How One Boulder City Council Member Explores Colorado

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Show Notes

My name is Taisha Adams. I use she, her pronouns and I live in Boulder, Colorado.

Okay. So you guys, I asked her to introduce herself knowing she does a billion and one things. Okay. But we’ll get into that later. I want to know. Is there something that you’ve done recently or in the past that was super epic and I want to know how you got there.

I will say one of my most epic trips in the state of Colorado was to the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation, which is outside of Cortez. And so in one of the One of the many things that I have done is serving as the first African American for the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission. And as a commissioner, we are tasked with, making sure we’ve got strong wildlife, strong parks, and so they take us all across the state.

And we happen to be in the very middle of our state at one of our meetings and A member of the Ute Mountain Ute tribe invited us to come down to the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation, which is outside of Cortez and join a bear dance. Oh, I want to go to a bear dance and learn more. And so now, Greg, remember I said that I live in Boulder.

I was in the middle of the state, which was already a four hour drive, and now we’re going to add another four hours to get to the southwestern corner of our state to attend this bear dance. And we have our dog, which means we need to find a place. Somewhere between where we’re going, where we are, where we’re going to house the dog as well.

What we did was one, we found a state park that we could stay at, where we happen to have all of our camping gears. We spent the night at the Mancos State Park, which is in Mancos Colorado. Which has this beautiful Wait, wait. I’ve

never heard of Mancos.

Where is Mancos? Okay. Need to head out. So Mancos is just east or sorry, just west of Durango.

So really think further down there, but you’re not quite all the way there yet. And it actually was, in, I think eight, it was a mining town and yeah, they, eventually after all was said and done, they created the state park there. And we were able to find a great camping spot at the state park.

In Manco and there’s me and my partner driving and the dog spent the night there. And then we stopped off at our friend, Phil Henderson’s house, Phil Henderson, African American mountaineer. He led a group of African American men. Up to the top of Everest.

Oh yeah. I’m familiar with him, but I don’t know him.

Oh, that’s yeah. That’s super

cool. So Phil lives in Cortez and we know Phil and we know Phil has a dog. So we were like, Oh, we’ll have Bob, our dog stay with Phil’s dog. Your dog’s name is Bob? So we went and stayed at Phil’s house and then we, Randy and I drove down to To you, mountain reservation, which was south of Cortez, maybe about 45 minutes and went to the bear dance.

And and the bear dance is something it was there. This was a couple of years ago. So the last. The Bear Dance, this last one, was 135th. So they’ve been doing this for 135 years. And so the whole Bear Dance is, men will be on one side who are, eloquent and looking for love in all the right places on one side and women on the other side.

And it’s really about building relationships and, building unions and yeah, it was an interesting way for obviously folks to get to meet one another and know one another. And while we were there, we also got to just go to other parts in the, and meet other members of the community.

There was a powwow happening in another part of the community with music and native dances and singing and drums. And we were able to go and visit. Actually one of the only public school of its kind, which is a public charter school, which is on Ute mountain reservation and dedicated to restoring native language and culture and traditions.

And so again, just recognizing that building community is not something is an adjective. It’s a verb or building community is a verb, right? It is an action. It is not. Coming in just to a zoom room or reading an article or listening to a podcast, it is showing up. And that’s what I loved about the experience of showing up and looking at the hand game, which is this guess.

Have you ever seen a hand game?

No,

like a guessing game that indigenous people. So you’ll have I’ll be sitting in a circle or, sitting in a space and there’ll be music playing and you’ll have this little stick and you’re trying to hide this. Stick and each group have in looking at the other and you can hide the scapegoat and when the music comes off, you’re trying to guess where the stick is.

And so again, just, nurturing intuition and trust and, deception and all of the different human emotions that go into that kind of game. So again but being a former commissioner for Colorado Parks and Wildlife and recognizing that it’s not enough to just show up when you’re having the official meeting, but going places and spaces for just finding our shared humanity is powerful.

