SPEAKER_05 0:00

The fruit is good morning, Boulder County. It's Wednesday, April 1st. I'm your host, Shea Castle. And this is the Frequency. A weekly local podcast covering the news, events, and voices shaping the Boulder Valley. This podcast is made possible by listeners and local businesses. You can sponsor an episode of The Frequency. Reach our growing audience of highly engaged listeners. Email BoulderFrequency at gmail.com. Today, we're discussing Colorado's child care crisis with three parents and one child free man from Boulder. But first, the headlines. In Longmont, the No Kings crowd was estimated at 3,000 to 4,000 people. Congressman Joe Nagoose spoke at both the Boulder and Longmont events. Smaller rallies were also held in Superior, Lafayette, Erie, and Netherland. Communities around the Front Range are attempting to curb water use during one of the driest years in recent decades. In Boulder County, only Erie has mandatory restrictions in place. The town has declared a level four drought, emergency conditions, under which outdoor sprinklers must be turned off through early April. In an unusual move, the town said it would forcibly shut off water to homes that violate the rules. Quote, this is an extraordinary measure for an extremely precarious situation, town officials wrote in an alert to residents. Quote, demands are currently approaching 30% higher than usual at this time of year. It's typical for Erie to limit outdoor watering, but such restrictions don't usually come into play until later in the spring. Lafayette, Longmont, Louisville, and Boulder are asking but not requiring residents to restrict outdoor watering. Boulder will decide on water mandates on or around May 1st, according to the city's website. A group of Boulder residents and housing advocates want to ask voters to tax second homes and businesses in the city. Organizers with vacancy to vitality say empty buildings are draining the city of energy and revenue.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

There's a real cost to vacancy to our community. In a community that relies on sales tax to fund its basic needs, empty commercial buildings and empty residential buildings mean people aren't shopping here, they're not eating here. And we see that reflected in the city budget, but we also feel it as community members. If you've lived here a long time, you you feel the way Boulder has been gutted by vacancy. You walk around and you see empty buildings and for lease signs, you walk in Boulder's nicest neighborhoods and the windows are dark at night. It's to ask that question: should property in Boulder work for the people who live here or just the people who own it?

SPEAKER_05 3:30

That's campaign spokesperson Jill Adler Grano. Grano is a former sponsor of The Frequency, but she did not sponsor this episode or this segment. Vacancy to Vitality has launched a petition to place the measure on November ballots. The tax would be$7,000 on homes that sit empty more than six months per year, and up to$4 per square foot for business properties that have been vacant for two years. As written, it allows for up to$11 million in revenue to be collected from the tax. Previous city councils have floated the idea of a vacancy tax on empty or seasonal homes in Boulder, but commercial properties have not historically been part of those conversations. Grano said commercial landlords need to be compelled to lower their rents. Average prices for office space, for example, haven't budged in years, even though 30 to 40% of downtown offices are sitting empty.

SPEAKER_02 4:33

Asking, you know, between 35 and 45 a square foot before Triple Net for that space. That's simply unrealistic. And, you know, we hear from commercial landlords that the market has changed, office is never coming back, things like that. But Longmont, 15 minutes down the road, has 4.6% office vacancy, but their prices are 19 a square foot. You know, supply and demand works. And I find it really rich that the same people that argue for supply and demand when they want to build something are now the ones saying that, you know, we just can't rent it out. There is a price where you can rent it out. Go to that price.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

It's just another tool to uh get our city back to work. It's really meant to motivate people to um work together and get these places filled. Our goal is that no one pays this tax. You know, eventually, you know, like we want all the buildings full and we want to be in a freaking kick-ass place to live that isn't dying on the vine.

