FoCo in 15 Minutes | Pie Shop Proposal, School Start Changes, Wage Increases & New Trail Connection

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My wife and I are doing a 72 hour fast and I don't know if I'm going to make it. She is pretty strong, pretty disciplined and I just got into talking about kind of what we are going live with today which one of them is Sunny Sky Pies and a proposed repair shop is taking over a location in kind of Midtown, Fort Collins, downtown-ish you know CSU campus adjacent but man you know wish me luck over these next 24 hours. I'm over halfway through the I'm through what am I like 45, 46 hours or so so still got a bit to go but the proposed pie and bike shop or repair shop is gonna be off of Elizabeth and Wedby. I'm gonna show you guys my screen here. If you're listening to this on the podcast you can go watch our YouTube channel Fort Collins Lifestyles and it'll show kind of the visuals for this but this is right by Harris Elementary School. You know I've personally never even thought this was in business still but apparently it is but it's gonna be a co-tenanted space with a repair shop and a pie shop which I was like yeah it's kind of cool I guess but this is live in Fort Collins. We come to you live every week and actually we're going alive again here in about and a couple of hours to do our Fort Collins real estate market update. We're looking at numbers from November and into December and looking at what 2026 could look like because you know well the real estate market is a little paused during these holidays. Not to say that nothing's happening just not too much but moving right along the Poudre School District is proposing a later school year start pushing it back around six days or so to August 19th because while we did raise some funds with our debt-free school mill levy I think that was like 40 mills that doesn't sound right. It was enough to create millions and millions of dollars to help teacher pay refurbishing schools for air conditioning units and they're gonna do two per year every summer until they are all done and there's 30 of them done so it's gonna be about 15 more years around 2043 is when all schools will be outfitted with AC units and I can tell you it does get hot so pushing it back six days and and this would be for the school year starting 26-27 so not this year obviously but moving in to next year so it could be as soon as next year that school doesn't start until August 19th which for me you know makes sense honestly I used to you know Labor Day weekend it was always kind of a weird thing starting that late and then having a holiday right away but regardless you know watch out for the kids not overheating not playing because it can get hot and stuffy in those buildings. The Colorado Parks Wildlife Director moves down and moves into a new rule steps down moves into a new rule you know I mean I don't know where I stand even on the reintroduction to wolves into Colorado but I can say you know there's always an article about you know up in kind of Walden you know that County out up there that you know ranchers are having to bring in dogs to protect their livestock and the Colorado State of Colorado is having to repay these ranchers for livestock that they've lost due to the wolves and it just seems like it's an absolute you know sorry for this word shit show and I do believe there was some wolves that were already kind of coming into the area from Yellowstone and making their way down here but man I'll tell you what you know I'm sure obviously because of the growth and hunting and things that nature we push wolves out of Colorado and this could be a natural habitat for them and so we want to provide that land but you know at what cost and I just don't think you know it's it's it's too big of a deal that it's clearly causing a lot of strife within the Colorado Parks and Wildlife and that director stepping down so good luck to whoever steps into that role let's see here it will be Laura Clellen and she's actually retired general of Colorado but she will serve as the acting director starting yesterday. Northern Colorado nonprofit we have a shortfall on bikes and as up till tomorrow you can bring in new bikes to Realities for Children up through tomorrow now they try to they try to bring in around 360 bikes but there was 150 shortfall as of November 25th a lot of these could be reused recycled bikes but what they are asking for now after November 29th is for the bikes to be new bikes I'm guessing they probably had to do some repairs some work on those bikes that were used so they were well suited for those kids that didn't necessarily have them and being able to use them moving into the new year.

