On Tuesday, May 4, there will be a special election to fill the recently vacated Denver District 1 City Council seat. I met Larry Ambrose, one of ten candidates for the open seat, at a March candidate forum at the Oriental Theater in northwest Denver. When asked what, if anything, he would do about the “proliferation” of medical marijuana dispensaries in Denver, Larry remarked that market forces would eventually “weed out” (and yes, he intended the pun) the dispensary issue. Since I work for a free-market think thank, and since out of ten City Council candidates, Larry was the only one who noted not only that markets exist, but that they matter, I thought we should chat.
MK: Why City Council? I mean let’s face it; a lot of us taxpayers and voters are chronically uninformed and love to complain about politicians, especially local ones. Why do that to yourself?
LA: I have tried to effect change in what does and doesn’t get done with regard to community issues. I believe what we do here on earth is the measure of our worth, but I’m not interested in earning points for the hereafter. I also believe that what I leave behind, for the next generation is most important. I don’t do this for recognition or even necessarily to be understood. I do it, because it is the right thing to do. Some people teach, create or involve themselves in other work to make a difference in the world. I have been involved in Northwest Denver and the greater Denver area and am now running for a Denver City Council seat that has been vacated, because I want to continue to contribute to my community.
MK: This isn’t your first rodeo, you have been active in neighborhood and city issues for a while now, give us the quick version of your resume.
LA: I am a 37-year resident and neighborhood advocate of Northwest Denver. I have a proven track record of accomplishments, knowledge of city/government issues and am founder of Denver dog parks. I am also a historic preservationist who is not opposed to appropriate development for neighborhoods and business districts. I hold a B.S. in Business from CU-Boulder, an M.S.B.A. in Arts Administration from UCLA and a J.D. from DU. I am President of the Sloan’s Lake Neighborhood Association and Co-Chair of the Inter-neighborhood Cooperation Parks and Recreation Committee.
MK: We have talked before about City Council putting Denver taxpayers on the hook financially for “public/private” projects. You used the Renaissance Uptown Lofts (a Colorado Coalition for the Homeless project) as an example. What would you do to protect the city (and thus Denver taxpayers) from ending up financially responsible should projects like this fail to pay for themselves?
LA: I would ask city council to limit the city’s liability with regard to financing such projects. This particular project will require taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from Denver’s Human Services budget for at least 20 years. We have learned that even the nation’s largest financial institutions are vulnerable to complete collapse. Although, Colorado Coalition for the Homeless is a successful organization, they are a non profit organization with close to a $40 million budget* dependent on funding from both private and public sources. They are heavily invested in real estate and have significant liabilities associated with their investments. Although the city’s investment would be collateralized by the property, because the Renaissance project has so little parking, it is possible that should it fall on hard times, its value would be discounted for use as apartments or condominiums. Any wise business decision should be based on the worst case scenario, not just the best. The city’s liability for funding should not extend beyond the lifetime of CCH and the project’s use as homeless/low income housing.
(*Only the 2008 Annual Report is available: there was $35.5+ million in revenue, almost $13.4 million in assets, but no liabilities listed.)
MK: How about zoning in Denver parks as part of the new zoning code?
LA: As part of the new zoning code, the administration decided to take away control of zoning in Denver parks from the City Council and give it to the Manager of Parks and Recreation. The current City Council, of course, was willing to go along with this. A group of us (citizens) fought this unprecedented usurpation of legislative authority and the code was adjusted to allow Council to make decisions about structures larger than a 3000 sq. ft. footprint and 35 feet high. In my opinion, this is still much too large and tall a building in a park about which a bureaucrat, even one with good intentions, should be able to make a decision.
Ballots for the District 1 special election were mailed out April 15 and must be received by 7 p.m. on May 4 (postage is 61 cents).
