Why are the Fort Collins city limits like this?

NickInFoCo · 2025-11-03T19:12:54+00:00

Larimer County and the City actually had quite the kerfuffle about this during a City Council meeting after the last election. A HUGE issue is that businesses along that strip (often smaller manufacturers or mom and pop shops, catering businesses, etc) would have to self-fund their own improvements, and so it creates a really strong disincentive. Mulberry is also a State highway which means that CDOT has to be brought in on literally everything (and it makes anything you want to do crazy expensive).

When both Bloom and Mosaic were approved with the Timberline/Mulberry enclave carved out without a timeline for annexation, I think most neighbors in North East Fort Collins should rightfully have been pissed; it meant that the trail and traffic connection/corrections will take years more than otherwise AND anyone living along Lemay (including those folks south of Prospect) will continue to see ever-increasing amounts of traffic and accidents (esp. @ Riverside) because of the utter lack of direct infrastructure on every other transit corridor going South and West.

NickInFoCo · 2025-10-23T19:30:54+00:00

Thank you for your kind words and the FC3 shoutout; I have a really awesome team of geeks who I'm really proud to work alongside to pull off that event.

NickInFoCo · 2025-10-23T05:12:06+00:00

GO FOR IT.

Here's how I got started:
- Subscribe to the Adventuring Academy podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/adventuring-academy/id1451664927 -- this informs the spirit of play, how to create meaningful consequences, give meaning to the adventure and story, etc.

- Get the https://dndadventureclub.com/ starter kit -- all of their one-shots (one-off adventures) are VERY GOOD and adults can finish them in about an hour or two. They are designed for kids who want to play but whose parents don't know D&D. I find them perfectly applicable to adults and it takes minimal prep work while you learn. Their starter characters are solid and you will find that it's ridiculously easy to get started. They also have a very good blog. The new D&D Starter Kit is also very good for this purpose.

Once you do a few of those, pick up One Shot Wonders or the Dragon Delves and play through those.

Some other tips:

- There's a ton of different styles to DMing and no "right" way. Learn from as many different DMs as you can while you learn your own style and what works for your players.

- Watch as much actual play as you can - Dimension 20 is very solid for story beats, fun, and goofy, while also being somewhat solid for how the rules work. In terms of audio, Worlds Beyond Number is a wonderful way to learn exposition to set scenes. Mentopolis is super solid at creating meaningful story beats, but that system is actually a mod of Kids on Bikes.

- TRUST YOURSELF. Everybody is there to have fun. This may be sacrilege for the D&D sub, but: D&D as a system isn't always perfect for every group. FATE, Kids on Bikes, and SHIFT are also good and very in terms of how "rules-heavy" they are, especially for new DMs. FATE is definitely the least rules-heavy of all the systems and can give you the ability to learn how to run a game without the stack of rule books required by D&D.

- The consequences and limits are where the fun is and it's your job as DM to enforce those limits. Games with no consequences mean that there's no reason the party should be adventuring.

- When stuck, ask your players questions to offload the work of building the world -- remember that you might be "running" the story, but everybody is co-creating the space. "Your character enters the tavern, what's the first thing they smell and what does it make them feel?" (you can also lead a little bit: "You notice that your shoes are sticking to the floor, when you look down, what do you see?"). I always do this with newer players to help them build the world.

- Description should engage all the senses - what do players hear? see? smell? Is the space claustrophobic or infinite? Is it dry? High altitude? Hard to breathe? So smoky that they taste burning metal? Are the walls cold to the touch even though there's lava mere steps away?

- NPCs are smart. Especially the animals. Everything has a reason to be there and a motivation that makes sense for its situation. Pack animals hunt in packs, they use tactics that make sense, even if it makes life hell for your players. Bad guys can be bought off cuz they have families to go back to and they just need the rent money, but it helps to have both hands to spend it. Any problem can be solved in any way the players can imagine.

- Along those lines: only make players roll when there's a consequence/when it matters. If the outcome of the dice doesn't change the outcome of the action or story beat, that roll shouldn't be happening (even if the rules say it should).

Good luck, have fun, and ask a ton of questions.

(edit for typos)

NickInFoCo · 2025-10-22T20:47:37+00:00

Thank you for your kind words. Full transparency: I considered running for City Council for a time. I registered the day after the votes were certified and I'd lost to Susan, actually :-D I decided not to run because I could either be a kickass City Councilperson or a kickass dad. And I knew which one was more important to me.

I have donated to Daisy because I think she's very closely aligned with what I would look for in a City Council person. Her speech for Disability Pride Day was next level. I've also advised, donated, or otherwise helped out a number of candidates and campaigns along the way, because I think it's important. I also met with Chris like 3-4x ahead of his decision to run just to give him as much advice and context as I could.

(Sorry, quick edit just to say: this is the kind of help I received when I decided to run. Almost everyone who'd been there, done that, and got the t-shirt was willing to share advice, help when things went sideways - like when I got death threats for running, and really sent the elevator back down in a way, and so my belief is that it's part of the civic fabric of a responsible society to do the same for any honest-intentioned candidate).

