By Richard Martin, 12-27-06
The pace of the post-blizzard cleanup in the Denver metro area has unquestionably been slow -- I was driving on 16th St. yesterday, a couple of blocks from downtown Boulder, and that street was untouched by any blade or plow. But it's nothing like the New Year's blizzard of 1988 in Washington, D.
C., when Mayor Marion Barry somehow couldn't be bothered to return to the paralyzed town because he was in Pasadena for the Rose Bowl. At least the Front Range is moving again.
Politicians like Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper have what might be called a "once-a-decade" problem. If a historic weather event like the blizzard of 2006 (the second "10-year storm" since 2003) happens on their watch, everyone wants to know why the city wasn't better prepared. But it's hard, and expensive, to prepare for something that happens only once a decade.
Better then to think ahead and plan for the problems facing the West that aren't going away, and aren't solvable by one-off mop-up operations. As 2006 closes I'm listening to Sarah McLaghlan's fine version of John Lennon's "Happy Christmas (War is Over)" and finding hope in some promising long-term movements that have taken hold in the region over the last year, and that give us some optimism that we could make some progress in the coming year in grappling with the Big Issues facing us. Here's my list of Five Promising Trends for 2007 -- and one not-so-promising one.
1. The Real Estate Bubble Goes Pfft: As opposed to "bang!", that is.
The , fueled by Greenspan-era cheap mortgages and risky suburban developments, is expected by most economists to drag the economy down in '07, and could actually tip us into recession if consumers stop spending once they see the value of their home go flat or start decreasing. But in a larger, social sense the outrageous home prices we've been seeing the last few years are a dangerous trend. For one thing, in places like Boulder and Bozeman and Aspen they force people who can't afford to live where they work into long commutes, damaging both family life and the environment.
For another they tend to exacerbate the income difference between rich and poor, since homeowning is an investment that largely benefits the upper class. Even if it slows economic growth, bringing sanity to the housing market is a good thing.
2.
Energy Policy Gets Real: In the weekly Energy Grok in the last two months I've reported on : Colorado's new focus on renewable energy development under Gov.-elect Bill Ritter, new energy technologies, new federal bonds for wind-power production, huge advances in green-energy production and consumption, tightened regulations on oil and gas companies operating in the region, and so on. While most of these are counter-balanced by unfortunate developments, like the construction of several new coal-fired plants, there is a palpable sense that the opportunity is real, and the moment is now.
Here's the other piece that needs to fall into place in 2007: a renewed effort on advanced nuclear power plants across the West.
3. Bipartisanship: Okay, President Bush looks like he's sucking a lemon when he says the word, and the hands-across-the-aisle talk in D.
C. will no doubt be followed by partisan conflict of renewed intensity and malice. But in Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico and Colorado (let's leave Utah aside, for the moment), both parties, pushed by fed-up voters, seem to have awoken to the need for real progress on real problems facing real people, rather than ideology and infighting.
Haven't heard so many inflammatory speeches from Tom Trancredo since the election, have you? Though all three are Democrats, Govs. Schweitzer, Freudenthal and Ritter have little patience for ideological crusades, and both Schweitzer and Freudenthal have already gone beyond gestures to tangible work together with Republicans.
The New West Project, an effort to extend the Democratic gains in the West nationally, could help move the bipartisan program forward -- even if they did swipe our name.
4. Denver, World Class City: The nightmare at DIA during the blizzard was particularly dispiriting because it brought unwelcome and discouraging news to a worldwide audience at a time when Denver seemed to be finally making the leap from glorified cow town ("Dallas, but with mountains") to a world-class metropolis.
From the new Gehry-designed Art Museum to life-changing medical research to the ongoing creation of a new public transit system the rival of any in the United States, Denver seems poised to raise its profile beyond the Broncos and the gateway to Vail and Aspen. would only further this flourishing. But you gotta think Howard Dean was watching the TV news images of DIA turned into a refugee camp for three days.
5. Turning Down the Volume on Immigration: See No. 3 re: Tom Tancredo.
Across the West, the rhetoric on illegal immigration has cooled, if only slightly, from the . The raids on Smith Co. meatpacking plans in Colorado seemed to have had sobering effect, as vociferous immigration foes watch their townspeople and their employees being handcuffed at their jobs.
With , it's hard to argue that immigrants are "stealing American jobs." The Democratic Congress is expected to make significant progress on a moderate and humane . (Whether Bush will sign it is another question.
) City mayors in the West, like Hickenlooper, realize that immigration is a far more complex issue than the demagoguery surrounding it would have it.
6. Boomeritis on the Rise: 2006 marked a passage for me personally, as I was diagnosed with an arthritic hip that has ended my running career.
I'm hoping to put off having a hip replacement for another 6-8 years, and still manage to hike, ski, and bicycle with my son. For many of us in our mid-40s and on up, a lifetime of activity is now . That means boom times for orthopedists across the West, especially those specializing in high-tech procedures like hip "resurfacing.
"
Happy New Year, and hand me the anti-inflammatories
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Your "moderate and humane program of immigration reform" will vastly increase legal immigration and lead to even more illegal immigration. The Senate bill was full of loopholes and, like the 1986 amnesty its enforcement provisions would be watered down or ignored. If most people were informed of what it would actually do, they would call it "extremist", not "moderate".
It also isn't "humane" to strip a country of the workers it needs and to prop up their corrupt oligarchy.
And, needless to say, you don't realize just how strongly Bush is on your side.
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