Read on KGNU’s Morning Magazine, 3/21/95.

Happy Spring! This is Evan Ravitz with Citywatch, a look behind the hot air curtain of the Imperial City of Boulder

4 weeks ago I quoted a City document titled Modal Shift in the Boulder Valley, 1990-1994, which shows cycling, while still Boulder’s favorite alternative transportation, in the last 2 years has decreased almost as fast as it rose in the previous 2 years. I discussed 2 weeks previous how the city’s policies and practices are hurting cycling. The hundreds of 1000s of dollars spent for bike week hoopla don’t compensate for police statistics showing each cyclist 3 times as likely to be hurt or killed as the national average for cities our size.

I repeated my statements at the Council meeting that night -there is one tonite also- and Council members Appelbaum and Kline took issue with what I said. Writing in the Colorado Daily the next friday, so did Council member Havlick. They said these numbers don’t mean much.

If 4 cycling statistics being down, and 1 level don’t mean much, why do they spend our money on these statistics? Why doesn’t this dramatic reversal of a good trend make it into the Executive summary?

Interesting how, according to the City, we shouldn’t believe these statistics based on detailed travel diaries of 1200 people, but we should believe the projections of city planning staff that the 1000 new homes in North Boulder will have no impact on traffic on Broadway. As Marion Selbin wrote to the Camera, “Are they going to helicopter everywhere they go?” The Camera dutifully parrots whatever trash the City talks.

But the Camera, when it can, censors the efforts of citizens to correct the record. I’ve tried for months now to get the Camera to stop misrepresenting the population of Boulder, which they have twice printed as 90,000, when the official City population is now over 96,000. This is important, because growth is the biggest issue on the Front Range now, and the Camera might make a few gullible souls think our population is decreasing, rather than growing, and in a cancerous way, I should add.

I could joke that the Camera always lies. I think it’s more that the City and the Camera trade off misrepresenting the facts to bamboozle us into either re-electing the same dysfunctional City Council incumbents or not voting at all, which leads to the same thing.

Information is power, and with the truth hurting the prospect of Council being reelected to power this November, expect the worst. Recently, Boulder transportation has been covered much better by the Denver Post. Towards the election, expect the Camera to repeat the attacks it made on the Boulder Neighborhood Alliance. Newspapers used to boast that they comforted the afflicted, and afflicted the comfortable. The Camera does the opposite. And rather than stand up for truth and freedom of speech, they cover up City lies and attack those who seek truth and justice.

I urge citizens to come watch the Council meeting tonite, or to watch on cable channel 8. I further urge you to express yourselves during Citizen Participation, which runs from 6PM almost to 7. You get 3 minutes to speak on any subject. And tune in to Citywatch, penetrating the fog the morning of most council meetings, which are the first and third Tuesdays of each month, at City Hall, the SW corner of Broadway and Canyon, West of the Library auditorium.

This is Evan Ravitz. Please call me with ideas for Citywatch at 440-6838 or e-mail me: evan@welcomehome.org