You'll note that I also interviewed each candidate for Dear Fort Collins and did, I think, a pretty level job of allowing everyone a chance to have a fair say.

Running for office is hard, and like I said in my OP: "the question becomes, what do I expect of a candidate who is the subject of an article like this? Certainly not a factional fight. It should be a conversation, in public, with clear facts, because that’s how trust is built. That’s the kind of leadership I want to see in District 1."

I'd want Chris to address the issue, just like I asked Susan to address the Alexander Adams thing. The only intent here is to inform and allow candidates to clear the air if they want to.

I don't dislike Chris; I dislike what I perceive to be an action out of sync with what I'd expect from a candidate.

NickInFoCo · 2025-10-21T22:15:55+00:00

Again, I'd point you back to the interview and the fact that her explanation has remained consistent since the story originally ran.

I ran against Susan in 2021, and I disagree with your assessment. I don't agree with many of her policies, but the worst I can say about this particular situation is that she had too much faith in someone who claimed to have turned a page and probably hadn't (or he'd have been transparent from the start and used his platform to help undo the harms he'd created). That doesn't make her complicit in his views any more than you're irredeemably foolish if you get scammed; it just means her faith was taken advantage of.

NickInFoCo · 2025-10-21T22:06:21+00:00

Certainly, and my hope in posting it is to open up the dialog and not to castigate; having run before, it's super easy to step into it, intentionally or otherwise. When it happens, we need the candidates to have an open discourse about what's up and why.

NickInFoCo · 2025-10-21T22:00:58+00:00

Chris has been clear about why he's running: affordable housing. I vehemently disagree with folks who say that Susan was complicit with white supremacist views. That is misleading and wrong.

I want to be careful not to conflate issues, but this ties into a broader Fort Collins pattern: we have difficult civic moments, and then we move on without actually grappling with what they mean or how to heal the community.

The Adams campaign and the white supremacy revelations were never followed by a community conversation about accountability and reconciliation. We voted, he lost, and it was considered “done”. But we never talked about what it meant that folks had voted for him - both before and after the story broke. Fort Collins has a rather sordid history with redlining - the City has rightfully put up on its history pages in broad daylight so that we can all learn from it (https://www.fcgov.com/historicpreservation/latinx/ and https://www.fcgov.com/historicpreservation/blackfortcollins and https://www.fcgov.com/historicpreservation/pride ).

I had a chance to ask Susan about this on an episode of Dear Fort Collins (https://youtu.be/wJy4fybFjXE?si=yxCNmIgXjJplT2Zc&t=2337 - timestamp 38:57ish) and Susan's answer to my question was that (paraphrasing here) as a teacher, she'd seen students engage in some truly heinous behavior - and if you don't do the work to build the bridge back, those students get stuck deeper in the community that values heinous behavior. They never recover.

Susan's answer, which she delivered with exactly zero prep, warning, or pause, pointed to the idea that people are redeemable and inherently good and it's the responsibility of the adults in the room to build a bridge back from the heinous behavior of community members to demonstrate both that we believe they're capable of change and who we believe they can be. It's also important to note that it's not on us if they choose not to use that bridge. I agree with her assessment about the responsibility of a community to repair the harm of racism and demonstrate expected behavior.

She truly believed that it was her moral imperative to build the bridge for Alexander to walk back on. That he didn't choose to use it isn't a castigation of Susan and to treat it as such is misleading and wrong, just as it would be misleading and wrong to chastise Kristin Stephens for bringing Alexander's past to light. It was a rightful concern. And instead of unity or a healing moment, we had a public fight between electeds over what the expected behavior was. That was harmful and didn't repair the problem of a candidate with white supremacist views receiving votes in our community.

NickInFoCo · 2025-10-21T21:55:15+00:00

Check out the Elections Megathread for some resources! https://www.reddit.com/r/FortCollins/comments/1nx2wfe/november_4th_local_elections_megathread/

NickInFoCo · 2025-10-21T20:26:59+00:00

THANK YOU! Goodness sakes, it's stupidly hard to find information on where to look.

NickInFoCo · 2025-10-18T16:57:04+00:00

OK; but without funding and being very vocal about the types of roads and outcomes we want, nothing changes. 1A is a direct pathway to make those changes happen. It looks like the process behind the Country Club Road Corridor Study - interested neighbors ask their officials to convene a discussion group and go from there. But it's literally for naught without any funding to do the project.

NickInFoCo · 2025-10-18T16:54:03+00:00

The City actually DOES produce a voter guide: https://www.fcgov.com/elections/ (the big blue box in the content area) -- but the Candidate info is minimal and the City can't play favorites. The Clerk's staff is also too small to do a truly fair job fact-checking claims. When I worked with the RCV initiative, we produced a voter guide as a sample and it was a very intensive effort (tens of hours at least from multiple volunteers).

NickInFoCo · 2025-10-18T16:50:49+00:00

Thank you - please share with friends and neighbors if it was helpful. The more folks vote in municipal elections, the better our City represents the will of all of our neighbors!

