Yes/No Questions:
1. Are you a homeowner?
Yes
2. If the City police force was fully staffed, would you advocate for adding more officers?
No
3. Do you believe there’s a need for more housing in Louisville?
Yes
4. Do you believe the City should spend more money on homelessness services?
Yes
General Questions (no more than 300 words):
1. Why do you want to be a council member?
About three years ago, shortly after settling in Louisville, I decided that I must act to mitigate climate change in my community. I came to this decision as a lifelong environmentalist growing ever more concerned about my two young daughters’ futures. I began by advocating for climate action at City Council, board, and commission meetings. I then joined Louisville’s Sustainability Advisory Board, and I started to organize the community around issues of environmental sustainability. I now want to step up my efforts by serving as mayor of Louisville. The potential for improving Louisville by embracing environmental sustainability is tremendous, and I steadfastly believe that such an embrace will see Louisville prosper. Moreover, Louisville is at a critical juncture in shaping its future: the City will update its Comprehensive Plan over the next year, position itself to develop more affordable housing through a housing study and an application for Proposition 123 funding, and begin implementing the recommendations of municipal decarbonization and wildfire mitigation studies, all while continuing its recovery from the Marshall fire. I want to guide Louisville through these momentous times.
2. When was the last time you paid rent, and where was that?
My wife and I last paid rent in April 2021 while we were renting a house in Louisville’s Steel Ranch neighborhood. Towards the end of that month, we moved our family into our current home—the first house that we have owned—in Louisville’s Parkwood neighborhood.
3. Boulder County has experienced extreme natural disasters over the last decade, including flooding and wildfire. How do you plan to address these challenges?
To the best of my knowledge, climate scientists have not performed attribution studies to determine the likelihood with which climate change affected the severity of the 2013 Boulder flood and the Marshall fire. Nevertheless, the connection between climate change and these disasters’ severity is quite plausible: climate change is predicted to result in more severe flooding and wildfires in many locales. Moreover, as our world continues to warm, the risk of natural disasters made more severe by climate change will only increase. Accordingly, our first response must be a redoubling of our efforts to mitigate climate change. Louisville must also initiate concerted efforts to adapt Louisville to our changing climate: implementing wildfire mitigation measures on open spaces and private property, modernizing building and landscaping design standards, creating more absorbent natural landscapes in flood-prone areas, expanding its tree canopy, replacing non-recreational turf grass with native plants, and removing unnecessary hardscape. Last, but more certainly not least, Louisville must prepare thoroughly for natural disasters and other emergencies. While the City has made significant progress since the Marshall fire, room for improvement remains. For instance, the City should implement a text alert system, broker cell service improvements, inform residents of evacuation routes, and designate resilient community shelters.
4. How do you think you stand out from other candidates?
I distinguish myself from the other candidates for mayor of Louisville in the following ways. As a theoretical physicist I bring a scientific mindset grounded upon open-mindedness, thorough research, critical examination, and evidence-based reasoning as well as extensive mathematical skills. I complement my analytical background with education in the liberal arts (like my fellow candidates). As a former professor and current tutor, I bring considerable experience explaining and instilling complex concepts. As a father of young children, I bring relative youth to the office of mayor as well as appreciation for the current perspectives of Louisville families. As a relatively new resident, I bring fresh ideas and perspectives informed by my experiences living in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, England, California, the Netherlands, and New York. I tailor these ideas and perspectives to Louisville through my ever increasing appreciation of our community’s members, character, and history. As a community advocate and organizer, I bring three years of experience speaking before and writing to City Council, boards, and commissions as well as encouraging fellow residents to civic engagement. As a lifelong environmentalist I bring clear recognition of the urgency of acting locally to mitigate climate change and deep appreciation for the role of environmental sustainability in virtually all issues. As a member of Louisville’s Sustainability Advisory Board, I bring practical ideas for making real progress on mitigating and adapting to climate change.
5. What question would you ask a fellow candidate on the ballot?
Would you support an affordable housing project, perhaps permitted through a zoning change, in your own neighborhood?
