TL;DR: Longmont’s government spends more time managing procedures than solving problems. I’ll focus on getting results by empowering city staff to act quickly on housing and transportation safety. We’ll measure success by reduction in staff time on compliance and the how quickly we’re able to implement projects.
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My campaign slogan—”More Walk. Less Talk”—captures both my vision for Longmont’s future and my approach to governing. Yes, I want walkable neighborhoods where families can safely stroll to local shops. But I also want a government that walks the walk instead of just talking through endless processes that delay real solutions.
When I tell people I’m running for mayor to make housing affordable for average Longmonters, the most common reaction is, “Can the city government really do anything about that?”
This reflects fundamental skepticism in government’s ability to solve problems. Looking at our track record, that skepticism is understandable. Recent polling shows 99% of Coloradoans believe housing costs are a problem, with 68% calling it the state’s biggest issue. Every year since 2015, Longmont employers have cited housing costs as the biggest impediment to business, and the worst part of doing business in Longmont.
Nick Bagley, formerly Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s political adviser, blames our “process fetish” for weakening government at all levels. It’s time for Longmont to kick the habit.
We’ve Confused Process with Progress
We’ve created layer upon layer of process in the name of “fairness” and “objectivity,” but the outcomes we’re getting are clearly unfair. We believe elaborate procedures increase trust in government, but most residents don’t know what the process is. They just know solutions come slowly, if at all. And time has costs, not least of which is money.
I’ve spoken with many current and former City of Longmont staff, including some of our most senior and respected, and the story is not good. We’ve become so obsessed with designing the perfect solution through process that we’ve lost focus on effectiveness. The City spends more time managing procedures than solving problems. We’ve created a system where it’s easier to maintain the status quo than to make improvements, and those who know how to make things better don’t feel empowered to act.
At the end of the day, Longmonters don’t care how many meetings we held or plans we created—they care whether their neighborhoods are affordable, beautiful and safe. It’s time for Longmont’s government to measure effectiveness the same way residents do.
Goal: Make Streets Safe Quickly
I’ll create safer streets faster, reducing injuries and deaths while building infrastructure that encourages walking, biking and transit use.
Method: Embrace Tactical Urbanism
Longmont will embrace tactical urbanism approaches, which fundamentally reject the process fetish. Instead of spending a year doing drawings and asking the public to support theoretical changes they may not understand, tactical urbanism allows us to implement low-cost, temporary safety improvements in weeks.
This flips our current model: instead of perfecting a plan before taking action, we’ll take action, learn from it, and improve. We’ll use paint, planters, bollards, and other impermanent materials to test traffic calming measures, protected bike lanes, and pedestrian safety improvements. By actually building solutions instead of just planning them, we’ll gather real-world data and community feedback to inform permanent changes.
Time has real costs. Every day we delay safety improvements means more crashes, more injuries, and potentially more lives lost. When an intersection like 17th and Main remains dangerous for years while we study it, that represents a failure of leadership.
Goal: Increase Housing Production at All Price Points
I’ll increase housing production by streamlining processes and removing unnecessary obstacles.
Method: Empower Professional Staff
The problem isn’t that we lack talented staff or good intentions—we’ve bogged them down in processes that prevent action. I’ll push for reforms that empower our planners to exercise professional judgment rather than requiring multiple layers of review for straightforward proposals.
We’ll make it possible to get permits for townhouses, duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes through administrative review only in reasonable cases:
- Conversions of existing single-family homes into duplexes
- New construction on empty lots in established neighborhoods
- Additions to existing structures that create new units
For ADUs, our goal is simple: applicants who submit complete and correct paperwork should get their permit within a day. We’ll create a library of pre-approved ADU designs that homeowners can choose from for expedited approval.
Results We’ll Measure and Deliver
The initiatives will be staff-led, with professionals empowered to use their expertise to get more done. City Council will be responsible for obtaining public support for this work and will be held accountable by voters for whether progress is made.
