Mark Wallach

 

Mark Wallach is running for his third term on Boulder City Council. He said he is running again partially to make sure there’s experience and continuity on a Council that will almost certainly face serious near-term challenges.

“I spent a year and a half saying I would never do it again. And over time, I became very concerned about the financial position of the city, and that was one of the things driving me to change my mind. And the other was I was really, I’m still quite frightened about the potential impacts from a capricious administration in Washington. I don’t know what they’re going to do, and I wanted to be around if we had to assess those things and act upon them,” said Wallach.

Mini-Bio

Wallach was born in the Bronx and raised on Long Island. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a law degree from Columbia University. He then worked as a real estate attorney in New York City, and later moved into real estate development, often working in landmark districts.

As a climber, Wallach visited Boulder frequently over the course of roughly 40 years, and he purchased a Boulder home in 2011. Before being elected to Council, Wallach served on the city’s Advisory Committee to the City Council on Development-Related Impact Fees. He earned a two-year term on Council in 2019 by finishing sixth in a race for six open seats, receiving 14,173 votes.

During his first term, he served on Council’s Financial Strategies Subcommittee and worked on the 2021 Community Resilience, Safety and Culture tax extension ballot measure. In 2021, he earned a four-year Council term by finishing first in a race for five seats with 17,683 votes. He has been on the board of Boulder Housing Partners for the past four years, and currently serves on the city’s Long Term Financial Strategies Committee.

His campaign website is https://www.wallachforcouncil.com/

Concerns about Boulder’s economic future?

Wallach has concerns about Boulder’s economic future, in part because of actual and potential federal budget cuts that could impact Boulder labs, institutions, or businesses. He noted that Boulder has been developing knowledge-based business concentrations in sectors like biomedicine and quantum computing, with what he calls “great jobs,” but he has general concerns because “anybody who’s relying upon federal grants and contracts is in a very precarious position,” and said Boulder doesn’t have the capacity to backfill that money.

On the positive side, he expects good economic activity to come to Boulder after landing the Sundance Film Festival, although it won’t hold its first festival here until 2027. Wallach expects Sundance to help put Boulder “on the map as a cultural center,” not to mention that the city should collect tax revenue while locals might be able to make real money on short-term rentals.

“And that is a fantastic benefit, especially in the environment where we have seen sales tax revenues flattening out,” said Wallach.

Does Boulder spend taxpayers’ money wisely?

While not questioning the accuracy of a recent poll that had about half of respondents saying the city’s not spending wisely, Wallach said the results weren’t awfully surprising given modern cynicism about governments. But he added, “we could always do better,” and said the city is moving toward “results-based budgeting,” where departments will get funding based on performance metrics rather than something relative to what they received last year.

Before this interview, the City Manager’s 2026 budget draft had just been released, and Wallach said he agreed with the City Manager’s stance of looking to programs for cost savings rather than laying off employees, because “when you cut personnel, it is hard to get them back.” Also, he believes staff provides value and service to the community. Wallach noted that Boulder is an information-hungry community, so despite local criticism of the size of Boulder’s communications staff it makes sense to have people able to produce content and answer questions about what’s going on in their city.

Crime Concerns?

Wallach said he believes part of Council’s responsibility regarding crime is to make sure the Boulder Police Department is adequately funded and can hire enough officers to keep the city safe. Some of his key safety issues include managing the Creek Path, Central Park and Downtown Boulder, and he added that officers might need to contact people downtown who are abusing substances or suffering with mental illness.

Wallach noted that while crime “rates” appear to be trending downward, individuals who are threatened or victimized by crime in Boulder might become a “lost advocate” for spending time or money in Boulder. He didn’t directly compare Boulder to New York City in the 1970s, but he did experience what NYC was like back then and used it to illustrate the direction he doesn’t want Boulder to take.

“Public safety is an enormous priority for me. There are a few foundational requirements for any government. Public safety is one of them, because if you don’t have that, you will not have a successful community. People must feel safe in their homes and safe on the streets,” said Wallach.

Homelessness Objectives

The city had recently received the Clutch Consulting report on homelessness strategies, and Wallach was somewhat critical of the report in part because he felt it was “aspirational” and suggested spending significant money (perhaps $13 million per year) the city doesn’t currently have. He spoke positively about the idea of “diversion” as a possible process of moving unhoused people with no real connection to Boulder elsewhere, and about beginning to move services from the Central Park area to the “All Roads” shelter in north Boulder (formerly Boulder Shelter for the Homeless). Other challenges that Wallach didn’t think the city or county had resources to fund included beds or facilities for those suffering from behavioral health issues, and creating sufficient housing. There have been discussions of eliminating unsheltered homelessness in Boulder by 2028, but Wallach told this writer “I will bet all the money in my wallet against all the money in yours that that is not possible.” No actual gambling took place during this interview.

