Tonight on Colorado.

Stories from studio 12.

A child care crisis that could impact patient care.

One Colorado hospital is betting $5 million on a solution.

Could it change the future of health care in Colorado is celebrating 150 years of statehood, honoring a saint with deep roots right here in Colorado.

Our Kyle Dyer traveled to Italy and discovered a special place connected to another famous Frances.

Her story is coming up.

Well, he helps change the way America dresses with a style rooted right here in the West.

Jack, a whale turned western.

Where into a lasting fashion statement.

Tonight we take a look back at this Denver legend whose legacy lives on.

Don't go anywhere.

It's all right here on Colorado.

Stories from studio 12.

From the Five Points Media Center in the heart of Denver, Colorado.

This is studio 12.

Good evening.

I'm Bosie, and I'm Ryan here.

Thank you for joining us.

This is Colorado stories from studio 12.

For many families, finding affordable, reliable childcare is a daily struggle.

But for hospital workers, that struggle can have consequences far beyond the home, affecting staffing, recruitment and ultimately, patient care.

In Grand Junction, Colorado, one hospital is taking a different approach helping hands.

A new documentary in partnership with PBS 12, explores how a community hospital invested $5 million in a child care center for its employees and what it could mean for the future of the health care workforce.

Here is helping hands.

Large swaths of Colorado are licensed childcare deserts.

When I moved to the Western Slope, there was no care, no availability for my daughter.

No matter how much I was willing to pay, we couldn't even find a spot.

We're facing.

These closures, these disruptions all over the state and all over the country, which are throwing families into chaos.

It just felt like there was no right answer.

You can't get into a daycare.

The nanny.

We'll just turns.

There were times when I had gaps and childcare and would just have to leave this surgery on that day.

When you become a mother, your priority is your children.

But you also still have a priority of a career that you are very passionate about.

Their conflicting.

You can go take your plate over which you see them.

You have to put your kids on a wait list.

The day you find out you're pregnant or somebody decides to stay home.

So you can have that bite.

I'm a family nurse practitioner in general surgery and obesity medicine.

I am the only one who does obesity medicine, so if patients aren't able to see me, then they do have to be rescheduled.

Pick out your shoes.

Yeah.

Oh.

What happened?

She was looking for her out of shape.

And for some patients, they've arranged childcare.

They're traveling from two, three hours away.

The number of times I thought through, like, do I need to back down my hours?

Do I need to take a pause on my career.

And what?

Your face.

There were several times where we had like half days with this person.

And then half days with another person, and some of those actually, like last minute would quit on us two.

It was so much work.

I mean, you're texting between patients and you're stressed while you're talking to them not knowing about tomorrow.

My first day back from maternity leave, my baby was having a hard time taking the bottle even though we had practiced it.

And so she hadn't eaten all day long.

And that was very stressful for me.

My mental capacity did feel a little bit torn.

I got a call from the surgeon I worked with on the weekend while I was hanging out with my family, saying that something had happened related to a surgery on that day.

I remember thinking, I have to look at every single order that I put in and what I did during that time when I knew that I was stressed about my child.

And everything was exactly how it should be.

I had put in, every order correctly.

But that moment, that thought of whether I have the capacity to juggle all these things, that was very stressful.

In healthcare.

We already face a lot of burnout.

And then when you have high emotional output in your career and then also as a mother, it can feel like a lot.

Okay.

That's it.

I'm the director of rehab services for Community Hospital.

You know, I am tasked with trying to make sure that we can get patients in as quickly as possible.

And that all revolves around how many schedules are open.

There's a lot of focus on caregiver burnout.

That's a big challenge in healthcare right now.

I think there's less focus on the impact of child care involved in that burnout.

He's really okay.

You're okay.

There's always a lot of movement.

We average about 5000 visits a month in the outpatient world, and with a significant amount of my staff having young kids.

So here's your bladder.

We can see how it's darker.

It was extremely challenging from a management standpoint to make that work.

If they are having to think about how safe their child is, it's hard to do your job all day long.

When that is a huge focus, at the end of the day, you're kind of at the whim of what your town, what the valley provides.

Child care was the reason that we're losing really good candidates.

I was.

Hearing the challenge of being a working parent.

Employees who were driving an hour each way for child care.

I saw employees, mainly women, stepping away from careers that they had invested years and years and years in.

I care so much about it because it was a challenge for me as a mom, and I feel like if you're in a position to make a change, you should.

I'm missing.

How are you doing today?

It's just fine.

Okay.

Child care very much.

Feels like that readiness response of how are we taking care of employees and their families so they can, in turn, take care of the community?

How have you been feeling since the last time you saw us?

Fantastic looking and exhausting.

All possibilities.

The only option left was to build something on site.

I was able to write a grant to the state of Colorado.

We received $800,000.

