Redesigning Greeley Colorado--A Political Cow Town

Greeley Colorado is an interesting town to figure out. Especially when you are coming at it from a different point of view than most folks raised here. Currently I have been tracking articles about the District 6 mill levy, the Greeley City Council election, District 6 Teacher Union negotiations, and, one of my favorite snail-snot companies--JBS Swift. Just thinking about writing on these topics is beginning to make me cringe. A lot of good people involved and a lot of bad planning and outdated ideas used.

Combine this with the fact I've never quite got the hang of the East/West versus North/South orientation of the town and end up driving endlessly across the prairie even when I am just popping out for coffee--I get to spend a lot of time just looking at the beautiful mythic trees, architectural styles, and a lot of frothing-at-the-treasure-chest developments running amok to the south and west (I think) of Greeley. Then there are the empty store fronts. Ramshackle buildings leaning too far over the sidewalk. The unkempt and ungreen sections of town. All speckled in between beautiful manicured older developments, the nice college campuses, places where people rarely venture into their front yards to associate with their neighbors but spend hours politely maintaining their end of the bargain.

And never the twain shall meet. Is this libertarianism? Is it protectionism? Is it racism? Or is it just plain lack of a City Council having much idea how to pull it all together--before the treasure chest is emptied trying to encourage big business and special interests to spread Greeley around like melted butter on a counter top.

After a week of being under-enlightened and disillusioned over the lack of zoning and planning and with special interest editorials pouring out of the fingers of the staff at the Tribune I finally turned to my local "tour guides" and other acquaintances for answers. There are so many things to like about Greeley (especially the people) it doesn't make a lot of sense to me why they don't take more interest in their own town. Is it really easier to just move out and let the sprawl mafia take over?

We've spent more than a few hours over coffee educating Jane.

"Greeley is just a cow town that never really wanted to be a city but finds itself now a city..." I was told.

The light snapped on. Now I have been told a lot of other things as well but this item, above, just made all the pieces of the puzzle come flying together.

It makes sense why there has been little prudent economic development planning. My opinion of course. It makes sense why Greeley's overall strategic economic and development position is being more directed by regional economic planners and UNC's concept of business planning than it is by the City "Elders" shall we say. Greeley doesn't want to grow up to be something it doesn't want to be--a big city. Although it still isn't clear why the prairie palace developers are allowed to walk away with spreading out their wings and pooping all over Northern Colorado. I thought that is what zoning was all about and what the ranchers and farmers were all about--making sure that stuff didn't happen. But I digress.

The people in the castle on the hill (Greeley City Council and its Mayor) do not have enough incentive to be fully invested in the long term interests of the town. If you've ever been a public persona, well, let's just say it is a pretty thankless job unless you are paid a lot of money to focus your interest or at least given enough political clout to get a good seat in the top restaurant without waiting.

I once implied to a group of Greelians that someone ought to paid for putting 100% interest into the Greeley Good Ship Lollipop. This was upon finding out that the Mayor only receives a stipend as well as counsel members. Half the room, Republican fiscal conservatives, choked on their coffee while the other half politely explained to me that the Mayor really didn't do anything. Ed Clark might object but then again I heard he got elected on the basis of his pleasing personality and big night stick. Back to Jane's advisers, the main ladies in the room pointed out that mostly the council is white, retired, and special interest laden. (I already figured that part out but didn't think it would make me a very pleasurable coffee companion to bring it up). It was noted several are law enforcement types and public works service types without any serious background in economics and economic development. Makes sense if you take a look at the results of what they have been applying to Greeley over the years. Piecemeal cow town with a corral around any and every culture to keep them from "mixing" in with the herd. On a subconscious level no doubt.

After all I'm sure everyone would be thrilled to have a highly educated Somali with citizenship run for City Council. Right? Right? The point is to get the job done, right? Same with the local School Board. Right? It's who can do the best job not who can maintain the existing social status quo. We ended coffee chat at this point. Two many "rights" from someone labeled "left".

So I went home and took a look at the Greeley City Charter. Obviously not something to read over candlelight and a football game. Oh, that makes sense--the mayor gets the title of being executive officer but all the official powers and prerogatives of being executive officer have been gutted and handed over to the City Manager, Chief Administrative Official of the City. You have to read, sorry, a bit further to see the gutting of the fish. The actual authoritative decision making is given in detail over to the City Manager later on down the charter pages. An unelected official by the way. One that the electorate can't vote out of power if they should be unhappy. Not good on the direct representation or concept of democracy scale Greeley.

