Rachel Friend Archives - Yellow Scene Magazine

Is Free Speech legal in Boulder? The Case for 1 Protestor

Sprout Foster-Goodrich — Tue, 12 May 2026 12:08:34 +0000

Correction (5/13): A previous version of this article incorrectly referenced Rachel Friend in connection with Laura Gonzales; that reference has been removed.

A Boulder resident is being targeted with criminal charges for protesting Israel and their occupation of Gaza. Her attorneys argue the prosecution is a direct violation of her right to free speech.

A Boulder resident since 2011, Laura Gonzalez has spent the last three years as a prominent advocate for Palestine at city council meetings. Her activism is rooted in a complex personal history: she is the youngest of ten children, the first American born to undocumented immigrants, and the child of a survivor of the Guatemalan genocide. Gonzalez, who is Indigenous with Mayan ancestry, views her vocalism as a direct resistance to the erasure of marginalized people.

“Silence is erasure,” Gonzalez said. “We have 500 years of white-washed history in the United States and I don’t want that to happen to Palestine.”

Gonzalez now faces multiple legal hurdles, including a felony charge following an incident with council member Matt Benjamin. Police arrested her at her home the day after that encounter. She also faces a misdemeanor and a separate accusation of graffiti.

Represented by attorneys Cameron Bedard and Andy McNulty, Gonzalez noted that rules of decorum changed quickly before she was hit with charges like “harassment of a public official.” She maintains the legal action is targeted. “I’m being used as a scapegoat,” Gonzalez stated. “But this is all about Palestine.”

Gonzalez was referencing Boulder’s $35 million dollar portfolio holdings in corporations profiting from Israeli military occupation. Boulder’s portfolio includes Microsoft, which has supported the Israeli military and settlement’s technological needs, and Caterpillar, which supplied bulldozers used in Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza that allegedly buried wounded civilians alive.

“Boulder is more focused on investments and corporations than it used to be,” Gonzalez emphasized.

Cameron Bedard, Gonzalez’ defense attorney, also expressed disappointment in Boulder’s shifting priorities. “This fits a growing trend nationally using the legal system to discourage activism,” Bedard remarked. “Boulder is a seemingly progressive bastion, but when over a hundred other progressive cities like Atlanta, San Francisco, and Detroit passed a symbolic ceasefire, Boulder refused to do so.”

Gonzalez, among other Boulderites, publicly protested the council’s decision, and for three instances of protest she is facing legal retaliation. Andy McNulty is Gonzalez’ civil rights attorney for a charge of “graffiti” for writing “Boulder City Council invests $30m/yr in genocide and ecocide in Palestine” in washable chalk on Pearl Street Mall. McNulty explained, “Freedom of speech violations are broad, but 1st Amendment violations are much narrower [to claim]”

In a direct response to pro-Palestinian’s protests and increased intensity at city council meetings following the June 1st Pearl Street attack targeting Jewish community members, rules for public comment changed: the time for each speaker was reduced from three minutes to two, the visual component of recording speakers was removed, and a randomization system to pick 20 speakers from the public comment list was put in place. Removing visual components from speakers made it so protestors couldn’t use signs to convey their messages, or fly Palestinian flags, as noted by Gonzalez.

The randomization system does not have a transparency statement on the city of Boulder’s website, but the city clerk did provide details on the process upon request, including the use of Formstack and Excel’s randomization formula. City Clerk Elesha Johnson said, “The data is sorted after community members that were selected to speak at the last meeting are removed in accordance with our Council Rules of Procedures that prohibits speakers to be selected for 2 consecutive meetings.”

McNulty, responding to the changes made to public comment, stated “There are no First Amendment violations in changing the rules of public comment. There is no First Amendment reason that city councils have to have a public comment portion at all.” Places like Weld County have removed public comment from their board meetings altogether. He continued, “But what is a first amendment violation: that Laura is banned for a year from city council meetings for speaking out against Israel. That is viewpoint discrimination.”

One of the incidents for which Gonzalez faces charges, she asked a council member over a megaphone whether “the hundreds of thousands of children that are dead because of your money” mattered. This amongst other pointed questions were cited as “true threats” or “fighting words”, and begs the question of what the line is between dissent and harassment.

Gonzalez responded to claims of harassment from elected officials, saying “The difference between [the council member’s fear] and my anger is that my anger comes from pain and trauma, and their fear comes from the fear that [pro-Palestinians and Indigenous] are going to do to them what their ancestors did to us, which is not true. All we want is freedom.”

While free speech is being threatened nationwide, Gonzalez’s lawyer Cameron Bedard supports her and others’ right to be politically outspoken, stating, “This is a righteous case. A state institution prosecuting apparatus targeting a person for voicing their concerns and speaking out against genocide is wrong.” He continued, “I don’t care which side of the equation you’re on – if you are pro Zionism or anti-Zionism. The First amendment doesn’t care.”

