 Welcome to Longmont Public Media's conversation with the candidates. I'm Richard Lyons, and I'm here today with Diane Christ, one of the six candidates for the two at-large positions on City Council. Welcome, Diane. Thanks for having me. So Diane, tell us a little bit about yourself so Longmont can get to know you better. Well, I've lived in town 32 years. We raised our family here. I was originally from Southern Colorado. My family immigrated here about two generations back. We came through Ellis Island and then were conscripted to work for Colorado fuel and iron down in Southern Colorado. So that's how we came to Colorado. My family had hoped to farm, and moving to Longmont was a big step in realizing the American dream in that Longmont is one of the most... Boulder County is the most productive county in Colorado, and Longmont is known as a nice farming community. So it was a big positive step to move here for me. So what did bring you to Longmont? Your family or...? Well, actually, my father was the first generation to get a college degree and was a traveling professor. We eventually traveled around the country, my family of origin and I, and then came back to Colorado when my grandparents were ill. And after that time, I went off to college and returned home to realize that I would have much bigger opportunity in the Boulder area. And it fit what I wanted to do. We eventually wanted to farm as well. It just felt like the direction we wanted to go as a family. So here I am, and I've been here for 32 years. It's been a great place to raise a family. Very good. So what one thing do you want the Longmont voters to know about you? Just the one thing. We're a family that has served our country since we've been here. From my grandfather, my father, my husband, my sons have all served in the military. And part of running for city council is a way that I can serve my community. It's one thing to serve on the national level. It's another thing to actually come home and do something just homegrown. So what is the one thing, rather, what do you especially like about Longmont? And what is it that you don't like about Longmont? Okay. Well, like I said, it's a nice farming community. And when I drive around town, I try to take some of the country roads. I really love the farmland out here. And I think it's because I really see the cowboy culture that we have. We've always been a society, a little community that is rabidly independent. But if the flood comes through, you know, you're going to be out there sandbagging with your neighbors. You're going to take somebody in if there's a fire. It's just what I would call a cowboy culture of resilience and strength and great neighborliness with each other. And so that's my favorite part about Longmont is that homespun, homegrown, salt of the earth type people. Now, let's see, what do I like least about Longmont? I think one thing that's also a positive but a negative is the relentless wind here. I've been out in farmland and had wind take the top off a hay barn and think, wow, we're right in the path of that long speak. And every now and again, nature just tells you who's boss here. That's right. So Diane, if the city received a million dollar grant to use no strings attached to use for the city in any way that the council determined, what would you do with it and why? Well, you may, you or your listeners may have heard by now that I'm a big proponent of the Hyperloop, which is a high speed transportation system that's proposed for Colorado. It's something very cutting edge. It'll take us into the 22nd century whereas our infrastructure now is really still 19th century. The Colorado Department of Transportation has put together a plan for this Hyperloop and they're looking for private investment to get it going, which is one of the ways that E470 was built in Colorado. Anyway, a million dollars would be a good start for Longmont to build a station to connect to that Hyperloop. The ability of people to commute from Fort Collins to Denver, they're saying would take nine minutes. And from Cheyenne down to Pueblo, 30 minutes. It's revolutionary. And 25 years ago when I was working in Boulder and riding the bus to Boulder, I had people come down from Fort Collins that said they didn't realize there would be no way to commute from Fort Collins out to Boulder. You know, coming from the East Coast, they were expecting more of a commuter type situation here. And it's a long time coming. Seedata said that in the last 20 years we've grown 50 percent and now they're anticipating in the next 20 years we'll grow another 50 percent. So it's something that's needed. It's something we really need to put our lens on and figure out the solution too. Very good. So Diane, did you have a person that was your mentor or that was very influential in your life? If so, how did that person help or influence you? I would say my grandmother and grandfather were an inspiration to me in that he was 100 percent German. She was 100 percent Irish. And the way they worked it out was like a meeting of the UN. It really taught me how to negotiate, I guess you'd say, with others. And in addition to that, the other person who was a big influence to me was my father. Seedata was a traveling professor. He just had a lot of interests and he wanted to share those interests with people who wanted to learn. So, yeah, yeah. So are you paying it forward? Are you mentoring or helping someone? Or is there a person that someday will say that you were a good influence on them? Hmm. It's a funny thing about mentorship. Sometimes you don't realize you're mentoring until somebody comes back and tells you how much you did, something you did meant to them. I've had the great advantage both in the corporate world and in my private life to do training of different types. When I was working in a high-tech field, I did what was called component identification, which is a mathematical process