The proposed Charter provides that the Mayor shall be the Chief Executive Officer of the City, the City Council shall be the policy-making authority, and a City Manager to be appointed by the City Council for an indefinite term, the Chief Administrative Official of the City.

Who designed this burg, again? Oh yeah, it is a cow town. It doesn't want planning, design, regulation, zoning, and government. Just financial conservatism and corrals around all the "types" of people that are "different".

Well I hate to be the one that pops the balloon because I kind like the folksy cow town idea. I grew up around one of those. However it is hard not to point to the fact that while tending the cows the horse has now left the barn and ain't comin' back. Greeley is a small city. And it is a small city without any real obvious direction on how to create an effective government that will spend enough money to plan for the best future of the town at the least cost to the individual taxpayer. In other words fiscal constraint doesn't work without prudent investment and good long term social integration policies. It isn't just about today. It is about the infrastructure your children inherit tomorrow.

Yes, I'm sorry Virginia, there isn't any Santa Claus. Somebody is going to have to connect the cement sidewalks, water pipes, and city services to all those roaming red-nose developers in the middle of nowhere. That is you and me, babe. The guys back at the local Greeley government ranch are just gonna let the developers ride into town as tax free as possible and plop down where ever they point to the ground with the cry of "Jobs!" Tsssk. Tsssk. Then there is the whole issue of educating the public. All the public not just the kids in the charter schools on the right side of town. You want a real gang problem Greeley? Just refuse to invest and redevelop the "other" side of town. Disrespect breeds disrespect in any culture. Let education continue to fail the masses in District 6 and the lack of all day Kindergarten and textbooks for the kiddies won't be all that comes tumbling down.

Time to think of Greeley's value investment. Time to think of Greeley as an investment. Time to think of Greeley as a cow town that can kick ass if someone cares enough about it.

Diversity of business (Mom and Pops), economic development, revitalization of the downtown strip, redevelopment, education and gang management, and federal grant management hopefully is going to pop up on some one's view finder. Put the cow town politics to bed and start demanding someone manage the entire ranch and build good fences.

But then as the Greeley Tribune Cheerleader says today in its editorial, they are just happy so many citizens are interested in government. *Without really being paid to do the job (my addition). Yes, they are interested, I'll toast to that... but the real question is will the person they elect have to be the right color, the right sex, the right age group, local only, and do they have to represent a special interest or authority figure to get elected.

We, living in Greeley, already know the answer to this question... don't we?

Time for a change. Right turn Clyde.



Supreme Court Upholds Mill Levy Freeze

Obama on Gates Arrest

The discussion on health care was much needed. I thought Obama did a good job of clearing up some of the threats to undermining the reform. He did approach trying to clarify peoples misperception between deficit and debt. Although I found my own attention wandering as he tried to go through it and realized, as I already had surmised, this is why it is so difficult to correct many adults narrow vision of "checkbook math". So it will be interesting to see how successful his explanation will be in explaining away conservative fears of spending more money.

I, myself, am not happy with the way things are going on health care in the Senate, as my earlier satire--below on the Senator Di suggests, I am a proponent of a single payer system. But I wanted to comment, per Mowdy's review, on the lightest and most poignant moment during Obama's question and answer period following his speech.

Addressing a reporter's question on his feelings regarding the arrest of Henry Gates earlier this week Obama first clarified that he might not be as objective as he and Mr. Gates are friends. But he gave a lot of good background on the topic. Then came "I'd be shot" as he sincerely but somewhat ambiguously stated trying to describe the situation by placing it in the context of his own life and comparing it to that the renowned scholar Henry Gates found himself in a few days ago. I am going to look on the White House website and see if I can snag a video of the whole thing (it is not up yet so I will post the link to where it will be http://www.whitehouse.gov/live/). It is worth posting just for the health care speech of course but the Gates moment just makes it worth paying attention all the way through.

I thought about writing on the topic of Mr. Gates arrest earlier but again I would like to keep this about local Greeley stuff. With Mowdy commenting frequently though I think there is an appropriate relationship between the macro and the micro here since she posted her own experiences with Greeley police just a day or so ago.

All of the text of the exchange between Obama and the reporter asking the question will probably be up in the media before the hour is out. I have posted what I could find at the moment. First here is a part of the original article from the Washington Post on the original arrest. The event happened in Cambridge, MA.

Addendum (from CNN--of course they put the most sensational headline up instead of the truly important stuff on healthcare):

"I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played," Obama said Wednesday night while taking questions after a White House news conference.

