Aquiles La Grave

Aquiles La Grave is running for Mayor of Boulder in 2026, aware that people are asking why he’s running for Mayor despite not having served on City Council. In an early September interview, he emphasized that he does have extensive other types of experience, both public and private, and has what he believes is a unique view on the possible role of the Mayor in driving how the city operates.

“I believe the message defines the office, not the other way around … I think we have a huge opportunity ahead of us, following the 2020 election that made the role of mayor directly elected, that the community hadn’t fully processed. And it rests on a question … what is the mayor and what do we expect from that role? I believe that we need to raise the bar in our expectations of on what basis we’re granting that popular mandate. I don’t think we have a shortage of great values in this town. I think we are fumbling delivery,” he said.

Mini-Bio

La Grave was born in Venezuela and grew up there. He said at one point, “safety and stability in Venezuela changed drastically,” and he and his family ended up in Boulder because “the family member of a family member” was completing a PhD program in Boulder. He said his family had very little in the way of money or possessions on arriving, but he said the Boulder community became part of what put him on a “journey of opportunities that could not have happened anyplace else,” which ultimately led to entrepreneurship and public service.

He served on his first advisory boards when he was “16 or 17,” both transportation-related with the City of Boulder and RTD. La Grave served on Louisville’s Historic Preservation Commission, on the Red Cross Disaster Action Team, and on the Boulder Valley School District Bond Oversight Committee. Recently, he took a leadership role in attempting to save the Iris Ball Fields in north Boulder from development, which proved successful as a team of partners put in a winning bid to buy the fields. He has also served on the board of the local citizen group Open Boulder.

Today, he’s running for Mayor and working as a supporter and financial backer of the “Big Tent” effort to increase the size of the Boulder County Board of Commissioners from 3 members to 5.

On The Issues

Q – How to Handle Disruptive Meetings as Mayor?

There was a period of time in mid-2025 where City Council meetings were frequently disrupted and often had to be called into recess over protests about the situation in Gaza. La Grave said there could have been opportunities to handle the protests differently. “I would have been looking at addressing it more strongly, earlier. And I would have addressed it by prioritizing the local matters first. If respecting somebody’s right to free speech requires me staying late into the night, listening to them, I would probably have done it that way,” said La Grave. He said he has protested issues in his own personal life, and is a supporter of the First Amendment, but added that “I’m also a huge believer that the local government needs to get the job done.”

Q – Boulder’s Economic Situation?

Having lived in Boulder for roughly 30 years, La Grave noted that he is the last of his group of friends from Boulder High who can still afford to live in Boulder. He believes the city is “trading populations,” in that he once lived near workers of modest means, but now more very wealthy people are moving here. To him, there are several big reasons why people can’t afford to live here – heavy real estate prices, and the overall cost of living which includes taxes and fees. With the city considering a property tax increase for a $400 million bond measure on the 2026 ballot, he noted that commercial property owners pay a four-times-higher tax rate than residential owners, which means businesses will either have to eat the tax or make up for it through higher prices or cutting expenses, including employees. “So, I think working people and young families are voting with their feet,” he said. He believes it’s time for the city to take a hard look at its spending, staffing, and needs, and to find ways of “unblocking the economic potential of this town.”

Q – Public Safety in Boulder?

La Grave said he believes there is an “enormous crisis” around public safety in Boulder. While he knows people are saying crime rates are going down, he believes statistics might be skewed because officers aren’t writing the same types of tickets they once did because they tend to get dismissed. He noted that the city has lost about 16 officer positions lately, and believes the city needs to fully fund its “Reimagining Policing” goal of getting to a full force of 206 officers. He also said the city spent “good money” on its Clutch Consulting report to address the city’s homelessness issues. La Grave said he would not vote for or approve a city budget until the City Manager addresses some of these topics. “Certainly, I think our police officers would rather have more manpower than a new building,” he said, referring to the new public safety building listed as one of the possible projects in the city’s 2026 bond measure.

Q – Ready for Sundance?

If Sundance was to begin today, La Grave said “we’re probably not ready,” but he believes people are working hard to get ready. He said one of his top focuses moving forward is to make sure Boulder residents and businesses can “capture the value” of economic activity that will be coming to the area. There will be competition for Sundance-related dollars from other nearby communities, including Denver which La Grave said is booking rentals and providing shuttles to and from the festival. “I’m sure we’ll wake up and downtown will be magically clean, and magically safe, and huge effort will be put in to put our best foot forward for visitors during those 10 days. The question becomes… How do we keep that momentum going for residents the rest of the year?,” added La Grave.