to be able to decode what a small circuit board component, the value of it. We had, at that time, immigrant workers, some of which had eighth grade education. And so in teaching some of this decoding, what I found is that those individuals didn't have enough math to really learn the process. So we started over and I started teaching math. And I had a woman come in that said, her children always tell her she's not very smart, but because she has learned math she felt like she could actually do math with her children at night. Around the kitchen table. And to me, that really taught me something about just sharing what we know with others is so important. You never know how much that's going to lift another person up. That's right. So Colorado and Longmont have lots of recreational opportunities. Which did you enjoy and how do you spend your leisure time? I'm a big bicyclist. That's why I know there's a lot of wind here. But I also enjoy hiking and, especially when I was younger, did a lot of the 14ers. Now, a lot more about just enjoying the journey with friends. It's not so much about getting to the top, but about looking at the views and enjoying the time out, especially this time of year with the beautiful colors. So it looks like Longmont will switch from being in the 4th congressional district to the 2nd U.S. congressional district based upon the latest maps and there was a revision that came out last week. What impact, if any, do you think that will have in Longmont to move from the 4th to the 2nd? Well, you've got me there. I've been following that. I hadn't seen that we were going to move to the 2nd. It's interesting when lines are drawn what you're drawing in and what you're drawing out. And so I think when people are assessing these changes they need to look at, you know, what are the advantages? What are the advantages that we're gaining versus maybe the drawbacks that we're losing? The congressional redistricting was something that I did volunteer for. There's only a very few select people that get on that board. So I had decided when I wasn't selected that I would just wait and see what they came up with and then do exactly the same thing I'm suggesting. Do a pro con and see there's always some advantage and there's always some disadvantage. Do you see any advantage for Longmont? I'm not sure yet, actually. Fair enough. So Diane, how do you learn and stay informed about local, state, national, even international issues? It gets tougher. I think with all the social media we'd have an easier time. But it seems like there's a lot of competing information that doesn't necessarily jive. I've had this just even looking at the hyperloop in terms of what will the eventual cost to the project be. And what I found, it was an article where the math was not accurate. And I saw those numbers continue on in other articles. So it really told me, you need to be really careful about your facts before you go forward with some of this information. Because other news agencies, other individuals that are writing about the topics will relate to those facts, maybe never take the time to do the math and realize that you get off the road just an inch and pretty soon you've gone quite a ways from the truth. So I think everyone would agree that national politics are very divisive in our federal and state governments. Although city council is supposed to be nonpartisan, some say it's becoming more political. And what would you do to keep that divisiveness from occurring on the city council? Okay, so I'm going to take a sip because I have a lot to say about this. Okay, please do. I think one of the big issues with divisiveness is I see a lot of either or type arguments nowadays. Either you're right or I'm right. We can't both be right. Now I said that my grandfather and grandmother were a meeting of the UN and what I've learned is you can both have your perspective and you're both probably right. But where's the truth and what really works? And I think that's where we need to come together. A lot of the decisions that are being made now are, well, we have to try A. A would work. Well, maybe we should try B. I think B is a better plan. And the thing is maybe both A and B have been tried and neither have been that effective. And the reason being we've caught ourselves in this either or paradigm instead of actually backing up the information and looking at what the problem really is. In corporate management there's the idea of keep working back the problem until you get down to the common denominator. In other words, what you might think is the problem may not actually be the problem. It's a symptom of what is really going on and until you're able to wind that back and listen to other people and their perspective of what the problem is, you can go back and back and back and realize, hey, maybe we're trying to solve symptoms and we're not actually trying to solve the problem. Now if we have a clear indication or a clear understanding between us, oh, this is what the real problem is, then we have a better basis for let's come up with some solutions. And it's not so much in either or. It's not so much your right or I'm right or this perspective, you know, we talk about national politics, you know, they say from the left or the right, what have you. But America is really in the middle. So it's an either or conversation that we need to stop and renegotiate and think about where is the real problem. Very good. So Diane, how do you plan on involving the residents of Longmati in the decision making process of the City Council? That's a very good question actually. I hear a lot of people say, you know, they want to listen to the constituents. And I think listening is the beginning. But I don't think listening is the whole part of the solution. I think actually engagement is the solution. For one, a vote for me, I've said I'm a big proponent of the Hyperloop because I see that as, as I'm saying, walk