Election Day

It's election day here in the US, so I just took a walk to drop off my ballot.

In my state, they mail you your ballot in advance, and if you do it right away (and have two stamps) you can mail it back. Otherwise, you can drop it off at a polling place. So that's what I did.

We had 56 decisions on this year's ballot in Denver:

9 elections for various offices.
29 judges up for review
3 amendments
8 propositions
4 referred questions
3 initiated ordinances

The different titles depend on if they are about amending the state constitution or statutes, if they were put up to a vote by the state legislature, or if they were brought to a vote by citizens. Also if they are a state issue or a city issue.

The one I hope passes the most is Denver Deserves Sidewalks. Currently, sidewalks are up to the property owner (even tho the sidewalk, if there is one, is not considered their property) to build or maintain, ergo Denver has a really terrible lack of sidewalks, broken sidewalks, sidewalks too narrow for someone in a wheelchair or with a walker. It costs a homeowner thousands of dollars to repair the sidewalk in front of their house, so most just don't do it. The city started a tiny fund a few years back to help low income homeowners with the cost, and one (1) inspector to go around seeing which sidewalks need repair. At their rate of repair and funding, it would take - I shit you not - 400 years to get Denver's sidewalks up to snuff. So this measure is trying to make it the city's responsibility to take care of sidewalks, funded with a property tax. It would then only take 9 years to give us decent sidewalks.

Some people complain that the property tax is too much but y'all, it's a lot less than you'd spend fixing your damn sidewalk.

Anyway, as a lifelong pedestrian I can vouch for how terrible our lack of decent sidewalks is, so I really hope it passes. If the rich people in million dollar homes kill it because they don't wanna pay tax, I'll be pissed.

"But what about the low income homeowners?" I hear you ask. Also on this year's ballot was a vote to extend the exemption on property taxes to military widows. That exemption already applies to disabled military vets, and seniors who have been in their home for 10+ years. That covers a lot of low income homeowners, and in this market, most of us poor people struggle to pay rent and we certainly don't own our homes. And if they're truly low income, they probably need the sidewalks as much as I do, since cars are expensive.

Anyway, that's the one I'm rooting for the most. Fingers crossed we get good sidewalks in this crazy car-centric town!

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Hope you get your sidewalks! Recently I was talking to someone from the states who told me that in some (or most) states public transport and therefore walking/biking, is not really encouraged by the existing infrastructure.

I've never been, but that would definitely be a culture shock to me, since I expect a country like that to have those kinds of facilities all taken care of.

Just recently (ok maybe 2 or 3 weeks ago) seen a video where they explain how USA got their infrastructure built towards car owners and how pedestrians got the grunt of it. I'll have to find it and share it.

There are some good YouTube channels that talk about it. A lot of USAers don't seem to realize how it doesn't have to be this way and all the usual excuses we hear are bunk because it doesn't seem to be a problem in other countries that used to say the same things. I like the channel Not Just Bikes because it's a guy from Canada (which is similar to the US in this matter) who moved to the Netherlands and he talks about how North America's infrastructure is unsafe and terrible and how the Netherlands used to be the same but in the 70s they decided to change it and now it's super great for pedestrians and bicyclists.

I've indeed seen videos comparing the US infrastructure to that of some parts of Europe. Some even made a valid point that somewhere in history, USA had the chance to change the infrastructure because of city remodeling.

It is literally anti-anything but cars here. With rare exceptions like New York. It is very difficult to live without a car, especially in the west, where everything is far apart and built for cars.
We used to have trams in Denver like 100 years ago, and they GOT RID OF THEM. We only started having trams again recently, and it's a terrible system that is set up only for suburbanites who OWN CARS to park at a train station, get on the train, and commute into downtown or the tech center so they don't have to pay for parking or get stuck in traffic. They are NOT built for actual pedestrians/bicyclists/bus riders.
The land use is part of the problem ...getting anywhere FROM a train station? Nowhere near grocery stores, workplaces, schools, etc. Those are literally miles away. With no sidewalks or bike paths in between.

With rare exceptions like New York

Yeah, so because the new york public transport system is always a thing in pop-culture, I grew up thinking it was like that everywhere in the US.

The car-centric situation you describe sounds a lot like my own country Suriname.

