across Colorado right now.

There is a common thread running through some of the biggest conversations.

And that would be pressure.

Pressure from growth and demand, pressure from decisions made in Washington, pressure to keep our community safe and well, especially for our children.

And then it is an election season.

So there is the pressure to find that next group of leaders who will get it all right.

For Colorado coming off this short week, there is a lot to get into.

So let's get started with this week's Colorado Inside Out.

Hi everyone.

I'm Kyle Dyer.

Let me get right to introducing you to this week's insider panel.

We start with Patty Calhoun, founder and editor of Westword, Erickson and columnist for Colorado Politics and the Denver and Colorado Springs Gazette.

Carlos Martinez, president and CEO of the Latino Community Foundation of Colorado.

And Kristi Burton Brown, executive vice president at Advanced Colorado and former chair of the Colorado Republican Party.

With just one month until Colorado's primary campaigns are entering, the final sprint ads are flooding.

TV and social media debates and forums are really ramping up, and in one race, a candidate has already dropped out, saying that the support just wasn't there.

Meanwhile, another candidate's high profile interview this week is generating plenty of buzz.

I will start with Patty Calhoun.

Well, Victor Marx, who is one of the Republican gubernatorial candidates and who has seemed to be very shy and retiring because he won't do any other debates, suddenly went on with Kyle Clark.

And we heard a lot of things that make you glad he's not running for treasurer, because he has a problem counting how many men is he killed since he was an adult?

Can't quite remember.

You would think you could do that count.

And let's say you were in a special forces unit.

How many people has you rescued from horrible situations abroad?

At one point, he said 43,000.

That was in an earlier discussion.

Now he says he can't remember, but of course it was actually on his website, so he should have been able to find that.

He's interesting because for a variety of reasons.

One is he does lie a lot or he has a very bad memory, but he also has a pretty dynamic speaker who's raised an incredible amount of money and has a chance.

Even though Scott Bottoms is another unusual pastor running on the Republican ticket.

He has a chance of knocking out Barb Kirk Meyer, who, again, is exactly the kind of reasonable Republican longtime public servant who should be the kind of candidate we get in Colorado.

If the Republicans ever want to have a chance of winning.

But instead, as I said last week, she's driving a clown car.

There were so many people in it initially, but we still have two major clowns left.

And the plan is the three of them are scheduled to debate together, all three of them, next Tuesday.

For the first time, because he skipped out because he was too scared of brownie at the Centennial Institute.

Eric It strikes me we have a couple of primaries going on here.

We have on the Democratic side, the primary that matters.

That's going to, in most cases, determine who takes office next January.

Given that this has become a very deep and overwhelming blue state, whoever wins the primary between Phil Wiser and Michael Bennet in all likelihood, it's hard to imagine a scenario that does not become the governor.

On the other hand, you have an important primary on the Republican side, too, in a different way.

It's not going to determine who the next governor is, but it's going to determine whether Republicans are serious, viable political party that wants to be a viable opposition force around Colorado.

And, you know, Barb, Kirk Meyer is everything you would want an elected official.

She's smart.

She's thoughtful.

She knows the ins and outs of state government, but she also gets the big picture.

And whether she can withstand those two challenges from both Scott Bottoms and Victor Marks.

We shall see it.

Barb, Kirk Meyer, in all likelihood, will not be the next governor, but she might be a savior of her party.

And ballots everywhere.

Everyone.

They go out on June the 8th.

So, yeah, I mean, we're a month.

We are virtually a month away here, but only ten days away from ballots going out.

Carlos.

So you know, as we're going into this final stretch, I think what we're going to be seeing with some of these debates and so forth is kind of like log rolling games, who can who which candidate can knock the other candidate off.

Because the only thing is, how do you get to the primaries and win the primaries?

And I think we're seeing right now a lot of attacks also, against them.

And I think that's probably we're going to see a lot of between now and the primaries, unfortunately, where we're not really seen as, you know, really.

What is their vision for Colorado?

You know, not seeing that, especially with the gubernatorial candidates, they're coming out and addressing, you know, certain issues, housing economics, but they're not giving us a really painting a bigger picture of where they want to take Colorado.

And I've been wanting to, you know, and wanting to see that which candidate is really going to be the candidate who is going to really look at all these social issues that we're experiencing right now.

And I also think this time in our country, we're going through a major change, kind of like a recalibration.

And, you know, no one's really talking about how I'm going to be the next so-and-so that is going to help Colorado look at things differently and really be able to that to go ahead and move it forward.

So I'm looking for that and I haven't really seen that yet.