So that initial seed funding allowed us to then hire an architect.

We kept taking the next step forward.

We had plans.

It started out about a 10,000 square foot facility.

And, you know, then it became, well, how are we going to build it?

At that point is when we went to the board and we said, we have plans.

How are we going to get capital for this?

Our employees gave to this.

The strategy was to fully fund Adventure Academy.

We did.

From groundbreaking to opening.

It was about a 5 million, a two year process.

Welcome to school.

Scene children.

You know, getting dropped off by their parents and their parents, able to turn around and walk across the street and go to work.

That was the hope.

That was what we had wanted to happen.

Baby, you're playing wow.

Our children at Community Hospital or are out in the backyard of community hospital and being taken care of and loved on and educated while our employees are here taking care of patients.

Adventure Academy was a major part of why we moved out here.

Having that predictable child care really affects not only the immediate family unit, but also then my ability to show up for patients who didn't sleep the night before because they're scared of their procedure having today.

And then if I cancel that, it's just it ripples out like a butterfly effect.

Out there.

But.

I had a blockage in what they call the anterior descending artery, which is what we call a wheel maker.

They come into the heart.

They placed stents.

Doctor Glover was the only one in the valley that can do that.

The day he did a procedure on me, he had managing a car issue and managing getting kids to the child care center.

To have him be able to come in and do that was remarkable, frankly.

After I got.

Done with chemo, I had surgery, which was a double mastectomy with reconstruction.

I have friends that have gone to a different hospital here, and because they don't have a surgeon at that hospital that can perform that surgery, this wasn't an option for them.

All right.

130/82 today.

Oh.

Thank you.

Even better.

I'll go grab the doctor.

Thank you.

Doctor Henderson.

It helps you feel whole again and makes you feel like a woman again from what cancer takes from you.

So I'm eternally grateful for her.

If I didn't have a reliable daycare, there's no way I could do the surgery that I needed to do that I could focus for that ten hours to get her the result that she now has.

I can't be worrying about my daughter when I'm doing complicated surgeries.

I have to be focused on my patient.

These blocks of.

Childcare can fill a lot of gaps.

I see a camera.

And relieve a lot of parents concerns with where their children are, who their children are with.

Are they learning?

And when we remove those concerns, then that parents can then go focus on their job and their work.

Understanding all of the ways in which childcare actually is making something like a hospital run is really important.

You need there to be a strong child care system, and then we just have not made that visible.

It's absolutely fragile.

My child care policy expert on the author of two books on the subject.

I'm also a father myself.

Is doing work around educational equity, and I started to realize that while schools and teachers are vitally important, there's all of these other factors that leads to opportunity, many of which start at birth.

A lack of childcare is actually a cause of poverty in Colorado and around the country.

It can literally be the thing that trips families into poverty and into homelessness.

A parent who misses too many shifts because they're in an unstable childcare arrangement they get fired on, able to make rent, and then they're out in the streets.

And this is this happens.

This happens in Colorado.

This happens across the country.

While situation is dire, the solution isn't rocket science.

It's the same reason schools work, the same reason fire departments work, the same reason libraries work.

The only way those places work, the only way that any other country in this entire world has been able to make childcare work is through investments of public funding.

I do have trepidation about relying too much on employers to provide childcare services.

And if you think lose your job, lose your health care is a bad enough equation.

Try to lose your job.

Lose your childcare.

Give me.

The hospital should be.

Commended and applauded for trying to step up, and they're doing something real for the employees and as having real impacts.

And I think we need to properly place interventions like that as short term selves while we're fighting for a publicly funded system.

And we desperately need employers to be advocating for that system.

Providing onsite childcare is a piece of the puzzle.

How else can we keep our our talented employees and not just at community hospital, but across the community, right.

We had been part of local coalitions and conversations about what are we doing in our community to address this childcare shortage.

Different employers, different groups in town.

We're really trying to look at those solutions.

And for us.

I then chose to just kind of say, what can we do?

Specifically at Community Hospital Adventure Academy?

It's about a 5050 split of children who are our employees and children who are out in the community.

We take care of each other.

We take care of our patients.

We take care of our community, and that's who we are.

Okay, you're going to do it all by yourself, okay.

Watch out.

Can you see it?

We literally just got into Adventure Academy 2 or 3 weeks ago.

Even in that time, I have felt such relief.

Our children know who their caregivers are.

It's light and refreshing environment.

White lightning streaks across the skies.

I duck my head and close my eyes, just knowing there, right there.

And I can go visit them.

I can change the schedule and it won't be me piecing together a million texts and schedules and half days here and there is such a relief.

When you reassure employees that Adventure Academy is an option.

You can kind of see the anxiety escape them now.

They know that their children are safe and they can do their job, and they can focus on the things that really matter, which is patient care.

Having stable child care is what forged the society to run efficiently.