As Boulder leaders and residents navigate the legal and social fallout of these cases, the focus remains on the intersection of municipal law and constitutional rights. Gonzalez and her legal team argue that the prosecution serves as an attempt to silence opposition to the city’s financial and political ties to the conflict in Gaza. They contend that the outcome of her case carries implications for all Boulder citizens, regardless of their political stance on international issues.

“They don’t have to like me, or my tone, or my opinions,” Gonzalez said. “I’m still fighting for their rights [to free speech] and if they don’t fight with me and I go down, they’re going to go down too.”

While the city maintains that the charges are a matter of public decorum and safety, the defense insists the criminalization of these protests sets a dangerous precedent. The proceedings continue to draw attention to the boundaries of protected speech within local government chambers.

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Boulder City Council, in response to a housing shortage, raises occupancy limits with landmark vote

Guest Contributor — Mon, 21 Aug 2023 21:00:40 +0000

By John Herrick, The Boulder Reporting Lab

The Boulder City Council voted to raise the city’s occupancy limits on Thursday, accomplishing one of its top priorities ahead of the 2023 election and marking the council’s latest attempt to increase the supply of housing by chipping away at the city’s zoning laws.

The new law will raise the city’s limits on how many unrelated people can live together from as few as three to five across much of the city. The changes will not increase the number of people who can live in certain homes in the student neighborhoods of University Hill or Goss-Grove.

The landmark vote is part of a broader effort by a majority on council to increase housing density in Boulder, where most of the residential land is zoned to only allow single-family homes. In May, councilmembers made it easier to build accessory dwelling units, or ADUs. And in June, they directed city staff to begin drafting an ordinance that would allow duplexes and triplexes on larger lots in single-family neighborhoods, where they are currently prohibited.

Supporters hope raising occupancy limits will add more units to the rental market and allow more housemates to share the cost of rent and utilities. The change will allow renters living in over-occupied homes to sign a lease, giving them additional legal protections from eviction.

“It is a step toward housing accessibility in our city,” Mayor Aaron Brockett said, “without building anything, without tearing anything down.”

“This is a small step for housing and for personal freedom and affordability,” Councilmember Nicole Speer said. “But it feels like a giant leap forward for inclusion and community.”

The ordinance passed by a 6-3 vote. Councilmembers Bob Yates, Tara Winer and Mark Wallach voted against it.

Opponents of the change are primarily concerned about potential negative consequences of increasing the number of people and cars in neighborhoods. Yates said he would have preferred to include a provision that only allowed landlords to increase occupancy if they agreed to keep rent affordable for people earning a certain income.

“I think we’re deceiving ourselves and our community if we believe this law change will magically make Boulder affordable. It will not,” Yates said. “We have missed the opportunity to guarantee housing affordability.”

Councilmember Tara Winer said she opposed the jump from three to five unrelated people living together due to a lack of community consensus. “I care about affordable housing. I care about people that need two or three jobs to live here,” Winer said. “But in my opinion, going from three to five is anything but a compromise.”

More than 65 people spoke at Thursday’s public hearing. Most supported the change. Many had volunteered with the Bedrooms Are For People campaign, which most recently sought to raise occupancy limits through a 2021 ballot measure. Eric Budd, co-chair for the Bedrooms Are For People campaign, said his advocacy around occupancy reform started in 2013.

“It took a massive effort,” Budd said after the vote. He and others wanted the ordinance to go further, but he still supported it. “This provides an immediate relief.”

In the 1960s, cities across the country adopted occupancy limits as part of their zoning codes, partially in response to nuisance concerns and especially in college neighborhoods. Ample research shows that zoning laws that restrict housing supply can drive up rents and home values, and contribute to segregation based on race and class. In the 1990s, occupancy limits were often referred to as “living-in-sin” ordinances, because they had the effect of penalizing unmarried gay couples. (Boulder exempts people in domestic partnerships.)

Faced with severe housing shortages in recent years, cities and states across the country have sought to relax occupancy limits on unrelated people. California, Oregon and Washington state, for instance, now prohibit local governments from regulating occupancy based on family status. Colorado lawmakers this year proposed outlawing occupancy limits like those in Boulder, but the bill failed.

The long-term effect of zoning reforms, including occupancy limits, on local housing markets is unclear. Some studies suggest that, at least in the short term, these changes are unlikely to boost housing supply enough to have a noticeable effect on housing costs. The city does not maintain data on the number of bedrooms in the city’s 46,900 housing units, making it difficult to speculate on the economic impacts.

Regardless of how things play out economically, supporters of the new ordinance see it as a way to provide security for renters who live in over-occupied homes. Under city code, landlords can be fined and tenants can be evicted for over-occupancy.