Christie sure will call.

I'll probably talk about CD eight just because I think the gubernatorial race takes up a lot of air in the room as interesting personalities involved.

Certainly I would agree with everyone that Barb Kirk Meyer is the policy person in the room, and I wish politics was more about policy than personality.

Sometimes.

But in CD eight, I think that's one of the give me one of the closest races between Republicans and Democrats in Colorado.

And so I believe Retinol and Shannon Byrd, the two Democrat contenders, have a debate coming up as well.

I think that's going to be a crucial decision for the Democrats, which candidate they choose to run against, Congressman Gabe Evans in that district.

It's a working class, a largely Hispanic district.

Gabe Evans being Hispanic himself, having been served in the military, served as a police officer.

I do think he's well-liked in the district, but mainly right now, also Hispanic.

Coming a young attorney coming in, and then Shane Byrd trying to paint herself, I think, as a working class member of the district, both, having served in the state legislature.

But Democrats have to choose, many written history extremely like liberal.

He's a Democrat socialist.

And that's going to be hard to beat.

Gabe Evans I think Shannon Byrd it's more your you're a woman which is sometimes attractive in the Democrat Party, but you're not Hispanic in a heavily Hispanic district.

And so Gabe Evans has that edge.

And we'll see what choice the Dems make in that primary.

Okay.

All right.

We'll see.

You know an emerging issue this election season this season is Youth mental health Children's Hospital Colorado.

And also Healthier Colorado hosted a forum Thursday night for the Democratic candidates for governor.

In a Colorado Sun article this week, a health provider warned that if nothing changes, we will lose this generation.

And then in Denver, concerns about the well-being of young people has surfaced again in a tragic way with the shooting death of a 14 year old boy, allegedly by another boy at a rec center.

Eric, there does seem to be this growing pressure on leaders to address what young people are facing these days.

If there were easy answers, we wouldn't be having the conversation because we would have put those answers in place.

But this is a generation, you know, that obviously shaped by Covid.

But that was a cataclysmic kind of experience of isolation for this generation, shaped by the national political tone, shaped by the devices everyone carries in their hands shaped by artificial intelligence.

And, the unknown of what that is going to do, shaped by this broad sense that, they are not going to have it as easy or as well as preceding generations as my generation or even the next generation or two after me.

So, again, no easy answers, but important questions.

And good for Children's Hospital and so many other entities, for really engaging it.

And, hopefully in the next governor can come up with, if not complete answers, at least steps in the right direction.

You know, our foundation supports a lot of organizations throughout the state that support, you know, youth and being in the philanthropic sector, that is a big issue.

So I have been, you know, reaching out to folks and seeing how, this issue is playing out throughout the state.

I was in Alamosa last week and was talking to some youth serving organizations about this issue as well.

And I think that as we move forward, how is society also changing our values and norms to support them differently?

Also?

are we just putting more money, okay, into a system without really thinking about what are the social norms that we're also looking to change?

Are there any new values that we have to adopt along this way?

Or, you know, I don't, or are we just putting money into something like we did with the homeless situation?

And you're putting in more money.

More money.

You're not having a conclusion.

The other thing also is that a lot of these, advertisements that you're hearing, because social media is also you're hearing about, you know, if you're experiencing this call here, a lot of those are for profit companies backed up by venture capitalism.

And so my thing is I'm really concerned about, well, capitalism drive how mental health services that are provided or seen or is it society us that we have to go ahead and drive that narrative, as opposed to these venture capital firms that are supporting these types of mental health services?

Okay.

And and, Christy, you sit on the state Board of Education.

You homeschool a high schooler and a middle schooler.

What do you hear?

What do you think should happen to address these problems our kids are facing?

I mean, it's definitely a very multifaceted issue.

And it is facing the young generation.

And I think, you know, people often say homeschoolers are isolated, right?

And so we work to get our kids out in groups and join, have a community and go participate in debate and dance and hockey and all these things my kids do.

But I think what can be forgotten in today's generation is you can be isolated even in the crowd, and devices add to that and so on the state board, we actually recently, listened to Angela Duckworth.

She's written a couple a book that's coming out, It's called grit, and it does talk about the value of resilience and making you a successful person.

So I think that's a really good thing to look into.

But also she talked about devices in schools and sort of the hesitation that some schools have high school level specifically like prohibiting kids from using them or like they have a rule in name only, but they don't really enforce, the no devices in class.

And I think the schools that do enforce it have seen a giant jump not only in academic achievement, but also just how those kids are going about their day to day lives, their relationships with each other, the community building.

