Tonight on studio 12, we had to Frisco for winter adventures your family will love but won't break the bank.

And why does color matter in your business, your brand, your product?

We go to the Pantone Institute to find out.

And we see Pantone's color of the year.

Colorado's primary is just a few months away, and election integrity is a hot topic right now.

We sit down with an electio expert to learn more than that from a glowing, frozen kingdo in the heart of the Rockies to a powerful piece of Colorado's black history reimagined.

It's all ahead right here on studio 12 from the Five Points Media Center in the heart of Denver, Colorado.

This is studio 12.

Hi, I'm bazi kanani, and welcome to studio 12.

Ryan is out tonight.

Winter adventures in the mountains can feel out of reach for many Colorado families, especially when the price of lift tickets and gear can quickly add up.

As a mom of a busy family.

PBS Twelve's Erica McLarty is always searching for fun ways to make memories.

This time, she headed to Frisco to find winter activities that are both affordable and easy to access.

Take a look.

Right go time friend.

If you think winte fun in the mountains has to cost a fortune.

Frisco might just prove you wrong.

Tucked in the cozy heart of Summit County, Frisco calls itself Colorado's main street to the Rockies.

And in the winter, it becomes a playground packed with family friendly adventures.

But the best part?

You don't have to have lift tickets or luxury prices to make it memorable.

You still have that small town vibe, but a lot of amenities, a lot of things to do here.

So we have the adventure Park.

They've got tubing.

Cross-country skiing.

They have a beginner ski and snowboard until you even have ice fishing in the winter too.

A lot of shops, a lot of restaurants where you can go hiking, fat biking.

First stop rebel sports.

I'm trying fa biking for the very first time.

I man.

Think mountain biking.

The winter edition of that bike is.

It's a mountain bike just with really large tires.

So it's got a 4 to 5 inch wide tire, typically off the bike instead of, kind of digging into the snow pack.

It helps you to stay on top of the snowpack and, you know, get good traction.

I mean, it shouldn't be intimidating just because there's trails of different abilities to ride.

You don't necessarily have to g and ride on a difficult trail.

Don't need to ride.

You know, for 20 miles.

You can also just go out and ride a bike for an hour.

You don't need much in the way of special equipment for riding the bikes.

We recommend waterproof boots and gloves.

We'll provide a helmet for you.

But we start our rentals a a two hour rental, which is $31.

And then we do just a $ an hour, additional after that.

For the most part, we're directing people to go on to the rec pat between Frisco and Breckenridge, because that trails needs to end in the winter time.

You have Rebel Sports.

You have a family owned company.

It's one guy and his famil have owned the business for it.

Took it over maybe 30 years ago.

And it's not we're not a big corporate shop.

Just mom and pop kind of place.

It's a good place to work.

It's a good crew.

My boss is a good guy to work for.

And so people tend to stick around here.

So, yeah, we've got helmets and all different sizes.

Normally you'd want a little bit of, space to put a hat under the helmets but it's so warm out these days.

Okay.

Yeah.

This is good.

Nice and grungy from yesterday.

So the bike trails are jus right at the end of Main Street.

Just cross down at that traffic light there, and the bike path is on your right.

So do you think I'm going to survive?

You'll be fine.

Okay, so we tried the rec trail and agreed.

Great for beginners.

It was really fun, but we wanted to do something a little more advanced.

So we are on Miner's Creek, and I am huffing and puffing.

And I will not lie.

It's very difficult for me.

But it is beautiful out here and every second is just some real.

Tire.

I'm fine.

Here at the first adventure park we have, our main activity is snow tubing.

Very popular.

But then we also have th downhill skiing.

Snowboarding.

We have that for beginners.

And we also have it for advanced level in our terrain park.

Have great instructors at our Nordic center as wel for kind of teaching activities that a lot of people have never heard about.

So yeah, it's a it's a great entry area.

You don't need a skill set in order to go snow tubing.

Are you excited?

Yeah.

Yeah.

We're not there.

Resorts.

Right.

So we're a little bit more affordable than that because we are just part of the town of Frisco, and we try and keep our pricing considerate of that.

But w do have some safety requirements specifically for tubin the height requirement of 36in.

So generall that's around three years old.

Who's gonna win?

I think for me, yeah.

Yeah.

I think I'll be like, yeah.

And have you tried it yet or.

Yes, I tried it.

And it's it's two bites.

And I'm a big boy.

So what was it like going down?

Oh, man, it was fun.

Okay, Florence, I don't do stuff like this often.

How about you?

All my money's worth.

Okay.