Colorado's minimum wage is increasing in 2026 to $15.16 per hour starting January 1st 2026 and that's a 2.4 percent increase tied to the CPI tipped wages will increase to $12.14 per hour I don't have a dog in the fight here I do remember when I was going through high school and college making seven dollars an hour but that was a while ago now so you know being $15 per hour I know a lot of people are suggesting you know on one side or the other whether that should be higher or or you know stay right around there or even lower and if it's impacting people getting jobs I will say it's an interesting conversation and I'm gonna hit on this a little bit in the market update as well that I've got a bud there was an article that came out that was talking about how high school and college kids are actually super excited about the job market that they're moving into and there was another phrase out there that said that the artificial intelligence AI will create more millionaires in the next five years than the web's the internet did in 20 years and I've got kind of a case study to show that a friend of mine who and client actually now this kid got after it and was it was always going to be successful no matter what just you know it's flipping vans throughout high school bought his first house when he was in college still owns that house today moved to the Texas area and has two businesses that are extremely successful and a lot of its leveraging AI and tools like that so I do believe and I actually think that my generation which is you know 30 to 50 year olds are at risk the most with artificial intelligence so I'm putting myself right in the crosshair here because it's tough you know we didn't grow up with artificial intelligence I'm leveraging it on a daily basis you know we we summarize articles write emails lots of different tools and I'm just scratching the surface whereas there are kids that are growing up knowing how to integrate it with websites how to automate ordering systems how to look for call buy sell orders and leverage these tools much deeper than what I'm doing and it'll just be second nature to them whereas if I want to get involved with you know some of this new career activity like let's say real estate agents go bye-bye and that's possible or lenders or title and you know or or the the industry goes from 1.5 million agents to 500,000 agents or 400,000 agents because now the power of one agent can do the job of three that it used to and and those are all great and tools that I'm excited to leverage and be a part of and grow and learn but it is scary like let's say it goes away completely because then maybe I have to start over and in a new career what AI produces or creates a minimum wage or something along those lines you know but all that being said I do believe that the younger generation is excited for the world jobs moving forward and are going to leverage some of those opportunities more so than what my generation will let's see here the siphon overpass is opening this Friday December 5th and this is a multi-million dollar overpass going connecting mail Creek Trail to the power trail going over the Union Pacific Railroad I a part of me is like you know it's gorgeous it's safe but could we have used these million dollars elsewhere yes I don't know the legality of crossing over a railroad I will say I've crossed over that railroad many times I actually lived over in West Chase for a few years and we we crossed through Linden Park that neighborhood and then walk over the railroad tracks to get onto the power trail and then go north in fact I think I even have a picture of my brother-in-law and wife at the you know wife not at the time she was wife at the time divorced now she's my wife again so anyways but I have a picture of that and so do we need a multi-million dollar overpass probably not did Union Pacific probably have some legal you know is it illegal to cross over railroad tracks I think so and so I think there's some reasons why we had to do it because it was so heavily crossed and it is gorgeous it is safe ADA accessible so super cool that opens up this Friday so the weather has come in a little bit colder but we're gonna look into the 40s low 50s so it could be a really great day to get on your bike and ride over that overpass connecting to the Mail Creek Trail you know the thumbnail for this video is is a thumbnail that talks about the growth of the Northeast quadrant and that was because the building and permit planning and zoning had a meeting about Saunders village which you could say is Saunders East kind of on the opposite side of Turnberry on the northeast side of Fort Collins where water's edge Saunders currently is but this is their second you know part of their development which is going to be 680 additional residential units out there and that's on top of Montana's 4300 residential units that they are seriously breaking ground and going vertical on in 2026 and bloom which is already vertical and delivering units that hat will have about 1700 units so totaling around 6700 units in that Northeast quadrant for perspective sakes there as of 2021 there was about 72,000 housing units and all of four columns so this equates to about 10% of the housing stock that's in these three developments alone in this quadrant so lots of growth in that Northeast quadrant you're gonna see a lot of infrastructure changes Turnberry Mountain Vista Timberline there are going to be a ton of infrastructure developments and changes in that area but what can you do this weekend well one we did end up getting our first snow frost I'm interested to know if it counted as our first snow it did have a small layer in Fort Collins I know we were kind of approaching that mid-December timeline of latest snow on record so I think we didn't beat that record which is probably a good record not to beat but it was cold down in the tens teens low 20s and I was not ready for it I was freezing cold so it is jacket parka you know Patagonia whatever you wear to keep yourself warm time but Santa photos every day until December 24th at the foothills mall 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. and you can also go take pictures downtown Old Town I think they're mostly there on the weekends the Nutcracker December 4th through the 7th at Lincoln Center I believe there are still tickets so if that is something that is interesting to you get your tickets and go support the Lincoln Center Lincoln Center is a baby a child of the community capital improvement project you know what we just passed on November 4th the quarter cent sales tax to help build these wonderful facilities and venues and the Lincoln Center is one of them if you haven't been go enjoy a comedy show we went saw Damon Wayans earlier this year there there is music plays comedy it is a great venue and for Collins the first Friday art walk every first Friday of the month December 5th downtown 6 to 9 p.m. sweaty sweater 5k run and walk December 6th 9 a.m. at Front Range Community College winters farmers market every Saturday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the foothills mall the toy drop 5k 10k and 15k presented by Sweetheart City racing in Berthoud Colorado December 6th 9 a.m. Berthoud Brewing Company a holiday festival in Timnath Colorado this December 6 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. at Timnath Community Park the winter wake-up polar plunge in Riverside Colorado near Mishawaka December 7th 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. there are a couple other things that are going on there but the big one is the winter polar plunge and finally the Wellington parade of lights this December 6th at 5 30 p.m. that is it for live and for Collins appreciate you guys listening on the podcast which is living in Fort Collins the podcast I am going to ask again if you are watching listening let me know some people who we should have on and in-person interviews which we will begin again in 2026 until that time appreciate guys watching listening have a great day