SPEAKER_05 5:44

That's Doug Hamilton, another campaign spokesperson. Hear more from Jill and Doug at patreon.com/slash boulder frequencypod. Learn more and sign the petition at bouldervacancytax.org. Longmont will switch to Axon to operate license plate cameras in the city. The Arizona-based company was the original manufacturer of tasers and makes weapons and technology for law enforcement and military organizations, including drone and body-worn cameras. The city ended its contract with FLOC amid criticism from residents over the practice of data sharing with other jurisdictions. That practice allows federal immigration authorities to track individuals' movements across a broad geographic range, including the county, the state, or even the country. Learn more about the license plate reader technology in our February 18th episode and listen to our full interview with local cybersecurity expert Andrew Gentry at patreon.com/slash Boulder Frequency Pod. Boulder Valley School District is hosting an informational live stream series and six community engagement sessions about the system's declining enrollment that may force closures and consolidation of schools in the district. BVSD is currently serving 3,600 fewer students than in 2017. And the district expects to lose another 1,700 students over the next five years. A Thursday, April 2nd live stream will discuss impacts of declining enrollment on schools, and a Thursday, April 9th live stream will focus on the options and next steps. A series of in-person community engagement sessions will begin April 13th and be held at various schools in Boulder, Broomfield, and Louisville. Find links and info in our show notes. Colorado's new professional women's soccer team. The crowd set an attendance record for the National Women's Soccer League. The game itself, between the summit and the visiting Washington spirit, ended in a scoreless tie. The summit are currently sixth in the league with one win, one loss, and two draws.

SPEAKER_04 8:12

I felt that way beforehand, but it became crystal clear to me once childcare was a direct need that I had. And I now feel like it's the I've had the eyes opened. I can't unsee the way that we all rely on it and the way that it is the engine for not just the economics, but also I feel like community connection and just driving society in my mind.

SPEAKER_05 8:42

So I feel strongly about it. Childcare. Whether or not you have kids, you've probably heard about it on the news. Specifically, just how much of a mess things are in Colorado. There isn't enough of it. Karen Manahan, whose voice you heard a moment ago, said she and her husband were on half a dozen wait lists before getting into Boulder Day Nursery, where she now serves on the board. Even when parents can find care, it's expensive. Care at a licensed facility costs$19,000 per kid annually in Boulder County on average, the most expensive in the state. Federal funds help families pay for care, but those are under threat. As we reported in January. The situation was already dire, with most childcare workers being vastly underpaid and daycares themselves being strapped financially. If the Trump administration is successful in rescinding aid, local experts predict a near-total collapse of the system. So it makes sense that community leaders, elected officials, and nonprofits are turning their attention to childcare. Journalists are too. Last year, I received a grant to produce a four-part series on the critical role childcare plays in propping up parents, businesses, and the economy as a whole. I won't be working on it alone.

SPEAKER_03 10:04

My name is Andrea Stephes Tuttle. I live in Boulder, and I am a mom of a four-year-old. I also am a freelance journalist, and I run a firm called Well Economy Lab. Um, and in that work, I work with cities and organizations to create a more democratic economy.

SPEAKER_05 10:26

Perfect segue to child care. How does childcare play a role in a more democratic economy and maybe give a little um info for listeners about how maybe undemocratic it is currently right now, which as a mom, I'm sure you could share.

SPEAKER_03 10:41

Yeah, I mean, I think like care is the foundation of an economy. It's like the infrastructure that makes an economy work. And so much of the work that goes into care is unpaid or uh underpaid. Uh, even folks who have jobs in care are just making ends meet. So, in order to have a truly democratic economy, we have to have care infrastructure and support for care.

SPEAKER_05 11:10

The series Andrea and I are producing is being paid for by Gary Community Ventures, a Denver-based philanthropic institution with a focus on families and children. The first story was out Monday in the Denver Post slash Daily Camera family of newspapers. If you didn't snag a physical copy, you can find the story online at DenverPost.com or dailycamera.com. For the story, I followed around Andrew Hyde, a well-known Boulderite who happens to be a child-free man, one of the last people you'd expect to be impacted by the care crisis. During our four hours together, I traced every connection Andrew had to someone who needs child care, from the realtor we ran into at lunch to the handyman working on his Sunshine Canyon home. The result was a complex web of people, services, and businesses that support Andrew's life, often without him knowing. Literally from the start of our reporting, the photographer assigned to the story was there as a backup. The man they tapped first for the project had to call out that day to take care of his kid. Here's a little tidbit from my conversation with Andrew. So, what is your knowledge of childcare? Like, do you know how much it costs?