Yeah.

Any tips for me?

Oh, yeah.

Make sure you this thing.

You guys, any tips for me?

Because I'm going to go down, keep both hands on the scraps and just scrape.

And it's my turn to test this out.

I'm a little nervous but how could I not be inspired by this little brave one?

Oh.

00008.

Oh oh, you.

From there, it looks like you have to hike up this hill to go down it.

But you don't.

You can just wait.

Enjoy the view till you get to the top.

Now open your eyes.

Here we go.

Whoa, whoa.

000!

Ha ha ha!

Woo!

That was awesome.

It is such a a welcoming place that we have here.

Lots of different variety of activities.

Something for everyone.

And that makes it really easy to say yes to people.

And that makes my my day so much better.

This is a really, really great group of people that we have at the Frisco Adventure Park, so I love it.

Another amazing option for your famil that is Free Meadows Creek Pond.

We're here right now early an it is just beautiful out today.

You do have to bring your ow skates, so remember that part.

But other than that, it's open until 10 p.m.. I am trying hockey skates for the first time as well, and I'm learning that my, new mantra is do it scared.

It's love.

Be.

So, Meadow Creek, if you have your own skates, you can stay on the pond.

A lot of people practice for hockey there too.

You can definitely check our website to keep up to date on conditions of the ice, just to make sure that it hasn't thawed out.

Nice save.

Finding a place that was budget friendly, full of hometown character, and close to the activities was key.

The historic Frisco Lodge turned out to be the perfect cozy base camp.

So one of the nice things is, is Frisco is really accessible if you're walking.

Main Street has pretty much everything you need with all the shops and restaurants.

But if you need to go to the grocery store or Walmart, you can hop on a free bus and get there pretty easily.

Fortunately, we do set square in the middle o little old downtown Main Street.

Super convenient.

Once you get here, you really don't have t get in your car and go anywhere.

The Frisco Lodge has been here since 1885.

It is the oldest building on Main Street left.

If my mom and dad bought the Frisco Lodge back in 1961, the only thing up here was Arapahoe Basin and Breckenridge was being built and the Dillon Dam was starting constructio and the streets were all dirt.

No stop signs, no stop.

Like as kids growing up, we actually stayed upstairs with the guests that were here, and we had people from all over the world.

So we got a lot of exposur to a lot of different cultures.

We have the big community table.

We do have individual little tables and a retreat room, but it always amazes me how people come down and sit together.

Total strangers just sit down and start having breakfast together and visiting with each other.

And now you can stare at this cute llama because there's no footage of my morning conversation at the community table.

The connection was so genuine and refreshing that filmin it never even crossed my mind.

I have to say, it was my favorite part.

I tell people there's something about the walls of this building that that are very calming.

I love that we live in an area and work in an area that provides easy, accessible activities for everyone.

And I can't wait for PBS.

12 I'm Erica McLarty in Frisco, Colorado.

Coming down that tubing hill looks a little easier than going up those biking trails.

From fat biking and tubing to pond skating and cozy mountain moments, Erica says Frisco overall is really quite the gem.

For more family friendly adventures across Colorado you can go to our YouTube page.

You can also visit town of frisco.com.

We just saw several smal businesses operating in Frisco.

We're switching now to another look at the business of Colorado with Franny Matthews.

Tonight's segment centers around the business and psychology of color.

Here's more with Franny Pantone's.

Color of the year often sparks strong reactions.

This year is no exception.

But instead of focusing on the color itself, I wanted to understan the global thinking behind it.

I wanted to find out ho insights from around the world turn into decisions that shape brands, products, and design everywhere.

So I went straight to the source.

I am so excited about today's conversation.

I am here with Laurie Pressman, vice president from Pantone Institute.

Laurie, thank you so much for joining us.

And I want to tell you that I normally drink out of a mug that has PVS 12 on it, but for you, I have a mug that has the state of new Jersey where you're calling in from.

Yes.

And I believe and I do believe that this is the color of the year.

I'm very close to Cloud Dancer.

Yes.

So I so appreciate you taking the time.

I, I am a quilter, and so color is everything to me.

And when I saw the choice from the Pantone Institute of the color of the year, I was taken back, and I di a little bit of research, and, I'm just happy that you're able to join us.

So tell me a little bit about Pantone in general and how the Pantone Institute fits into the organization.

The goal of the institute has always been to educate the consumer about color, the importance of color, why color matters.

It's almost what we would cal the intelligence arm of Pantone.

So if we think about Pantone as its foundational color language, right, that everybody can communicate color around the world using the six digit number or three digit number, and everybody is clear.