I think another piece, when you look at the mental health numbers across the nation, adult mental health among adults in Colorado is 46 to 40 eighth in the nation, depending on the year.

Until we help adults and families achieve a level of mental health, of course our kids are going to slip too.

So I think part of it is really rebuilding the family, getting adults, the mental health services they need to so they can help their kids.

Okay, Patty.

Well, let's go to the rec center issue in Denver.

So you have kids that might not have families.

They might have broken families right now, or their families that are parents that are working.

So rec centers have become such a an important place for community, for blowing off steam, for gathering.

You know, we've got the issue on the pools, the city has decided, you know, pools are essential.

It's not like they're a luxury because you need a place for kids to gather and be and ideally talk to their peers so that they're not so isolated.

But the tragedy at the Montebello Rec Center last week, where a 14 year old who was standing up for his little brother and winds up getting shot and killed by another minor is horrifying.

They're getting into what caused it that that rec center is closed indefinitely, and Parks and Rec was supposed to on Wednesday, launch a survey looking at what we want out of our rec centers for the next 20 to 30 years.

I would say, among other things, we want safe havens that are productive for kids.

And right now that surveys off the books, they're trying to rethink what they're going to do because of the dangers in the rec centers.

Okay.

All right.

Memorial Day just passed, and Flag Day is right around the corner, both traditionally free days at our state national parks.

So that means Rocky Mountain National Park and the sand dunes Mesa Verde, Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

Free days for residents.

Right.

But there's a new policy that changes how those days are going to be working from here on out, limiting of the free access for some visitors and adding a $100 nonresident fee on top of regular entrance costs.

The federal government says it's a financial move to help cover some maintenance costs, but it's the latest example of growing pressure with our public lands.

Carlos, is this a practical way to manage costs, protect the parks, or is it changing the broad idea of, you know, what these places are meant to be and who they're meant to be for?

So it's interesting, said, okay, so for me, first of all, these gateway communities that, you know, entrance into these parks, generate about $29 billion, you know, of economic vitality.

My concern is when you have these nonresidents within our determining, let's say, a family of four, I have to pay an additional $400 just to go visit them.

Will they go ahead and say, you know what, I'm not going to go after all.

we're also not funding the parks at the level that we should be.

Okay.

Instead, we're giving wealthy folks tax breaks.

We're funding a war that we shouldn't be in.

We're trying to go ahead and set up a compensation fund of $1.7 billion for the insurrection of January 6th for those folks.

And so, for me, it's like we're values as Americans.

You know, we're going to be celebrating 250 years and a couple of weeks in a few weeks, okay.

The values that we have stuck to have gotten us this far.

Is this new direction really going to take us another 250 years, or really, where are we going?

Okay, Christy.

Sure.

So I'm a big fan of our national parks, loves Rocky Mountain National Park.

Went through on my honeymoon with my husband.

Beautiful place.

We go there every year.

it's my understanding this is non US residents not non state residents.

And so I think that's a very different conversation.

We're not saying oh hey a Coloradan can't go to Yellowstone without paying an extra fee.

We're saying people who aren't U.S.

citizens, I do think we should welcome those people to come to our country, experience our parks, see what makes America great.

But they're already paying a lot to come here in America.

So another hundred dollars really isn't that much additional for the vacation they're already taking to come to the US.

And I think our parks, what's the design of our national parks?

It's for American citizens to appreciate the beauty of America.

We can welcome other people in.

But the parks were not made for them.

The parks were made for Americans.

And so I think it's that that fee is designed to increase the maintenance on the parks, to make them better, to fix the backlog.

I think it's billions in maintenance that hasn't been done over the years.

So if we want to keep these parks long standing for Americans and visitors, I think it's a smart way to do it.

20 million backlog.

Yeah.

Patty.

If we knew that the additional money was actually going to where we want it to go with the national parks.

So we're still looking at cuts that have been crippling over the last year for maintenance, for having just safety, for having Rangers out there for traffic issues.

But Rocky Mountain National Park will again have time to entrance, which is certainly working better than some of the other places that don't.

But you also look at the kind of censorship that's going on now at the National parks and other national historic sites, where they're removing some of the history.

That might be too honest for the Trump administration, and it's continuing to happen or be threatened at places like Ben Sport or Camp Amaechi, or which are not parks but national historic sites.

And you're seeing it at Rocky Mountain National Park, where they got rid of some of the references to climate change.

So if they're going to collect the money, I agree, if they're going to take it from people who've already spent a lot of money to get here, they can probably fork over another 100.