Transportation Safety Metrics
- Reduction in crashes, injuries, and fatalities at targeted intersections
- Increased walking and biking rates in areas with improvements
- Shorter timeframes from problem identification to implementation
- Number of temporary installations that prove successful and transition to permanent infrastructure
Housing Production Metrics
- Reduction in average permit processing times
- Increase in the number of housing units approved annually
- Reduction in the number of review cycles before approval
- Number and proportion of total housing production which are ADUs, townhomes, duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes
More Walk, Less Talk
Longmonters judge us by results, not process. They want housing they can afford and streets that are safe. It’s time we delivered.
The question isn’t whether government can solve problems—it’s whether we’re willing to measure our effectiveness the same way residents do. When we focus on outcomes over process, when we empower professionals to act decisively, when we prioritize getting things done over getting things perfect, we can restore faith in government’s ability to improve people’s lives.
More Walk. Less Talk. That’s how we’ll rebuild trust in our city government and create the affordable, walkable, safe community Longmont deserves.
2 comments
Deb Beveridge
October 18, 2025 at 4:51 pm
I am confused by your list of accomplishments. Aren’t all those items things that only city council has the authority to make happen?
Shakeel
October 18, 2025 at 5:16 pm
Yes, very nearly all of my accomplishments have had to interact with city council in some way. What most people don’t see in Longmont is the behind the scenes advocacy that makes almost all good policy in Longmont happen. By the time most things get to a vote at City Council, the decision has already been made through behind the scenes consensus building.
Here’s what I mean for each of my accomplishments:
Eliminated residential parking minimums: As one of the two co-founders of LAUNCH and one of the people making the public case for eliminating parking minimums, my job here was persuasion and creating the environment where the idea was acceptable. LAUNCH has been advocating for this policy in Longmont long before there was much action happening at the state level, initially at the 2023 City Council Retreat. When the City of Longmont was looking at updates to its inclusionary housing ordinance and what could be done to better incentivize developers to build Affordable units on site instead of paying the fee in lieu, one of the recommendations from Root Policy Research was to reduce the parking minimum for Affordable units. This recommendation went to the Transportation Advisory Board, where the LAUNCH co-founder Taylor Wicklund serves. Taylor built on the public case that LAUNCH had been making, and argued that if it’s good for the Affordable homes, it’s good for all residential affordability and made the recommendation to City Council to eliminate all the parking minimums in the code.
Accessory Dwelling Units: This is another place where LAUNCH was making the case long before any state laws were being considered. When the state was initially considering the ADU bill, the City of Longmont’s staff recommendation was going to be to have the city be against the bill. LAUNCH members showed up, and made the case to City Council that Longmont should endorse the bill instead because of the benefits to the city and to push other municipalities to add housing inventory. Then, once the state passed the law and it came back to Longmont, LAUNCH went back to City Council to ensure that the city did not take the narrowest possible interpretation of the law and instead got them to lean towards making it easy.
Amending the Longmont Charter: When the City Council put 3D on the ballot in 2020, the city followed it’s usual policy of telling City Council members who voted to put it on the ballot that they could not publicly advocate for it. So Tim Waters and Marcia Martin asked me to take the lead on advocating for it to the public. I raised the money for the issue committee, filmed the ads we ran online, came up with the marketing strategy, worked with the stakeholder arts organizations like the Longmont Symphony and the Chorale, and did the targeting for the postcard we mailed since we didn’t have enough money to send one to everyone in the city.
Advocated for residents’ rights on the Professional Standards Unit: There’s a lot I can’t say due to confidentiality. But this board reviews police conduct investigations to ensure that Longmont police are following proper procedure with respect to how they interact with the public and how they use force. I am a consistent advocate on that board in ensuring that Longmont police respect the rights of residents in how questions get asked, whether people feel detained vs arrested, and in examining the use of force to ensure it is reasonable and proportional.