The Halloween Mall Crawl, at its peak in the late 1980s, drew as many as 40,000 revelers. Some residents found it scary; others said it was as much fun as Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Photo courtesy The Daily Camera

By Shannon Burgert, Tyera Eulberg and Mary Jarrett

Powerful mountain views: the same. Bike paths, arts and sciences, dining: big improvement. Traffic, housing prices, concern for our neighbors: not so good. What big changes have hit Boulder County in the last three decades, and in what ways is it more or less the same? We asked dozens of community leaders three questions:

1. What’s the biggest change you have observed in Boulder, in your field, over the last three decades?

2. What significant trends do you see developing now in the city and county of Boulder?

3. With regard to your specific area of expertise, where do you think we’re headed?

Read the responses of Ruth Wright, Richard Wobbekind, Ph.D., Will Toor, Henry Beer, Marcelee Gralapp, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Phil Schull, State Sen. Ron Tupa, Wendy Reynolds, and Eric Lombardi below.
—M.J.

Ruth Wright
Fmr State Rep. D-Boulder; PLAN-Boulder County

1. I am a lawyer, former state legislator, and longtime citizen activist in areas of the environment, especially locally. I will go back a bit farther than 30 years, because the initial change I see was in the mid ’60s and early ’70s, when Boulder was growing a rate of 7 percent a year, meaning a doubling of population in 10 years. Many of us moved here for the quality of life and wanted to protect it. We saw land being gobbled up for subdivisions. So the first major issue was buying land for urban shaping, preventing sprawl, protecting the mountain backdrop and other special natural areas. We accomplished this in 1967 by passing America’s first sales tax earmarked for purchase of “greenbelts,” now called open space. Secondly, by a vote of the citizens in 1971, the City Charter [restricted] the height of buildings to 55 feet, to protect our view of the mountain backdrop and save our historic downtown from being replaced by high-rise buildings. [The third step was] closing off downtown in favor of a pedestrian mall. There have been others too, such as preventing Boulder Creek from being dredged; buying water rights to keep the creek flowing; bicycle trails; and working with the county on master planning of Boulder Valley.

Starting in the mid ’60s, the citizens of Boulder have become more and more interested in the health, beauty and success of their city, by getting involved in the public decision-making process, elections and programs. This has resulted in a very livable community. Every issue is debated from at least three points of view—grassroots politics at its finest or feistiest! The University of Colorado continues to be a huge asset to the community.

2. As more people move here, we experience growth pressures. Many people from outside Boulder have discovered Boulder’s open space, newcomers do not have the institutional history of the open space program, and recreationists are insisting that even sensitive natural areas be open to their use. While the downtown mall is still financially successful, many competitive shopping areas have been developed in other cities, reducing our sales-tax receipts. Also, because of the quality of life, wealthy citizens are moving in and scraping off homes to build mansions.

3. The trends mentioned above will only be exacerbated. We must try to keep a diverse citizenry and protect the physical and intellectual amenities we now enjoy.

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Richard Wobbekind, Ph.D.
Associate Dean and Director of the Business Research Division, Leeds School of Business, CU

1. When we arrived in the mid-’70s, Boulder was a relatively difficult place to find a job, especially a good job. The downturn of the late 1980s and certainly the 1990s really changed the complexion of [the workplace] in terms of the availability and quality of jobs. It became a more sophisticated technology economy, a place to be able to earn a high income.

2. General trends are affecting the city, the county and probably the nation. Demographic trends will have their largest impacts in two areas: the aging population, and all of the impacts that will follow that in terms of the provision of services; and also the composition of ethnicity of the people who live in Boulder and Boulder County. In particular, the Hispanic population is growing fairly rapidly. That has been a significant trend.

3. The economy will increasingly reward knowledge-based jobs with higher average salaries. The less-educated workers will still be in high demand, but will suffer from relatively lower compensation levels. In Boulder and certain other parts of the country, this will create or exacerbate issues of affordability and increase stress on the transportation system. On a more positive note, I believe we will experience significant advancements in sustainable energy in the United States.

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Will Toor
County Commissioner and former Boulder Mayor

1. I moved to Boulder in the summer of 1980, when I was 18. In many ways, Boulder today seems remarkably similar to the Boulder of 1980. There is still a strong activist community, a strong university influence on the culture of the town, and a remarkably beautiful natural environment surrounding the town.

You can really see the impact of the strong policy focus on urban growth boundaries combined with large-scale open-space preservation. Boulder is one of the only places in the country where open space has been acquired on a large enough scale to really shape the urban form.

Some changes I see that I think have been for the better:

• The remarkable amount of smart infill development in the downtown, the creation of the Holiday Neighborhood, and the general openness to higher-density, more urban, rather than suburban, land use.
• The creation of a remarkable local transit network with the HOP, SKIP, JUMP, etc., and the Eco Pass program, which has made transit really useful for a lot of people, and led to a 500 percent increase in local transit use.
• The creation of a world-class set of bike paths and lanes, which let me travel almost everywhere I need to go in Boulder without having to hassle with cars and traffic.
• Boulder’s emergence as an environmental leader, pioneering policy innovations in waste reduction, green building, climate action, sustainable transportation, and land use and open space.

