News Miner 46

Housing, gun bills, education, media, crime, youth depression, masks, and more.

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Denver Housing

I figured out why Rep. Elisabeth Epps was cranky on March 8. Sam Deutsch of Better Cities Tweeted:

A socialist state legislator [Epps] is opposing hundreds of affordable homes on a decrepit golf course because the vibes are off. If you live in Denver vote YES on Measure 20. Housing is more important than golf courses.

I have not been following this particular measure closely. There’s an easement at issue, which complicates things. My general view is, let the owners of a property decide what they want to do with it. Generally, I don’t think property development should be a political issue. I have seen no good reason not to allow this particular development to go through. Nor have I heard any alternate plan for development from Team NIMBY.

All that said, Epps reports suffering abusive commentary over this measure. Let’s keep things civil.

In other housing news . . .

• Kyle Harris reports: “The teacher’s union is supporting the Park Hill Golf Course redevelopment. ‘Denver needs affordable housing for educators and the families that we serve,’ said Rob Gould, president of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association. ‘That is why we are proud to support YES on 2O.’”

• Boulder is considering increasing the number of people of unrelated people who can cohabitate from three.

• “Denver mayoral candidate Aurelio Martinez says he’s not one of those ‘Not In My Backyard’ types, but he doesn’t want affordable housing built in his neighborhood,” summarizes Kyle Clark.

• “Colorado has a housing problem. As a whole, the state is short 127,000 housing units, the seventh worst gap in the nation, according to a recent analysis,” reports News from the States. But we don’t need more bureaucracy to solve this problem, as the article suggests; we need more freedom to build and use housing.

• Elsewhere, Washington state is considering YIMBY reforms, as are other states (hopefully including Colorado).

Update on Gun Bills

Democrats want a waiting period for gun purchases. Republicans wanted to exempt people who fall under the “Victims Rights Act.” Democrats said no. I remarked, “I again suggest an amendment allowing anyone forced to wait for a gun to be able to ask for and receive state-funded, 24/7 police protection.”

Republicans filibustered overnight regarding the waiting period (which I oppose) and authorized drug-use sites (which I support).

George Brauchler interviewed Dave Kopel about the gun bills. One thing he points out is that the bill on waiting periods sets a floor of a three-day wait and allows localities to impose longer waits.

The legislature is considering a bill to expand the “red flag” law to take guns away from people who express or exhibit violent intent, CPR reports. Basically, the bill would let additional parties file a petition. This could be abused, obviously, but in principle this seems okay to me. Petitions are subject to judicial oversight.

Quick Takes—Colorado

Denver: Craig Silverman interviewed legislator and mayoral hopeful Leslie Herod.

Denver II: Denver forces taxpayers to help finance political races. Bad idea!

Education: “Colorado would ban corporal punishment by schools and day care centers, if a bill proposed by two Democratic legislators becomes law,” Chalkbeat reports. Do it! Corporal punishment should be banned across the board.

Education II: Steve Staeger reports: “Wild story going on in Elizabeth. Three conservative members of the school board there submitted resignation letters this week—largely because they’re being constantly pestered by people claiming critical race theory is creeping into curriculum. It isn’t.” See also the 9News report and the Colorado Sun write-up.

Transgender: The legislature is considering a bill that says “Colorado would not participate in any out-of-state investigations involving providers or recipients of abortion or gender-affirming care,” CPR reports. Offhand this sounds fine, although I’m not sure it’s necessary. Isn’t the default that the state doesn’t mess with people?

Religion: Washington Post: “Catholic group spent millions on app data that tracked gay priests.” From the WTF files.

Energy: CSI: “Between the 2019 and 2022 Colorado Legislative sessions, over 55 pieces of legislation passed that were aimed at complying with the greenhouse gas (GhG) emission reduction requirements of HB19-1261 or other climate objectives. These laws have directed multiple state departments to develop new regulations that alter nearly all aspects of energy production and consumption. Some of these changes are just starting to impact consumers, with many more coming in the next few years.”

Media: Jason Salzman fears the Anschutz-owned Gazette has the “potential . . . to spew forth lethal propaganda across Colorado, undermining elections, government, and progressive ideas and leaders.” Salzman also thinks (wrongly, I suspect) that the Denver Post’s days are numbered. My first question: Where is Salzman’s list of donors, exactly? No one doubts that the Gazette has a conservative orientation. But the media landscape of Colorado still leans pretty far to the left. So Salzman’s claims seem hyperbolic to me.

Republicans: Ian Silverii writes: “There are seven people vying for what absolutely must be the worst job in Colorado politics, to lead the GOP through what will inevitably be another terrible election for Republicans in Colorado in 2024. Though the expectations are low, the stakes are high, and as the party becomes more irrelevant, they are slamming on the gas toward further irrelevancy. It is hard to find a single one of these folks who could beat a rug with a stick, let alone bring this particular group of hopeless wackadoos into something resembling a functioning political operation.”

Crime: In reply to a Denver Post article about crime, Beth Rankin remarked, “Wanna know what my building *doesn't* do after years of break-ins, forced entry and burglary? Call Denver police. We use a Whatsapp group to chase out burglars ourselves because we learned a long time ago that DPD may or may not ever show up.”

Crime II: “Denver-area businesses turn to private security amid homelessness crisis,” reports the Denver Post.

Quick Takes—General

Libertarian: Jon Hersey interviewed Timothy Sandefur about Freedom’s Furies, about Isabel Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Ayn Rand.

Bigotry: Arnold Schwarzenegger has a powerful message against bigotry. I hope everyone watches this.

The Racism Card: On the other hand, sometimes false charges of bigotry are leveled against someone to try to discredit them. Recently this happened to Alex Epstein, when Rep. Cori Bush accused him of espousing white supremacist views. Hear Epstein’s reply. I’ve written about comparable attacks elsewhere. On the other hand, Shay Khatiri argues that “the West” (which Epstein promotes) is not a useful category.

Criminal Justice: “A Detroit man is suing Wayne County, the county’s attorney and a county prosecutor, alleging they retaliated by filing felony charges against him after he joined a class-action lawsuit pushing back against the county’s civil forfeiture policies,” reports the Detroit News. The Institute for Justice is on the case.

Criminal Justice II: The police department in Louisville, Kentucky is seriously messed up. Sickening.

Progress: Kelly Maher Tweeted, “Forgot my phone for school drop off this morning so I just turned on the normal radio. [My older child asked,] ‘Mom, is this music or is this a podcast? Because there’s talking AND there’s music, so I don’t understand.’ He’s never experienced anything other than music on demand. I’m so old.” On the other hand, I often listen to radio in the car with my kid. Still!

Youth: “Liberal teen girls are by far the most likely to report that they spend five or more hours a day on social media (31% in recent years, compared to 22% for conservative girls, 18% for liberal boys, and just 13% for conservative boys),” reports Jonathan Haidt, based on research by Jean Twenge. Haidt thinks the problem in terms of resulting depression is both amount of time spend on social media and messages absorbed through it. Basically, often kids are learning to think of themselves as fragile and as perpetual victims.

Masks: Zeynep Tufekci persuasively argues that, despite a recent metastudy purported to show otherwise, masks do work (imperfectly!) to prevent viral spread, although good data on the matter are limited.

Abortion: Heidi Beedle continues her examination of the movement that wants to “abolish” abortion.

Time: I figured I should replace my years-old media photo. For now I’m using a picture of me in Florida. Here are old and new:

Spiders: Mainly because my son did not want a jumping spider to freeze outside, we put the spider in a make-shift terrarium and started feeding it crickets. It’s a surprisingly interesting “pet,” although I feel a little bad for the crickets.