I mean, everybody that runs in a society needs to have that stability, otherwise it just doesn't function appropriately.

Wanting to pursue a career or needing to pursue a career is not a failure on your part.

We have a failure of systems.

Do I want to be an amazing employee or do I want to be an amazing mom?

You're okay.

Can you wait?

We should be able to say we can figure that out.

When we can't provide the education and the growth and development that our children need.

That's our future.

To learn more about Colorado's childcare challenges and potential solutions, visit Childcare Works ceo.com.

Next week, we'll hear from our state lawmakers and other community leaders for a deeper understanding of the state of child care in Colorado.

We'll look at how we're doing as a state, the challenges we continue to face, and new ideas and opportunities to strengthen our child care system moving forward.

2026 has been a significant and historical year in Colorado.

We're celebrating 150 years of statehood and the 80th anniversary of the canonization of Saint Francis Xavier Cabrini, Colorado's beloved saint.

Mother Cabrini came to Colorado in the early 1900s, serving Italian immigrants, comforting miners, and caring for and educating orphaned girls.

She purchased land in Golden, where the girls spent their summers, a place that's now the Mother Cabrini Shrine.

It's a very peaceful place to visit.

It's a spot where a saint walked, and it's not that far from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Earlier this year, Kyle Dyer went to Italy with a group of Coloradans and discovered another place that is also very special and just so happens to be a place that's known for another famous Francis.

Here's more with Kyle.

This pilgrimage is all about Mother Cabrini, with the opportunity of coming to the very place where the order began.

And so this is the house she found.

And where she began her life.

So what a beautiful place that is.

Not too far to the south of where Saint Francis Cabrini grew up and founded.

Her order is a CC, the home to another famous Francis.

It's meant to be one of the most peaceful places on the planet, and primarily it was because of Francis and Francis's whole love for individuals.

Mother was so inspired by Saint Francis and his love for the poor, simplicity, poverty, and to really be bold in wanting to discover Jesus in every person that she met, and primarily those who who suffered the most.

Father John Lager got to know and love Mother Cabrini as a child during visits to the shrine in Colorado as he grew up, he was drawn to the Franciscan Order and its founder.

So there's a lot of Franciscan saints in the church today.

All right, let's take a walk.

Father John led a group from Colorado to Basilica of Saint Mary of the angels.

At the foot of a CC.

Inside the soaring basilica stands a tiny chapel, Saint Francis.

Restored in 1208.

He was to rebuild the church back to its fullness of being open and welcoming to all peoples, you know, rich and poor alike.

The basilica is also where Saint Francis would later die.

800 years ago, it was already a meaningful stop on the Cabrini pilgrimage, but made even more memorable by Father John, whose reverence for Saint Francis brought the space to life.

And may the blessing of Almighty God to His father, Son and Holy Spirit descend upon you.

And he made with you forever and ever.

Aim and let us go in the peace of Christ.

You know, from here we get to bring both of these significant saints with us on our way to Rome, because both had the encounter at the Vatican with the Holy Father about the rule of life that they wanted to live, and how relevant they are is, by the way, we continue to live out their legacy.

To learn more about Mother Cabrini s life and work and her impact here in Colorado, we have a short documentary that Kyle's produced.

You can find it on our YouTube channel, the PBS passport app, and the PBS 12 website.

You can also drive up to Mother Cabrini Shrine and experience it for yourself.

It's open every day from 7 to 430 and it is free to visit.

He is a legend of the American West, a man who helped turn cowboy clothing into an American fashion statement.

Jack, a whale better known as Papa Jack, founded Rock Mount Ranch, where in Denver in 1946, he pioneered the Western snap button shirt, helped popularize bolo ties, and built a legacy that would span generations.

And tonight's viewfinder story with PBS 12 photojournalist Rico Romero.

We look back at the man who helped define the look of the American West.

One snap at a time.

This was once the birthplace of the city of Denver, and then it went out of fashion.

I think it helps that we're in this great prime location here, and that's always been really important to me, that we keep this building and stay in it.

In lower downtown on wasI Street.

Come on.

This building is really something I'm very fond of.

It's.

It's remarkable architecture.

Historic 1908.

Come on in.

We're at Rock Mount.

1626 was the lower downtown.

Rock mountain is a manufacturing company.

But we added retail about 20 years ago, and we sell wholesale to stores all over the world.

And then we have this flagship store, and we also have Rock Montcalm.

Rock Mount is the first company to make snap shirts started by my grandfather, Jack, while in 1946 came up with the idea of Western shirts having flap pockets snap yokes.

This was in contrast to conventional work shirts, which were very boxy and unremarkable.

It obviously gained traction, and when people came to visit Colorado, for instance, to go to dude ranches, they take back what they wore here and it spread across the country.

My grandfather was very much the patriarch of the family, and we were all very fond of him, and he was a remarkable person.

