Letters: 1/14/16

We need Grey Wolves so stop killing them
Please for the love of God, let the grey wolves remain of their territory (Re: “A turning point,” January 7). They were there, thousands of years before you were. It is their habitat. Do not exterminate (murder is really the word) these innocent beauties. We need to nurture our wildlife, not exterminate it.
Marcia Stratton/via internet

Americans have had our Christian morality brainwashed out of us
Many have said that our leader’s and society’s lack of ethics and morality doesn’t matter anymore, that polls show 66 percent do not care. Well then what does matter? Americans no longer care because they have been brainwashed into immorality by the education establishment. Our primary Founders, however, said that Liberty and Freedom absolutely depended on Judeo/Christian morality, virtue, and ethics and if we lost them we would lose our Liberty and Freedom. In addition, the book The Harbinger makes it very clear that America is being judged by God and the hedge of protection and blessing is being removed from our land precisely because of it, particularly that of our leaders. No, it doesn’t just matter; it is provable fact that it is what matters most! Government statistics show that when SCOTUS illegally removed the required Judeo/Christian education from schools in 1963 (where it had been the legal reason for schools existence in the first place) the vast negative effects on all of society that had been low or decreasing for decades, skyrocketed. What is really sad is that our Judeo/Christian community in America, so blessed yet so comfortable, has sat back and let it happen.
David Cook/Loveland

High-priced “Infill” only fills the pockets of developers
Wake up folks who want more permanently affordable housing! The developer, of Greenius LLC, is licking his lips thinking of his profits and the assured approval of the obscenely priced $5,000/month, 2000 sq. ft. townhouse rental units to be built at the Boulder Junction Transit Village (“Townhouse project advances,” Daily Camera, Jan. 4).
Wow! Recent report — 59 percent of renters in Boulder cost-burdened! Rents priced at $2.50/sq.ft. or $5,000/month for 2,000 sq. ft. unit will shoot up Boulder’s already sky-high rents! All units will be high-priced rentals with no permanently affordable housing — “Greenius paid cash-in-lieu instead of including the required 20 percent designated permanently affordable units on site.”
If you voted against 300 and 301 to have more permanently affordable housing built in Boulder, you were duped — you didn’t follow the money.
From the Steve Pomerance column “Following the money” (Daily Camera, Sept. 29): “Developers pay on the basis of 75 percent, not 100 percent, of the actual difference between the market price and the price that would be affordable for someone in the eligible population. To make up for this gap, affordable housing providers use various sources of mostly public money … developers are getting a deal … and our taxes make up (most of) the difference.”
These developers, who are the real NIMBYs (don’t want any lower-income folks around to turn off the crowd they are rent gouging) get to further inflate the already sky-high Boulder rental market and pad their rental profits with a 25 percent off cash-in-lieu deal, subsidized by taxpayer’s money, not to build permanently affordable housing! Wake up folks! That’s why there’s a shortage of permanently affordable housing in Boulder and why rents are sky-high! The high-priced “infill” being built is only “filling” developer’s pockets, at your expense!
Dinah McKay/Boulder

Drones versus assault rifles, guess which one is more regulated
As required by the FAA, this little quad-copter drone flown for recreation is now registered. It has its very own aircraft certificate and carries an identification number, just like big airplanes. FAA registration required promising never to fly near manned aircraft, airports, over groups of people, stadiums or sporting events, near emergency responders and not under the influence. Those rules seem reasonable, a pilot should behave responsibly and of course I’ll comply. But wait a minute; we can buy AR-15 assault rifles without making those same promises. There are zero controls established in Colorado that prohibit the Second Amendment-protected gun owner from getting liquored-up and blasting away for “recreational” fun.
Compared to the efficient killing capability of one assault rifle that takes out tens of innocents per clip, no reloading required, the little drone presents minuscule risk of harming others. Yet it has to be registered, a fee paid and personal information transferred to the Federal Government; otherwise you’re breaking the law. In stark comparison, purchase an assault rifle in Colorado (for example from Colorado Springs sellers listed on armslist.com) without license or registration required, maybe endure a background check and, presto, you have military firepower without joining the Army.
Drones have many legitimate commercial, educational and recreational uses. It seems out of balance to regulate them more stringently than assault rifles, which are an inherently unsafe product having the sole use of killing humans. It is time for Colorado to get serious about protecting residents by banning assault rifle sales and the ammunition that feeds them.
Robert Carrier/Boulder

Maybe just this once, human rights could win over property rights
I’m wondering if one or two justices on the Colorado Supreme Court aren’t “making the rounds,” trying to gain a unanimous decision on the regional anti-fracking cases. The crude industry certainly prefers a report before the snow melts, to plan for new or reworked activity. This assumes oil is not trading for $20 a barrel by April, of course.
For what might we hope here? We tend to learn about flood hazards after our home has been flushed away. Recent (successful) opposition to a density change in part of the “Anthem” development in north Broomfield should remind us that, like it or not, residents may need to have more discretion over vertical juxtaposition of land uses, than the more common horizontal ones. The former are much more difficult to escape.
That we endure severed mineral estates arises from an economic premise, as does zoning. Severing a mineral estate is to me akin to leaving a burglar behind to torment and fleece future property owners. Because the federal government institutionalized the practice is no reason to consider it more palatable.
The high Court should have nagging questions about the rectitude of fracking in or near urban areas. The best outcome would have the case[s] remanded to district court, for a full evidentiary hearing. There we would air the disclosures the drillers resist.
But maybe just this once, human rights could win over property rights.
Gregory Iwan/Longmont