LA fires bring back Marshall Fire traumas

Watching LA burn on our news feed, our community is feeling a resurfacing of Marshall Fire trauma. Alongside trauma comes its close cousin, anxiety.

As a community, Boulderites need to take this moment to support each other, especially those who have had losses due to extreme weather. The pain of these experiences does not fade when the news coverage stops. While homes have been rebuilt, few of us have recaptured a sense of safety. Many of our young children are still fearful of high winds and associate them with extreme danger.

Climate Change Anxiety and Extreme Weather Anxiety are here to stay. When anxiety is too strong, humans try to overcompensate. We either binge on images and news of our triggers, or completely avoid them. It is really hard to face our fears.

Check in on the people in your life who lost their homes or were otherwise affected by the Marshall Fires. If you are one of those people, give yourself the grace to mourn your loss alongside your empathy for the people of LA. Reach out for help if your anxiety has been activated. Please know that you are still deeply cared for, even if the news cycle has long since dropped its coverage of your pain.

— Natalia Aíza, Boulder

How Colorado can fix the affordable housing crisis

As we watch the Longmont City Council approve one massive apartment development after another, a stunning article appeared in The New York Times on Thursday. This article shows that at least one Democrat has the political courage to tackle the underlying problem of unaffordable and unavailable housing, and it doesn’t involve building new housing. Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul just announced that she has proposed a plan to limit corporate ownership of housing.

If you have wondered why the price of housing has soared and why it is unavailable, wonder no longer. Lack of affordable housing is due to the investors who buy up housing to make profits from rentals. NPR, the reliable bastion of liberal news, reported “that 24% of all Colorado single-family homes sold in 2021 were purchased by investors rather than private homeowners, mirroring the national average.”

I have a question for my liberal governor, Jared Polis, and the Democrats and Republicans in the Colorado House and Senate: When will you pass legislation to reverse the trend of corporate ownership of Colorado housing? When will you show us the political courage of Kathy Hochul, the Democratic governor of New York?

Your response, or lack of it, will indicate if you serve the interests of the vast majority of your voters or the interests of investors who donate to your elections. Please surprise me.

— Michael McNeil, Mead