He was just a very likable person.

My grandfather started the market was the Rocky Mountain West when my father joined him in the 50s.

He pushed it nationally, and then I joined the company in the 80s, and I pushed it internationally.

On top of that, my son Colter had joined the company, making it a four generation company.

If it's something like a wedding, we have formal shirts.

If it's something casual, we have Hawaiian short sleeve shirts.

So that's kind of what our secrets been.

Love the fact that we have this really great following in popular culture.

We supply a lot of rock stars, a lot of movies.

And then about a year and a half ago, Gibbs Smith contacted me and I said to them, what about another idea?

And that would be to do a book on our celebrity following, because we have this wonderful array of stories where we first became aware of it when Elvis was in the movie Love Me Tender, and he was wearing one of our shirts.

We became aware of many movies that have been made over the years, and then later on they started contacting us directly.

For instance, ng Lee contacted us and asked if we would supply shirts for Brokeback Mountain.

One of my favorite stories was Eric Clapton emailed us.

He had been in a store in London and said he'd been buying our shirts while on tour in the US, but he was in a store in London, and then he came online and he said, I see you have so many more.

Could I order from you directly?

I replied, and he and I corresponded for about an inch thick of faxes.

And finally he said, I'm going to wear these shirts you just shipped Thursday at the cream reunion at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

And I said, well, we shipped on Monday and they take about a week to get to London.

And I said, by no way you can have shirts in time.

And that's if I hand carry some.

And so he invited me to the cream reunion and we had dinner together.

And, it was a lovely experience.

I come from a family that was good at telling stories.

And so it was it.

It was sort of my, my job early on to document them.

That's a lot of what's in the book.

Our stories that, that I heard from my family and then ones that I was part of later, I think I take pride in the fact that we transcend politics.

We we appeal to a really wide array of people, from grandfathers to granddaughters, skateboarders to rodeo cowboys.

We pride ourselves on making sustainable fashion that people will often tell us their favorite shirt they've had for ten or 15 or 20 years.

We don't look for others for inspiration.

We do our own thing.

We come out with new things in a fresh stream of new merchandise, and we just go our own way.

To learn more about Rock Bell Ranch, where you can visit their website.

Rock.com.

Hello Colorado it is so go time.

Two weeks from tonight we will know who won, who lost in the midterm elections and what's next for Colorado.

Here's one of the conversations we had recently on Colorado inside out about what is unfolding this election season and what is at stake.

You know, these endorsements.

Come on the heels of the only face to face forum between the two major party candidates for governor.

And then this week, we've had the only debate in the race for Colorado's fourth congressional district, where Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert is defending her seat against retired U.S.

Navy Rear Admiral Eileen Baker.

What were the big takeaways?

I'll also ask her insiders the same question about Wednesday's only scheduled debate in the attorney general's race between Democratic nominee Jenna Griswold, our current secretary of state in Colorado, and Republican nominee Michael Allen, the Da attorney, the Da for El Paso and Teller counties.

Okay, Krista, sometimes how the candidates respond to questions and respond to another is very telling.

I think for the voters who are watching these debates, that shows when.

They're under the spotlight, when they're, you know, under the heat.

How do they respond?

Do they get testy if they get testy, like, say, Griswold did?

I think it makes you wonder how they might handle things in the office.

I will.

I do want to say upfront, though, that kudos to those four people for actually showing up to a debate, especially the fourth district, because they went up against Kyle Clark and they're going to take tough questions there.

So I want to give that to them.

I also want to say there is a bright spot on the ticket when it comes to Republicans.

And that is Michael Allen, district attorney.

Super qualified.

Cool under fire.

I like the way he handled himself.

I also thought his the way he handled himself made a nice contrast to Griswold, who got very, very testy.

My opponent is refusing to answer very simple questions, and I want to make it very clear that fundamental role of the next attorney general is to stand up between immigrant communities and Ice.

People are refusing to come forward when they're victims of violent crime, because of ISIS lawlessness.

And the audacity to attack Colorado State Patrol, who have protected my life.

I appreciate so greatly.

6000 serious threats.

The last man arrested when I was in the hospital giving birth because of MAGA and Republicans like him who continue to lie.

Who continue to lie.

When you are considering who you're going to hire for your next Colorado attorney general, you should consider whether they have class and what you just said is absolutely atrocious.

In any threat against a public official or any of you is absolutely wrong.

And I'll stand with you shoulder to shoulder to fight.

But what you just did shows you the lack of her character, and the fact that she is not equipped to be your Colorado Attorney General.

It was nice for voters to be able to see that contrast.

And so I again, kudos for them to showing up.

But also, I think it gives the voters more information as they go to fill out their ballots.

And that was one vote I was really happy to cast.

And that was for Michael Allen.

