Good morning, Boulder! 🌄 We hope your week is off to a good start.
It’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and you’ll find lots of ways to honor the life and legacy of the civil rights hero in today’s newsletter. From performing artists and speakers to readings, workshops and more, we’ve got everything you need to know about holiday happenings below.
We’re also re-upping our guide to arts and culture events headed to Boulder in the coming months — including the Withers Photography Collection Exhibition at Dairy Arts, which opened yesterday and runs through Feb. 26. Presented in partnership with NAACP Boulder County as part of their ongoing Walk with Me series, the show features more than 100 images from the Civil Rights Movement by Ernest Withers, the legendary photographer who chronicled the Black experience at midcentury in all its hope and heartbreak.
Also in this morning’s edition of BRL Today: a conversation with climate activist and 2021 Boulder City Council candidate David Takahashi. He talked to BRL Publisher Stacy Feldman about the best (and worst) advice he got after losing his home to the Fourmile Canyon Fire in 2010.
Reminder: We’re temporarily back to our three-day newsletter format (MWF) starting today. See you on Wednesday!
– Jezy, managing editor
Top Stories
‘Today’s victims will be tomorrow’s advocates’: A conversation with David Takahashi on wildfire loss, grief — and hope
The activist and 2021 Boulder City Council candidate shares the best (and worst) advice he got after losing his home in the Fourmile Canyon Fire in 2010. Read the full Q&A
Six Boulder arts events to mark on your calendar in 2022
From the stage to the page, and points in between, here’s your round-up of some of the can’t-miss arts events coming to Boulder in 2022. Read the full story
Quickly
⏱️ Mostly sunny today, with highs in the mid-50s.
⏱️ Celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with a slate of community events. See our BRL Picks section for more.
⏱️ Boulder County residents affected by the Marshall Fire are invited to attend an online community meeting on Thursday, Jan. 20, 6–7:30 p.m. Topics will include debris removal and ongoing public health concerns related to ash and air quality.
⏱️ A separate meeting for unincorporated Boulder County residents is scheduled for Jan. 19, 6-8 p.m. Focus is rebuilding homes.
⏱️ Boulder County Public Health issued an update Friday on air quality monitoring: “Stations have been strategically positioned throughout the burn area and in surrounding communities to track potentially harmful ultra-small particles in the air.”
⏱️ See how air quality is being measured here.
⏱️ Boulder County staff are going door-to-door in Louisville, Superior and unincorporated Boulder County to assess wind- and smoke-damaged properties.
⏱️ Don’t forget: If you suffered wind damage during the fire, you’re eligible for FEMA assistance.
⏱️ Open Space & Mountain Parks (OSMP) has updates on Marshall Mesa impacts after the fire: 6.7 miles of OSMP trails affected, roughly 2,000 acres of grassland burned, and more.
⏱️ Out Boulder County is launching a Marshall Fire direct aid fund to offer financial support to LGBTQ+ fire victims. Donate here.
⏱️ The city is providing curbside and detailed assessments through its Wildfire Home Assessment Project to help prepare homes against wildfire threats.
⏱️ BVSD’s open enrollment closed on Jan. 6, for everyone — including students displaced by the Marshall Fire, the district told the Boulder Reporting Lab. A spokesperson said transfers to other buildings are handled through a different process.
⏱️ Do you own property in Boulder and want to rent to a displaced Marshall Fire victim under the city’s new emergency order? Submit an application (due Feb. 28). Then email to request the exemption.
Covid-19 in Boulder County: Jan. 17, 2022
- 718 daily new cases (7-day avg.) 🔺Up 114% over preceding 7-day avg.
- 47 patients hospitalized with Covid (7-day avg.) 🔺Up from avg. of 39 since July 2020.
- 55% percent of ICU is occupied. ⬇Down from avg. of 72% since July 2020.
- Data: Here’s how and where we’re tracking all of the above.
Latest Covid news
- 28th street Covid testing site ordered to cease operations. The Boulder site, owned by Macagain Corp., is among 11 in the state ordered to “cease and desist” testing operations. “It has come to CDPHE’s attention that Macagain Corp (Macagain), in the state of Colorado, administered and continues to administer COVID-19 rapid tests and collected and continues to collect samples for PCR testing. However, Macagain has failed to report the results of these rapid tests and/or PCR tests to CDPHE as required by Amended Public Health Order 20-33 (PHO 20-33) and CDPHE’s reporting regulations,” the Office of the Attorney General wrote in a cease and desist letter.