Over the last two years, the Boulder City Council has responded to residents concerned about the impacts of increased occupancy limits by passing tougher laws regulating “unreasonable noise,” trash and weeds. Separately, city officials have said they are considering additional measures to address “chronic nuisance” and parking concerns.

“I do believe that people hate cars and noise and not other humans,” Councilmember Rachel Friend said. “So I think that enforcement is a big piece of what we will need to do.”

‘Overturning an election result’

Much of the opposition in the lead up to this week’s vote has centered around the results of the 2021 election. That year, voters rejected the Bedrooms Are For People Ballot measure, which would have raised the city’s occupancy limits to one person per bedroom, plus one. It failed by a vote of 52% to 48% — or 1,540 votes.

The measure would have applied equally across all homes in the city. By contrast, the newly passed ordinance exempts homes that have been granted special permission to have more housing units than is allowed under current zoning laws. City officials said about 5,000 of these “nonconforming” dwelling units exist in the city, primarily in the neighborhoods of University Hill or Goss-Grove. Under the new ordinance, occupancy in those homes would not increase.

Citing the failed ballot measure, several opponents of raising occupancy limits threatened lawsuits if councilmembers moved ahead with the ordinance.

Councilmember Mark Wallach, who opposes raising occupancy limits, lambasted his colleagues for pursuing the reforms.

“Overturning an election result is a violation of core democratic principles and should have been regarded by this body as an inappropriate use of its authority. Elections do — or are supposed to — matter, even in today’s climate,” Wallach wrote before the vote.

In 2021, fewer than half the city’s residents turned out to vote, some supporters noted during the council meeting. Nearly 75% of the city’s voters cast ballots in 2022, by comparison. Turnout was particularly low in student neighborhoods. Meanwhile, the year the ballot measure failed, voters elected five people to the Boulder City Council. Three campaigned in support of occupancy reform.

Earlier this year, the city carried out a survey on occupancy reform. The results found a majority of residents supported raising occupancy limits from three people to four. The survey was not representative of the city’s population, according to city officials. For instance, around 27% of the respondents were renters, despite renters making up about half of Boulder’s population.

Voters will soon have another chance to weigh in on housing policy. On Nov. 7, five seats on the Boulder City Council, including the position of mayor, are up for election. The race has the potential to create a new majority on the city council, potentially changing course on zoning and housing reform.

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Bands on the Bricks Celebrates CU Night July 27

Guest Contributor — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 20:40:18 +0000

Editor’s Note: Press Releases are provided to Yellow Scene. In an effort to keep our community informed, we publish some press releases in whole.

Boulder, CO – Calling all CU Buffs and fans! The 26th annual Bands on the Bricks free summer concert series continues on Wednesday, July 27 with CU Night. Begin the evening at the Boulder Theater with Chancellor Philip DiStefano and Boulder Mayor Pro Tem Rachel Friend as they (along with others) discuss how the university and the local community are building a just and sustainable future, together. Attendees will also have the opportunity to explore CU Boulder exhibits and enjoy food and drinks. Purchase tickets for the event here.

Following the discussion, walk over to the Pearl Street Mall to enjoy an evening at Bands on the Bricks with cold beverages, local music and fellow CU Buffs fanatics. Festivities begin at 6:00 pm with opener Taylor Shae, a bluesy-Americana artist. Following her act, Chain Station takes the stage at 7 pm. This four-piece, high-energy, ‘get ‘em out on the dance floor’ string band was born high in the mountains but is based in Denver, Colorado. Their music is well-steeped in Americana roots with vocal harmonies that are high, lonesome and tight. Their picking ranges from lightning-fast to mountain mellow.

Dance under the stars and celebrate the Buffs while sipping Avery Brewing Company beer, margaritas and a variety of non-alcoholic beverages available for purchase in the expanded Beer Garden encompassing the entire 1300 block of the Mall.

Bands on the Bricks is produced by Downtown Boulder Community Initiatives (DBCI). It is co-presented by FNBO and The W.W. Reynolds Companies. The event’s sponsors are Avery Brewing Company, The Daily Camera, City of Boulder, Eco-Products and Eldorado Natural Spring Water.

For more information:
General public: 303-449-3774 | events@downtownboulder.org

About Downtown Boulder Community Initiatives:
Downtown Boulder Community Initiatives (DBCI) (formerly known as the Downtown Boulder Foundation) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit created in 2017. The organization’s mission is to engage visitors and locals alike through arts, culture, innovation and inclusive, community-driven experiences in downtown Boulder.(DBCIBoulder.org). DBCI, along with the Downtown Boulder Business Improvement District, falls under the umbrella of the parent organization, the Downtown Boulder Partnership.

Emi Smith

Marketing & Communications Coordinator

1942 Broadway Suite 301

Boulder, CO 80302
Ph 303.449.3774
BoulderDowntown.com

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