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Regarding the Camera editorial, “Plastic bag bans not perfect, but they are necessary,” by Gary Garrison: A good place to start would be to eliminate the plastic bags used to deliver the Daily Camera. As a kid who delivered newspapers, we used rubber bands. For days when inclement weather was forecast, we “porched” the papers.

The staff at the Daily Camera can do better.

The Democrats are hiding from their own failures by trying to tie the election to Trump. Some think themselves clever or cute by coming up with names, comments and cartoons that are little more than arrogant nonsense. Remember James Carville’s quote, “It’s the economy, stupid”? It is the economy, not Trump. And it’s also crime, the border, energy policy, military preparedness, government corruption, censorship, education, immigration, foreign relations and so much more. All failures under Biden. There’s a truism that says, “People won’t change even when confronted with facts. They’ll only change when they lose something.” We’ve lost a lot and continue to lose under the current administration’s policies and singularly unimpressive politicians like Bennet and Neguse. When you vote in November, don’t vote for the people you like. Vote for those who do what you like.

With regards to all the energy put forth on this plan or that plan for CU South, has anyone thought of some good old fashion 14th-century thinking as in “Occam’s Razor”? My father was a very good architect back in the Madison, Wisconsin, area for over 60 years and had his own practice for over 40 of those, and one of the things I remember him telling me was that he often saw designers, architects and engineers overthink a design and overlook the simplest solutions.

Now I’m no architect, but I am a humble furniture maker and may even have a thread or two of creative imagination DNA in this old brain of mine still. Has there ever been a CU South plan using the U.S. 36 turnpike as an area to build their campus, as in right over it on concrete stilts so to speak? There are many examples of this type of construction in major cities all over the world where land is at a premium and Boulder’s turnpike highway is essentially just a flat raised concrete building that brings traffic back and forth and could possibly double as the south campus not to mention it would be far less disturbing to the critical wetland habitats that exist on both sides of the highway.

Now of course it’s more complicated than what I’ve laid out in a couple of sentences, but maybe it’s worth some 14th-century thinking if it hasn’t already.

This is beginning to feel like the movie “Groundhog Day” — where we wake up and relive the same old issues as the day before.

We know that the number one priority is protecting the residents of the South Boulder Creek Valley from disastrous flooding like in 2013. We know that the solution is to build an adequate flood control project upstream from U.S. 36 in the floodplain on land owned by the University of Colorado — probably a detention pond to contain the flood waters, eventually releasing them in a controlled manner through the Valley.

CU and the city have agreed on a quid pro quo, whereby CU permits building a flood project on CU property and in return the city annexes the land to provide city services for a CU South Campus.

But here’s s the rub: this “CU South Campus” is entirely in the floodplain of South Boulder Creek!  Also, it is adjacent to the U.S. 36 “dam,” with a small opening for South Boulder Creek to flow through, at the very bottom of a drainage area of 136 square miles with a history of major flooding, as recently as 1938.

What to do now? Some years ago a far-sighted City Council set aside a large tract of land at the junction of U.S. 36 and 26th Street, calling it a “Planning Preserve.”  A potential solution could be that CU trades CU South, which the City desires for flood control, for this property which is high and dry and ready for development.

Would it not at least deserve a “look-see”? A CU North, going straight north from the CU Campus, and perhaps easier to get to than going through the transportation maze of the Table Mesa hub and down into the floodplain of a CU South.

Let’s try a land swap!

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