It is understandable though, that separate states can't come to one particular public transit system. Since they operate like individual countries in many ways, with different laws, people and views. Not to mention the large area of land that needs to be covered, compared any European country, or Japan for example. The trams are a start.

California is finally building a high speed railway, and it's compared to the very first one in Japan (that they built in the 70s I think?). It's taking longer and more money than initially expected, like a lot of projects do, but I hope it's a success and maybe we can finally get more trains all over the country. We could conceivably have one here in Colorado too, as most of our major cities are in a straight line north to south just east of the mountains, you could just link them all up next to the highway that is there simple enough.

Bureaucracy and projects like this take lots of time, unfortunately.

Would be great if they have connections like that in place when I eventually visit the states. So I don't have to fly multiple times, or travel by car for hours. Although, that's also an experience in itself, for a tourist.

I once told a friend in England about a road trip we had taken from Colorado to Louisiana where we drove for 36 hours straight (taking turns, not stopping to sleep) and we didn't even touch either coast. He was like, "If I drove for 36 hours straight I'd be in Turkey!!!" LOL So yeah, a road trip is an experience!

!lol, try Aruba. You can go from one point of the island to another in about an hour. I was there with my family for 7 days, and we literally saw every corner of that country.

My ballot here in a suburb of Minneapolis was two-sided. Page two had only judges, a few dozen of them. All incumbents, all running unopposed.

My suburban “city” of a bit over 2,000 has a pretty good system of sidewalks in and around downtown, but not beyond that. My residential street doesn’t have them but the physical geography would make them hard to put in; in some places the land is quite steep right next to the edge of the street.

Denver's population is over 700k, and that's not counting the burbs; it's crazy that we don't have better public transport/sidewalks/bike lanes.
We have some streets like you describe, but it's the older neighborhoods and the houses are basically all up on hills, then there's a steep decline down to the sidewalk and street level. Good for floods so they don't get house damage!

Thanks for sharing a bit of the midterms (is that what it's called?) in your state, because when I watch the news online it's not as detailed because it's more focused on the "grander" story.

It would be nice to vote on decisions like sidewalks though. Legislature about those issues are voted on by the members in the National Assembly, of which the members are voted by the people of their respective districts. So we vote on people who "represent" us, but this doesn't always seem to work and doesn't always benefit the majority.

Yeah, it's the midterms. I like how my state does elections, we can get things like the sidewalk proposal because citizens can make a petition to put something on the ballot and if they get enough signatures, then we all get to vote on it.
Honestly, the "grander" election stories about president/senators/congress, I feel like our votes are as effective as thoughts and prayers, but in the local things I think they count, at least a lot better than in the national things.

..., we can get things like the sidewalk proposal because citizens can make a petition to put something on the ballot and if they get enough signatures, then we all get to vote on it.

Ah, that's how it works in the US or at least your state. Whenever we submit petitions, we hand it over to the Assembly, who will in turn need to put it on the agenda in parliament and that's where it will be voted upon or used for possible legislature. But not like the people or citizens get to vote on the decision themselves.

Honestly, the "grander" election stories about president/senators/congress, I feel like our votes are as effective as thoughts and prayers, but in the local things I think they count, at least a lot better than in the national things.

You're the second US citizen who has told me that "in person" and have indeed heard some informative programs discuss this. The other person wasn't sure to vote for the offices to be filled, but would contemplate voting for laws and proposals.

Yeah most politicians care only about the rich people who fund their campaigns. There is a lot of corruption but it's all hidden as "campaign contributions" and "lobbying". A lot of bills are named the opposite of what they do so people think "that sounds good" but it does something completely different than what you'd think. They tack on things to bills that have nothing to do with the main part, so like, if it's a bill that is supposed to be something a lot of people like they'll attach something that would never pass on its own because everyone would hate it. It's so messed up.
I mostly continue to vote because of all the local issues. The national government doesn't give a poop about regular people.

A lot of bills are named the opposite of what they do so people think "that sounds good" but it does something completely different than what you'd think.

Ah, had no idea that was also happening, but why am I surprised? I mean, I keep telling people to read between the lines and hope I'll remember that every time myself.

uh oh! 😮😠😖

sidewalk wars! :P

Good luck on that. Hope it gets through..