Bill Christopher: How does a weary world rejoice? – Westminster Window

This has been the theme of our pastor’s sermons at church during the Advent season; a time of waiting. While she focused on the coming birth of Jesus Christ, I want to change the focus to today’s world with all of its strife, war, hunger, lack of trust and racial inequity.

How does a weary world rejoice with all the negativity, uncertainty, political games and skewed priorities of the political party in control? Well, maybe we simply face the truth and conclude there is not room or justification to rejoice and be happy or optimistic. That would be a sad day for the world indeed.

Personally, I do worry about our future, especially for our grown children and grandchildren. Global warming is making a major impact on our climate, the expanding droughts worldwide and less crop production to feed the world. Water is becoming more and more scarce. More and more people are falling into food insecurity and can’t find housing that they can afford.

Things are not going to get so much cheaper – such as building materials, insurance and food -to solve such problems nationally or internationally.

We have wars continuing to rob society of being able to feed, clothe and provide an adequate space for them to live while creating more destruction and famine.

So, what is the solution?

We, as the world has, need to learn to do more with less and to share more between the “Have’s” and the Have Not’s.

We must have faith to carry on hope for better times; a better place; a better opportunity. It’s a very piecemeal situation. No silver bullets are to be found.

While non-profits and governments will need to feed more people over time and the same groups will be stepping up to provide more so-called affordable housing, we must be realistic that the poor will always be with us. The Bible reminds us of that.

NIMBYism needs to be replaced with a spirit of “what is best for the most.” Cutting budgets to reduce health care, food distribution and subsidizing housing is not the way to reduce the problem. It’s walking away from the problem.

While we are weary, we must keep on keeping on. If we don’t, who will step into our shoes?

Let’s practice the Golden Rule more often. Let’s walk in the shoes of others who are less fortunate. Keep the faith and not allow the burden to take us down. Like the song lyrics, “walk on, walk on with hope in your heart and you’ll never walk alone.” Let’s walk together.

Early Christmas gift for joint budget committee

We all like positive surprises regardless of who we are or the circumstances of the surprise. Well, Colorado’s Joint Budget Committee (JBC) received a pleasant update on projected fiscal year-ending revenues.

Previously, they were straddled with the challenge of filling an approximate $1 billion shortfall in the current 2024-2025 fiscal year.

But now, the recent revised revenue projection leaves a gap of $674 million.

Hey, a hundred million here; a hundred million there and before you know it, the gap will be resolved.

However, as previously stated, there are some tough love decisions to be made by the JBC. There are no magic solutions or rabbits to pull out of the hat. We are talking U.S. dollar cuts where few if any state departments will escape the chopping block.

I still believe K-12 education funds will have to be reduced as well as higher education expenditures. Furthermore, MEDICAID will take a haircut, but hopefully not too much. Don’t be surprised if the homestead tax break on property taxes for seniors goes out the window.

So, with this budget dilemma, the JBC will in essence be doing two budgets – the current budget adjustment plus the 2025-2026 budget. Now, that is heavy lifting and I doubt that anyone will be unscathed.

Senior affordable housing coming to Westy downtown

The Westminster Economic Development Authority (Westminster’s urban renewal authority) voted 6-1, with Councilor Ireland opposed, to sell city owned land bounded between 90th and 91st Avenues and between Eaton and Fenton Streets to Volker Development Inc. for affordable, senior apartments.

There are to be 25 one-bedroom units, 25 two-bedroom units plus 3,000 square feet of community space.

Using tax credits, the developer plans to offer rents of 30%, 50%, 60% and 80% of Area Median Income (AMI). The parcel of land, valued at $306,500, was authorized to be sold to Volker at one dollar to help make the project feasible.

The $24 million development is in compliance with the city’s Downtown Westminster zoning and density requirements. Rents are projected to run from $733 (one bedroom)/$880 (two bedrooms) at the low end to $1,957 (one bedroom)/$2,348 (two bedrooms) at the high end.

While these rental figures seem high to me for “affordable” housing, they are indicative of the marketplace and the cost of construction materials. Certainly, more affordable, senior housing is needed in Westminster.

The 50 units will be a small addition to tackling the housing problem.

When are enough gasoline service stations in a single city?

We could throw in how many Walgreens stores or liquor stores are enough, but today’s challenge is service stations.

It’s an interesting question that both the Cities of Denver and Lakewood have recently brought to the forefront. The City of Louisville got the ball rolling in Colorado in 2023 with a hard cap of six service stations for a community of 20,000.

For Lakewood, the question pertains to 52 service stations for a city of 156,000 residents. The council has included car washes in their thinking with the same limitations as the service stations.

It’s interesting to note the difference in the justifications given by council members from each of the cities. Basically, Lakewood’s focus is to prevent any further environmental impacts from gasoline and diesel fuel being dispensed including fumes that escape during fill-ups.

On the other hand, Denver Councilmember Paul Kashman, who is leading the effort to cap service stations, says that preserving land for affordable housing is his motivation. To me, that is a dubious justification. How many times does a corner lot at an intersection come into play for an apartment development site? Saving a corner lot and avoiding another service station is not going to make or break having another apartment complex at that location.

Neither city quoted specific data about the number of environmental impacts generated by service stations. Are we jousting windmills here or simply don’t want more service stations?

I will take a chapter from the Colorado liquor laws here to make a point: Remember the argument to allow wine in grocery stores? It was all about convenience. Well, if you restrict the location of service stations, won’t you be impacting the convenience to the motoring public? Personally, I can’t get too excited about restricting service stations.

Avoiding a government shut down but without Trump mandate

Fellow Americans, we just got a preview of what could well happen from time to time with a tug of war between President-elect Donald Trump and the soon to be Republican-controlled Congress after January 20.

As usual, it took an eleventh hour effort in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to pass a temporary spending bill with the Senate concurring in the wee hours. That part is “old hat.”

What was quite intriguing was the House bill did NOT ultimately include Trump’s mandate to raise the debt ceiling. He badly wanted this solved on Biden’s watch and not his.

So is this an indication of things to come? Will Republicans buck their fearless leader? You know how intimidating he can be. Only time will tell.

A couple of other things that came out of this chaos was whether or not current Speaker of the House Mike Johnson will be able to keep his job with the new House of Representatives and how much chaos can Co-Director of the Department of Government Efficiency Elon Musk create, sending mixed signals to the Republican majority?

In the run-up to getting the spending bill approved, there were clearly miscommunications involving Johnson, Trump and Musk.

Bill Christopher is a former Westminster city manager and RTD board member. His opinions are not necessarily those of Colorado Community Media. You can contact him at bcjayhawk68@gmail.com.

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