Kayvan Khalatbari returns and shares with us the issues which are driving him to run for Mayor of Denver. While the vote isn’t until 2019, Kayvan shares his thoughts on everything from ditching the ditch to social what do do about cannabis in the metropolis. Kayvan says he’s seen the city change and opportunity dwindle. He’s seeing long-time residents move away. He’d like to see a city that’s sustainable and forward thinking. He’s looking to create equitable opportunity with a synthesis of art, community, entrepreneurship and government with communication and transparency between them. And so he’s proposing Denver as Hemp Capital of the world which will draw business and provide jobs while not looking to spend anymore than is already in the budget.

Transcript:

Speaker 2: Kayvan Khalatbari returns. Kayvan Khalatbari returns the chairs with us, the issues that are driving him to run for mayor of Denver. While the vote isn't until 20, 19 Kayvan share his thoughts on everything from ditching the ditch to what to do about cannabis in the metropolis. Kayvan says he's seen the city change and opportunity dwindle. He seen longtime residents move away, like to see a city that's sustainable and forward thinking. He's looking to create equitable opportunity with the synthesis of art community, entrepreneurship in government with communication and transparency between them and so he's proposing Denver as hemp capital of the world which will draw business and provide jobs while not looking to spend any more than is already in the budget. Welcome to cannabis economy. I'm your host, Seth Adler. Check us out on social, but they handle Kennecott dummy. That's two ends of the word economy. Kayvan Khalatbari. Still I'm taking lessons. I just had it in this way. Morning on trying to to be

Speaker 1: less boring when I talk. Well, can I, I want to jump in here please. So I think what you mean is you like to talk about policy a lot and people like to hear about policy but not all of the details. Please. Kayvon is that right? Is that what we're getting at? Well, there's, because I don't find you pouring this potentially content. Yeah, boredom. Okay. Uh, there's also the fact that I'm just monotone as the son of a bitch. Oh, I see. Oh, the tonality. Yeah, it's true. You could go up and down more. I, I tried to emphasize. Well that's good. Well, because you've got now a new project. Is that fair to say?

Speaker 3: A new project? Meaning that, uh, oh. I don't know. I saw somewhere you and I, you know, we come in contact and so like, I know you're running for mayor in Denver. Yeah, it's true. You should, you should check out your twitter feed or your facebook, whatever you do thing robots. Yeah, that's you. Oh, you do the bots. That's good. I don't know. It's a good idea. Very personal with my social media interaction and your personal with the people you're running for mayor of Denver, but it's not until 2019. Why? Because we're still in the end of 2017. Why do you think and why was it a good idea for you to let us know and we'll let them know that this was happening? Well, I think whether it's a good idea is to be determined. Fair enough, right? Yes. Why did you decide that?

Speaker 3: Well, I did. I decided to for the, for similar reasons to wanting to run first place, which is that I don't like the direction of the city a lot of other people don't. And what, what do we gain by standing on the sidelines further? Um, I know that this run can in an already has a help bring folks together that are feeling a bit disenfranchised right now, um, that it's allowing us to accelerate and make more loud. Uh, some of the, the grievances that we have as residents of Denver and I know that at the very least, and I've mentioned this before, it's certainly not my goal to run and lose, um, but even if I do, I have no doubt that policy will be affected by my running, that we're going to have conversations we would not have had otherwise. The kind of Bernie Hillary effect type of deal a little bit.

Speaker 3: You, let's push the agenda that I think matters more to people, um, as opposed to what our elected officials and, and maybe others in the pipeline that aren't quite elected yet, but our had been bred to become elected. Um, want us to focus on, let's control the agenda a little more in this conversation. All right. So as far as controlling the agenda, I look at Denver as somebody that flies here and has been flying here for like 15 years and I see nothing but growth and everything is great. And wouldn't it be true for everybody that, uh, well not everybody, but most people would be thrilled with the direction of the city. And then I heard about the ditch and I was like, oh, okay, well, you know, the, the big dig in Boston, I can see how they're doing that. And then you told me about ditch the ditch, what's ditch the ditch, ditch the ditch is a.

Speaker 3: and I believe that any good resistance is built in collaboration and a coalition amongst people that you wouldn't generally associate with each other. Um, ditch the ditch is a coalition of developers of business owners, have residents of north of faith based organizations, have transportation advocates of environmental activists, have lawyers of all these people that I'm probably haven't worked on this topic before. And finding some common ground and saying this is wrong for Denver in so many ways. So I guess let's make sure that we understand what the ditches first before we fully ditch it. Let's first understand what the ditches. The ditch is the largest infrastructure project that the Colorado Department of Transportation has ever undertaken. Um, it's purported to cost $2,000,000,000. Um, but if there's any, um, you know, if, if, if, if past projects or any, um, insight into what this is going to end up costing, we're probably looking at six to $8 million.

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