Wow, that's quite different than why color matters.

How does color influence us?

What is color say?

Because every color has its own unique message and meaning.

And Pantone Color Institute is really this repository of color information that includes all of our proprietary research on the psychology of color, societal trends, the manner in which individuals react to color.

And it's through Pantone Color Institute, which began in the mid 80s, that we started to get involved with New York Fashion Week, London Fashion Week.

To call out the top colors, we introduced our Pantone Color of the year and doing all of the trend work that we do.

So today, while we may have started with all of this consumer color preference study research, it's really morphed into this whole area of, I would say consulting.

It's a global team.

We partner with all these global brands to advise them on colors for their products, color for their brand, visual identity.

Why did the Pantone Institute start color of the year?

So if we think about the Pantone Color Institute, how focus and missio has always been about education, reall that's the driving force, right?

The relationship between color and culture.

And we originally created the Panton color of the year back in 1999.

We thought this would just b for the color of the millennium.

I don't know that we ever predicted it would continue these many years ahead.

I think we're all just astounded.

And the goal was to engage the design community.

And color enthuses around the worl into a conversation about color.

We wanted to draw this relationship between culture and color, to highlight to our audience how what is taking place in our global culture at a moment in time really gets expressed and reflected through the language of color.

And it's really fascinating, when you think about that because there really are reasons when why colors become popular, when they do, and it does reflect what's happening.

You have a panel of peopl that make a decision every year on what the color will be.

This is pretty strategic, and it's a big panel.

It's across geographies.

So can you tell me a little bit about not necessarily who's on the panel, but how do you look at the makeup of the panel.

This is a global pane that's out there looking at all the influences across design and tracking everything.

And I think through the years we've seen the shift.

Whereas, you know, if we go back to 1999, social media wouldn't have been involved, technology wouldn't have been involved.

So there's so many factors at weigh into, light styles, play styles, art, music, fashion that play into our thinking.

For this and the emotional aspect of color of course, plays a very big role because we really want to mak sure that the color that we are, that we select reflects what's happening.

And you actually do not publish the actual individuals that are on this.

We absolutely do not publish this.

This is not a commercial decision.

I can tell you that in order for us to maintain the authenticity and the credibility of what the institute, shares out and all of our color intelligence, it has to stay authentic.

And there have been years I've been at Pantone.

I'm going on 26 years so I can with this process and part of the Pantone Color Institute team and color of the year for a long time, and there have been years at some of our partners may have said, well, you know, that color may not work well.

Well that's okay.

We can't change that.

This is what we see happenin and this is what we're seeing.

So there's a reason why colors show up at the time that they tell yo some of our perceptions of color or concern, some evolve over time.

If you go back 20 years, for example, yellow greens, it might have been, oh, you know, we're not loving this, but look at where we are today with that color family.

So there's reasons why colors become popular when we do.

We're just reading.

We're not predicting, we're reflecting an highlighting what we're seeing.

Show up across design.

I find it really interesting as a quilter who loves color, loves that just chaos of color.

But I stepped back in and finished a quilt, using, as close a I could come to matching this.

And what I found was it expanded my own palette and, and creativity.

And so, can you talk a little bit about using something that is a white, in the and how you're kind of viewing that one of the great things about this shade, yes, it's part of the white family, but it's not an optically brightened white.

This is a natural white color.

And because it has that even undertone, it pairs equally well with cool colors as well as with warm colors.

So it's a true versatile neutral shade.

One of the things that you also find with colors in the white famil is that they go with everything.

This is a color that provides what we would call scaffolding for the entirety of the color palette.

Because of that, it really lends itself to visual self-expression.

We're living at a time where people are looking to put their own unique stamp on something.

They want to stand out.

It's their brand.

This is my, you know, how I see myself or how I see the space that I'm creating or any product I'm creating for that matter.

And it's also a color that at a time when people are being very careful and considered about their purchases.

So we're looking for things that go trans seasonally.

We're looking for things that have the versatility.

I'd like to hit really briefly on, the emotions of color and the cycle, psychology of color, because it's really it really is something that you can walk in a room and get a different feel based on the colors that are in the room, you know, color sets, the mood color is the most critical element, especially when you're thinking about a mood.

And I one of the things I feel like I started to think abou when I came to work for Pantone was when it comes to home interiors is how do I want to fee when I walk into my home, right?

How do you want to feel?

And that has to dictate, from my point of view, what colors you bring into the space.

Because home is your refuge, right?

You want to feel to take a breath, I can relax, I can unwind in whateve colors remove does that for you.