But let's hope that 100 goes to improving the national parks.

And by improving, I don't mean censoring.

it's it's just every policy issue.

Let's see how we can, you know, stick it to foreigners, show our nativist instincts and all the rest.

And it leaves me cold.

I hope this policy will be thrashed out and fixed and modified.

But, often the Trump policies don't end up, terribly well fixed.

My wife and I a few weeks ago were bicycling.

We were fortunate, and we were on a bicycle trip in Spain, and we bicycled as part of a group through a few Spanish national parks.

And yeah, I think we paid entrance fees, but it might have been, I don't remember, 10, 12, 15, which is a far cry from $100, you know, but put reasonable fees on.

But we have so much immense beauty in this country, and if we can share it with people from around the world for a reasonable cost and a reasonable price, that's where I'll be.

Okay.

All right.

Nearly half a million people traveled through Denver International Airport over Memorial Day weekend.

And traffic, as you know, is expected to keep climbing year after year at the same time, infrastructure is trying to keep pace with that growth.

The train system connecting travelers to the concourses is known to break down, leaving people stuck getting to their gates.

So now airport leaders say they're planning to turn unused underground tunnels into walking corridors between the concourses.

Christy is this a smart backup plan, or is it unrealistic for one of the busiest airports in our country?

Sure, Kyle, I think the problem is the mismanagement constantly happens with Dia, so I sure it's probably a good idea to have a place where people can walk when the train shuts down.

But the city of Denver, who manages the airport, constantly mismanaged millions of dollars.

I mean, if we're talking about the 560 million that was mismanaged in the 90s for like automated baggage systems, that didn't happen.

If we're talking about the 184 million that they had to use, had to pay to terminate a mismanaged contract, and then another 14 million that they wasted on another recent project.

There's just there's a lot of waste with money and projects that sound good idea, but don't get completed.

And then all the people paying.

And I know when I say airlines that pay some of this, but also taxpayers who do pay and to expect the city to do a good job managing one of the biggest airports in the nation.

It just doesn't happen.

So I think that's where the question, can the city of Denver actually manage this?

Well, if it is a good idea, we'll see.

They say they would start next year.

27 no.

27 building this these concourses out.

And that's right about when the great Hall is supposed to be done with the current renovation, which was the replacement for the horrible Ferrovial plan.

But let's remember that this airport opened in 1995, and it was delayed because of the automated baggage system they wanted to put in, which actually and the airlines had wanted that which actually ate the luggage as it went through the tunnel.

So the good news now, well, maybe they'll eat passengers too.

Or maybe those are the merchants in the tunnels, but they will put those automated baggage handlers to work.

Finally, what has taken so long?

There were 131 delays with the trains in the last year, and now they have new trains.

And the new trains have delays too.

How hard is it to figure out?

At least we have these tunnels.

People can walk.

I've been through those tunnels.

I wasn't eaten by a martian or, you know, anyone or anything else.

As far as I can tell, I am still myself.

But what has taken so long?

Why didn't they have the solution?

A long time ago?

Initially with the I think they were talking about busses, but you would need a lot of busses to take people to other concourses.

You got these tunnels, use them and let's keep moving.

Let's keep moving.

I like that, Eric.

We were out there, I don't know, it was in, I think late March, and it was one of those mornings and there was a power problem.

Electrical power trains were down.

It was a it was a gigantic mess for a couple of hours.

Nothing was coming in.

Nothing was going out.

Everyone had walked from the terminal over to concourse A, where you do have that bridge and concourse A, I mean, there literally was not an unoccupied square inch, on that concourse until they got it fixed.

So we need a backup plan.

My question is not whether this is a good idea.

Of course it's a good idea, and it's an overdue idea.

It's.

And this is a little bit to Christie's point.

How are they going to pull it off?

I mean, we're just going to have dark, dingy, corridors underneath where, you know, baggage otherwise went.

Are we going to actually make these navigable walkways with, I don't need, a Jamba Juice on, on every walkway, but are we going to make this navigable, or are we going to make it, ventilated?

Are we going to make it so it is a viable option for passengers who want to walk instead of take the train, particularly to concourses B and C?

And we're talking quite a walk.

I mean, you know, to get to concourse C, that's three times the walk of getting to concourse A, which is which is a bit of a hike.

So I think redundancy makes sense, but runaway costs start.

And I think for me when I, when I saw this, it's like okay this can cost between 300 and $700 million okay.

That's a huge range.

If I were to present my board this is going to cost us just to that.

They would say, you're fired.