Q – Downtown Development Authority?

City Council decided against putting the DDA proposal before DDA voters in 2026, as it went down on a 4-4 tie vote. La Grave said he would have voted to move forward with a DDA election if he was on Council, saying that Council directed staff and local businesses to prepare a DDA report, encouraged the team to continue, but cast a final vote against moving forward. “There’s certainly room to disagree with whether the DDA was or was not the right vehicle, but that should have been, at that point, a decision for the voters, not a decision for Council to scuttle,” he said.

Q – Climate Action?

According to La Grave, Boulder “punches above its weight” on climate action policy, and has been influential nationally and internationally. But despite Boulder’s actions, climate change remains a big problem for the city, particularly with serious wildfire danger that can strike the city any time of the year. He said he has co-authored a local plan on fire adaptation, and supports “home hardening” and fuel reduction in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) to help reduce Boulder’s extremely high risk of catastrophic wildfire if conditions are right.

Q – Automated Cameras and Personal Liberties?

La Grave said the threat to personal liberties of  “networked AI-assisted mass surveillance” systems, like the Flock cameras that have been prominent in recent local debates, are incompatible with Boulder’s sanctuary city status and its values. “We don’t have to trade privacy for safety, or make our most vulnerable less safe,” said La Grave.

Q – Fees and Property Taxes vs. Sales Tax Reliance?

According to La Grave, it’s not open to debate that the city is considering moving away from reliance on sales tax toward greater use of property tax. The city’s 2026 bond measure includes a sizable property tax increase to pay down debt, and La Grave emphasized that property taxation is an “indiscriminate” tax that impacts homeowners, small businesses and renters, making it tougher to be successful “as a community.”

Q – Deferred Maintenance and Rec Centers?

La Grave does not believe the language in the city’s 2026 bond measure actually guarantees replacement of several recreation centers that are mentioned in the ballot measure, since the phrase “such as” precedes the list of projects in the ballot language. While pointing out that the $400 million bond could grow to up to a $650 million cost with interest, he said he would consider running a smaller bond measure if the 2026 measure fails, just to take care of the South Boulder Rec Center with a lap pool “even if I have to go out and gather 4,000 signatures myself.” He said the current $400 million bond measure is akin to holding the South Boulder community hostage for what he called “city incompetence.”

2026 Ballot Measures

  • City of Boulder Bond Measure: La Grave opposes it, saying he feels it’s a “blank check” in part because the language does not guarantee any single project, and that he already doesn’t have trust that the city will keep its word on projects. This interview took place near the ongoing Alpine-Balsam project, and he spoke about a “beautiful roof deck” that was supposed to be open to the public but is no longer in the plans.
  • City of Boulder Residential Vacancy Tax: He supports it.
  • City of Boulder Firefighter Collective Bargaining: He supports it.
  • Boulder County Childcare Tax: La Grave supports this measure, in part because families might decide whether to live in Boulder County of not based on more than real estate – “they’re looking at the community as a product.” He said the childcare proposal will help provide early childhood education, jobs for educators, and perhaps opportunities to use facilities that are scheduled to close as BVSD schools, like Flatiron Elementary, but could still remain valuable as “critical social infrastructure” for neighborhoods around the school.
  • City of Boulder Debt Limit Increase: La Grave opposes this measure, in part because he says it’s written in a way that makes it difficult to understand what a very large debt limit increase is really for. “Either they need it for this (2026) bond, or they need it for something else they’re not telling us about. That doesn’t just randomly appear. And no one is telling us,” he said.
  • Boulder County Increase 3 Commissioners to 5: As noted earlier, La Grave is on the committee supporting this measure and a financial backer, so he’s a “yes.” Part of his impetus for supporting this measure was his experience dealing with the county and the commissioners during the Iris Field discussions (note: the county owned the land even if the fields are within city limits). He said expanding the commission will increase representation and “decrease the financial leverage” that 3 commissioners have over the county’s $750 million budget.

Endorsements: La Grave has received a first-choice endorsement from PLAN-Boulder County (this is a ranked-choice election).

Follow the Money: La Grave has received maximum $100 donations from current Council member Rob Kaplan, and former Council members Crystal Gray, Susan Osborne, Cindy Carlisle, Jan Burton, Lisa Morzel, Steve Pomerance, and Jill Grano.