I’m wondering, as you were sharing this experience, are there other reservations in the state? It makes me feel a little awkward to say that I didn’t realize we had a reservation in the state. I don’t know how that could be that I didn’t know, and I feel like that would be common for other people listening, that they may be unaware of this.

So are there other reservations around the state? And what is a takeaway that You would want to share with us in terms of how we can be in community with communities that aren’t often seen that are a part of the state that are the fabric of the state, to be honest,

there are two federally recognized tribes for the state of Colorado, one of the mountain youth and the other is the southern youth Indian tribe.

And those are the two, and they’re right next to each other in southwestern Colorado. And then there is the Wind River Reservation, which is in Wyoming. And that’s where the Arapaho, northern Arapaho. In the city of Boulder, we, our city is working with about 16 tribes, but as I said, not all are federally recognized.

Again, when working and recognizing in Colorado, that most indigenous people live in urban areas in the city, but that come from a lot of, I think there are. 48 tribes that have called the lands that are now Colorado home. And so one is the recognition and invitation to learn about those that are indigenous to these lands.

And the bear dance is open to the public and powwows are open to the public. In addition, I actually need to make a return to the Ute mountain Ute. One, and now that I’m a City council representative for the city of Boulder. I, it is, it is my responsibility to, to build those relationships and that means folks coming here and us going there.

And so again, just nurturing that relationship, but also recognizing that, so there’s the tribal relationship, but there’s also the indigenous relationship. And so I think of the native American rights fund here in the city of Boulder or the harvest of first nations is another organization here in Colorado or women of women of the mountain led by Renee Chacon.

And others out of Commerce City, but recognizing there’s a lot of indigenous led organizations. And that’s another incredible way, not only to reconnect and relearn about history that has been either erased or you maybe just heard half of it, but also to heal. Heal those relationships, because, even as an African American all of my life, I’ve been, heard, okay, we’re waiting for 40 days in a mule, but on whose land?

This is stolen land, right? And so it’s complicated, right? And again, I appreciated the opportunity serving Colorado Parks and Wildlife to deepen my understanding and relationships with tribal and indigenous people in Colorado. And now as a city of Boulder council member, I am also in a position where I can restore history, our collective understanding of how we got here for myself and others, as well as to restore, reimagine, not even restore relationships because I don’t want to restore the relationships between indigenous people and settlers and arrivants.

I don’t want to restore that inequitable, disrespectful history, but rather reimagine what those relationships What do you think that will look like now, can look like now?

One of the things that I think of as a citizen of the state and as a person like at the heart of this project is transportation and the ability to move across the state and.

One of the things that I was often frustrated by as a person who doesn’t own a car was like the difficulty to get to certain places. I will say, I love the developments in recent years where we have bus staying and other regional transportation options, such as Colorado Car Share, where you could, if you’re in the metro area, be a member.

But for communities that are not in these hyper dense metro areas, what are some of the things we could be doing to better connect them in terms of transit and transportation? There’s conversation around having trains, expanding train access and train routes and, but if I’m over by Durango, I don’t know that would work.

What do you imagine in terms of making Colorado easier to maneuver around in an environmentally friendly way? Is that even something that is? A thing that you reflect on or think about, or is that something that I’ve just brought up randomly?

No. I think about it a lot. And they said, coming as a, from a, as a former commissioner for Colorado parks and wildlife, and now as a city council representative, I definitely think the experience of being on the commission for Colorado parks and wildlife de centered myself as a human, as the only living being that matters and really made me think about.

The other living organisms that also need clean air, clean water, clean soil. So I’m mindful about putting, highways and roads everywhere, or, doubling down on the car dependency. Like I’m very excited about the move away. I’m a member of car share, right? I love the idea.

I don’t, I work remotely. I don’t have to have a car. I’m able to use public transportation. I borrow my partner’s cars or one car family. I think that it is about creating a dynamic set of offerings that isn’t overly extractive. And what does that mean? That means one, car share where we’re borrowing, and sharing the good.