You know, that kind of, range to me says you don't have the capacity to really understand the work you're doing.

How to go ahead and guarantee that you're going to bring it into budget.

And a lot of these things that Christy just shared with us as well.

So for me, you know, the other thing is that when it does break down, the average wait time when it breaks down is four minutes.

It's going to take you more than four minutes to walk from one terminal to another.

So my thing is, you know, is there a way that we can go in and strengthen what we already have?

Okay.

And, you know, are there any other alternatives, in building that these or renovating these tunnels seems like a big range, 300 to 700 million.

And with the history that we know with Dia right now, that could be a billion.

Yeah.

Now let's go around the table and talk about some of the highs and the lows that we have witnessed this week.

We'll start on the low points.

We can end on a good note.

And we're going to start with Patty.

Well this will be a low this weekend depending on how it happens.

We couldn't see this coming.

The injected group that wants to have their anti-vax singles mixer was rejected by recess where they are not, which they are now suing.

They are still allegedly having a gathering at the grizzly Rose.

But I would recommend that everyone rejects unchecked it.

Okay.

All right.

Eric did not know that.

Peace.

On a national level, the purge that is going on in the Republican Party and I use the word purge advisedly, whether it's, John Cornyn being defeated by Ken Paxton, obviously Bill Cassidy being defeated.

What happened to the Indiana legislators?

Thomas Massie, run the list.

I'm getting ready to write a piece, and we'll see when I put it together.

But it reminds me somewhat of what's gone on to the Colorado Republican Party.

And, you know, Christie has tried to be the antidote to that, but she suffered through that experience as well.

Of the party gets smaller and smaller and smaller.

And yes, Trump has won all these short term fights.

But in the process of winning short term fights, you're going to lose a long term war.

Okay, Carlos.

I think for me is what's happened nationally with, the administration saying that if you're applying for your, green card now you have to go back to your country of origin.

These people are here legally.

They're not here.

Illegally.

And it's kind of like they're following the process, but they're now going to have to go back to their home country to be able to apply for that.

What concerns me about that is that they may not be able to get back in.

And so I just think that it's a really bad idea.

Okay.

Christy.

Avalanche.

I love hockey.

Big hockey fan, big avalanche fan.

Family moved in on the night they won the Stanley Cup the first time in 96.

But just fell apart.

And I'm so sad.

And everyone's so sad.

Patty.

Something good.

Well, at the same time, J.D.

Vance was flying in to speak to the Air Force Academy.

On Thursday, we had the opening of a really wonderful show that I recommend at History Colorado.

It were one of eight cities that has this and its documents that forged a nation.

So there are original documents dating back to the very, very early days of the United States of America that inspire you to remember we've survived 250 years.

Maybe we'll survive this one.

I want to see that exhibit.

Eric.

Great exhibit.

Christy made it her negative.

I'll make it my positive.

The avalanche.

No, it was, awful series.

And they lost their confidence.

Injuries piled up, but it was still a great season.

Okay?

It was still a great season.

And they bring much joy to my heart.

I'm a hockey fan as as is my table mate here.

And it's sad that it's over, but it happened.

It was fun.

It was fun while I lasted.

I think for me, next week starts pride month.

So here in Colorado, we're fortunate to have one of the oldest LGBTQ community centers in the country celebrating 50 years.

So wonderful work that they've been doing to ensure that we have human rights throughout the state.

Okay.

And, Christy.

It's all good of Republican national politics.

There's a poll that came out showing Rubio and Vance with only one point difference between them, which is a giant jump for Rubio.

I think it's wonderful news for the Republican Party.

If we want to return to a professional, respectful image at the top of our ticket.

Rubio is the guy.

So I'm happy.

To see that.

Okay.

All right.

And, you know, as with them, what a sports fan I am.

Everybody.

So, my daughter though, mentioned that we have a different high in the sports world that we should mention.

Okay.

One of, our new professional women's soccer team is about to get a big boost when hometown star and midfielder extraordinary Lindsey Horan heaps comes back to star for the Denver Summit.

Her team she's in her season over in France is over.

So Lindsey is headed back to Colorado to join the summit.

And when she takes that field this summer, she will bring a real spark to a sports town that is feeling some disappointment, not only because the Avs, but also how the nuggets finished as well.

And so, I think Lindsay is just what color sports fans need to get excited again.

All right right right right.

Come on everybody.

All right.

Thank you insiders for joining us this week.

We appreciate it.

Thank you for watching or listening along to our podcast I'm Kyle Dyer I will see you next week here on PBS 12.

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