Bedrooms: Because life is short

By Sara Campbell. Also published as a letter to the editor in the Daily Camera on October 28, 2021.

"I support Bedrooms Are For People and will vote 'YES' on Ballot Question 300, because I think it will make our communities more open and vibrant. I live on a fantastic street with lovely renters and lovely homeowners. I wish to remove any impediment to our continuing to help one another and enjoy each others’ company. After the pandemic and the summer of ozone, life just feels too short.

While PhD students at CU, we avoided making eye contact with our neighbors, lest they realize that we were over-occupied. Being nerds, we over-engineered our living situation so that folks on the lease were consistent with the vehicles parked out front. To pacify our neighbors, we parked the nicest vehicles in the driveway. Those from the wealthiest families had a rental history, while others were left to the Boulder rental underground with no renters rights’ or rental history.

Now that I’m a homeowner, it is not important to me whether renters in a four bedroom home are leaving an empty room, or whether a neighbor parks a vehicle in front of my property. There are far greater problems facing humanity. Plus, the average family size has decreased since when my home was built in the 1960s. Through undeniable population increase and urbanization, we’ll all be happier if we learn to share a bit more.

Ultimately, I think that friendly neighbor relationships make us all so much happier than any perceived gain due to a controlled low-density nuclear-families-only environment. My endometriosis prevents me from bearing children, but here, I feel like our 'family' fits right in. My street has folks of all walks of life, and I love having all sorts of neighbors to wave to."