SPEAKER_00 12:17

I do know the costs because I pay for a lot of summer camps for my friends. So it's like uncle duty, where it's like, I know this is expensive as can be. I know this affects your quality of life like nothing else. You know. But it's like you find out that parents are struggling, and you know, as a single guy, my costs are very, very low. Um, and so I do know a lot about them because of that, but mainly because my friends are struggling, right? I don't notice it because it's like it's super awesome, right? I notice it because it's a broken system.

SPEAKER_05 12:49

What's your personal relationship with children? Do you plan to have them? Do you want to have them? Are you leaving it up to the universe?

SPEAKER_00 12:56

I think that if I really wanted them, it would have happened by now. I love the idea of it, but I think our society is just not rewarding people to have children, and it's so hard to be a parent these days. Um, if you can get through the financial, if you can get through the um this the time commitment, and then you've got to worry about their safety. It's cool. Like I just every single thing about it seems to be stacked against you. I mean, as we've been going around today, we've seen a lot of people that have kids in school today and yet are only able to do their job because of their childcare situation.

SPEAKER_05 13:28

You can listen to an extended version of that interview on patreon.com/slash boulder frequencypod. Let's go back to my conversation with Andrea to hear what you can expect from the rest of our series.

SPEAKER_03 13:38

The article that I'm working on right now, which will be the second article, is focused on the people that we rely on, like the firefighters, the people who work at our grocery stores, um the farmers who grow our food, specifically dads, and profiling them to see how childcare supports their life so that they can support our life. Do you want to speak to the third article or do you want me to?

SPEAKER_05 14:04

I can speak to it. I haven't started it quite yet, but I'm looking for ways that businesses or I would say like business leaders or economic development, like how is childcare showing up in those spaces? Number one, are they talking about it? You know, as we've seen in Boulder with the chamber, they've realized that housing is a huge issue for the workforce, whereas traditionally chambers wouldn't get involved in things like that. Um, is childcare has it reached that level? And what are businesses doing about it? I'm hoping to find some creative solutions that businesses are doing for their workers for childcare. Um, we'll see. So if you know anyone has any, let me know. Uh, but again, that's very early stages have just started. So I'm really um excited to see what comes out of that.

SPEAKER_03 14:48

Yeah, me too. And then the final article is a look at childcare in more rural areas, areas that often are considered like child care deserts, but they're not actually deserts. There are um informal and formal structures of care that um offer uh childcare to people in those communities and looking at how those informal and formal structures are stood up, how they interact, the people involved with them. One of our goals for this series is actually to compile all four stories into a physical zine that can be shared in the communities that don't um interact with the Denver Post or share it with folks who don't interact with the daily newspapers. We are looking for funding to make that happen. Our goal is to get this zine into coffee shops and like civic spaces where people gather and can really prompt a discussion about childcare. If anybody can help us make that zine happen, I would love to talk to you.

SPEAKER_05 15:52

Thanks to Andrea for coming on the show. Look for more of her work and our work in the Denver Post and Boulder Daily Camera. And thank you to Andrew Hyde for letting me and a photographer follow him around for an entire afternoon, and all the people he interacted with who let me ask very personal questions about their childcare situations. I'll link to that story in the show notes. I'm going to give the last word on this topic to Karen Manahan from Boulder Day Nursery on another important role childcare plays in the lives of parents.

SPEAKER_04 16:22

There's also the community aspect of being in a childcare. It's not a third space in that it is a school, but it is almost a third space for parents and community members coming together. So I think about for me personally, the friendships and relationships I have with our other families, the way that I'm now volunteering and connected to different organizations and businesses. Um, like Boulder Food Rescue, for example, and other community organizations that I think the experience of being in a childcare center, the experience of having great uh access to this care, meeting the teachers, the staff, and the families has just made me a better citizen in the community.

SPEAKER_05 17:19

That's all for this episode of The Frequency. Tune in next week when we talk about an AI deal CU is pursuing that critics say seriously threatens the privacy of every student and faculty member at the university.