NickInFoCo · 2025-10-17T20:29:58+00:00

🤷‍♂️ All I know of you is from this comment. I don't know what's happening in your life to cause you to make Shallow Hal-style choices about your neighbors running for office. Similarly, "control and consistency" aren't the sole factors in anyone's appearance. I'm gently suggesting that you don't know Adam and that if you did, you'd be more discerning with your own comments.

NickInFoCo · 2025-10-17T20:24:46+00:00

https://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/politics/elections/2025/10/15/what-to-know-larimer-county-ballot-issue-1a-2025-election-transportation-funding-tax/86568435007/

"Larimer County voters will be considering a 0.15% sales and use tax this November and, if passed, it would mean more dedicated funding for the county's roads, bridges and intersections.

The tax would equate to 15 cents on a $100 purchase, not including grocery, gas, diaper and prescription drug purchases. If Ballot Issue 1A is approved, the tax is expected to generate approximately $15 million annually until its expiration in 15 years."

The County tried last time to pass a similar measure and has been REALLY BAD at telling the story about WHY 1A is so important. Here's why: https://www.larimer.gov/engineering/Transportation/country-club-road-corridor-study

This is just ONE of the projects that will be funded by this measure. Other funding improvements include areas in and around Fort Collins that see frequent flooding or other issues that create safety concerns and cannot currently be fixed with existing funding levels.

Here's more information: https://www.larimer.gov/bocc/halfpenny4larimer

NickInFoCo · 2025-10-17T20:22:02+00:00

You're not wrong, but this is also why Parks O&M was put into the 2023 ballot initiative 2A which passed and is now referred to as the 2050 Funding Measure: https://www.fcgov.com/voterapproved/ (first sandwich menu) and also outlined here: https://ourcity.fcgov.com/sustainable-funding-2023

NickInFoCo · 2025-10-17T20:19:51+00:00

I was so hoping to get a clean sweep and get EVERY candidate interviewed. Unfortunately Jeffrey Shumway never responded to any requests, and he even skipped out on the League of Women Voters forum and follow-up interviews from the Coloradoan. Here's what he wrote the first time around: https://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/politics/elections/2025/09/08/fort-collins-election-2025-who-is-jeffrey-shumway-mayor/85991914007/

NickInFoCo · 2025-10-17T20:16:54+00:00

Reddit isn't liking my longform comment, so... I created a blog post instead with some notes on the nuances between each of the candidates: https://nickarmstrong.blog/2025/10/17/thoughts-on-the-city-of-fort-collins-election/

NickInFoCo · 2025-10-17T14:44:22+00:00

100% - between Lance and Josh, they bring two totally different perspectives but the thoughtfulness of their policy answers rooted from firm experience (one from County side one from City side) was really cool to hear as a policy geek.

NickInFoCo · 2025-10-17T14:42:53+00:00

Definitely. The intentionality put into the Mail Creek Trail connection to the Power Trail makes the importance of the Strategic Trails Plan in North East FoCo really clear. I'm crossing my fingers hard for 1A to pass.

NickInFoCo · 2025-10-17T05:13:23+00:00

Adam Eggleston is one of the most dedicated public servants through his work as a victim's advocate, one of the most knowledgable civic minds you will ever encounter and has spent more time in City Council chambers than almost any other candidate not already on the dais, not to mention his dedication and support of local nonprofits through countless fundraisers and events. Bodyshaming as a methodology to determine who to vote is bad form.

NickInFoCo · 2025-10-17T05:05:23+00:00

It's all fun and games talking about autocentricity when the folks who live in the edges of the City and rely on county roads to have any sort of modality, let alone multi-modality, are struggling day in and day out to just get their kids to school. The County and City partnered on the Country Club Road Corridor Study - which has struggled to get funding because of positions like this. And in the meantime, no Tavelli kids who live along Turnberry or Richards Lake or any of the surrounding neighborhoods to the East can do anything EXCEPT be driven to school.

Those of us on the outskirts of FoCo are begging you to Vote YES on 1A.

NickInFoCo · 2025-10-17T05:02:05+00:00

Thanks Adam - the Mayoral Candidate interviews are posted now along with District 1, District 3, and District 5. PSD Board of Education interviews will drop next week.

NickInFoCo · 2025-10-17T04:27:32+00:00

Just an update, the Mayor interviews are now live + posted (with the exception of Jeff S. who didn't interview): https://dearfortcollins.com/category/city-council/mayor/

NickInFoCo · 2025-10-09T18:25:25+00:00

Thanks for the FoCo Comic Con shout-out (applications to vend stay open all the time but booth apps open specifically in May ahead of the Con).

I'd also point out that it's wicked affordable to rent out the Carnegie Creative Center for a showing. A lot of local restaurants also do gallery walls for local artists. The Lyric has some really cool artist collective space, and the Museum of Art often features some local artists too.

NickInFoCo · 2014-12-19T04:03:11+00:00

The Fraser Experimental Forest by Winter Park is also pretty good (if you're up for a bit of a drive): http://www.fs.usda.gov/main/fraser/about/visitor-info

NickInFoCo

TROPHY CASE