3-31-25 - 7am - More Busses More Empty Seats and New Chair of Colorado Republican Party

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Mike regarding the Highlands Ranch proposal to spend two point
three million dollars on a mini transportation system. If that's
an annual operating cost for twenty three dollars per ride,
they could pay for one hundred thousand uber or left
rights per year with the starting or terminating in Highland's
rants with a five mile radius. Wouldn't that be a
far better way to spend that money.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
No, No, it wouldn't, see because we need government to
do it. This is what's driving This is what I
think is driving people out of the state. I'm from
the government. I'm here to help, right, I think this
is why. Look, I'm totally honest with you. I don't
want to leave Colorado. I don't have any plan to
live Colorado. But if I didn't love the job that

(00:44):
I do, which I absolutely loved what I do, if
I really wanted to retire, which I do not want
to retire, but if all of those stars are lined up, hell,
I'd be in New Mexico. Cost of living is so
much cheaper. The bull Now, there's a lot of bull
crap that goes on in New Mexico. To there's a

(01:04):
bull crap that goes on everywhere. Don't get me wrong,
no place is perfect. But this place truly has turned
into Colorado into California. I honestly, but I sincerely believe this. Now.
I don't have the data to back it up. It's
just my belief that in many ways Colorado has become

(01:27):
worse than California. Now, our traffic is bad, but our
traffic is not nearly as bad as if you're on
the five or you're on the ten trying to get
some play. Yes, traffic is maybe much horrible, but you
know what, you may only be driving twenty or twenty
five miles an hour, but you're not dodging potholes. At

(01:47):
the same time, the taxes are outrageous. Oh wait a minute,
taxes are outrageous here. The cost of living is outrageous.
Oh actually, the cost of living here is even greater.
So I understand why people are leaving, because it's just
it's utter insanity. Dragon ahead to meet. These are letters

(02:08):
to the Denver Post. This is from Richard Vaughan Lutre
Luter later Luter, I don't know, Maybe I should do
my research. Increasing RTD frequency just means more empty seats,
and this kind of gets to the talk back point.

(02:30):
For the two point four million or whatever it is
they're going to spend in Douglas County. How many uber
rides could you get for that? I mean, it's it's ridiculous.
And first, let me ask this, why why why did
Douglas County? There are buses running all the time in
Douglas County. I see and I and I make it
a point because I'm always curious, particularly when I get up.

(02:54):
I'll give you the last example. Uh it was either
Saturday or Sunday morning. I forget which it was, but
you know, because of my weekday schedule, the dogs are
accustomed to getting up at you know, four o'clock in
the morning. So four o'clock in the morning on either
Saturday or Sunday, I'm loading the dogs up in the

(03:15):
jeep because we're gonna go out to Chatfield and we're
gonna walk for several miles and you know, we're gonna
walk and watch the sun come up and it's gonna
be a great morning. And I'm gonna take them to McDonald's.
And I take them to McDonald's first. Uh so I'm
I'm at the McDonald's. Actually, I think that that morning,
I went to the one on Broadway. I mean they're

(03:35):
both on Broadway, but I went to one on Broadway
north of four seveny as opposed to south. And there's
an rtdvs RTD bus in front of me at approximately
five five oh five or something, and I make a
point of pulling up next to it so I can
see how many people are on it. Now, this is bus.

(03:57):
This bus is in service. It's got its route number
on a little sign in front, in the back, everything,
so it's a running bus. It's not just going into service,
it's in service. How many people are on the bus? Zero.
You can check any time of day in South Denver,

(04:17):
in the Burbs, and there's hardly ever if anybody on
the buses. We'll listen to this letter. Letter. Having been
involved in transportation projects most of my architectural career, I
have had the opportunity to experience public transportation throughout the world.
I believe that makes me qualified to criticize the conclusion

(04:39):
that ridership will improve if frequency of service improves. Remember
the story we did last week, four hundred and twenty
five million dollars a year. Yes, they're proposing to spend
four hundred and twenty five million, which they don't. First
of all, let's just back up Colorado. The comp me

(05:00):
us over the Pulp Bureau are still arguing, debating. They're
hiding in their corners, they're hiding under their desk as
there's some nuclear explosions about to occur because they don't
know how to fill a one point five billion dollar
budget deficit. Well, at the same time that they're trying
to figure out how to fill a one point five
billion dollar budget deficit, what are we doing in Colorado?