So color is really what sets the mood and the style.

Every color conveys its own unique message and meaning.

I think that's something to really, understand and with 80% of human experience is filtered through the eyes.

Color is vital to creating this mood.

So I think that's that's a very important thing to consider.

And I think the interesting piece about the psychology of color, most of it, I would say about 95% of this almost happens outside of our unconscious awareness how we react to certain colors.

Some of that is because it could be, evolutionary if we think about that and their environmental and cultural factors that add to that, or if we think about, Reds, for example, red is blood, so therefore it becomes the color of life.

Red can also be about fire.

So it can also be thought about as a color of danger to the color of our heart.

It's passion.

You know, there are things that culturally get reinforced that we have these automatic reactions to the delicious fruit and berries.

Some people even say that their mouth waters when they see a red which I find really fascinating.

We think about the blues color of constancy.

Now, why is that?

We all look out and we see the sky.

So it becomes a color of dependability, true blue loyalty, trust.

So there's certain things that become unconscious reactions.

Green in nature.

I think the root of greens comes from growing.

So it's about growth, yellow in the sun.

So those kinds of things, you can understand why there's a lot of commonality.

And yet at the same time, there's regional perceptions, white being morning or the Reds, in Asia, with prosperity and luck, I think the one I find most interesting too is a memory or an experience.

Right?

You go on holiday and there's a certain color you associate with a certain place, and you bring that back with you, or you had a favorite teacher or your mother or whomever in your life that wears this color, and it brings back such a good feeling.

Laurie.

Wonderful conversation, and I really like how you mapped it back to nature on some of the meaning and, and that it's just in our, in our natural environment, how some of this, psychologically affects us.

Is there anything that you also would love our, our viewers to understand or, or know about what you're doing at Pantone?

One of the things, again, that I did learn at Pantone, in my years here, is that color not only influence how other people see us, right?

Because people hav an automatic reaction to color.

It also influences how you feel.

So on those days where you're thinking it's cloudy and it's not so nice and you just want to burrow into that gray shade because you just want to sit here, bring out a red, bring out an orange, bring out a yellow, bring out something that energizes you and actually end up putting you to yourself, in a different mood, but also how people will look at you and how they will greet you, which of course, we know reinforces the energy that you are putting out.

I just go back to experiment and have fun and explore it.

It doesn't have to be a serious thing.

Don't be afrai to start a little bit at a time.

Thank you so much for your time today.

I think this was ver interesting and educational on regarding the color of the year.

And, I do hope you, visit Colorado sometime soon.

Now, thank you so much for this, I love it.

Thank you.

Funding for the Business of Colorado on PBS 12 is provided in part by Collegiate Peaks Bank.

And from the generous support of viewers like you.

Thank you.

The current political season is marked with a lot of skepticis surrounding election integrity.

So learning about our election process is especially important right now in Colorado.

If you're registered, a ballot comes to you in the mail, but some are questioning whether that's really the best way to go.

To learn more, I tapped one of her insiders from Colorado Inside Out.

Amber McReynold is the former election director for the City and County of Denver, and now a national election expert.

Colorado is been, as we always say the gold standard of elections.

Why is Colorado under kind of a microscope right now?

Well, it' hard to say exactly and pinpoint why Colorado is under a microscope, but I do think there's a lot of misinformation and disinformation and just incorrect information about how elections work, especially in Colorado.

And I always think that the best way to combat some of that is simply to explain and simply to show and encourage people to serve as election judges, for instance.

One of the things I used to do all the time as, director of election is give tours to the public, to anybody who wanted to come i and see how the process works.

We always tried to put extensive transparency mechanisms in place so people could come in and see Colorado has a system that, and it was by design to be fair, to be accessible, to be secure, transparent, equitable and reliable.

And, all of those attribute work together to create a strong and secure system.

It was during your reig that we got the ballot tracks, which is a great way to kind of see what is happening with your ballot as it moves through the system.

But let's also talk about how the ballot is mailed to al registered voters in Colorado.

There are some doubters saying, is that really the most, the best way to secure the election?

Should we have a picture I.D.?

Should we have a birth certificate?

What do you say?

Sure.

Well, in first off, Colorado, the way our model works, it's actually, you know, you hear the term all registered or universal all.

And that's actually not correct.

So, the registration list includes active voters, and that's who gets a ballot.

And you, you're an active voter.

If you haven't ha if you have not had return mail.

So if your address has been confirmed, you're active if you provided the proper identification when you register to vote, the information, including your state driver's license number or your state ID number and your Social Security.