6. What are your solutions for the growing population of people experiencing homelessness?
Homelessness is not currently a serious issue facing Louisville, but, in conversations with residents, I have heard concerns about the current and potential future state of homelessness in Louisville. City Council should schedule a study session on homelessness in Louisville within the next year. City Council could invite local, regional, or even national experts to inform its discussion as well as receive public comments from residents. Depending on the conclusions drawn from this study session, the City might want to investigate repurposing a vacant office building as a homelessness services center, most likely in partnership with a regional organization specializing in homelessness solutions.
7. What’s your plan for creating more affordable housing in Louisville?
The coming year will witness Louisville well-positioned to make significant progress on creating more affordable housing. The City just applied for eligibility to receive funds through Proposition 123; this November Boulder County voters will hopefully repurpose an existing sales tax towards an affordable housing fund; and in early 2024 the City will finalize its housing needs assessment. Furthermore, judging from the last couple of year’s City Council meetings, I sense a growing determination on City Council to finally make progress. Still, this positioning does not guarantee the creation of more affordable housing in Louisville. To ensure progress the City should establish a community vision for affordable housing, lay the groundwork for this vision, and engage and incentivize developers to realize this vision. One vision might include the following elements: affordable housing west of McCaslin Boulevard, on the vast parking lots east of McCaslin Boulevard, at Redtail Ridge, and possibly within the Colorado Technology Center, all permitted through proactive rezoning from commercial to residential (or mixed-use); affordable housing in neighborhoods upzoned to allow for somewhat denser residential developments like accessory dwelling units and duplexes; and affordable housing created through the preservation of smaller historical homes. Louisville should embrace its vision to create more affordable housing for its many benefits to our community: addressing residents’ concerns about being able to continue living in Louisville, having their children return to Louisville after college, and downsizing in retirement in Louisville; making Louisville a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive place; supporting Louisville’s businesses with a larger customer base and locally-based employees; and reducing the environmental impact of people commuting to Louisville. Of course, not everyone can—or wants—to live in Louisville, but Louisville can—and should—accommodate more residents. Louisville’s population can grow to some extent without unduly altering our community’s character.
8. How will you address climate change? How do you plan to meet Louisville’s climate goal of zero carbon by 2030?
Louisville’s primary sustainability goal is—and should be—reducing its carbon footprint to mitigate climate change. The City should work towards this goal as follows. First, City Council should adopt and implement its recently proposed plan for decarbonizing the City’s buildings and fleet in a timely, cost-effective manner. (The City’s goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 only concerns this municipal decarbonization plan. Recently, the City’s consultants have quite rightly determined that the City should extend this timeline to 2040.) The City’s own efforts would set an example for the considerably more formidable task of community-wide decarbonization. As mayor I will set all of Louisville on course to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions within the next two decades. To begin the City should thoroughly educate its residents and business owners on how to decarbonize their homes and businesses. Beyond detailing the process, resources, and incentives, this educational campaign should clearly convey the economic benefits and rightly prioritize equity and justice. The City should continue to offer—and expand if possible—its own incentives for electrification of building systems and appliances (recently established by myself and the rest of Louisville’s Sustainability Advisory Board). At some point the City should actively disincentivize the continued use of natural gas, and eventually the City must prohibit the use of natural gas. To make more substantial progress, the City should partner with manufacturers and installers of heat pumps, heat-pump hot water heaters, and induction stoves to obtain these items for its residents and businesses at substantially reduced costs. Separately, the City should work to increase the amount of carbon dioxide sequestered in its soils and foliage by planting more trees and replacing turf grass and hardscape with native plants.