- Free tests from the feds. Ordering at-home Covid tests from the federal government begins Wednesday, Jan. 19. Every home in the U.S. is eligible for four tests, free of charge. No shipping costs. No credit card necessary. Order here.
BRL Picks (MLK Day Edition)
📸 Moving pictures. Did you miss yesterday’s Walk with Me opening reception for the Withers Photography Collection Exhibition at Dairy Arts? You can stream the whole thing here. Celebrating the new show featuring more than 100 photographs from the Civil Rights Movement, the event included singers, dancers, speakers and a keynote address from Withers Museum of Memphis Director Rosalind Withers.
🚶🏿♂️Keep walking. NAACP Boulder County’s Walk with Me series continues today at 10 a.m. with more performing artists and a keynote from attorney and civil rights advocate Rodney K. Strong at Silver Creek High School (4901 Nelson Rd.) in Longmont. Virtual link here.
🕊️ Power through peace. In honor of MLK’s legacy, the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center explores the power of nonviolence with Nonviolent Direct Action (NVDA) trainers Razz Gormley and Devon Reynolds. The pair will “share the foundational skills of de-escalation, riot response preparedness, forming affinity groups, informed consent culture, and more.” Register for the 12:30 p.m. event via Zoom.
💬 Monologues with a message. Motus Theater and ACLU Colorado present a virtual livestream reading today at 3 p.m. The event features ACLU Colorado Executive Director Deborah Richardson and board member Velveta Golightly-Howell, who will join Juaquin Mobley and Brandon Wainright of Motus Theater’s JustUs project in a reading of stories from the frontlines of the criminal justice system. Readings will include a musical response from singer-songwriter Carlos Heredia, and will be followed by a discussion of racism and the legal system in the context of MLK’s legacy.
🏠 Housing history. Equitable access to affordable housing in Boulder will be the topic of discussion during a 5 p.m. presentation on race and local history, presented by CU Boulder’s Boulder Affordable Housing Research Initiative (CU BAHRI). The discussion of systemic and geographic segregation will revolve around an episode of the CU BAHRI podcast about the bombings that killed six Latinx students (Los Seis de Boulder) in 1974. Listen here, and register here.
What We’re Reading
- 🐣 Baby bird boom. It’s been decades since peregrine falcons returned to the Flatirons, and last year they produced a record 11 fledglings. “The number was so remarkable that the city put it on a list of 2021 accomplishments in environmental sustainability, alongside such items as a 22% reduction in emissions and adoption of a brand-new climate action plan.” [Boulder Beat]
- 🍎 Lower teacher standards worry early education advocates. In response to a teacher shortage, Colorado is changing its credentialing standard for early childhood educators — and that’s causing concern for some. “‘You’re really, truly pulling new people off of the street and having them go work in your classroom, and that’s a whole different kind of pressure,’ said Dawn Alexander, executive director of the Early Childhood Education Association of Colorado. ‘Where you used to be able to trust that someone could be in that classroom, there’s a lot of work to be done before that feeling of trust is really there.'” [Colorado Sun]
ICYMI
🏠 City relaxes rules for new rental licenses to house fire victims. Boulder residents seeking to rent out properties to people displaced by the Marshall Fire will have to jump through fewer hoops to get a new rental license. The order issued on Jan. 13 is “necessary to prevent displacement or possible homelessness of persons by a disaster emergency,” the city wrote.
💧Hundreds of complaints about Superior’s water have been filed following the Marshall Fire. Health officials say they have found no evidence of unhealthy contamination — but they have not released information indicating whether any of the water samples analyzed so far were taken near the homes of residents who have complained of smoky water.
⛺ Boulder police ticketed people for sleeping outside this winter on days the shelter was full, public records show. Boulder City Council is unlikely to repeal the decades-old ordinance against public camping anytime soon. But the conversation around how to reconcile the ban with the city’s homelessness strategy is up for debate once again.
About Us
Hi. We’re Boulder’s new nonprofit newsroom. Our mission is to help you get more informed about the issues you care about and more connected to the city you love. To do this, we provide high-quality, original journalism on the most pressing issues plus curated community information — all paywall-free. Learn more about us here and here.
Not subscribed to this newsletter yet? Sign up. It’s free! You can find all previous editions of BRL Today here.
We’re just getting started, but we have BIG plans. Already like what you see? Consider becoming a BRL member today.
Are you a local business?
Learn about our sponsorship program to reach our growing audience and help public-interest local journalism thrive.
Email: sponsorships@boulderreportinglab.org.
Thanks for reading!
Our journalism depends on you.
Have a story tip for us?
Send us your ideas at tips@boulderreportinglab.org.
– The BRL Team
