Public Comments

Thank you for the opportunity to comment. I perceive the top shared interest in Routt County to be a love of our public lands and the place we live. I perceive the top public policy concerns in Routt County over the next 10 years to be: -Severe lack of affordable housing. -Lack of childcare options (and affordability) -Climate change, drought, and intensifying wildfire seasons. -Economic shifts and the scheduled closure of Hayden Station. All of these issues are intertwined. My vision for the future of our community is that we can find a way to balance economic development with livability. How do we find a way to replace the good paying jobs that will be lost due to the closure of Hayden Station with an industry that doesn't increase local carbon emissions? And if we continue to promote and develop mainly for tourism, how does that diminish livability? Without simultaneously addressing the housing and childcare crises, the people who love this community and serve it will no longer be able to live here. I understand Eagle County faces similar challenges with the economic balance of natural resource extraction and tourism and would consider Eagle County and Routt County "communities of common interest." We need strong district representation to work for legislative solutions that will address and balance all these issues. To that end, I respectfully request that you consider keeping Routt & Eagle Counties in the same State House District. Thank you.

I live in the Stonegate community near Parker, CO. I recently read that the mayor for Parker is arguing for keeping Parker together in one Congressional District instead of being split between District 6 and 7. While I agree with his opinion, I want to point out that Stonegate is unincorporated Douglas County, just like Highlands Ranch, and should not be lumped into Parker. We do not rely on services provided by the town of Parker, and are more akin to our neighbors to the west (Highlands Ranch). There is a small portion of the Stonegate community that lies east of Jordan Road. This area should be kept with the rest of Stonegate in redistricting.

I am writing to ask the commission to enforce the legislation banning the use of prison gerrymandering. I have worked as a public defender for 6.5 years and have represented many people who have had the unfortunate result of being caged in the Department of Corrections. These humans leave families and loved ones and a life at home. A place they regard as home. The people sentenced to prison are disproportionately from communities of color, and disproportionately affected by poverty. While I think that prisoners should be allowed to vote, if they cannot, the least this commission could do is to enforce existing legislation with respect to prison gerrymandering. The communities that have been ravaged by mass incarceration deserve more than having their families and loved ones completely erased. It is even more appalling when what this commission is seeking to do is to erase these humans - parents, children, siblings, friends, loved ones - and to "count" them only when it benefits them. To allow their bodies to fund communities they never see because they are surrounded by barbed wire, bars, and concrete, and to rob funding from the communities they live and the places they call home. The history of institutional racism in our country is long and runs deep. It is often expressed in precisely the type of conduct that the commission seeks to do - effectively redlining Black, Brown, and Indigenous families for the gain of the white masses and to further perpetuate the wrongs of white supremacy - enforced through mass incarceration. Do the right thing. Allow those caged to call the communities that love and support them home - not the communities that benefit from them being treated as nothing more than a caged animal. Thank you.

Thank you to the Redistricting committee for taking the time from your busy schedules to serve on this project. My name is Pamela Chapman. I have lived in Eagle Valley for 13 years. The first two years commuting back and forth from Southeast Aurora. I call myself a NewCaliRodian. I was born and raised in the Bronx, NY relocating to Southern California at a very young age because I did not like what I was beginning to see. Honestly, too young and uniformed to understand. I also wanted to live in a warmer environment. After one year in Los Angeles County, I realized it too wasn’t my community. Again, not understanding why. Just knowing, I wanted to live differently. So, after one year, I was fortunate to move to Huntington Beach, CA; in Orange County. There we were a suburban community. Kids played in the streets until after dark. Parents and civic organizations gathered for sporting events. They were involved in their schools. And once a year, hundreds gathered for the surfing competition of the year. Living in this county, more specifically Huntington Beach, my values changed even more. The concerns in the rest of the State were definitely not the same as ours. And those living in Orange, CA, an inland farming community, were certainly not the same as those living at the beach. Moving to the big city of Colorado, to take care of mom, was an eye opener with me realizing this new community, once again, wasn’t a fit for me. Fortunately, I started dating a mountain man, finally relocating to, and living in Eagle County. Trust me I never thought I’d be living here when passing through. Thinking, "What in the world do these communities do?" Little did I know about how satisfying and fulfilling rural life could be. Now a mountain girl myself and a little more aware, I realize urban communities believe they know what’s best for rural communities. They think it best to introduce wolves into the forest. However, I’m not sure they realize how wolves create a huge problem for farmers who need to keep the free-range chickens safe so food-conscious consumers can have that choice. I’m not sure those outside the rural communities understand the same farmers need water rights to grow the Olathe corn and Palisade peaches they have all grown to love and shop for at Farmers’ markets. I’m not sure larger, city-like communities understand saving those cute and furry bears create a problem for ranchers. Those very large bears need to eat. Not always eating berries but steal, kill, and devour ranchers’ calves. Those grass-fed calves dissipate creating a shortage which translates into increased food costs for wholesome decisions. We are a tourist dependent community dependent upon good snow. We understand hospitality and what it means to serve our other communities. Not to say others don’t. We just specialize in such. I sincerely believe dividing the Western slope will greatly diminish the voices of those who still believe in a way of life that is simple but of major importance to this State and to the Country. The only way to understand is to be a member of said communities. I do not wish to cast my demands and way of life on other communities. I ask the same for mine. Please keep our rural communities, rural. Thank you.

