Businesses in Denver vote with their feet. An open letter to the Legislative Audit Committee: audit Connect for Health CO. The Sun's double standard on election conspiracies.
Voting with their feet.
Depending on how much time and attention you give to social media, you may notice that from time to time a fuss will ignite about Denver like the way a fire can catch from banked coals.
People go back and forth with each other about how Denver is either magical or a cesspool. The reality is that there are parts of both in Denver.
There is something that cannot be argued by partisans on this issue and that is that businesses are voting with their feet when it comes to Denver. And their feet are either saying "leave" or "don't come".
Denver's office vacancy is about 30% right now. This is the first time that the vacancy rate for office space has hit that high. Right prior to COVID (end of 2019) it was about 16%.
Quite a jump.
Why is that? I think there are likely several reasons.
It could be that there is a glut of office space. This is not a new phenomenon: the market for office space has seen growth and contraction repeatedly.
People are not working in offices as much anymore. With COVID having awoken us all the joys and potential of Zoom meetings, companies may have just decided to do more remote work and shrink their physical presence.
Denver may not be seen as business friendly (for a variety of reasons like costs, regulations, etc.). Companies may be moving.
Regardless of the cause this represents a pretty sizeable loss of economic activity for the city.
What I wonder is not so much how to properly characterize Denver as it is whether or not anyone in charge over there is paying attention or working on the problem.
https://businessden.com/2023/10/30/downtown-denver-office-vacancy-tops-30-percent-for-first-time-in-decades/
Connect For Health Colorado took your tax dollars, and, whether you'd like this to happen or not, gave them to Progressive-Democrat causes like ProgressNow.
The CBS story linked at bottom really lit my hair on fire.
It details how a government contractor (a non profit the state hired to do a job) took tax money and gave it to Progressive/Liberal/Democrat groups like ProgressNow. This is wholly inappropriate. This is taking your tax money and forcing you to support groups you may not want to support.
Rep Smallwood and Sen Kirkmeyer have asked for an audit of the organization and I wholeheartedly support that. So much so that I wrote and sent the open email below.
I also intend to put this in my pocket and mention it whenever I testify on a bill where the Democrats are going to task another non profit with taking tax money and doing a job.
As for Mr. Patterson, the CEO of Connect For Health Colorado and his offer to be (quoting the story) held "...accountable for the decision", I will believe he holds himself accountable when I see it.
To wit, I reached out to Connect (and also ProgressNow) to see what they planned to do to reimburse taxpayers or to some way or another fix their error.
As of this writing, I've not heard. You can tell from the date on the CBS article that it's been a while so I'm not holding my breath until I do. Should I hear, I'll update.
My open email follows.
An open letter to the Legislative Audit Committee, Representative Smallwood, and Senator Kirkmeyer.
Hello to all,
My name is Cory Gaines. I am a resident of Logan County.
I had hoped to remotely attend one of your December meetings and tell you what I write below at that time, but my teaching schedule prevents it. I decided to write an email instead. If any of you have a question or would like to read some or all of this letter into the record, please feel free without needing to get permission.
I'm writing regarding the article linked below. In short, it details how Connect for Health Coloardo, a 501(c)(3) non profit, has been giving its funds to not only the Progressive political group ProgressNow, but (here I quote the article):
"Over the last couple years, it's [Connect for Health Colorado] also sponsored a block party by the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, Pueblo Pride by Southern Colorado Equality Alliance, Transgender Day of Remembrance and the Changemakers Gala by the Young Invincibles, which is headed up by the wife of a democratic state representative who co-chairs the House Health and Insurance Committee."
One can rightly assume that, since Connect for Health Colorado is among the numerous groups that the state funds in order to do work that the state would like done, that some of these dollars were from taxpayers.
I find this troubling for a couple reasons.
First, as a 501(c)(3) non profit Connect for Health Colorado should not be giving money for political causes. Period. If they would like to, they need to not be a non profit.
Second, as I am sure you can appreciate, people across Colorado have a variety of political views. We should be free to support the causes and groups we agree with and not support those that we disagree with. By taking my tax dollars and giving them to groups like ProgressNow, Connect for Health Colorado is doing exactly that! They are taking the money I am required to give to the state and giving it to groups I do not want to fund. This is not appropriate and it is not fair.
As the Assembly more and more tasks non profits with doing work like this, we the public need to be secure in the knowledge that the money we're forced to give will not be used for political purposes. We need guarantees that you are not taking our money to give to causes we might disagree with (whether those causes be conservative or liberal or progressive). You should want this too.
In that spirit, I urge you to audit Connect for Health Colorado and reveal to the public exactly what they did with our money. This not only would settle how big a problem they have over there and help build trust with taxpayers, but it would signal to other groups that might be tempted into the same behavior to not follow Connect's lead.
Thank you,
Cory
https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/colorados-health-care-exchange-donating-left-leaning-political-interest-groups/
The Sun’s double standard on election conspiracies.
I took a quote from the Sun article below and attached it as a screenshot with my editor's red pen fix--an addition to bring this coverage in line with other election related coverage.
Two little words to add to the article that you know would be there were this about Republicans or conservatives talking about concerns of election interference.
"without evidence"
You see, it is commonplace for the media to tell us that, as guardians of democracy, they must be careful to correctly label assertions about same.
Except, apparently, when the assertions are made by political groups and people sympathetic to the reporters. Then it's okay to make whatever accusation you'd like without need for a modifier from the journalist.
https://coloradosun.com/2023/11/03/aurora-church-ballot-box/