Roger J. Wendell
Defending 3.8 Billion Years of Organic EvolutionSM
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It's already too late for the Metro area
I've always been concerned about the environment, biodiversity, freedom, liberty, and quality-of-life issues. In my late 20s, during the 1980s, I started the environmental organization Wilderness Defense! and kicked it off with a "huge" public relations campaign of letter writing, talk shows, and speeches (at schools, clubs and similar gatherings). This particular letter was an early attempt at gaining public awareness about population and sprawl issues in the Denver Metro area. Titled, "It's already too late for the Metro area," I jumped into a long laundry list of reasons why population growth and sprawl where ruining our lives along Colorado's "Front Range." Of course the Post's editors cut a large portion of my writing out in addition to injecting some typos (typographical errors) that I hadn't already created myself. So, I telephoned them, the next day, demanding that they publish my entire letter sans typos and editing. I remember them laughing in the phone and saying they don't even give that kind of consideration to their biggest advertisers! Ahhhh youth, it never hurts to try!
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Aurora should cut city staff salaries
Aurora Sentinel July 27, 1988, p. 18
From: Roger J. Wendell, president
Wilderness Defense!
Editor: Ignore the propaganda for a moment and take a hard look at Aurora and the metro area. Crime is a "growth industry," our streets are intolerably jammed, the air is poisonous and drugs permeate every segment of society. Yet the mayor and city council believe that bringing in more people will actually improve our quality of life - it won't.
Our best interests aren't in mind when city officials plead for more dams, freeways and airports. Pressures to sustain an overpaid professional staff, police and fire department compel them to jeopardize the citizenries' standard of living.
We are guaranteed more sprawl but told that parks and open space are no longer affordable. To further insult us, they warn of an even higher sales tax when current levels already border on usury.
It's time for Aurora to set a real example for Colorado and other "competing" cities. We can do this by continuing our current annexation policy, however, demand that zoning densities be at an absolute minimum, on the order of one residence per 10 acres or agricultural.
We can do it, especially if we deeply cut the above-mentioned salaries from current levels that were officially set at 110 percent of parity. The time to really plan for the future is now, otherwise we will be nothing more than a high altitude version of Los Angeles.
It may be interesting to note that I am a former employee of Aurora's Water Conservation Department, and that I served both as an election judge and on the Election Commission.
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