I want to shift to the Boebert law backer race, because what the takeaway for me was watching Law Baker move to the middle in in this in the talking about the war in Iran which talking about tariffs.

People that I talk.

To talk all the time about the costs, excessive costs that are making life so very difficult.

And she's voting for things that continue to push those forward.

Tariffs more than eight times the Iran war.

These are real problems for the use of tariffs.

And you even agreed with President Trump's tariffs in his first administration.

I've heard you go back and forth saying tariffs are good or bad.

They're a tool I don't know.

It really depends on.

I would say that's not true.

Tariffs are a tool and can be used effectively.

But what is happening right now is not being used as a tool.

She is like a lot of the people, a lot of the Democrats who are running in certain parts of Colorado, former Republican who has who has left the party and gone to the Democrats.

We're seeing this a great deal of this town in Douglas County.

And and what I'm hearing from people is that the Republican Party, they didn't they didn't walk away from the Republican Party.

It walked away from them.

And I think that that's one things I'm watching for on election night is to see how many of these former Republicans are going to show up at the state Capitol in Congress.

ET cetera, etc., etc.. Okay.

I'm curious, as our attorney at the table, you're taking the AG's race.

One of the big differences I noticed is that, you know, Griswold was in support, I think probably more litigation, more of this, you know, not only playing defense to the Trump administration, but continuing to go on offense.

Seemed like Allen was advocating for a more restrained approach.

I think just looking in the primaries, it seems like the candidates that were, you know, for being more aggressive and standing up to, to Washington were rewarded by the voters.

So I think that could absolutely play a factor there as well.

One area that I think historically has been really big for the AGS, it just hasn't really been mentioned, is their involvement kind of at the state level with enforcing and investigating civil rights violations, things like that.

I can think about like the consent decree that ultimately came down against Aurora from Phil Wise's office, also their involvement in the McLean case.

A couple other things that I thought were really interesting.

Griswold saying that she's going to use the office to go after and prosecute Ice.

I've spoken about sort of the difficulties in that a second.

You start doing that because they are ice.

You know, they're immediately back in federal court and that has not gone well.

And also surprising that Allen went there to talk about how amendment 8081, the one where they're supposed to the courts and criminal justice system are supposed to cooperate with Ice was a little bit heavy handed.

So traditionally, especially like in Woodland Park and there we've seen in Teller County, we've seen them actually like cooperating with ice for him to kind of start to walk that back.

I think a departure from his party's platform.

We are saying that Viktor Marks is not competent.

It could not be governor.

And really, we have to say, can Griswold really run that department?

The AG's department?

Look, she's had so much trouble at the secretary of State's office.

And you just think managing how many hundreds of lawyers, so many cases that are really, really important, so many issues in Denver that I mean, in Colorado, that is a huge issue.

She also lied about talk before the Supreme Court.

That's a concern.

My major concern about Allen, who is not an election denier, is will he really go after the feds in the cases that Weiser has already filed that are worth fighting?

Kyle Clark and thank him for being on this show last week when I was not, I was surprised he didn't go after Boebert when she went after lobby for having moved and not far in order to run in this district.

When Lauren Boebert jumped across the state to run in a district she'd never lived in.

She's no real connections to.

That was a problem.

We spoke about many other events and happenings in Colorado, so watch our entire show on our YouTube channel or the PBS passport app, or on the PBS 12 website, or listen in to our conversation.

If you listen to podcasts, check us out on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

This Friday brings a brand new show with four new insiders for new perspectives addressing four new topics.

Join us here Friday at eight.

Colorado has talent, innovation and opportunity, but what does it take to stay competitive in this economy?

In tonight's Business of Colorado segment with our partners at cobalt, we explore the issues shaping Colorado's business future.

Here's more with Frannie in our special panel as we close out the show.

This presentation of The Business of Colorado is made possible by the generous support of Collegiate Peaks Bank, Colorado Business Roundtable, Ibotta, and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Visit PBS 12 to support this work.

I'm Frannie.

Matthews.

The executive producer of The Business of Colorado.

As Coloradans, we know we live in a special place.

The beauty of this state speaks for itself.

We've attracted great talent, built strong startup communities, and we're home to some of the most innovative industries in the country.

But we can't take any of that for granted.

Affordability matters.

So does infrastructure.

Businesses need predictable and clear rules, appropriate guardrails and a regulatory environment they can navigate.

So what does it take to keep Colorado competitive?

That's the focus of this two part conversation from the Business of Colorado.

Our panel includes Debbie Brown, president of the Colorado Business Roundtable, Lesley Oliver of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.

Rich Warner, president and CEO of upstate Colorado Economic Development.

And Wendy Lee, an amazing ecosystem builder.

Christine Heights, CEO of Colorado Thrives, moderates the conversation.

I'm curious.

