Max Lord

Max Lord is making his first runs for Boulder City Council and for public office in 2025, but made it clear during this interview that he’s interacted with the public sector often during his career in the construction industry.

“The kind of fast and funny story is that my friends got sick of listening to me talk policy and they were like, you need a better outlet for this. But I do think that we need renters on the Council, about half of our city is renters. I do think we need builders on the council. Lauren (Folkerts) represents an element of design that is valuable, but when we talk about building code, I think that we don’t have enough input into that. I think we need younger people on council, too. I have a diverse job history. I’ve worked through a lot of institutions and with a lot of small businesses and homes in town, and I think that that varied perspective gives me a lot of good insight into how the city works and what the people want and need,” he said regarding his reasons for running.

Mini-Bio

Lord was born in Wyoming, New York, a small agricultural town not far from Attica, perhaps best remembered as the site of a brutal prison uprising in the 1970s. “The New Yorker once wrote an article about it, and said it was like a forsaken and impoverished town in upstate New York where prison is the only industry. That’s where I’m from,” said Lord.

He came to Boulder to study physics at the University of Colorado, and said he’s had a “pretty eclectic” work history since then. He worked in facilities for CU’s physics department, in restaurants on University Hill, for the Dark Horse, in construction for NCAR, and on telecommunications infrastructure projects “across the nation.”

Today, he’s a contractor who owns a business called Hammer and Driver, a four-year old company in which he says he does “mostly residential construction.” This interview took place at Trident Booksellers & Café in downtown Boulder, and he said he does projects there when needed, plus he mentioned he was “building a barn in the canyon.”

He hasn’t run for elected office before, but said he has worked on projects with nonprofits and other entities that must comply with city rules and regulations. “As a builder, I interact with the city a lot…dealing with zoning, permitting inspectors, and even with the university, the construction I did was tied to the city,” he said.

His campaign website is https://www.maxlordforboulder.org/

Concerns about Boulder’s economic future?

Lord said he is concerned about the local economy, partially because of recent federal actions, adding that the country might be “staring down the barrel of a recession. People are going to suffer. We’re going to have to kind of batten the hatches a little bit,” he said. But he said there were things the city should do to protect its economy, including working toward creating a more vibrant downtown, in part by “reducing red tape” so it’s not as difficult for local small businesses to open or stay open.

“Those guys are our lifeblood and that’s what’s going to bring tourism into the city. A lot of the research labs might not get their funding back and we need to look into other avenues, and tourism might be one of the big ones,” said Lord.

He believes the city might be looking at the Sundance Film Festival as kind of a “golden ticket out,” but is concerned about potential problems that Sundance short-term rentals might cause for locals who need long-term housing. In general, he supports protecting renters even if the state won’t implement rent control legislation, possibly through renters’ rights policies or actions. “Those are some of our most vulnerable citizens, and we just need to be protecting the people that are here,” he said.

Does Boulder spend taxpayers’ money wisely?

Lord said very quickly that he doesn’t think the city spends money wisely, and has a bit of a “shopping problem.” He supports moving toward performance-based budgeting, and operating with pragmatism instead of ideology. “People just need to start saying ‘no’ to things or at least being honest with ourselves that we can’t afford it. There are ways to make sure that our cyclists are safe, that we’re keeping an eye on our water supply, that we’re making long term plans for fire and flood resilience. We can do all of that while still protecting our citizens, but without necessarily hemorrhaging money on different projects,” he said.

Crime Concerns?

Lord noted that there are around 6,500 property crimes per year in Boulder, along with other concerns such as robbery or open drug use, but doesn’t think more policing is the solution. “I think that we already have a lot of enforcement around town, but it’s not making a difference,” he said. He supports the community looking toward “prevention as a cure” approaches, noting that most of the criminal activity occurring in the community is already illegal, but added that the city and county need policies and facilities to rehabilitate people who might not commit crimes if they can respond to treatment.

Homelessness Objectives

As one of the few candidates who didn’t speak highly about the Clutch Report, Lord said the city spent “a ton of money” on consulting to learn it should just give unhoused people with no real connection to Boulder “a bus ride out of here.” He added that a “housing first” approach hasn’t worked well either, since he said chronic homelessness has increased since Housing First was introduced. He believes the area needs better detox facilities to address meth or fentanyl substance abuse, and said people who aren’t addicts don’t necessarily want to go to local shelters where drug or alcohol abuse still take place. There are also people who might become unhoused simply for economic reasons, using the example of students who might benefit from hostels or boarding houses that they can’t access here.

