It kind of looks like science if you squint. Garbage in, garbage out on protected bike lanes. Denver Public Schools racked up millions in debt without once having to ask the voters.
It kind of looks like science if you squint
CPR's climate advocate Sam Brasch recently put out an article nominally profiling our country's newly-appointed Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and (to copy a phrase Wright has used to describe his views) "Climate Realism".
What it ended up being was two things.
--It was more an exploration of why this view is wrong (in the eyes of Brasch and the people he chose to give him the quotes he wanted to bolster this opinion).
--It was something that comes and knocks on your door calling itself science, when it is decidedly not. That is, Brasch again (this isn't the first time) confuses actual empirical data with computer modeling.
I gathered these ideas into a recent op ed which is linked below.
https://completecolorado.com/2025/05/21/progrescpr-hits-scientific-foul-ball-climate-realism/
Garbage in, garbage out on protected bike lanes.
Junk "science" isn't just something gun control proponents use (see any of a number of my earlier writings on that topic), per the Principled Bicycling Substack newsletter linked below, it's also something bike proponents use.
I wanted to share the newsletter because of its thorough rundown of why the study claiming that separated bike lanes with "flexible delineators" reduce bicycle-vehicle crashes by up to 53% is erroneous.
It's well worth the time to read because you will not only learn about some false claims made in bicycle circles, but also because reading through it with an eye toward generalizing the points the author makes will be useful to you. Doing so helps you build the muscles that aid you in spotting iffy research being stretched well beyond its scope and touted as truth. The latter, of course, being something that happens all to often in soundbites.
As the author has it (and as I have it in my op ed in the post prior to this one), one such example is the claim that somehow computer simulations are on par with, are evidence that should carry equal weight with, actual empirical data.
Quoting the newsletter:
"They [the researchers behind the 53% claim] wanted to collect bicycle count data but the pandemic interfered with their data collection, so instead they synthesized (made up) bicycle counts based on sparse bicycle count data and counts of total traffic (mostly not bicycles). The method differed in each of the three study cities: 'the bicycle exposure variable, known as the AADB, was estimated based on a variety of bicycle count types that included short-term bicycle counts, periodic counts that occurred regularly (usually every 2 yr), and a few permanent bicycle count stations.' (p. 103)"
Garbage in garbage out (the title of the newsletter) is apt. It would be a mere embarrassment to the researchers were it not for the fact that claims made this way get thoughtlessly forwarded.
Equip yourself with ways to assess what others (including your government) are unwilling to do on your behalf.
Denver Public Schools racked up millions in debt without once having to ask the voters.
Our Colorado Constitution has some pretty strict provisions regarding public debt, notably at least two sections that require the public's input on the government taking on debt.
As the legislature (after the Colorado Supreme Court's blessing**) has amply demonstrated, however, some rules were made to be broken and there's always a way around things you don't like if you're clever enough.
I won't go into a huge amount of detail on what are known as Certificates of Participation (COPS--if you want more, check out the Colorado Legislative Staff article on them linked first below) but the upshot is that they are the method by which governments can go into debt without first needing to ask you.
Simplifying things greatly, rather than taking on debt, a public agency gives property to a purpose-built (in any other context this would be called a "shell company") entity which then leases it back to the public agency. Said lease payments (tax dollars) are then used to finance what the government wants to finance.
It's a way to borrow money without having to say you're borrowing money.
The second link below is to a Denver Gazette article showing how Denver Public Schools has taken certificates of participation to a high art: they've moved (over time) at least 31 schools to a shell corporation and then leased them back to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.
I'll leave it to you to read the article, but what was really surprising to me was how little detail is known about DPS's use of COPs (in addition to how long they've been at it).
Part of the reason is a lawsuit. Obviously the district (and likely the school board though it's not stated in the article or by anyone on the board) isn't going to comment on the matter given that.
Quoting from the article gives a little background on the suit:
"Lisi Owen, a civil rights attorney and founder of Vanguard Justice LLC — a firm that says it is focused on exposing public corruption — is representing the parent advocacy group Mamás de DPS in a lawsuit challenging the district’s lease-financing strategy. Owen, who ran for Denver district attorney in 2023, argues the leasing arrangement violates the state constitution. This lawsuit, which DPS spokesman Good referred to, is also challenging the school closures approved last year."
But the lawsuit is now and DPS has been, per the article, working COP's since at least 1984. It's shocking to me that journalists, and we the public, can only approach a full picture of what's going on. There is a lot of space in the article given over to just how tough it was to find details. They're (intentionally?) buried.
About the only thing we can be sure of is are the figures quoted above. At least this many buildings and at least this much money.
Good on the Gazette for reporting, and good on the group bringing the suit. This is not how public bodies should be doing business.
**The state supreme court giving not only its blessing on "fees are not taxes" but also on saying that certificates of participation are not a form of long-term debt. Don't ya love it? Everyone should have a friend as supportive as the state supreme court is on skirting your sovereignty over government.
https://leg.colorado.gov/publications/certificates-participation-18-09
Related:
It ain't just DPS using Certificates of Participation.
Any government that likes money and hates having to get permission to take it (who am I kidding, this is not just "any" it's "all") likes them.
Link below is to a 2023 example out of Westminster as profiled by Complete Colorado's Scharf.
An important detail here, as noted in the piece, is that this sort of fancy financial footwork is, like fees are, not a partisan issue. Certificates of Participation are a tool used by politicians of BOTH parties.