So there's validation steps that happen when you actually register to vote.

If there's a problem with that, you'r actually put on a pending status and you have to provide more information and you're also not mailed a ballo if you're on a pending status, voter that are on an inactive status, that means that return mail came back or we had some sort of verification that the voter moved.

And so those voters do not get a ballot.

So we literally only mail to voters that are in an active status.

And Colorado behind the scenes has all kinds of validation steps to make sure and check those records constantly in terms of address updates or return mail or any of those things.

Could you imagine a time when we aren't getting our ballots in the mail in Colorado, where we do have to show up with all of our personal information, our birth certificate, perhaps to go and vote.

Well, so prior to us having this voting model in 2013, when we passed it, we did have polling places.

We had early voting and then we had request vote by mail.

So we've run elections that are far more expensive, far less accessible, and have far more administrative challenges with how they're conducted.

So we know a little bit of what that looks like because a lot of us and I in particular ran elections like that, and those had far more voter confusion and calls that would come in because voters weren't sure what to do.

They'd show up at the wron polling place, all those things.

And and I on voter ID, I just want to kind of make this point.

Voter ID is widely supported by most Americans.

The premise of voter ID is not the issue.

Voter identification is really not the issue.

It's all the details that come with it and how it's administered.

Every state varies in terms of what is acceptable in terms of voter ID.

Colorado has a long list.

We accept driver's license, state ID we also accept identification that are issued by universities.

If a state requires that it be an in-state driver's license that has a negative impact on a lot of students that might be cross state for for school, it has an impact on people that might not drive.

Some states require that the ID you present has to match the address on file.

Well if you're out of state student that might have an impact.

Or if you simply haven't update your in-state driver's license yet because you moved, which people mov and they don't necessarily check when the election day is so it's the devil is in the details when we when we think about and talk about voter identificatio as part of the election process.

Is there something Colorado could be doing better for our elections?

So I still think that we have work to d to improve the primary system.

I still think we have work to do.

On, on generally how representation works.

So, there's idea like proportional representation or ranked choice voting.

Those are all things that, are certainly things tha we should continue to explore.

And there are a lot of trust issues when you look at just how, when voters are asked through polling or Gallup polls or, any of the, assessments that are done.

Trust has been declining and whether it be in Congress or with other institutions for a long period of time.

And, and I think we really need to look at what that means for our democracy, what it means for the public at large.

People should be able to trus what their government is doing and saying at all levels local, state, federal.

And, and I think it's importan that we continue to work on on how to address that.

Amber McReynolds, thank you very much for your insight.

I'm sur we'll be talking with you a lot this busy electio year.

Absolutely.

Thanks, Kyle.

Colorado's primary is four months away on June 30th, and the midterm elections will follow on the 3rd of November.

An important piece of Colorado history is getting a new loo at the History Colorado Center.

This month.

A reimagined exhibition called Lincoln Hills Mountain Sanctuary tells the story of what was once the largest African-American recreational resort west of the Mississippi.

Opened in the 1920s.

Lincoln Hills was a rare place of its kind, offering rest and refuge for black familie during the era of segregation.

We spoke with Terri Gentry of the Lincoln Hills Cares Foundation about the resort's legacy and the importanc of preserving stories like hers.

Here's more with Terri.

I looked at Black History Month as something that started a hundred plus years ago as Negro History Week.

And so the intention was to help people understand that we contributed to this history.

We were not just enslaved.

We were not just less than.

We are major contributors.

We are human.

We want to celebrate and honor our ancestors.

We are here and we've done everything we can to make this plac a better space for our children and grandchildren, and our descendants.

That's engagement manager for black communities.

Every day is a new venture because there's a lot of untold stories and a lot of information that we're still seekin in communities around the state.

We are constantly seeking ways to gather those histories and stories and to acknowledge them and recognize them.

Our education department has been working to connect the dot for the students, so finding out about their own experiences and their ancestors.

That's a really, really important thing to to focus on and to help them understand why they're here.

Because of the people that were here before them.

We're in the wonderful exhibit of Lincoln Hills and Lincoln Hills.

This is a small resort area that's about a mile west of pine Cliff, Colorado.

For me personally, the Lincoln Hills exhibit is a wonderful narration of my family experience.

It's a wonderful narrative about the incredible things that my grandparents did to make our lives better.

An incredible narrative about some of our community members that we grew up with, and their effort to change the trajectory of our community and how we live our lives.

One of my favorite things is the video that they have set up, because you get to actually see community members tha experience that history up here.

For example when you talk about the cabins.