If anybody has thoughts to jump in of how you would define the different components of competitiveness, or how do we set the stage for the different threads of this conversation?

I'll just jump in.

You know, I know this is a topic on the minds of all of us, the business community, our philanthropic community, our talent community.

Wendy, that you spoke of.

We can't stop talking about Colorado's competitiveness.

We want to win on all metrics.

And I think there's just a general concern that perhaps we're not winning on all the things we could be.

How how I'd like to phrase competitiveness was a quote that I heard earlier this year from Steve Forbes, who was in town for us, and he said something so profound.

Capital goes where it's welcomed and it stays where it's well treated.

That's how I would like to think about competitiveness.

Our companies will come when they're feel welcomed.

They'll stay when they're well treated.

And I think that is sort of the ecosystem that I'd like to see us consider around competitiveness.

That's great.

So we we hear from the company angle.

They're coming.

They're staying there adding to our economy.

What else happens if Colorado is competitive?

What happens if we get this right?

What are the components?

Our students stay and they stay and.

Build businesses.

Or join a business.

They take their passion and their excellence academically in whatever field they're in, to that employer or to the business they want to grow.

So we measure ourselves on those students graduating that do stay in our state.

And I. Also think that competitiveness is, is how can our businesses serve the communities they're in to provide the goods and services that are people want our employees want, our communities need.

That's the foundation of why businesses exist.

And so if they can be here, if they can build their their company, their business, their organization, their idea, if they can provide those jobs for people, if they can motivate and serve and engage in our community to do what they can uniquely provide, then that's that's the competitive advantage that we have in Colorado.

That's great.

There's a, something you said before that's really important is what we could be.

We also have to look at where we were.

And you talked about students.

Students are important part of the ecosystem when companies are looking to come to Colorado.

The benchmark was always available workforce, skilled workforce.

And then the next decision was always the education system because they were worried about the next generation of workforce.

Totally.

And then what we saw is all of these standard metrics that go into site selection, cost of doing business.

You saw, power, right?

You know, what can the utilities provide?

Water, infrastructure, local environment, cost of living, all of the standard metrics that go into these decisions.

So if we look back in Colorado ten years ago and you look way, way down the list, political certainty was ten, 11, 12 on the list, that has risen up dramatically because of what's happened here in Colorado.

And and these are the kind of things that we need to be looking at as we're providing that capacity for companies that are looking to add to our tax base.

That's a it's a great transition.

One of the stats that just really strikes me is that a little over a decade ago, if somebody was moving in Colorado, one in every 12 people with that mobility or if somebody is moving in the U.S., 1 in 12 people with mobility in the US would end up in Colorado.

Colorado was a destination.

We were a magnet for talent.

Today is, as of the most recent data, one of every 120 people comes to Colorado.

You have this question around talent coming here and our population staying here.

There are some recent headlines about businesses leaving, so maybe to open it up.

What is the current state?

Why are we having this conversation today now.

And I'm curious kind of what trends your organizations are seeing.

You started this conversation around what we need to tend to, but curious what what causes the urgency today?

Well, the urgency today is that people, people, businesses, everybody.

We're we're struggling in many ways.

And so we have to look at what those what those opportunities are, what are the opportunities for people to have good jobs?

What are the opportunities for businesses to provide and serve our communities?

And that competitiveness is we we can't make things more affordable and and more expensive at the same time.

And so that's what people are facing is, is a lack of affordability.

And it's and it's they they don't have the ability to, to pay for the things that they need.

And so that's where we have to look in terms of addressing that.

And it I mean, it comes down to policy.

It comes down to to political certainty.

It comes down to our quality of life, our talent, our keeping, our kids here.

All of it is is in the mix.

I agree with everything you just said.

I do think we, as a state, need to take a beat and realize the geopolitical climate we're in is different.

The pressures we have are different geopolitically.

So, and, and that's hard to wrestle with and to know where to put that, you know, how do you look at multiple wars?

How do you look at tariffs?

How do you look at those things when you're building a business or you're running a large business?

I mean, how do you factor that into growth?

Not everyone knows how to do that.

Not everyone even wants to know about it.

Right.

And I think that is important for us to sit with and to understand the implication of the geopolitical factors that we face, because that requires some sophistication and also some analysis that maybe we have we're not used to doing.

I don't know, I'm not from Colorado, but it seems like maybe we're not used to doing that because it affects everything.

And it's not just an administration thing, it is a geopolitical thing.

And I think once you cast it in that light, there new ideas that could spring forward, that we could focus on policy wise and economically.

And Wendy, that's such a good point.

But we're glad you're here in Colorado now.

Yeah.

Please stay.

To.

Take advantage of your ability to build these dynamic ecosystems that are so important to us.

But you touch on an important and important layer that some of these businesses face when they're thinking about competitiveness.

You know, inflation touches everybody around the country.

Affordability is not just a Colorado problem.