I think strengthening the public educate public transportation is something that many advocates have been fighting for. For a really long time. And so I’m so excited to see the rail program come back online. That was definitely, from Pueblo all the way up. North is gonna be absolutely essential.

And I think we’re gonna have to have some serious conversations around I 70. I think we missed the boat on the opportunity to have a train and again, I don’t think all is lost, but that momentum that we had is not as strong. And I think having the buses that go across the state is just a direction that we’re gonna need to be moving in more deeply.

And electrifying those buses as well is going to be absolutely critical. I’m not an EVs for all and thinking that’s going to solve things, right? That’s still a very extractive, to make the cars, to make the infrastructure. All of that is, is a lot. In a time where we have all these other things that we need to be moving towards, like the dress transition and, just moving to a more.

Relational regenerative economy. And just finding that balance between how do we share with each other, with the commons that we already have is the direction we need to be moving in and making those public investments into an infrastructure that is less instructive.

You are on Boulder city council, which I think is so awesome and so fabulous, but I’m very curious.

Why did you decide to do that? Seems like a lot.

Well,

It is, it’s a lot. One, I’m the third African American to ever serve on the Boulder City Council. And it shows. To your question, why am I serving? Because we have earned the right to be at the table where the most important decisions are being made about our lives.

And when we’re underrepresented, we are on the menu. Again and again, and even while I’m at the table, I am still on the menu, but it is an honor. It is an honor. One of my books that I go back to is called the slave testimonials basically is slave testimony from like the 1400s till the 1960s. And I’ll read about, a mom that had to buy back her children.

You don’t free them because then they can still get caught again. So you buy them back. And I just remind myself when people say, Oh, we haven’t made progress. No, we have. And people made sacrifices so that I can make the sacrifice I’m making now. So that decisions can be made by the collective, by those that are being impacted, not for.

Those that are being impacted, I’m also here because this is the debt that I owe to my ancestors for the sacrifices that they made for me to be here. And by that, I, having to buy back the children or redlining or, the Colorado had the largest, the second largest clan membership.

It shows. And if anything, it is reclaiming and restoring our humanity, as well as positioning so that seven generations is possible. Seven generations can thrive here and breathe clean air and drink clean water. That’s why I’m serving.

One of my core values is accessibility. Just personally, it’s a core value.

And as I have explored the world and lived in other places or visited other places. I am struck by like some of the good things we do here in Colorado and also some of the things we sometimes take the foot off the gas on. And so one of the policies related to transit that I absolutely am obsessed with and I hope we can do again is zero fare for better air.

And I loved it because it was this environmental policy that encouraged people to take transit. It was free during the summer. So those of you listening for two summers in a row, public transit was free. And part of it was to encourage people to use public transit to get people off the roads. For me, it was like actually an access policy where it just made so many things so easy, right?

And I think my last, one of my last questions is, can you imagine Do you think it would ever be possible for us to push for free transit, just in general? It was just so cool to get on the bus and then people just sat down and the drivers didn’t have to navigate whether or not someone had the money to be on the bus and it just was so Chill.

I guess my question would be, is that something that we can do again? And what are some of the, what are some of the things we would have to do to facilitate that? And maybe the follow up question would be, what do you hope for in the future in our state as it relates to being able to move around in an equitable way?

Those would be my last two questions.

Okay. Big ones. I will start it off with one of my favorite phrases which is accountability is love. And by this, we need to increase our revenue. We need to increase how much money goes towards the public good. And I just say that because, I just got we’re, I think there’s one more hearing of our 2025 budget for the city of Boulder, and this is one of our years of being fiscally restrained.

But then I just look to see, okay how are we fiscally restrained? How are we having the highest inflation in however many years? And then I’m reminded, oh, wait, we have some of the highest profit margins in the last 70 years. So of course, Is there

a ghost in your,

Your, like, how did the door open?