(05:25):
People are floating three of the stupidest ideas I think
I've ever heard in my life. And I've heard a
lot of Look, I used to work for the government,
so I've heard a lot of really stupid ideas. TSA,
I'm looking at you. That's one stupid idea. But one
of these ideas is to spend four hundred and twenty
five million dollars a year so that we can have

(05:47):
fifteen minute bus service, meaning that we will hire enough
buses drivers, create enough new routes so that no one
ever has to wait more than fifteen minutes to get
on a US And of course, their tagline to the
story is so you'll never have to think or know
what a bus schedule is. Now. My first thought to

(06:10):
that was, wait a minute, Just because a bus is
running every fifteen minutes doesn't tell you where the next
bus showing up is going to. The bus that shows
up at seven point fifteen this morning at stop A
is going to stop G. The bus that arrives fifteen
minutes later at seven thirty this morning may not be

(06:33):
going to stop G is going to stop F. So
you still have to know the bus schedules. They just
run more often. The other stupid idea was let's use
the existing railroad tracks between Ice On Ice seventy, between
the Front Range and Gloden wind Springs to haul eighteen wheelers,

(06:57):
so we can take the eighteen wheelers off the interstate.
So I'm telling my engineering friend about this on Saturday,
and I said, so, here's the idea. We're gonna build
a big ass giant truck yard and rail yard to
get because if you're gonna put all of these tractor trailers,

(07:19):
not just the eighteen not just the trailer, but the
tractor too, you got to put the entire truck, the
entire eighteen wheeler, onto a flatbed on a train, So
you're gonna have to have a place where they can
all pull over and wait their turn to get loaded
onto the train. And then you're gonna take the train
through Coal Creek Canyon or up Ice seventy somewhere. You're

(07:42):
gonna cut through the mountains somehow to get to the
Maffat Tunnel. From the MafA Tunnel, You're somehow going to
get through the Eysenhower Tunnels or somewhere. You're gonna zig
zag all around and eight hours later you're gonna end
up in Glenwood Springs, where they'll then have all the
semi giant the giant cranes again to take all the
semis off the train so they can get back on
the highway and continue on their route into into Utah

(08:05):
or wherever the hell they're going. What a stupid idea.
Can you imagine the billions of dollars that would cost?
But that's one of the ideas they're floating around. Then
the third stupid idea which shows you why people are
leaving Colorado was, hey, downtown Denver sucks, Yeah it does.
Why because a crime illegal aliens, homelessness, uh, you know,

(08:28):
just car thefts, everything. So what do they want to
do They want to build gondolas. Gondolas. Now, the first
the first question I get asked from our friends at
dinner is gondolus to where? I'm like, I don't know,
you know, to ride over the buses going up and
down the sixteenth Street mall to take you from you know,

(08:52):
Lodo over to Wazi. I don't know, I don't know.
But the idea is they want to build gondolas, and
somehow that's going to be in a traction, and that's
going to bring more people downtown and they'll be able
to refill all of the office buildings downtown by having gondolas,
not even addressing the underlying problem. That's the stupidity that

(09:14):
is Colorado. That's the stupidity that is personified by the
combined IQ of about a negative five of all of
the members including Republicans at the Colorado polit Bureau, the
governor who's on IQ of about a negative fifty, and
his stupid husband that keeps wanting to put wolves in

(09:36):
the state. By the way, do you know that the
wolves are now near Evergreen there at to eighty five. Yeah,
they're down to two highway to eighty five. But when
you read the story. Now, remember, these wolves that we've
reintroduced into Colorado have callers on them so that Parks
and Wildlife can track the wolves and know where, at
any given moment, where the wolves are. So the story is, hey,

(09:59):
the wolves have moved into They don't want to tell you,
but the wolves have moved into Clear Creek County. They've
moved into you know, like up around two eighty five
and Evergreen. But then the story says, but we don't
know where they are. You just told us where they are,
you see, they meaning the political leaders in this state.