Due to work bringing us into this beautiful area in 1990, we have become a stable part of this rural ranching/ farming community. Please leave the map of the community alone. Part of the want to visit Steamboat Springs is that it is a rural community. We would hate to have this ski town area lose all the ranching advertisement with horses running down their ski slopes and across their main roads during holidays. Don't lose our heritage. Please leave the map of our community alone.

Esteemed Commissioners, My name is María Heymans and I am a retired public school teacher (I taught math for 28 years). I am a Latina. I live in southwest Denver and I attended the public hearing on Wednesday July 21st with the intention to submit a comment, but the meeting ran too long and I had to leave. I am sharing my views here. In future meetings, please consider starting on time and limiting the amount of time questioning one person, so that the rest of the people who wanted to participate have a chance to do that. On July 21st, one person was questioned for over 30 minutes and at 9:00 p.m., there were still 25 people who wanted to participate with their comments. I was disappointed that I could not give my comments. I am here to ask that you reconsider the preliminary map for CD-1. A part of southwest Denver has been severed from CD-1 and I think this is an injustice to our community. Our southwest Denver community, especially people of color, seems to be getting penalized and our voices are being silenced with this preliminary configuration of CD-1. I would like to see CD-1 correspond with the boundaries of the city and county of Denver, but I understand that there are too many people, making CD-1 too big. But I feel like communities of color are neglected and mistreated, and it feels like too often, it is our community in southwest Denver. I feel the same way about the preliminary map of HD-1. A small piece of Denver has been cut off from HD-1. Again, they are part of the community and I don't want them excluded. I have been told that CD-1 has about 10,000 too many people, which seems minor when you consider the population in Denver is over 727,000. The 10,000 people represent 1.4% of the 727,000. I don’t want to see some in my community mistreated and silenced over a small numerical triviality. Thank you for your time, María Heymans

Please keep Arvada in Jefferson county. As. Retired teacher, I was part of Jeffco Schools in ARVADA! All public services in Arvada are related to Jefferson County, such as Health Dept, Libraries, Open Space Parks. The coordination between cities in Jefferson County is well established. I have no desire to be linked with Adams or Weld,Brighton or Broomfield!

I oppose prison gerrymandering. It gives undo influence to locations where prisons are located, instead of adding to the population count of locations where prisoners live when they are not serving their terms. I believe that prison gerrymandering is inherently undemocratic.

Please see attached letter. Thank you. Janelle Kukuk Mineral County Administrator countyadmin@mincocolo.com 719-658-2360 1201 N Main, PO Box 70 Creede, CO 81130

I am writing to urge you to honor the will of the people of Colorado and HB20-1010 by ending prison gerrymandering. I live in Swansea, a mostly Latino neighborhood in Denver and have lived in Latino and Black neighborhoods in Denver for the past 15 years. I have practiced indigent criminal defense in Denver for more than a decade, and those clients I represent are my community of interest. It is illegal and unjust to deprive anyone of their constitutional right to equal representation. Counting people where they are incarcerated, rather than in their home community, does just that. It also furthers the harm we inflict on communities of color through overpolicing, racial profiling, and tearing apart BIPOC families and communities through mass incarceration. It makes the district maps another tool to dilute BIPOC communities. Because we disenfranchise people who are incarcerated, they cannot vote to shape policies or legislation on prisons, law enforcement, courts, criminal law, or a myriad of other issues that directly impact their lives. Prison gerrymandering artificially inflates the population count of districts in which prisons are located, but a great many of the people counted there have no vote, no voice, and are ignored by policy makers because of this. They are discriminated against and exploited because legislators don't have to campaign on their issues or even consider them as constituents. This practice is analogous to the notorious three-fifths compromise: we count BIPOC for population purposes where they are held against their will but do not afford them the right to vote or any say in the laws that so negatively impact their lives, their families, and their communities. Prison gerrymandering unfairly tilts representation toward rural districts where prisons are primarily located. But it fails to recognize that only the predominately white prison guards, vendors, and their families are allowed the vote, while BIPOC (usually from urban areas) cannot participate in the electoral process. Their communities are separated geographically, diluted in elections, and effectively silenced in our democracy. This systemic racism must stop. It is incredibly harmful, and it ensures that the power to change laws, to elect legislators, and to shape policy that alters the course of BIPOC communities rests in white hands. It is 2021, and we should know better and do better. Please ensure that the district maps comport with the U.S. and Colorado constitutions, Colorado law, and the will of the voters. Do not allow the redistricting process to perpetuate systemic racism. Thousands of Coloradans are in prison with no voice, and they are disproportionately BIPOC. Count them in their home communities. End this outrageous injustice that is a stain on the democratic processes of our state.