Oh, Bob. Bob. Okay. You need to chill out, bro. I was like, I don’t know. How

did the door open? I’m like

watching in the door. He had

no idea. Sorry, but I lost my train of thought. So sorry.

I literally

was concerned for you. Oh yeah. No, I appreciate you. I appreciate you. Yeah, no that was just Bob coming in.

But what was I talking about? I’m sorry. I did. I did.

Like equitable. Oh,

right accountability is love. Okay. And by this, I just mean, I am watching

Millions and millions of dollars not being invested back into our public commons through tax evasion at the individual and corporate level. And so when you asked me, what can we do, we have to address that because when we see historic profit and historic inflation, to me, we see wage theft and not just theft from an individual, but theft from the commons.

And so to your question of, can we have free and not even free. Because we pay for that. We pay. So can we have federally paid or government paid programs to cover public transportation? Absolutely. That’s the direction we 100 percent need to be going into because we need our money to be aligned with our values.

And if we are saying we care about the planet, we care about our neighbor, we care about our family. Then we need to strengthen the commons, and that’s not just public transportation. That’s also our schools, our hospitals, right? All of the places that determine the strength of our community. I think back to the Blackfoot and Maslow’s laws.

Have you heard of the hierarchy Maslow’s hierarchy that’s actually based on his time visiting the Blackfoot

and

seeing how they operate and work with each other. It actually busts the whole illusion of, the illusion of individualism and bootstraps and all of that. Those aren’t concepts that exist there recognizing that food and water and shelter are the commons, are the bare minimum that is needed for us to be even able to have these higher levels of organizing and supporting one another.

I go back to that indigenous wisdom of sharing of kinship, that kinship. worldview. And I’m asking us to restore that kinship worldview. So yes, I want and believe that we absolutely can, but a part of that is believing that we can, right? Cause there’s so much energy and say, you can’t do this.

And no, but this is what I love about the pandemic. The pandemic reminded me of what we can do. Cause my whole life I was told we can’t do this and we can’t do that. And we can’t do that. We can’t move that kind of money. We can’t change this kind of policy. We can’t. I have never gone into ANY medical facility and gotten ANYTHING done!

And didn’t have to put a dime down to go. I didn’t pay that COVID shot. I didn’t pay

anything. I didn’t pay any to this day. I haven’t paid for anything related to COVID. And that’s how I

know, that’s how I know what’s possible because we’re willing to make an investment. And when I see what our military budget is, when I see even our state budget, one of my activities I’m doing over the next 6 months is just doing a deep dive into our governmental.

Budgets now that I’ve been to the city budget process now, what happens at the county level? Huh? What happens at the state level because it’s all interconnected. I think that’s the other call is, you know Whatever you’re doing whatever you’re working on, whether it be in transportation and or housing or health Make sure it’s connected to the other pieces, right?

I’m not a single issue. I don’t lead a single issue life, right? I need to get around and I need to eat.

When I hear our transportation advocates talking about, we want to be car free. We want to. Have a 15 minute neighborhood. Oh, that’s wonderful. Does this include eating? Does this include, right? Childcare? Does this include the healthcare facility? If it does, I’m all for it. But if it is just another way of having a risk, a resort or a gated community, I don’t want that.

This will be my last question, which is you’re on the city council. Do you see yourself running for another office in the future? Or is it too soon to ask that question?

I am less than a year in. Whoa. Okay. That’s too, it’s too soon. I’ll

have to follow

up with you. And it’s interesting though, because, again, when the governor called and asked if I wanted to do another, cause I was eligible, to do another four year appointment for the commission.

And I reflected on it for a little bit. And then I realized this experience has one has invited me to even get more engaged and involved civically.

Especially when my voice, my values my race, ethnicity, socioeconomic, isn’t represented in by those who are making decisions about the most important components of my life and my capacity to live here.

Feel like that is it for today.