(10:20):
I think that you're so stupid that you'll read a
story and you'll get to the final first of all,
whoever reads through the entire story except me, and you
finally get to the bottom line and they tell you all,
but we really don't know where they are. Yeah, you
know exactly where they are. You just don't want people
to know that Marlin's Wolves Marlon Reese is the first
Husband's wolves have moved into the urban area. Yeah, so

(10:46):
you know, watch you got shot and then one wonders
into Wyoming and gets shot, And I just think that's glorious.
I you know, you can call me, and I don't
care what you call me. I'll do my research. You
can call me whatever you want to. But you know what, good,
that's one less wolf that we have to deal with.
Oh good grief. So back to this story. If something

(11:10):
does not work, this gentleman rights, it can't be solved
by doing more of it. Ridership is down because nobody
is writing. Ridership does not improve when the length of
the trip is so much longer than driving, and because
urban sprawls ubiquitous, it is impossible for bus and rail

(11:31):
transit to serve the countless destinations throughout the metro area conveniently.
Transit in Denver worked better when downtown workers were back
in the office, but with remote work, there are just
not enough employees going downtown, I would add parenthetically, and
they're just not enough citizens going downtown. Because you know,

(11:56):
do better Denver. The ex account was showing yesterday. In fact,
while I was eating Mexican food last night, they were
showing that there was a swat team at Union Station
all moving in to arrest somebody. Of course, do better, Denver.
If you don't follow at do better Denver, you need

(12:16):
to be doing that. I don't know who's behind that account.
But it's got to be somebody on the inside. It's
got to be somebody in the police department, it's got
to be somebody in government, somehow that works in city hall.
It's got to be somebody. I suppose it because somebody.
But wait a minute, I thought we encrypted the scanners

(12:38):
in Denver, so I don't think you have access to Oh,
another transparency problem. They don't want you to know what
the cops are doing. But if you don't follow at
do better Denver on X you need to be following
them because it will show you just how crappy it
is to go downtown Denver or almost anywhere in metro
area to the letter. Transit in Denver worked better when

(13:05):
downtown workers were back in the office, but with remote work,
there are just not enough employees going downtown, and ridership
in the suburbs has never increased because it is impossible
to get every trip close to the writer's final destination.
I'm always encouraged when finally somebody recognizes the point that

(13:26):
I've been making for years, and that is public transportation
does not work in an area like this because of
the final mile problem. You know, if you get on
a bus in midtown Manhattan, it can get you within
a block or less of your office or the restaurant
or the hotel or the site thing, the tourist place,

(13:48):
whatever you're going to. Because it's so dense. In Colorado,
the closest that OURTT can get me to my place
of work is at least a mile away. I think
it's actually further than that, but at least a mile away.
So there's absolutely zero incentive for me to take RTD

(14:09):
to work because not only is it the distance involved,
but the time involved. What would take me normally, even
stopping to get a diet coke, takes me about twenty
minutes to get to work. And that's on the high side.
If I were to do RTD, and let's say I

(14:30):
do it from the closest bus stop to my home,
to get to light rail to get to this stop
over at Quebec and Bellevue, and then to either take
an uber or to walk to the studio that mile
and a half, which I'd be happy to do except
when it's really nasty out, probably more than an hour.

(14:53):
So twenty minutes versus an hour and twenty minutes. No,
it's not going to happen. It's not going to happen.
The letter continues. The other problem is parking costs. Until
parking becomes more difficult and more costly, transit will be
viewed as the last choice. Now that is factually true,

(15:18):
but it also gives you insight into hmm, this thinkers,
This letter writers, this author's political persuasion. Now I don't
know it for a fact, but I would believe that
this guy is probably anti car and probably supports the

(15:38):
idea that we're going to eliminate parking requirements when you
do any sort of building in the downtown in the
central business district, because they want to make parking more expensive,
because they want to force you out of your car.
I truly just let me insert something you don't already know.

