In case you missed it | Reality check: Millionaire cops don’t grow on trees

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K.C. Becker

We remember the first time Boulder Weekly wrote about the fact that virtually none of our police officers and firefighters could afford to own a home in Boulder, the place where they risked their lives every day. It wasn’t because they didn’t want to live here. It was the simple fact that the city of Boulder’s long-standing growth and open-space policies had caused them to be priced out of the housing market on a working person’s salary. We wrote that 16 years ago, and at that time, we also reported that a couple of cops were hoping to move into what was then a new Habitat for Humanity housing project in North Boulder. Workers not living within Boulder city limits isn’t a new issue, nor is it limited to cops, firemen or other city employees.

What is new is the apparent total disconnect from reality that is currently being shown by city councilwoman K.C. Becker, as demonstrated by her recent public urging, following the elk incident, for more cops to live within the borders of Boulder city limits so they can be more in touch with the organic sensibilities of the enlightened folk who live below the Flatirons. In other words, Becker apparently believes that in the outback of Boulder County in places with names like Longmont, Louisville, Lafayette and Lyons — and, God forbid, in the barbarian settlements of Weld County, where our cops and firefighters can actually afford to live — it is surely normal to blow the living crap out of an elk in the middle of a neighborhood in the middle of the night.

Note to Councilwoman Becker: Not only should you get out of Boulder once in a while, but if you’re going to try and govern a city the size of Boulder, you should know that our cops don’t live here because it’s too damn expensive to own a home on what they get paid, not because they are addicted to night hunting for big game because they live in some backwards place beyond the open-space moat. So how could someone sitting on city council be so out of touch with the real world?

Maybe it is the fact that Becker lives in a $1.4 million Boulder home while listing her job as stay-at-home mom and city council representative. She lists her source of income as interest on her savings and the checks that come from her family’s Florida-based business, Peace River Citrus Products.

So if Becker wants our cops to share her Boulder values, then maybe she needs to introduce an ordinance requiring all of our cops to have trust funds and live in million-dollar homes.

But to her credit, Becker may be onto something. Our research showed that not one cop with a trust fund and living in a mansion has ever shot and killed an elk in the middle of a neighborhood anywhere in the United States. It’s hard to argue with the councilwoman’s logic. But it’s also hard to find and hire millionaire cops.

Sugar daddy seeks PR professional

We have received what might well be the worst press release ever written. Granted, it was from something called SeekingArrangement.com, which touts itself as “the world’s largest Sugar Daddy website.”

Apparently this organization serves the civic duty of connecting wealthy older men to beautiful young ladies who are just in it for the money.

This would all be fine and dandy if the promotional material for its annual list of “Top 20 Fastest Growing Sugar Baby Schools” actually had anything to do with Colorado.

Oh, sure, they made an effort, inserting “Denver” into a canned quote, and throwing in a factoid about the number of Colorado State University females who signed up for the service increasing by 140 percent in the first two weeks of the year. (Yes, they said since 2012.) Never mind that CSU is not based in Denver. Or that no Colorado school made the top 20. Or that the release was sent to Boulder, where last we checked, the University of Colorado is of most interest to our readers.

And to add insult to injury, somebody forgot to take “Oklahoma University” out of the lead paragraph after the release was sent to that proud Sugar Baby institution east of us. Not that OU made the top 20 list either.

And as for the scores of young co-eds financing their college careers with the help of a Sugar Daddy, someone initially identified only as “Wade” says, “While some may argue that these women are just using men for their own personal gain, I believe that they are proactive in pursuing a higher education.”

Good stuff.

Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com