stringent in the way they enforce codes. They don't come up with practical solutions. Staff is so nervous about making a mistake, so we get impractical things that just don't get done in a way that help small businesses. Alpine Bank building was going for final approval, and they were denied because a projecting course of brick 30 feet up was impinging into the flood zone. For that to have any relevance, you'd have to have a wave coming down Canyon Street 30 feet high; otherwise, it's irrelevant.” Mark very strongly supports small business. He is concerned, for example, about the redevelopment of the west side of North Broadway’s commercial area. He thinks that there will be resistance to more housing development and that will be a little more difficult to get passed. “Boulder has really close to 20,000 housing units that are possible, and I don't know that there's that much appetite right now.” Boulder Action was delighted with the opportunity to discuss issues with Mark Wallach, and we deem him an excellent, well-reasoned and well informed candidate for City Council. Vote Mark, Jenny and Rob!
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