in case you missed it | Denver gets Boulder’s goat

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Denver gets Boulder’s goat

Denver stepped ahead of any town in Boulder County on Monday, June 20, when the Denver City Council voted 7-3 to permit residents to keep chickens, ducks and dwarf dairy goats in their backyards. The new ordinance, which some say was an effort by the city to keep a more radical urban farming measure off the ballot, allows residents to keep up to eight hens or ducks, along with two dwarf nanny goats for milk.

Roosters and billy goats are not permitted.

The ordinance also streamlines the process, making it easy for urban farmers to acquire a one-time license for a mere $20, eliminating yards of red tape.

Boulder allows bees and an unlimited number of hens, but dairy goats are not permitted. Longmont allows only four hens, as well as up to two bee hives. Superior and Lafayette both allow up to six hens, while Erie and Louisville don’t allow urban hens at all. Nederland is reportedly considering the issue.

Face it: Denver is just more progressive than Boulder, or any city in Boulder County, when it comes to urban farming. Considering the importance of urban food production to our future, that’s not an area where any city wants to lag behind.

It’s time to get ordinances on the ballots of every city in the county so that we can relocalize our food, improve our personal and local economy and get closer to sustaining ourselves.

More J school oddities

We know that Chris Braider, the new faculty director of the University of Colorado’s journalism program, is a good, level-headed guy who has shown sound leadership qualities.

It’s just that he’s a French and Italian professor. Does that strike anyone else as odd, that someone who does not have a background in journalism will be directing the journalism faculty?

The canned quote that came with the press release was telling: “The transition from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication to a new program requires a fair-minded leader who will not be influenced by past conflicts and issues in the school,” Provost Russell Moore said. Read: None of the current journalism faculty could be entrusted with guiding this transition, because they are all too close to the in-fighting and dysfunction that helped lead to the school’s discontinuance in the first place. Nice.

The release is quick to point out that Braider will not be teaching or directly involved in curriculum design issues.

Add this appointment to the long list of head-scratchers that have befallen the journalism school over the past year.

Blame a Mexican

When in doubt, blame brown people.

This week, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., defended his statements that illegal immigrants were responsible for some of Arizona’s wildfires.

McCain did backpedal enough to say that he didn’t mean that illegals caused the current Wallow Fire, just that he has been told by Forest Service officials that those brown people from Mexico sometimes start fires.

But invoking the Forest Service reminds us of when that big marijuana grow was found in a Colorado forest and authorities warned us good, Godfearin’ white folks to watch out for evidence of those bad Mexican drug dealers. Telltale signs of trouble, we were told by one U.S. Forest Service official in August 2009, included Tecate cans and tortilla wrappers.

Next thing you know, undocumented immigrants will be blamed for the economic recession, if not global warming.

Kitties’ ditties

In case you missed them last time they came through Colorado, this time they’ll be at Boulder’s Nomad Theatre.

Touted as one of four performing house-cat troupes in the country, the Amazing Acro-Cats will be purr-forming at the Nomad June 26-29.

Apparently, these pussies push carts, ride skateboards, roll barrels, ring bells, turn on lights, walk tight ropes, jump through hoops and more.

PETA disclaimer: The group’s master trainer, Samantha Martin, is described as “a pioneering feline behavioral expert who has devoted her life to animal welfare, public education and helping people better understand their animal counterparts.”

For more information and tickets, check out www.circuscats.com.

Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com