Equilibrium or a time of transition?

I have been mulling for months how to respond to some of the very negative feedback that city council has received over the prior year. As a new member to city council, and a reminder that these opinions are my own, I am probably seeing things for the first time that have been going on for years, but nonetheless, I have some thoughts on what I’ve seen and heard. Just what am I alluding to? The city council is trying to destroy the character of of our town. We don’t care about residents. I don’t read Nextdoor but am familiar enough with the hateful comments on that platform. Even before I was on city council I wrote a piece about Grace, and that is still true to me. I truly believe that we don’t even agree on how the world is, and as a result, we talk past each other. If you think, for example, that roads are only for cars, and I think they are for multiple modes of transportation, we’re not going to be able to have much of a dialog about where to spend money to “improve” things. Improve for who?

So….after that set up and my thoughts, I have a new theory on what is going on. And I see it as a transition from an old way of engaging in our community, and a new paradigm. If one were to imagine a scale of government involvement in your life from none at all (Libertarian if you will) to complete subjugation to government, (Authoritarianism) I think we have moved from the former towards the latter over the last 70 years or so. But while some may think this has been done by the government to the people, I would argue (in the sense of making a point, not in anger), that we have done this to ourselves.

Just read about Golden History in Golden Today, and you can see readily that volunteer organizations or simply individuals used to be the ones to make things happen, even big things. From creating and maintaining city parks (Lion’s Club), to building gardens (various garden clubs), to libraries, the Howdy arch, a pond at the end of 10th street, preservation (GLA), Astor House museum, visitor center, Foothills Art Center (Hal Sheldon), adopt a street (Golden Optimists/Lions), and go back farther to the Odd Fellows, DAR, Masons, Elks, Rotary, Jefferson Symphony, Civic Foundation and on and on. Self-sustaining, viable volunteer community based organizations that had strong membership, carried out a mission, and for good or ill, did their own things, often, independent of government.

Where are we now? With a few exceptions, including the Golden Civic Foundation, many organizations are on the receiving end of at least some public money. Through the new lodging tax and thriving grants program many organizations are finding themselves in survival mode and only able to be sustained through public investment. So here is my ironic comment about the anti-government sentiments. Look at the effect on our community when organizations step away from their engagement? The pond at the end of 10th, created for ice skating became a fishing pond, then a cesspool of shallow water that was hazardous. The Brick Yard Mansion, preserved with help from the state (and GLA) has become an un-built-out liability that would cost $$$ to remodel less than 1000 sq.ft.; and our wildly successful campaigns to attract visitors by mostly private entities has been so successful that the government is being blamed for the influx of people. Our arts organizations are recipients of lots of funding, and our history museum has been incorporated into the city government. Parks that were maintained by volunteers fell into disrepair and our parks and recs departments have had to pick up the slack (former rose garden and the friendship garden come to mind, but Tony Grampus was donated to the city). I am likely to get hateful comments from folks for having this view but let make it more clear. Volunteer groups have been the lifeblood of the city and their involvement has been a major reason why Golden is awesome. But as there has been a slow transition from less volunteerism to more collaboration with the city, there has not been a commensurate change in expectations. Narrow missions and goals of benevolent organizations now are viewed through a different lens of equity for all of those in Golden. And through all these changes we have seen CSM grow from a relatively small school with some impact on our town to a world class research institution with measurable impacts on our town, most of which we are unable to control!

The City Council is often accused of not doing what people want. But saying they want things the way they used to be, want to preserve the character, want parking, but on-street dining too, is an impossible task. Golden has changed. It was dead in the 80s and due to a lot of hard work and collaboration it is far from dead and is thriving by most measures. Thriving too much for some. With respect to some of the challenges we face, I think we can and will do “better”. But we also have to accept that people are spending their free time in different ways than they used to. Yes, some volunteer groups are doing great, and everyone under the Hunger Free Golden banner has my gratitude. But as long as we continue to ask of the government things that used to be done by the citizens, we have to face the messiness of government engagement.