“It’s a complicated issue because we have addicts, we have transients, we have people who have fallen on hard times. They are not all the same thing. All three groups exist within this city,” he said.

Core Arterial Network Projects

According to Lord, there seems to be some local commonality regarding CAN project proposals because “we all do want to have safe, reliable transportation, and to be able to get across town quickly.” But he noted that not everybody is going to agree on the specific projects themselves, and he doesn’t agree with parts of the Iris plan either, although he thinks there has been a large amount of input and research going toward the proposal and believes the city has done a good job in planning. However, he added that some of the discourse around CAN is “political theater” because while some advocates talk about how it will enhance bike safety, the projects simply aren’t funded yet. Lord believes it’s easy to see that “Iris isn’t going to be torn up anytime soon. We just need to call it how it is sometimes,” he said.

Council Meeting Open Comment Period

When asked about Open Comment, Lord said “It’s pretty hairy in there, it’s not going well,” and noted that he condemns any harassment of Council members in public. However, he added that he believes there needs to be mutual respect between elected officials and citizens who have concerns. “We have to allow our citizens to give feedback to our council people, and the harder we try to limit their voices, the harder they are going to kick back. If somebody wants to use their entire two minutes, protesting the war in Palestine, you need to give them that opportunity. That’s democracy.” he said.

Boulder and International Issues

Lord said he believes the “number-one priority” of Council needs to be local issues, but he could support speaking out on international issues if warranted. “It is not uncommon for a city to make a public statement about an international affair. We are citizens of the city, nation, and world. The first priority should be helping the people here, and if the people here feel passionate about something we need to listen,” he said.

New Administration in Washington and Boulder Impacts

He believes we might be facing “a grim couple of years” into the future, but Lord said we need to “hunker down” and be ready to take protective action. This might include protecting federal employees who have been laid off, and vulnerable citizens who might be targeted by ICE. He said it will be important to make sure local law enforcement is operating within city guidance; that there is outreach and communications so people know what is within the city’s power to protect them; and that the city needs to collaborate with the county and state when possible.

Performance of “Progressive Council”

While saying he believes he aligns with some of the progressive candidates, Lord gets concerned when “our progressive vision kind of clouds our ability just to make common sense decisions.” He said he’s “generally not impressed” with some of the city’s current actions and direction, such as spending “a ton of money” on the Clutch Report on homeless recommendations when he believes there are community experts who are already offering meaningful suggestions. Or, when it comes to local fire mitigation, he said, “When we’re so progressive that we’re talking about putting liens on people’s houses to force them to modify them, I worry that we’re actually making houses less affordable, less attainable, and we are just increasing bureaucracy.”

Climate Action

Basically, Lord supports climate actions including cutting the number of people who must in-commute into Boulder for work or school; improving transit in ways that will be convenient and practical for working people, and cutting red tape so it’s easier for people to install solar or heat pumps. He said rush-hour traffic jams on US 36 or the Diagonal represent a waste of fossil fuels and a “glaring example of our failure to live up to our promises.” He supports more housing in Boulder (see below), but also better transit to help commuters move between cities if they still can’t find housing in Boulder.

Need More Housing?

Lord responded to a question about Boulder needing more housing with a quick and resounding “Yeah!” Noting that there’s a lot of demand for housing in Boulder and Colorado, he said people who arrived here in the past shouldn’t think they can just put up a gate behind them to prevent growth. “I think that there are ways that we can build in such a way, that we respect our views, we respect our green spaces, but that we also allow for a growing population,” he said.

CCRS Ballot Measures (City of Boulder Issues 2A and 2B)

Lord supports both CCRS measures, but noted that the city still ought to manage spending even with CCRS revenue, since in his words it has “insanely bloated infrastructure projects, where we have just completely lost sight of what something should cost.”

County Mental/Behavioral Health Tax (County Issue 1B)

Lord supports County Ballot Issue 1B, but added that he doesn’t think three years is enough and that the tax won’t fund needed behavioral health infrastructure.

Endorsements

Lord received an endorsement from Boulder Area Labor Council, and approval from Planned Parenthood Votes.

Follow The Money

As of late October, Lord had received $1,792 in total campaign donations, including maximum $100 donations from current Council member Nicole Speer and former Council member Jill Grano.