These are things that are, you know, multi-state federal employers and, you know, have to deal with as well as Coloradans.

What I would say back to Christine's point on how we've seen migration shifts.

Again, we used to be just flooded with young people looking for opportunity here, families moving here.

And we've seen a change in, you know, net migration.

And those trends are troubling.

And some of that affordability, while it's a national crisis, we have to think, okay, how do we deal with that?

Here in Colorado, I have the good fortune of talking with my counterparts in other states that head up other roundtables.

We talk monthly.

Covid changed everything totally.

Companies really have the chance to evaluate where they want to not only remain, but where do they want to grow.

And some of the conversations I've been having around competitiveness with some of the CEOs that we represent are where are they spending their next dollar?

Where are they investing in talent in other states?

And why isn't it here?

Where are they deploying capital in other states and why not here?

And these questions we have to ask ourselves because we don't you know, we're all competitive people.

We want businesses to grow and thrive here.

And if those states are pulling out a welcome mat that's different than ours, we need to know about that and fight that.

So we have our own welcome mat.

I think one thing unique about Colorado is we're big enough to be meaningful and significant, but small enough to really work together.

And what I know about Colorado is we have a culture of coming together, working together, and we're small enough to go get things done.

And so one of the inspiring, things in our ecosystem was that there is now a Governor's Competitiveness Council comprised of business leaders amongst this group, really thinking about what should matter, where are we falling behind as a state as it compares to the welcome mat that Colorado can provide versus other states?

And what are the areas we can focus together, whether it's policy, whether it's an economic angle, whether it's just marketing assets we have.

So I'd be curious from those conversations as a community of business leaders coming together, what have been those anchors of must haves for Colorado that we see other states winning on that Colorado needs to really invest in or really draw from would start there and then I'd love to actually talk about Colorado's strengths next.

You know, in northern Colorado, we spend with a very, very diverse population.

We spend a lot of time saying that we don't we don't need to.

We don't think alike, but we think together.

And most of those discussions are just like we're having here.

On how we're solving, solving some of these challenges.

And when when companies are looking to come here or they're looking at other states, there are there's a whole section of things that you talk about that, that welcome mat that really work well in Colorado.

But at the end of the day, if the capacity to serve is not there, that speed to market issue is hard to overcome.

So when we're talking about simple things like investing in our highway infrastructure, having our utilities be proactive about creating the power that will supply.

And again, it's not just business, but it is our residential growth.

It is our small communities.

It is our rural communities.

It is something that capacity takes time to create.

And so how are we as a state investing in supporting our communities to roll out the basic necessities of of infrastructure?

Because it's not site selection, it's site elimination for companies.

And and it's I don't mean to make it that simple, but if they're pro forma says that they can have their doors open at the end of the next year, maybe they come here if it's two years from now before they can get the power they need, they're going to go someplace else.

Yeah, yeah.

And I think, you know, Colorado, it needs to be a place where we can turn difficult ideas into reality.

And what we're growing into is, is a state that that we are looking at more cost of living issues, more affordable issues, where we used to be a blue city and a red state and have that political balance.

Between between all four, all levels of government and business and nonprofit sectors working together.

You know, we've fallen into a, you know, a one, one party control, one one philosophy control.

And that's where we're losing some of that balance, some of that, some of that collaboration.

And I think that's where we need to come together and lean into places where we already have strengths bioscience, aerospace and defense.

You know, these are anchors of of what Colorado has always led.

In two things to touch on.

I think that are important.

Christine, you started the conversation about collaboration, the business community across the state of Colorado and not just the business community, philanthropic leaders, you know, local government leaders, business CEOs, business owners, entrepreneurs are locking arms together and trying to, push forward a competitiveness recommendations not only for the current governor, although that's very important, but for the next administration, for the next set of legislative leaders.

And I think that collaboration is important for all of us as we're going into a new time in Colorado's history.

The second thing I'd say is, to your point, so great.

One of the things that I love about the collaboration already is we're developing a set of business climate principles that could lend itself to really be powerful for the state of Colorado.

One of the principles is how you touched on, you know, we're stronger together.

If something is only pushed through by maybe one party vote, doesn't matter which party, perhaps it's not a broad, enduring policy that will really get Colorado where it needs to be.

The other principle is around the idea of a, you know, that especially multi-state or global companies, you know, if they have to have a playbook for every state, it just makes our state less desirable.

So how do we think about our policy in terms of emerging federal legislation, what should really be handled at the federal level so that it just makes employers, again, feel more welcome?

So they'll want to spend capital here and grow their talent here.

Last thing I'll say is you made a really good point.

It's not just about businesses being successful.

All of us know that.

That's just sort of one solution, but it helps Coloradans.

At the end of the day, a vibrant business community gives more agency for more jobs, more career pathways, more opportunities for the Coloradans that we want to serve.

