Failed project is a concern for Westminster
Re: “Downtown to get injection of life with park, food hall,” Aug. 18 news story
Because I am running for mayor of Westminster and Sarah Nurmela is running for re-election to the City Council of Westminster, I was surprised that John Aguilar’s article did not mention Councilmember Nurmela’s candidacy. Indeed, I was surprised by the entire front-page article, which seemed to me to be a sales pitch for a failed project.
And the project is a failure. The project was made possible by twisting Colorado’s Urban Renewal laws. The old mall was never a situation where there were slums or the state of Colorado or any municipality was “endangered” or at risk. Indeed, Broomfield and Flat Irons Mall benefited from the old mall’s decline.
For me, the important aspect of the story is that the Westminster government should not be in the development business. The way out is to stop the waste. Worse still, with all the residential buildings and little commercial buildings, my fear is that our “New Downtown” will become a slum where no slum had ever existed before.
Bruce Baker, Westminster
Who is to blame for Colorado’s budget woes
Re: “Lawmakers return to fix budget,” Aug. 21 news story
Colorado’s shortfall has Colorado politics to blame, yet they fault the Feds. A 500% increase in the earned income tax credit since 2020 and free college might account for some of the deficit. Spend, spend, spend.
William Davis, Broomfield
Trump is dismantling democracy
Doesn’t anyone out there see that President Donald Trump is dismantling democracy one subtle brick at a time. Between continual dismissals in all government departments, and federalizing law enforcement in D.C. (others will follow), and between welcoming Putin and talking about ending mail in balloting, it begins to look like each step he takes is right out of the Nazi playbook. When will we wake up?
Lee Waldman, Wheat Ridge
The President announced there will be “no boots on the ground” in Ukraine. Instead, federal boots have been deployed on the ground in Washington, D.C., to clear out homeless citizens and in L.A. to squelch protesters, a fundamental right of the American people. Neither L.A. nor D.C. asked the federal government to step in. ICE is rounding up and deporting immigrants while wearing full face masks, threatening gear, and no warrants, dividing families and disrupting our workforce.
What a turn our country has taken in the past six months; all at the president’s whim. Now we are deporting immigrants from Afghanistan who were given asylum for fighting with us against the Taliban. Make no mistake, while we won’t have boots on the ground to defend democracy in Ukraine, we do have boots on the ground to destroy our democracy in the U.S.
Cheryl Siefert, Golden
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