We have retired Judge Jackson and his mom, Matt, Celia Jackson, talking about the cabin that his great grandfather, William Pitts built and their experience through the area and the longevity of their time up there.

This would do the whole summer resort a national program for all of our Rocky Mountain regions.

Every year, African-American families began buying land and building and delivering it.

In the 1920s.

Carpentry and built during this.

Lincoln Hills was purchased by Mr.

Equal to Mr.

Rainier in the 1920s, and they started selling propertie to individuals around Colorado.

Later on, when Mr.

Hamlet.

Hamlet Brothers purchased land and they built Winx Lodg and a couple of other dwellings there and building and entertain people up there.

So you'd have a lot of the most amazing jazz musicians coming up to Lincoln Hills and, and wonderful audiences to enjoy all of the music and the food.

Lincoln Hills is an important space for our community because it's a space called black Joy.

That's what it is for us being in the outdoors and all of the trees and the wonderful fragrances and the little critters running around.

My sisters and just absolutely loved going up.

Our grandparents would take us up there.

Grandpa wanted to be sure that we got to experience the outdoors in some way.

I have the coolest grandparents, George and Ernestine Smith.

I have so many memories of being up in Lincoln Hills and being in our cabin, and loving things like my grandfather's the best cook on the planet, and he would cook on the barbecue grill when we were up there.

Oh boy.

And it just seems like the food tastes better up in the mountains.

And we had the fireplace going because it might be cold.

It might be 20 degrees at night up there, and the fireplaces roaring and keeping us warm.

And we had these beautiful comforters and quilts, handmade quilts.

Grandmothe and grandfather would make sure we're wrapped up goo when we went to sleep at night.

The quilts were so important to us when we were little, you know, wrap up in a quilt when it was cold outside.

So this really celebrates the different things about Lincoln Hills in that form.

My favorite thing on the quilt.

Well, I love the little critter here.

We've got fish.

Some of the girls from Camp Disney and the train and the Winx Lodge there.

So there's just so many pieces and parts of Lincoln Hills that are part of the quilt and part of the celebration of that wonderful experience up there in history.

Colorado has a range of different programs and events that they put on, and we love having volunteers come in and help with that.

We want the community to be involved.

We want the communities to come in to the museum, view all of our exhibits and witness the things that are happening, but help us with programing.

Help us with gathering stories and oral histories.

We want everyon to invest their time and energy into making sure that we gather all of the perspectives and stories of each and ever community member in the state.

It's so important that we get the help of the community to come in and we can collaborate and work on a variety of different things to make that happen.

The Lincoln Hills Mountain Sanctuary Exhibition at the Historic Colorado Center in Denver is part of its communit based Colorado Stories Gallery.

To learn more, go to History colorado.org or the Lincoln Hills Cares Foundation.

That's at Lincoln Hills cares.org.

Next Tuesday, March 3rd, lawmakers will sit down for their first conversation about a possible ballot measure this November, one that could temporarily override the state's independent redistricting process.

It's just a discussion for now.

Nothing will be decided just yet.

There is a whole lot to consider.

Not only among state leadership but also for all of US voters.

And so the Colorado Inside Out team are weighing in.

Let's check in now with Kyle.

Hi there.

Bossy Colorado is now joining other states entertaining conversations about redistricting.

And it's a possible redo tha would happen sooner than later.

We currently have boundaries that outline eight different congressional districts in Colorado, and there is one group with a lot of backing that wants to shift those boundaries.

It's something that our insiders have a lot of opinions about.

So here's a listen.

A proposed ballot measur at the state Capitol is calling for a shakeup of Colorado's congressional districts and ahead of schedule.

A Democratic aligned group wants to ask voters this November to approve, a plan where a new congressional boundary map for would be drawn for 2028 and the 2030 elections.

Year before the state's redistricting commission would redraw the boundaries after they look over the 2030 census.

Okay, so there are four different versions of this ballot measure that will be discussed in a few weeks at the state Capitol.

All of them to Eric, to be with the pla of getting Democrats in better position to fill more seats in Washington, in Congress.

There is no doub about who started this battle.

I mean, Donald Trump an his minions started it in Texas.

Then Democrats got in on the action in California, in Maryland and other places.

And now, the cancer has come to Colorado, Colorado voters by over a 70% margin said, no, we don't want that route.

We want to have independent commission, nonpartisan bipartisan commission do this.

I think it is going to be tough to get that number of voters to change their min in favor of something like this, no matter who started it, no matter how ill the intent was on the part of those who started this fight.

But if we're ever going to get out of this cycle, this downward, toxic, tribal, divisive political cycle that we're in.