(16:00):
I hate the state. I have a love hate relationship
with Colorado. I refuse to leave, but I hate what
they're doing to it. Lastly, he writes, transit is perceived
to be unsafe. Whether this is perception or reality, RTD
must improve its reputation as a safe alternative. COVID nineteen

(16:24):
did not help, because the public became adverse to crowded spaces,
and Transit has not overcome this problem. I think that's
another insight into the guy's political affiliation. Then the last sentence,
the bottom line is that ridership won't improve simply by
increasing frequency. If nobody is writing, have more frequent having

(16:46):
more frequent empty buses is not solving anything. Bingo. That's
exactly right. So in line with my kind of today,
Conrado sucks and I can no longer criticize anybody who

(17:07):
says I've had enough and I'm leaving. I guess being
completely honest. In some ways, I'm a little jealous, but
I'm not leaving. I like the fight. I think that
eventually things go in cycles, we will turn around. It's

(17:29):
going to take longer than I have to live, probably,
But you know what, my grandparents would be really upset
if I just abandoned the state that gave them a hope.
Good morning, Michael and Dragon, Happy Monday.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
Speaking of perfect states, Wyoming's pretty perfect.

Speaker 2 (17:46):
I mean, we did screw up and elect Liz Cheney,
but we were drunk when we did that, and we're
sorry America, and that was a long hangover for us
to have a good week. This commentary this morning has
elicited a lot of hilarious and sad comments. I want

(18:12):
to share some of them with you because I find
it comforting that I'm not the only one that feels
this way. I can't. I think the first time this
weekend that my frustrations with this state blew up was
with the election of a new Colorado's Party chairwoman, Brenda

(18:37):
Horn BRETA Horn, how do you pronounced it? Congratulations to her.
I know all I know about her is what I've
read about her. I've never met her. I don't know
anything about her, and I'm just happy that Dave Williams,
the scumbag that was the state chairman, is gone. But
then I was disheartened to find that, oh, we've elected

(18:57):
a new chairman and they're still bitching about it. So
the supporters of Dave Williams or whatever that faction is
you want to call it, are all pissed off because
now this faction has won. Has has the Colorado Republican
Party ever thought to shut up, quit your infighting and

(19:21):
focus on what your effing job is, which is to
elect Republicans. You know what, let me tell you something, Nobody,
and I mean nobody cares who you are. Most people
in Colorado don't have a rats ass knowledge of what
you do, who you are, where you came from, what

(19:43):
your job is, and what you're doing. They don't know
and they don't care. You're You're all hoity toity thinking,
oh now I'm the chairman. I'm not picking on this
horn because I don't know her. I'm just talking about
the party in general. Nobody gives her rats has about
the state party. You know why, because you're the ones

(20:04):
that have led us into the wilderness. You're the ones
that have utterly failed in your job, utterly failed in
your job to elect Republicans. You haven't done anything. I mean,
do we need to go back to what was the
clown's name that ran for government? Tang Cradle stepped in

(20:24):
during that race. What was that guy's name? Turned out
that everything about him was fake and he and he
got like, I don't know, ten percent of the vote.
Tang Cradle ran as a constitutional candidate or something and
got like forty percent of the vote, almost pulled it off.
Oh good grief. And the Democrats told us what we

(20:45):
were doing and we had no alternative to it. So
Polus and Gil and Striker come up with the blueprint.
They tell us the exactly how they're going to take
us over, take over the state. They put it in writing,
published a book, Here's how We're going to take over
the state of Colorado. And we sat back and said, oh, well,

(21:07):
that's interesting. I don't I don't read. I don't read,
so I don't know what they're I don't know what
they're talking about. And now you wake up and you're like,
everybody's leaving the state. Everybody's running out of the state
because it sucks. And don't misunderstand me. I do believe
that Colorado sucks. It sucks big time. I just I

(21:29):
just am. Uh. I don't want to say I'm stuck,
because I could. I could just walk out here tomorrow
and never show up again. Just put the house on
the market, sell to some you know, dumbass California or
Texaan or somebody else moving here, and uh, you know,
there's no mortgage or anything on it. Just take my

(21:50):
money and just leave and go to New Mexico. But
I can't do that. And I can't do it because
one I can't work, I can't I can't so called retire.
So until I figure out what else I'm going to do,
I'm going to keep doing what I love doing what
I'm doing, which is what I'm doing right now. And
I think that and as much as many of you

(22:14):
want to make fun of me, oh, Michael broke up
on the wrong side of the bed today, you know
that what I'm telling is true, and you know that
what I'm saying you've thought yourself. In fact, I've got
the receipts Guba number twenty seven twenty. Listen to this, Michael.
I grew up in San Diego. I moved here in
nineteen ninety three when the economy in California had crashed.