Core Arterial Network Projects

Wallach called some of the top CAN projects under discussion right now “entirely aspirational” because there isn’t identified funding yet. Specifically, he is concerned that reducing auto lanes on Iris could create serious logjams at times, such as along Broadway for those waiting to make a left turn onto Iris. He said he’s by no means anti-bike, but the numbers he’s seen say auto traffic on Iris vastly outnumbers bike traffic, and therefore he does not believe a big project on Iris would be a good use of money. “People travel in cars. They just do. And they really do when it’s cold and nasty. Policies that don’t reflect the way people actually behave because you have a theory behind it is not good governance to me,” he said.

Council Meeting Open Comment Period

The city has updated its Open Comment period policies for City Council meeting, and Wallach said the policies are now “OK,” but they hadn’t yet effectively addressed disruptive conduct. He said that under the First Amendment, people should have the right to talk about what they want to, including Gaza, but serious disruptions shouldn’t be tolerated “because we can’t carry on our business” while it’s happening.

Boulder and International Issues

Wallach plainly stated that the role of Council in international affairs should be “zero,” and it should instead focus on things like infrastructure, budgets, rec centers, and other strictly city issues. While the most recent calls for city action on international affairs have been about Gaza, Wallach noted that they’re not getting the same requests around mass violence and/or starvation and fatalities in Sudan, Ukraine, Syria, or against the Uyghurs in China. “So it is hard to escape the conclusion that the one aspect of this issue that is most salient is that it’s Jews. One can disagree with that, but that’s how I believe,” said Wallach. He also pointed out that Council has already voted with a majority against taking action on international affairs at this time, and against discussing divestment against companies that might have an active connection to the Gaza conflict.

New Administration in Washington and Boulder Impacts

During a discussion about Boulder’s economic future, Wallach said, “It’s of great concern to me that we have an anti-science administration, and their thinking is totally inexplicable to me. Frankly, I don’t get it. It has nothing to do with being conservative or liberal. This is just anti-science. It’s like we want to go back to the Dark Ages.”

Performance of “Progressive Council”

Wallach led off by saying, “I have a lot of complaints with the direction we’ve taken.” He said he has collaborated positively with Council members who were endorsed by Boulder Progressives, and plans to continue if re-elected, but added, “A lot of what they do doesn’t comport with human behavior as I know it.” For examples, he said the city is not adding the types of housing units most needed (more on that in the next section); is pursuing more housing density to support a transit system when the city is already dense and people will still drive; is pursuing parking policies that will burden lower-income workers and not the wealthy; and is working on multimodal transportation projects like Iris that he believes will exacerbate auto traffic congestion without major increases in cycling use.

Need More Housing?

According to Wallach, just focusing on housing quantity will not get the city what it needs, and he called out middle-income housing as one of those needs. He said affordable middle-income housing has to be deed restricted, “otherwise people are just going to buy them and flip them,” but noted that Boulder has only added 45 such units over the past 10 years, while the vast majority of new housing has been “expensive stacked flats.” He said the stacked flats might be acceptable for young people with no kids, but once they start having kids many will be more interested in moving to the nearby “L-towns” (Longmont, Louisville, Lafayette, Lyons) where they could find a home more suitable for raising a family and probably more affordable than homes in Boulder. “We are not building family housing, period,” he said. Wallach also noted that he has concerns about the impact significant growth could have on water supplies, in a time where supplies for the Front Range from the Colorado River might get restricted while rising temperatures might impact snowpack and snowmelt.

Climate Action

One of Wallach’s top priorities relating to climate is wildfire mitigation within the city, especially after the Marshall Fire showed how catastrophic fires in urban areas could be. His strategies could include removing juniper trees, known to be highly flammable, and creating defensible spaces around homes. At the time of this interview, he had recently attended a study session about electrification of homes that might otherwise use natural gas, but was astounded when told that “to do this correctly will cost $4.5 billion.” Wallach said the city could still impact climate by focusing on “low-hanging fruit” that won’t cost as much money, adding that people who aren’t wealthy might find a $15-25,000 electrification retrofit out of their price range. He mentioned the city’s use of “cross-laminated timber” in its Alpine-Balsam facility construction as a substance that has a lower carbon footprint than concrete or steel.

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

Wallach is “very much in favor” of the CCRS ballot measures.

County Mental/Behavioral Health Tax (Issue 1B)

During this late August interview, Wallach said he was a “maybe” on this tax, partially because he isn’t convinced there’s a good plan for how the revenue would be used, but might “hold my nose” and vote for it. He said “the only saving grace” was that the county scaled the timeline back from its original 15 years to three years.

Endorsements

Wallach has earned endorsements from Better Boulder, Open Boulder, PLAN-Boulder County, Boulder Action, Boulder Elevated, Safer Boulder, Stop Antisemitism Colorado, Moms Demand Action, Daily Camera, Engage Boulder, and approval from Planned Parenthood Votes.

Follow The Money

Wallach has received the maximum of $11,994 in total campaign contributions, including $100 donations from current Council members Matt Benjamin and Tara Winer; former Council members Bob Yates, Susan Osborne, Gordon Riggle, KC Becker, Sam Weaver, Allyn Feinberg, Steve Pomerance, and George Karakehian; Former District Attorney Stan Garnett, and state Senator Judy Amabile.