9. What are your goals for transportation and how will you achieve them?
I want to substantially increase the rates at which people walk and bike for transportation in Louisville. As a start I want the City to further improve its pedestrian and bicyclist infrastructure in the following ways. The City should improve pedestrian crossings at a number of intersections including (but not limited to) South Boulder Road and Main Street, Via Appia and Via Capri, Via Appia and Lafayette Street, Dillon Road and Powerline Trail, Courtesy Road and Hecla Street, and the bend on Bella Vista Drive. The City should institute road diets on all of Via Appia and most of McCaslin Boulevard to allow for easier and safer pedestrian crossings, buffered bicycle lanes, and calmed vehicular traffic. The City should considerably expand its bicycle parking facilities, including electric bicycle charging facilities, at municipal and commercial locations. The City should develop more pedestrian cut throughs between neighborhoods and commercial centers. The City should begin to negotiate the creation of pedestrian rail crossings at Innovation Street, Lock Street, and Steel Street. The City should continue to pursue options for constructing underpasses. I also want to expand public transportation in Louisville (fully acknowledging that this is no simple task). Southern Louisville is particularly poorly served, with no public transportation to the Colorado Technology Center, the Monarch Campus, and AdventHealth Avista Hospital, yet proximity to existing RTD stations and the eventual development of Redtail Ridge make southern Louisville an ideal locale for a bus route. I would work with Commuting Solutions and RTD on this possibility. I also support the creation of better bicycle and vehicular access to the Monarch Campus on both its east and west sides. Finally, I want to expand Louisville’s electric vehicle charging infrastructure. I would collaborate with local businesses and regional organizations to best site and fund such infrastructure.
10. How do you plan to engage non-English speaking constituents?
The City’s Task Force on diversity, equity, and inclusion highly recommended that the City address issues of language justice, particularly for Spanish-speaking residents. The City has begun to respond to this recommendation, but there remains room for improvement. While the City has expanded translation of communications and documents into Spanish, some of the most important documents are not yet being translated. Specifically, to the best of my knowledge, City Council agendas are not translated, making civic engagement more difficult for Spanish-speaking residents. The City does provide translation services (upon request) for Spanish-speaking residents attending City Council meetings. Drawing on input from our Spanish-speaking community, the City should reassess how priority for translation into Spanish is determined.
11. How does diversity factor into your policy making?
I am a white, cisgender, heterosexual man; I grew up in an upper middle class family with two loving parents and two loving brothers; I have benefitted from excellent public schools and extensive secondary education; I have enjoyed the opportunity of living and working in geographically and culturally diverse places. Now, I am privileged to have settled in the wonderful community that is Louisville, Colorado, and I am privileged—and grateful to my wife—to spend my time as a stay-at-home father and engaged resident. While many Louisville residents share many of my privileges, many other Louisville residents do not share these privileges. As mayor I will work to engage residents who are not so privileged, I will craft policies that support these residents, and I will explore opportunities to redress historical misdeeds that harmed the less privileged. Specifically, I will prioritize the creation of affordable housing, which should help Louisville retain its current diversity and welcome new diversity, and I will advocate for the development of a land acknowledgement together with less symbolic, more concrete restorative actions informed by our indigenous community.
12. How will you reach residents who have different lived experiences than you?
In campaigning for mayor, I am attempting to personally knock on every door in Louisville. When a resident comes to the door, I briefly convey my priorities before asking for questions about my campaign and comments on the City. I hope that residents share their thoughts, ideas, and concerns so that I obtain a broad picture of perspectives on Louisville. During the mayor’s tenure, the mayor hosts town halls advertised to the community through the City’s standard communication channels. As mayor I would consider expanding this practice, hosting town halls for certain segments of Louisville’s population or certain neighborhoods in Louisville. As mayor I could also connect through organizations that regularly engage with residents having diverse lived experiences. The City’s program manager for diversity, equity, and inclusion could assist with such outreach. Finally, building on the neighborhood networks established after the Marshall fire, City staff is currently discussing possibilities for extending this structure to the whole of Louisville. The mayor could and should tap into such a network to reach a diversity of constituents.
13. Rank your top 5 issues in priority
I rank my top five priorities for Louisville as
- climate change mitigation,
- affordable housing creation,
- sustained economic vitality,
- climate change resiliency, and
- proactive revitalization.
Other Louisville Candidates:
City of Louisville Mayor (4-year term) (Vote for One)
City of Louisville City Council Ward 1 (4-year term)
Caleb Dickenson
City of Louisville City Council Ward 2 (4-year term) (Vote for One)
Deborah Fahey
City of Louisville City Council Ward 3 (Vote for not more than Two)
The candidate with the highest number of votes will serve a four-year term. The candidate with the second highest number of votes will serve a two-year term.