(22:38):
I hated to leave that climate and proximity to my mom,
but I had escaped to a bit of a conservative
heaven and Colorado springs, so it was worth it. I
never even thought about moving back because of the liberal
cesspool that California was. My mom recently passed ninety four

(23:01):
and left me a house there. I was until last
until last week, planning on putting it on the market
and investing the proceeds. But and as you say, always
pay attention to what's after the butt, I have now
decided to keep the house and live there part of

(23:22):
the year. If I'm going to be subjective to living
in a communist state, I might as well be in
one with beaches. I never ever thought it would get
this bad here. Plus, California roads are better by a lot.
For example, where I five and eight oh five merge,

(23:43):
they made it sixteen lanes wide for a while, thus
solving the bottleneck. No road dieting there. They seem to
like cars there. And did I mention they have beaches?
Cob number fifty three ninety one Michael Talabado eighty six
between Elizabeth and Kiowa. I've been on that road is horrible,

(24:08):
two lane bad in general, and the edges are crumbling
in many spots, high truck traffic for those who are
wanting to bypass. Denver seventy one seventy one Michael off topic.
But today the POLET Bureau is celebrating Caesarshavez Day. I
wonder Phil mentioned the fact that Caesar Chavez vehemently disliked

(24:32):
illegal aliens and the effect they had on his workers' wages.
Of course they won't, because the people of the POLP
Bureau are useful idiots. They've got an IQ of about
what's the temperature right now? Thirty four? That's their IQ today.
In fact, I might even say that's their combined total
IQ of thirty four twenty seven thirty nine rites. I

(24:58):
left California twenty years ago because of the poisonous politics
and wasteful taxes to come here in Colorado. My wife
and I have already decided to retire out of this
craphole state. Like California, it cannot be saved in my lifetime,
and I blame not only Democrats but the lackluster state Republicans.

(25:19):
So I would say to the Colorado State Central Committee
and to the newly elected officer of the Colorado Republican Party,
listen to guber number twenty seven thirty nine, who left
California to come here twenty years ago because of the
poisonous politics in wasteful taxes to come to Colorado. My

(25:39):
wife and I have already decided to retire out of
this craphole state. Like California, it can't be saved in
my lifetime. And I blame not only Democrats, but are
you listening state party lack luster state Republicans forty four
to sixty seven? I have and I plan to do

(26:01):
that story this week. Did you read about Colorado utilities
sounding the alarm about the state energy mandates. Not only
the state energy mandates, but the crumbling, the crumbling infrastructure,
the crumbling grid. At the same time that Polus and
his minions and his useful idiots are trying to get

(26:24):
us to go all electric, trying to get rid of
all the coal plants, trying to convert us to wind
and solar and all these renewables, we have a crumbling
infrastructure that want can't handle the increased load. Let alone,
can't handle the oh always ready on demand needs of

(26:44):
Colorado businesses and homes nine zero two six. I was
not aware of this. I talked about the micro transit
program that Douglas County, Colorado, once again proving that even
a conservative county like Douglas County is a bunch of dumbasses.

(27:04):
They're going to spend now. I thought it was two
point four. Somebody said two point three. You say ten dollars,
I say nine to ninety nine. Come on, uh. The
Loan Tree link went from a bus I assume an
artidu bus I don't know, to a small van. The
people live in Loan Tree are not in need of

(27:25):
public transportation. I would get some majority of residents in
Douglas County are not in need of public transportation. Who
are they catering to. They're catering to whoever's making some
sort of profit off the deal with I think it's
called via transportation, whatever it's called. Somebody, somebody's getting a kickback,
somebody's making some money somewhere, Somebody, somehow is making some