Some changes that I think have been for the worse:

• The dramatic escalation in housing prices, combined with a general lack of housing compared to the number of jobs in the community, is the single largest negative change. It hurts us economically, culturally and environmentally. While there has been a strong political focus on affordable housing, we need to take bolder steps to bring more affordable housing, and more housing in general, to our community.
• Regional sprawl has had a dramatic negative impact on the quality of life and on the environment of the Front Range.

2. One interesting change is the gradual convergence of politics around the county. Thirty years ago, the county was far more polarized, with dramatically different political leanings between Boulder and other communities like Longmont. While there are still differences, there is far more common ground than was once the case. One example is the remarkable fact that every incorporated municipality in Boulder County (with the exception of Ward) signed the super-IGA, an intergovernmental agreement laying out binding commitments to which areas can be developed by the cities as urban areas, and which areas will be preserved as rural areas or bought as open space.

3. I think we will face exciting and difficult challenges related to climate change. We are just beginning to grapple with the transition to a low-carbon energy future, and to take baby steps to adapt to the changes that are coming down the pike in areas like water, insect and weed threats, and forest fires. I think these two sets of issues will be dominant themes for the next century.

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Davis Phinney crosses the line to win the Coors Classic stage race in 1988, the event’s final year. Phinney, the winningest bicycle racer in American history, started cycling in Boulder in the late ’70s. Photo courtesy Michael Aisner

Henry Beer
Founder and Co-Chairman, Communication Arts

1. We’ve watched Boulder go from being a small Midwestern town attractive to scientists and mountain climbers, to a community founded around the creative class. There’s a great number of new entrepreneurs. Having CU, NIST and NCAR here sowed the seeds of the success of Boulder over the past 30 years, mostly because they attracted remarkable people. That change has been a real cultural shift from a regional-based economy underwritten by some strong institutions (which gave this community stability) to the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s of experimental, no-bounds, out-of-the-box thinking. It attracted people that were excited by that idea of change. When people come from elsewhere, it makes a richer stew.

Architecturally, Boulder doesn’t look that much different than it did 30 years ago. There’s a bit more density. It’s almost more important to look at what Boulder doesn’t look like—what has been averted and avoided. For example, Pearl Street Mall was a response to a crisis, rather than being a fully fledged idea out of someone’s head. Crossroads Mall opened, and Pearl Street was a creative response to what was seen as a challenge to downtown Boulder.

People who have been drawn to Boulder have demanded better—better homes, better retail, better transportation. Look at the bike system. That was all the result of people demanding it, rather than someone offering it up.

2. The most important trend is building on the trajectory of Boulder’s history. We’ve come from a small mining town to a Midwestern town to a university town to an entrepreneurial town. Now, whether people like it or not, Boulder has become a resort. It has all the fun things to do and the perfect location, like any resort, but it has a layer of authenticity on top. It’s not just plunked down artificially in the desert. Boulder has all the aspects of a resort, plus the smart, talented, interesting people working at change. It’s a place you want to spend the last three decades of your life. I see Boulder getting more and more comfortable with that idea. And the one thing old people want to be around is young people. Look at the Conference on World Affairs. That’s old people and young people drawing from each other. Well, the county is like that. Boulder is a yearlong World Affairs conference.

3. Is there a negative side to this resortification? No, I think it’s all good, because I think Boulder has put in institutions that ensure a long-term run. We have all the same challenges to confront as the larger society: sustainability, our place in global society, etc. But this town has always taken the long view, and that prepared us for the changes and challenges you can’t always control. That’s shaped a community that can accept new residents and new enterprises. So I think we’re in a very good position.

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Marcelee Gralapp
City of Boulder Library/Arts Director (retired)

1. One of the biggest changes I have seen in Boulder—and it’s so disappointing—is the developing lack of community spirit. That used to be a most important element of Boulder, and now it seems as if many of the newcomers just don’t feel that generous sense of community.

2. I hope the trends in Boulder as a community will be toward being less selfish and more generous. I hope we will have the courage to recognize our cultural heritage by preserving our historic buildings and not demolishing them for more multimillion-dollar houses. I hope we will have the courage to understand that the “most green” building is often the one already built. I hope we will have the courage to see the value of our arts institutions and be more supportive. I hope we will have the courage to keep our community green spaces so we can “smell the flowers.” And I hope we will have the courage to make this community safe for all of our children.

3. In my area of expertise, public libraries and information services are heading continually upwards. Though the mission of providing information to enhance people’s lives is still the same, the oppor-tunities seem endless and ever changing today, with the electronic media that are available both at home and in the public library. Libraries also have a responsibility to provide sources of information not available on the Internet, and to offer assistance to citizens seeking and using them.

