ink! protests are about housing, not coffee

The clamor that ink! coffee created with their gentrification sign has now been heard across the nation, and it’s only louder here in Denver, where the issue has ignited a powderkeg that has long been overstuffed as the cost of living continues to skyrocket along the Front Range.  As a candidate for Colorado’s House District 5, which is an urban district, I walk the neighborhoods of Denver, and at more doors than I can count, I hear the same refrain: What are you going to do about rent prices?

We have 250 people moving to Colorado every day.  Most of them settle along the Front Range in cities like Denver, Boulder and Colorado Springs.  That’s driving the cost of rent upward.  We can’t stop them from moving here, but we can do something about the amount of housing that greets them.  We need to give incentives to home builders to build homes that meet affordable standards based on median income so that we can get more first-time home buyers into permanent homes and out of rental units, freeing up those spaces for others and deflating the rental market.  We need to repeal the 1981 law that the Telluride Supreme Court decision was based on that prevents anything that even resembles rent control in Colorado. We need a Renters’ Bill of Rights that extends the amount of time before a landlord can evict a tenant and the amount of time before a landlord can raise rent.

There’s not a silver bullet for housing, but there are solutions.  We need to take them before Denver starts looking like San Francisco.

Gabriel ThornDemocratic candidate for Colorado House of Representatives District 5Denver

Newly minted lawmaker seems to hate almost everybody

Judy Reyher showed her true colors from the heart: condemnation of people she doesn’t even know because they aren’t white. I am a white man, and every black person I ever met in the Army, at work and as friends and family, works hard and has always been honest with me. I cannot say that about many white people.

Hey Judy, how many blacks and minorities have you and your family hired and trained at work? You complain about people not working but you won’t hire them. If you ever do, you will not treat them fairly and equally. Hateful people like you create racism and all of the violence, suffering and poverty it causes. Not blacks. You. It sounds like you pretty much hate everyone except white folks.

Ignorance leads to misunderstanding, which leads to fear, fear leads to anger and anger leads to hate and hate turns to violence. And all for nothing. And just think: A little love and understanding from each of us could truly solve every problem we have.

Judy, I believe you have a good heart. I believe you care. But now you are a leader and must change the future for all of us in the right direction. Never let fear guide you. You are better and smarter than that.

Martin GalleyMorrison

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