(27:48):
money off this deal. But nonetheless, what if even worse
than that? You ought to be because our country has
become so corrupt that if nobody's making U some money
off it, I kind of yew. I'm like, okay, well,
what's new? Tell me something new here. Here's what's even worse.
In my opinion, the Douglas County Commissioners think that they're

(28:11):
doing a public service that somehow by substituting public transportation
instead of somebody in Highland's ranch using an uber or
a lift or I don't know, God forbid, you ask
your neighbor. Hey, you know, I'm I'm eighty two years old,

(28:31):
and I you know, my property taxes are so damn
high now that I can barely pay my bills. I
need a ride to the grocery store. I'll only have
one bag of groceries because I only have five hundred
dollars to spend on groceries, so I'll only have one bag.
Could you give me a ride to the grocery store

(28:53):
or I'll order pickup. Could you just take me to
the grocery store just to pick up my groceries, or
oh wait a minute, King Supers delivers the groceries, or
deliver on a break.

Speaker 3 (29:09):
You want to see bad roads, try driving from Goodland
into Burlington.

Speaker 2 (29:13):
The first ten.

Speaker 3 (29:14):
Miles on Ice seventy westbound is nothing but giant potholes,
in fault tracks of the tires in falls lanes, unavoidable
and terrible on your suspension.

Speaker 2 (29:29):
Or try Ice seventy six. It's it's just as bad.
And then you drive around the metro area and you
realize that I mean, so, my routine is fairly set
in the mornings. I mix it up in terms of

(29:50):
where I get my diet coke and where I park
and do all of that, But in terms of just
highway travel, it's pretty set. So I know, I know,
oh exactly which lane to be in and where to
swerve to avoid the potholes or to avoid the patches
in the concrete which is filled with asphalt, which you know,

(30:14):
when it rains or snows this week will flush out
the asphalt and then the concrete pothole will be right
back next week. So when oftentimes, particularly if I'm in
the beamers because the beamer, for some reason, the beamer
seems to drive faster than the jeep. I don't know
what that is. Weird, Yes, it's very weird. But so

(30:36):
we'll be going around four seventy to get onto northbound
twenty five, and I know to be in the left
lane on the flyover because if you're in the right lane,
then you're going to just kaboom, kaboom kaboom where the
asphalt meets the concrete meets the asphalt meets the concrete
on the flyover, and then there are two giant potholes

(30:58):
as you hit the asphalt. So I stay in the
right lane as I make the flyover. But once you
do the flyover, there are places where they have tried
to patch it and it's horrible. So I know how
to kind of scoot left, right, scoot left, scoot right,
back and forth in that lane to avoid all of those.
And every single time I hear this I'm like, just

(31:25):
I know what I'm doing. I know what I'm doing.
I don't know what the solution is. But we live
in a state that I sincerely believe, and maybe I'll
sit down and come up with the metrics this week
that we are as bad, if not worse than in California.

(31:49):
In so many ways we have and I think it
starts with the fact that the pollt Burero here, just
like the pollt Burero and Sacramento, and the polit Bureau
in Denver, just like the Politic Bureau in Los Angeles.
They're all caught controlled by Democrats. Now, we need to

(32:09):
understand that Democrats are an enemy of this republic. It
goes back to Barack Obama's desire to fundamentally transform this country,
and that's what they want to do. Now that offends
them because they they hear when I say they're enemies

(32:29):
of this country. They hear, Oh, well, you're telling me
I'm not patriotic. I love this country. I don't doubt
that you may love this country. But the problem is
your ideology wants to change us. You want to eliminate
individual freedom, individual liberty. Look at that stupid gun bill.
Send it Bill three. No. I read a great story

(32:52):
about it over the weekend about about how onerous it
is in terms of now those of us who will
already own semi automatic weapons, particularly those that can hold
a magazine that handles more than ten rounds, you can
still do that, and you can still buy those guns,

(33:14):
but you'll just have to go to Wyoming or Kansas,
or Oklahoma or New Mexico at Utah to purchase those
So we are killing the Democrats are not only eviscerating
your Second Amendment rights in Colorado, but they're killing gun
stores in this state. Yes, they're killing businesses at the

(33:37):
same time that they over tax businesses and they over
regulate businesses. Colorado sucks.