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So far that assistance has come up short, his critics say. They say the mayor’s recent suggestion of a “speculation tax” to discourage the quick resale or “flipping” of new homes is misguided.

The fact that the mayor’s pal, condo-marketing guru Bob Rennie, who also floated the idea of a speculation tax, aspires to be a “thought leader” on the housing file “is practically radioactive for the mayor,” Canseco said.

“The same generation that was sold dreams of an end to homelessness and environmental leadership is now being told that all they can afford, and all they should contemplate, is a box.”

The contrast between the mayor’s challenge to find practical solutions to problems and the unabashed idealism he espoused as a student at Colorado College, a small, liberal arts school, couldn’t be more stark.

In a letter to the school’s student newspaper, The Catalyst, on Oct. 18, 1985, “Greg Robertson,” as he was then known, responded to a debate over whether the U.S. Armed Forces’ Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) should have a presence on campus:

“There is no place here for ROTC or any other military faction. There is no place on this planet for these groups. That is, if the survival of the human race is of any concern to its members,” he wrote.

“It’s easy for the ROTC to say that sharp liberal minds, such as those supposedly at CC, are exactly what the military needs for the advent of new ideas in the military system. However, the existence of a military system in the first place is absurd. The fundamental purpose of the military is to fight wars. Wars are not necessary, therefore the military is not necessary.