Author: Durango Herald Editorial Board

Same story, different day. Different government body, too. Homeless campsites along Roosa Avenue on the Animas River within Durango city limits remind us of a smaller version of Purple Cliffs, previously La Plata County’s problem. Those images of tents and trash, and stories from law enforcement and city staff members about piles of pet and…

Colorado Republicans have talked about rebuilding the party after the 2022 election beating. We imagined the GOP returning to its core ideology, determining what it wants to be now, making more room at the table for moderates and focusing on serving all members. From here, we’re expecting an evolved, unified message coming out of the…

Durango City Council gave city staff members the green light to move forward with a reorganization plan that whittles 23 boards and commissions to 15. Working from Council’s directive in 2019, city staff members delivered on rooting out redundancies, inefficiencies, overlap and more. They produced an optimal restructure. What to combine, dissolve, change in new…

Comedian Jimmy Fallon has a slogan for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ expected presidential run: “DeSantis 2024: Make America Florida Again.” Fallon is referring to DeSantis’ efforts in Florida to censor curriculums, most recently the Advanced Placement African American Studies course for high-schoolers. DeSantis banned the course, saying it would “indoctrinate” students in political and “woke”…

We were disappointed to learn that right out of the gate, U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert’s first introduced legislation was the Defund Planned Parenthood Act, which prohibits federal tax money from going to Planned Parenthood. Boebert’s action is shortsighted and does not serve constituents who rely on Planned Parenthood for health care. “The nation’s largest abortion…

State of the state speeches are often long on promises and short on details. We get swept up in what Colorado can become as our state approaches its 150th anniversary in 2026. Those promises are hopeful. A little dreamy even. Then reality hits. In this case, it’s the cost of housing that blew by wages…

Here we go again. Serial records requester Pagosa Springs attorney Matt Roane gave the city of Durango an ultimatum on Jan. 4: Either City Council approves the release of a recording from a Dec. 12 executive session regarding an evaluation of Tony Maestas, former interim city attorney, or the city faces another lawsuit. If there’s…

Sports betting could be the way to water. Last Wednesday, Ute Mountain Ute Chairman Manuel Heart and Southern Ute Chairman Melvin Baker addressed a joint session of the state Legislature, asking lawmakers to change the 2019 sports betting law so tribes can also benefit from the multibillion dollar industry. And rightly so. Federal, state and…

A week into the New Year, some upcoming events for the year are easier to predict than others. That’s not unusual. We can easily say that providing workforce housing will be a focus in 2023, even with perhaps a couple of hundred units already at various stages in the planning process, and underway. But even…