Cambridge authorities dropped disorderly conduct charges against Henry Louis Gates Jr. on Tuesday.

Obama defended Gates on Wednesday night, while admitting that he may be "a little biased," because Gates is a friend.

"But I think it's fair to say, No. 1, any of us would be pretty angry; No. 2, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and, No. 3 ... that there's a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately."

From the Washington Post on the original arrest:
"Henry Louis Gates Jr., one of the nation's most prominent African American scholars, was arrested last week at his home near Harvard University after trying to force open the locked front door.

According to a report by the police department in Cambridge, Mass., Gates accused police officers at the scene of being racist and said repeatedly, "This is what happens to black men in America." The incident was first reported by the Harvard Crimson.

Gates, the director of the W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Studies, has been away from his home much of the summer while working on a documentary called "Faces of America," said Charles Ogletree, a Harvard law professor and friend of Gates who is working as his lawyer. Gates returned from China last week and had trouble opening the front door with his key.

Gates, 58, was arrested Thursday by police looking into a possible break-in for disorderly conduct "after exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior" at his home, according to the police report. Officers said they tried to calm down Gates, who responded, "You don't know who you're messing with," according to the police report.

Ogletree said Gates was ordered to step out of his home. He refused and was followed inside by a police officer. After showing the officer his driver's license, which includes his address, Ogletree said Gates asked: "Why are you doing this? Is it because I'm a black man and you're a white officer? I don't understand why you don't believe this is my house." Ogletree said Gates was then arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and racial harassment."

Obama: Cambridge police acted 'stupidly' in Gates arrest - National Politics Blog - Political Intelligence - Boston.com

Obama: Cambridge police acted 'stupidly' in Gates arrest
Email|Link|Comments (2) Posted by Foon Rhee, deputy national political editor July 22, 2009 08:59 PM

President Obama addressed he arrest of Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. at his Cambridge home during his news conference tonight, saying that "anyone would be angry" and "the Cambridge police acted stupidly."

Obama prefaced his reply by saying that "I might be a little biased here" because "Skip Gates" is a friend, and by acknowledging that "I don't know all the facts."

He then recited what has been reported, and joked that if he tried to jimmy the lock at his current residence -- the White House -- "I'd get shot."

But then he went on to say that there's a long history of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by police disproportionately. "That's just a fact," he said.

America has made progress on race relations, and his election is testimony to that, he said, but the Gates episode suggests there's still more that needs to be done to end discrimination, he said.

Hispanics Fare Less Well in Health Care

Since Mowdy brought up the subject of racial tensions in Greeley in the comment section I thought I would post the following video and article from Gallup.com.

I like the Gallup site because while the mainstream media often cite their polls and data it is always a good idea, I think, to go see what the Gallup experts have to say. Strategically the news media have an obligation, in order to turn a profit and stay in business, to report news and (sadly) entertain the public. It is a strategic advantage for some news organizations to also be credible--but that is not always the case. And, as we all have heard and experienced lately, the entertainment news is prospering while the credible news makers are suffering cutbacks and entertainment/news competition from the Internet. Gallup on the other hand maintains their profitability directly from their credibility for being accurate. They don't sell entertainment. They sell facts and accurate projections. So I like to hop on over to their website once a month or so and go through the free stuff and get the real take on things straight from the Gallup mouth so to speak. It often makes me feel much better about the world than I do when reading the current media spin on the same topics--regardless of the political bent of the news source. They have papers to sell an they have to put in an "angle" to sell those.

Considering the blatant racism I have seen in individual gatherings in Greeley and the tacit, probably racist, policies of the local government I thought this piece might shed a little light on the topic. It amazes me, that even as racist ideas pour from the mouth of babes here in Greeley, many refuse to see the negative impacts of their own ideas on their own community well-being and how many of these ideas are based on race, granted sometimes culture, rather than fact or reason.

President Obama is addressing the nation tonight on the health care issue so I thought the piece timely as well. According to Gallup 16.0% of Americans self-identify as not having health insurance. I have always seen this as my issue as well. If the kids who go to school with my family members don't have health care I am at a higher risk of being less healthy and incurring more costs myself. Not to mention it is simply a matter of being humane to the tribe and looking out for our long term collective health.

Besides I wanted to see if I could figure out how to embed a video on my site.



USA

Hispanics, Low-Income, and Young Most Often Uninsured
July 22, 2009
In the United States, Hispanics, those making less than $36,000 per year, and 18- to 29-year-olds are the most likely to be uninsured, at 42%, 29%, and 28%, respectively.