06 February 2006

Colorado's Boundaries Should Change



Coyote Gulch notes that:

Explorer John Wesley Powell recognized 150 years ago the need to organize the West along the lines of watersheds, rather than the state and county divisions of the East . . . He knew water would drive politics. Unfortunately, nobody listened...


Ed Quillen at the Post also recently noted that in Colorado "our county boundaries were not carved in stone" noting numerous examples from our history as background for the sensible notion of creating a unified City and County of Aurora, along the lines of the governments already established in Denver and Broomfield. He also notes the tangle of boundaries the exist in the mountains, although he doesn't on this occassion note the inequities this has causes by failing to match the tax revenues generated by tourism in the mountains with the service needs of the workers in the tourism industry who often reside in neighboring jurisdictions because they can't afford to live in resort real estate on their incomes. He states:

Let's hope the Aurora movement starts something that extends statewide and brings our map into alignment with today's Colorado.


Once again, Quillen is on the right track.

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