it back. I'm seeing that as most of the problems that we're facing as a town, the congestion, the lack of affordable housing, attainable housing, you know, then you have the other side complaining about high density housing. Most of these issues are an issue of transportation. A lot of the congestion is passed through traffic, I'm hearing. A lot of people want to live closer to where they work. And if they were able to commute quickly, that area would expand. And they wouldn't have to live so close to work if they could get there within nine minutes. It takes me 30 minutes to get across town sometimes. So anyway, one way to engage is to vote. You know, you're hearing candidates speak in these forums and in other debates. It's a way to choose what you think you would like to see happen in Longmont. What do you perceive the actual problems are here? And do you want to, you know, keep trying out a few ideas here, a few ideas there? Or do you want some solutions that you think probably might cover it all and actually would change the face of our contemporary society? So that's something that voters should think about and also one should think about what's my part in my town. You know, it gets pretty easy to always blame the neighbor or complain about the government, right? But really it comes down to how do you participate in your neighborhood? What kind of neighbor are you to your community? Okay, good. So if you could change one thing in the current municipal code, what would it be and why? Well, I'll tell you something I was unhappy with. We have, and I live in an immigrant neighborhood still. And so we're a microcosm of just about everything that's going on in Longmont. So let me just say that up front. And something that my neighborhood is concerned about is sleeper vehicles and something that was, I guess, made illegal in Longmont is to have a sleeper vehicle on the road. And now I understand that there are some lots where people can park their vehicles, okay? And being poor is not a crime. So just out the gate I'm again saying that sleeper vehicles should be illegal because once again it's an either or conversation. You know, either we make it illegal or we'll have sleeper cars. Instead of saying, why are people sleeping in their cars? You know, why have people come to this in our town? And working it back to say, if they need to work here, we need to figure out how they can have adequate housing to stay here. And I think if we work it backwards, I think we know that some of that needs to be property tax has to come down on people who can rent these to lower income, I say lower income working class individuals, okay? And there is nothing wrong with being a working class individual, okay? There's nothing wrong with being poor and working. I mean, thank you for working, you know? And finding creative solutions to be near your work, okay? So I've talked around about it. I'm opposed to making sleeper cars illegal. However, I understand that my neighbors would say, well, I don't want them parked next to my house, which we have had happen in our neighborhood, and I understand. You know, it puts the neighborhood in kind of a weird situation in that we have more transient people. There's concern about, I guess, the perception of crime, but more it's about having no place to put these individuals, and I guess one would say a very uncomfortable feeling of why has it come to this in our neighborhood. So that doesn't mean make it illegal to me. That means let's solve the problem. Good. Well, that kind of leads us to the next and final question. Between affordable housing and attainable housing, which do you prioritize as being the greater need for the city of Longmont? Would you have a specific definition of what you would consider attainable versus affordable? Well, affordable is normally perceived as affordable housing as some form of government assistance based upon your income level. And attainable housing is usually defined as housing that the middle class, working class, starter homes for young married couples or whatever could afford or achieve. And once again, I live in one of these neighborhoods, I would say. A lot of times my neighbors say that when they're out in their yard, people come by and ask if they'll sell their house. But I have neighbors down the block who anticipated retiring there for the rest of their lives and felt that they had to sell and move to Nebraska because they could no longer afford the property tax in Longmont. So I think government is not required or expected to create or subsidize housing for individuals. But the second part of that, I would say, is that government needs to be careful that they are not taxing at a rate that is higher than the standard of living of the people that live in their town. And one of the problems that I've heard from those who own rental properties is that they can no longer rent at a rate that they did five years ago. I mean, if they were to rent at that same rate, they would not only not make any money, but they would be in a negative cash position just because of the property taxes. So I think as a city, we need to figure out our budget a little bit better. We need to consider the costs of rising taxes. Housing prices are going up. Therefore, assessments would be going up anyway. And as I mentioned, CDOT said that we grew about 50% in the last 20 years. So one has to think that the taxes that they're collecting are larger than what we've had in the past. And so some careful budgeting. We should have enough money to make Longmont what we want it to be without unnecessarily burdening those who can rent in an attainable and affordable fashion. Very good. Well, that ends our conversation. Thank you very much for coming by this morning, Diane. Well, these have been great questions. And I sure do appreciate you asking in such a kind and generous way. Well, thank you. Well, good luck in your campaign. Thanks so much.