I think our organization, Colorado thrives.

We have just to bring to life this idea of collaboration and frankly, feeling a sense of ownership of our own state and our own future, which I think really characterizes leaders in Colorado.

We have CEOs, crows, chief people officer leaning in to think about how do we co-develop our talent pipeline so we don't have to import talent, but rather keeping people here, providing them great jobs and great pathways.

And what's emerging out of that is some of the strengths around great industries that are here growing, need talent and provide amazing jobs.

We're doing a lot of work in healthcare.

There's great work happening in Vegas manufacturing, construction, biosciences one.

Aerospace and defense is another core.

So there's a lot to build from as far as paths to send people.

How do we sure those up and make sure we really have a long term strategy for that?

I, I, I like to see businesses that do want to be part of a community and to to the points you've been making.

Community first is usually very well perceived, more well perceived than business first.

Just saying.

Right.

And so but the community is made up of wide range of commercial activity let's say that way and nonprofit activity.

So this goes back to ecosystem.

I think we have an amazing opportunity not just to build individual ecosystems around quantum space sustainability, climate tech, energy critical, critical materials.

All those are true because we have strong research research bases around those.

What we really have a chance to do is to cross-cut, I would say, those ecosystems, which is where solutions are built.

So keeping everyone in a silo with their ecosystems is a way to start.

And I think we're at the state and and our in Colorado, we're in a situation now where we have enough ecosystem built that we can now crosscut.

In other words, AI meets quantum space meets AI.

You know, quantum meets, drug discovery, quantum meets life sciences.

That, to me is the opportunity we have.

There's nobody better.

Wendy, I think the first time I ever was involved with something with you was on a phone call about the Colorado Wyoming Engines grant through the EDA, which is now $160 million grant that came to Colorado.

Beautiful.

And it's amazing.

That is just an example of some of the things we're seeing when you talked about the fact that in previous years, one out of every 12 people in the country wanted to move here, how are we getting back to facilitating that?

We actually do not have a problem attracting talent in the state of Colorado.

People want to be here.

The problem is giving them a landing pad, whether it's to locate here for a career and show them the paths in particular industries.

In northern Colorado, we have sector partnerships that help facilitate those types of activities.

But what we are seeing now is a real need for growing and emerging industries.

As you said, we are in conversations with aerospace companies.

They're very excited to talk to us and create linkages with the historical industries that have been in Colorado, like energy.

And again, because that workforce is is not just exclusively about aerospace engineers, it's about people who make things.

And we're really good at we're really good about that in Colorado.

We're also really good about supporting the entrepreneurial system here.

Yeah.

And about, you know, I could right now give you a list of 30 or 40 companies in the life sciences area, up in up in northern Colorado.

They're just waiting for that investment.

So how are we helping them bring that investment in not only here facilitating it, with, say, the venture capital community, but looking at supporting investors outside of the state to be investing in our state.

Christine, you brought up advanced manufacturing and you brought it up again.

So let's be reminded that most of our science based technology research and commercialization is delivered through advanced manufacturing.

Most of it is.

And so the opportunity there are on the job front is different, right.

Because you need technicians that actually understand how a line works.

So we've not been known as a state for having advanced manufacturing at the top of our of our sweet spot.

But the truth is, if you look at what we really do relative to science based technologies and other technologies, it is delivered through advanced manufacturing space being example.

So that's cross-cutting to me.

That's right.

Right.

That's a cross-cutting angle that we we understand, but we don't seem to amplify or pursue that assertively in a way that would demonstrate growth.

And I think that's what our new administration can really focus on that.

And it's not another ecosystem for the sake of an ecosystem, but it is leveraging what's there and do some cross-cutting work.

Advanced manufacturing being an example.

Colorado has some challenges when it comes to competitiveness, but that's only half the story.

We also have great talent, strong research, leading industries, and a culture that values innovation and collaboration.

So how do we build on those strengths?

Next week in part two, the conversation turns to that question how do we take the assets we already have and turn them into new businesses, new jobs, new opportunities for Colorado?

Since recording this roundtable discussion, the Governor's Competitiveness Council delivered their official recommendations in their roadmap for Shared Prosperity.

The 45 page report consists of seven sections.

It was assembled by a who's who of business and community leaders, many of whom we've interviewed right here on PBS 12 Colorado.

This group developed 49 specific recommendations across six areas regulatory reform and execution, tax and fiscal policy, capital and scale, talent and workforce affordability, and housing and infrastructure and site readiness.

All the same topics discussed during our roundtable.

The report is available as a PDF download, and you can access it for yourself by visiting.

Competitive colorado.com.

This presentation of the Business of Colorado is made possible by the generous support of Collegiate Peaks Bank, Colorado Business Roundtable, Ibotta, and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Visit PBS 12 donate to support this work.