Somebody has to step forward and say, I'm not going there, and let's hop Colorado is the one that steps forward and says, no, we're not doing that.

Okay, Patty, it's a classic case of two wrongs don't make a right.

Why should we go?

Well might make a right in this case.

Why would we go this way?

When Kent Thiry, bless his heart when he pushed those ballot initiatives so that we would hav independent commissions decide how to redistrict would look at it very carefully.

Coloradans really supported that because they want to be fair more than anything else.

I think on this we'r independent, sometimes cranky.

But you try to be fair on that and we've got a hold to it.

There's a there was a happy hou last night where they were both fighting election deniers, but also pushing for this redistricting.

We just have to do what we've already approved, which is do it the fair, rational way.

Yeah.

It was the 2018 Constitution amendment by the people again, people in the insiders trying to blow it off.

It requires that communities be kept together in drawing congressional districts and the to the extent possible you try to draw competitive districts.

And it says in our Constitution, the practice of political gerrymandering must end.

Now, on the other side, you got this ridiculous front group level playing fiel and Attorney General Phil Weiser leading to terminat this part of the Constitution.

We have a system now where the people elect their representatives.

What he wants is instead, the representatives get to choose the people into gerrymander district that would not be competitive.

So it makes elections irrelevant.

Why have an election if everybody's been gerrymandered?

So they're all the incumbents are perpetually safe.

Forever.

And they claim this power grab is because of Trump.

But their proposal keeps the gerrymander even after Trump's term ends.

And once the gerrymanders in place, you know, the cabal is always going to find new pretexts to prevent competitive elections.

And, well, by its wordin that this proposal only applies to the 2028 and 2030 elections by its proposal.

Okay, regardless, it's a bad idea.

You know, this is Donald Trump's fault.

He started this war on fair and open elections by claiming he's never lost an election in his life.

And then when that lie didn't sit, then he started telling Texas redistrict so we can keep a majority so I can keep breaking the law.

And then he seemed stunned that everybody else was stepping up in other states, saying, well, we can do this too.

And Patty's right.

2 or 3 wrongs don't make a right.

Somebody does need to stand up and say, you know what, we're not goin any further with this nonsense.

We've got a system that works for Colorado, our state.

It's what voters approved.

We don't need to change it again.

In many ways I feel that making this change simply moves in the direction Donald Trump wants to move people, which is, however I feel is the flavor of de jure.

And if I change my mind tomorrow I'm going to do something else.

So you better hurry up and ratchet things up to try to counter me, because I've changed my mind again.

We we've got to stop bein whipsawed and played like that.

Do you guys think that somebod will stand up and say, not now.

There are four different versions of this ballot measure that will b discussed in a couple of weeks.

The first week of March in the legislature.

Do you thin any three of them are statutory, which would only require a 50% plus one approval?

Okay.

One is constitutional, which would require 55% at the end.

The sponsor to this will pick one of those four to take the petitioning.

I suspect i won't be the constitutional one.

It will be one of these other statutory ones.

But you know, right no the delegation split for four, for Democrats, for Republicans, the goal and the way the map is drawn is to try to take that, not the five three or something modest like that.

Seven 1 to 7 one, let Laure Boebert have her eastern plane seat by an overwhelming margi and take away everything else.

That is the goal.

And yes I think they are serious enough with enough political muscle behind it that they will put it on the ballot.

I think that's when the the road gets much tougher for them is when they have to actually get voter approval.

That was just one of the topics we talked about on our latest episode of Colorado Inside Out.

You can catch the entire show anytime on YouTube, the PBS passport app, or listening on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

And make sure to catch our next episode which is coming up this Friday starting at 8:00 on PBS 12, or any of those places that I just mentioned.

Have a good week.

If you're looking for a winter adventure that's unique, we have a magical story for you tonight.

The ice castles in Silverthorne transform millions of gallons of water into a glowing frozen wonderland every year.

But this isn't just about what you see.

It's also about how it makes you feel.

PBS Twelve's Erica McLarty went to find out what these castles are all about.

Have you ever seen the ice castles in Colorado?

Yeah you can see why we wanted to go.

I mean, where else can you truly feel like you are inside of a magical frozen castle?

We had a lot of stuff up there.

Oh, yeah, that's my son.

Well, let's back it up a little.

We decided to load up our kids and take a winter trip up to Silverthorne.

We heard if you go to the ice castles, you have to dres like you are going full on ski.

Because once you step inside, ice in every direction.

You.

Do the thing you.

Caves.

Archways.

