I had lunch with Macon Cowles yesterday at Eben Fine park. Macon is a pleasant thoughtful guy and it was nice to be outside for an interview – good idea on his part.
I asked Macon why he is running and he immediately responded that he wants to bring sustainability to Boulder. And by sustainability he means that the community must meet core criteria: environment, equity, & longevity. This is a topic Macon referred back to throughout the interview. What does this mean? I think it can be summed up as Macon has a vision for how all the elements of Boulder should fit together to keep Boulder a great place to live and make it even better. And he wants to make sure we have all those things happen.
This led to his discussing how the metabolism of the cities is what will drive our saving the planet. That protecting the wild places is key, but even more important is what we do in our cities. This again circles back to what we make of our city and how we move forward. Macon sees Boulder as an organic whole rather than a number of independent distinct issues.
He also wants to help the economically stressed. He sees a key part of City services as providing for those that can't afford much on their own. He views this as a responsibility of the city to care for those that most need help.
Then he jumped on the revenue issue. He definitely understands the scope of the problem the city is facing and that demographically it's going to get worse. He also brought up the key point (the only candidate to do so) that things are worse than the assumptions in the blue ribbon panel's effort because people are now saving more than they were before.
So what to do? Macon is totally focused on finding the money to continue the level of services the city presently provides. He does want to see the City continue to charge fees based on the cost to the city of the development assessed the fee. This means higher fees for commercial and lower fees for residential. I asked him about the open space taxes flipping to general fund when they expire and he is not sure if that will make sense then.
I also asked about the head tax and he brought up the fairness issue – only private employers are assessed that tax. University, government labs, etc do not get assessed the head tax. So this would be a major hit on private companies – definitely not a good thing in this economic environment. He also brought up assessing sales tax on Internet sales (which does need to happen).
On the various proposals to increase revenue, Macon wants to get voter feedback on the different approaches to see what the voters would prefer. (That's what all the candidates say, and it is a valid point. But I'd still like to get their preferences.)
We then got on to the F.A.R. bill and regulating what is built. I first asked Macon how he felt being the point person on this with voters all seeing him as the lead on this. He does not see it that way and views it as a council effort to address a problem. What he is trying to do is retain the existing feel of our neighborhoods where you have a given line of sight of trees, the mountains, yards, etc. And when the Queen Mary is built on a lot, it interrupts that flow for all around it.
He then discussed how we should be looking for quality, not quantity in our housing. And so we should build nicer, but not larger houses. He sees the ongoing increase in house size and thinks we have gone beyond what is sensible. I asked about communities evolving over time and how that has lead to significant differences over the decades, including larger houses for a given lot size as the cost of the house has dropped compared to the lot. Macon insists that he is in favor of the evolution of communities, but wants to keep it within reasonable constraints for each neighborhood.
I then asked about discourage vs. forbid. In other words, instead of saying no larger houses, have very high fees for the right to do so. His response was that that wouldn't stop that type of development. And it would leave the very rich a way to still have their gigantic houses while the immediate neighbors suffer the consequences. He brought up that it is the job of the city to protect us from harm and to balance the rights of all voters.
I next asked about these giant condos next to Eben Fine park – in my opinion they're way oversize for the neighborhood. I assumed that they were some of the buildings that people were upset over. Nope. In fact, they were approved by Macon when he was on the planning board. He looked a bit chagrined and said he didn't realize how it would look when built." I think this goes to the heart of this issue, even someone like Macon very focused on what is appropriate approved a building that once built he appears to be uneasy with.
We then got on to density and affordable housing. Macon is in favor of more density where appropriate. And sees that as a way to bring a bit more affordable housing to Boulder. He called out the height exceptions for 29th St as a good thing. So Macon may be one of the more restrictive voices on growth – but he is not trying to eliminate it.
Macon next discussed carbon emissions. He would like to see these reduced across the board in the city. He talked about how homeowners, between the various rebates & programs, can save themselves a lot of money reducing the carbon footprint of their home. But he sees the best avenue right now being commercial buildings. The approach he wants to take is to get landlords to take advantage of the Xcel rebates and then fund the rest through a tax assessed on their property. By being a tax the landlords then pass it on to renters who have triple-net leases.
We hit the end of the interview and Macon rushed to add that we need more affordable housing and he wants to make that happen too. But time did not allow for details on that.
So what do we get with Macon? He is clearly a strong proponent of controlled city planning. By definition this means if you like his vision of where Boulder should go he's terrific and if you dislike his vision, then he's awful. And for the majority who want to know what that vision is, it is one that sees slow changes from what we presently have. In addition, he's clearly a really smart guy who has studied these issues a lot. He's coming at this job with a deep understanding of what we face and how various issues impact the city and interact with each other.
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