Fountains.

Ice tunnels.

You can crawl through.

For familie that are looking for something to do besides sledding, besides skiing.

This is the perfect chance to explore and experience something totally different.

This winter.

You can visi the ice castles during the day, but when the sun goes down, the castle transforms, glowing from the inside out.

Oh, there is a lot of lighting underneath the ice.

If you look around, you'll see some of our bigger lights that are just in the towers and walls.

We have about 120 of those in the castle right now, and different degrees and levels.

And then our pixel wall, that's about 4000 to 5000 small, almost like Christmas lights in there.

That we set to a program.

And underneath it all, a hidden network making the magic possible.

We have over 35,000ft worth of water lines running underneath us.

And I'm running up into the walls.

But to build a nice castle will take a couple million gallons of water.

All freezes and then goes back into the natural resource that it came from.

We have 82 heads this season in this castle, so that's 82 places that spraying water every single night.

A couple million tons of ice that we're looking at here between what's underneath us and what's all around the walls.

But we're standing about two, three feet above the ground right now.

That's how much ice has been crushed u to make the floor pretty cool.

As water freezes, icicle begin to form and those icicles become the building blocks of the castle itself.

You will grow some icicles as well.

And every single day from that November period to until we open it in late December.

We're picking icicles off of these, racks in different places.

Harvesting them is what we like to say.

So once we have all of our icicles, we're going around to the entire castle, placing the strategically in different ways, and then spraying that every single night.

Night after night, layer by layer.

The walls grow in Silverthorne.

It took just about three weeks to bring this frozen city to life.

We have folks who have pretty much trained their entire life in sculpture and artwork that are on the team.

We have folk that are have done construction their entire lives and have just fell into a creative way of doing that.

I have an associate's degree in adventure sports.

All of the climbing that we do to get into the walls, all of the technical rope work, if we have to do any, that kind of falls under that category.

And then my bachelor's degrees in environmental science and chemistry, so my mom's very happ that I'm using that right now.

We like to get into the technical data of everything and how it all freezes together, how it all melts.

But even with years of experience, mother Nature doesn't always cooperate.

This being one of the warme and driest Colorado winters did make building it a lot tougher than it would in past years.

However, the company over the last couple seasons we have been working as hard as we can to make our model weather resistant as much as we can, really.

And all of that wor kind of culminated this season, and we were able to successfully pull it off, even with the warm weather and maintaining a castle made of ice, a full time job pretty much every single da you are climbing up into walls, placing icicles as best you can.

Then we'll also put out separate and kind of auxiliary, like sprayers every single night.

So almost like watering your wall, your ice wall, and then also chain sawing and working on sculptures.

It's a lot of hard work, but very rewarding when you see all the people that come and get to see it even days before opening.

Things don't always go according to plan.

Our form that we used for the bar this season, decided not to work about five days before we opened.

Luckily, we have some amazing builders that have been working with ice blocks for a very long time.

And they were able to just pretty much adapt and make an igloo just out of ice blocks.

That was probably the biggest.

Oh.

But we made it work anyway.

I would say this igloo is proof that sometimes when a plan falls apart, it leaves room for something better for visitors, including my family.

The result is pure wonder.

Whether you're 75 or 5.

What is your favorite part about this whole place?

I really like the lights and the slide and the fans.

Yes, I love it.

And how about you?

My favorite part was the Castle Quest scavenger hunt thing.

First you have to find dragon eggs.

Some got stolen and taken home.

Are you cold?

Yeah.

Yeah, but is it worth it?

But is it really this?

These ice castles are part engineering, part art, and entirely temporary.

A reminder that some of the most magical places are meant to be experience, not preserved.

It's bittersweet.

I'd say some people like to see that happen, and other people are a little sad to see that happen.

You put about 4000 hours of collective team into making it, so stay present in the moments with the people you love.

For PBS 12 in Silverthorne, I'm Erica McCleary.

Yay, PBS.

Wow!

Yay!

Although it does feel sad to know that all of that hard work will have to melt away.

The ice castles in Silverthorne are open until early March, depending on the weather.

They have another location in Cripple Creek that's totally different.

If that happens to be a closer drive for you, you may want to check that out.

To find out more, you can go to Ice castles.com and be sure to look at our YouTube channel for more family friendly adventures like this one.

That's our show for tonight.

We're proud to share the people, places, and issues that shape our community.

You can watch any of tonight's stories again, plus more original content from PBS 12 at PBS.org and on our YouTube channel.

Thanks for joining us.

I'm busy.

Canady.

Have a great week.

And.