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Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies, Naropa University; a founder of the Jewish Renewal Movement

1. A lot more cars. No other town that I know of has this kind of extensive public transportation system, with the HOP and the SKIP and all; I wish people would use it more. Part of it is that in the beginning, neighborhoods used to be able to get Eco Passes, but now it is much more difficult. If they could make Eco Pass more accessible, that would be wonderful.

The Jewish community has changed for the better. It’s wonderful to see the collaboration between congregations, the great interfaith work Rabbi Tirzah Firestone has done with the Muslim people, and [the effort] to make people who aren’t Jewish feel welcome.

2. Boulder is a place in which a kind of enlightened spirituality and ecological awareness grows. One example is the “alternadox” [alternative Orthodox] community, which is really expanding. And with the work of Rabbi Marc Soloway, the congregation Bonai Shalom has had a resurrection of the dead.

But Boulder is too much white bread. It needs a more mixed population. You don’t see minorities here the way you’d see in Denver. Another thing: People have been trying to pass a law to stop people from standing on street corners to get a handout. I don’t like the idea of there being a law against that. When we see these people, it’s not only that we’re doing them a favor, giving a gift. It reminds us of how privileged we are.

3. Boulder had a much better quality before they put Twenty Ninth Street up. At one time, we thought about having a more living-friendly place there—not boxes. In some ways Boulder is becoming less Boulder and more Fort Collins and Longmont. I’m very glad for every one of the privately owned stores, but more and more big firms are coming in. I’m not so happy about that. I would’ve liked to see more of the local stores making their own way. If we encouraged people to buy locally, it would be much better.

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Boulder County Recycling Center, operated by Eco-Cycle. Photo courtesy Eco-Cycle

Phil Schull
President, DeNeuve Construction

1. I’m a developer and general contractor. The amount of regulation in my world is utter nonsense. Building codes, fire codes, flood protection, storm-water permitting, OSHA, insurance for construction-defect litigation, affordable housing requirements, accounting and auditing practices—all add an incredible increment to the cost of anything we build. On the positive side, we have safer, more productive tools and better-educated managers. We can extend our own controls with computers in ways we never dreamed possible.

2. The biggest trend is the urbanization of the downtown commercial/residential complex. Idling debates—over the height limit, neighborhood character being compromised, prairie McMansions, revenue-sharing between county municipalities—will go into the next gear. FasTracks will have virtually no effect on the use of the auto in Boulder, but almost everyone will ride a bike somewhere or walk a lot more.

3. The melting pot may boil over, and my workforce and our products will be affected. The legislators have got to do something about the healthcare system, and the cost to deal with potential construction-defect litigation. Some housing will get ridiculously large, but most will just get smaller and less private. Affordable housing in Boulder will be a joke. Many of us will own second homes somewhere that remind us of Boulder in the late ’70s.

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State Sen. Ron Tupa
D-Boulder

1. When I moved to Boulder in 1991, you couldn’t help but feel a sense of economic invulnerability and progressive infallibility. But following the JonBenet Ramsey case, the CU football scandal, the dot-com crash, and some recent incidents of hate crimes, the realization set in that we may no longer be the idyllic utopia insulated from the “normal” problems of the everyday world. We now seem to be better grounded in reality. In the last few years I have seen an attempt to reclaim some of Boulder’s progressive social policies coupled with a creative, innovative, entrepreneurial spirit that is second to none.

2. In politics, Boulder used to be the target of jokes; now we are the model for others across the state on civil rights, land use and environmental issues. When I came into office in 1994, Democrats were at their low point, and Boulder’s policies were summarily dismissed. Now, Democrats control the State Senate, House, and the Governor’s office.

3. My area of expertise is education; I taught high school social studies for 12 years. It’s an exciting time for education reform, from preschool through higher ed. The changing world, with new technology and a 21st-century global economy, provides Boulder with a unique set of challenges and opportunities. We are facing a wholesale transformation of our education system, and Boulder, CU specifically, continues to be on the cutting edge of that change. I have no doubt that Boulder, with its innovative, entrepreneurial, forward-looking outlook, will continue to be a leader in the state.

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Wendy Reynolds
Vice President, Vectra Bank

1. In the 13 years I’ve been a banker in Boulder, the biggest change in the banking industry is increased competition, not only from traditional local and regional banking institutions, but also from other industries, such as investment firms and insurance agencies. This competition provides a challenge in market differentiation, and only the most consultative and service-oriented banks will maintain an edge in this environment.

2. The biggest trends center on topics related to housing and business development. The city has a very challenging job in balancing residential real-estate development with affordable-housing needs. I see more and more residential real estate moving towards investment property or second-home status, and more young professional residents moving out of the city due to housing costs. Likewise, I see more businesses moving into surrounding cities, or even out of the county entirely, to move closer to the residential base of their employees and to keep overhead costs low. Many efforts are under way right now, such as the city’s Economic Vitality Program, established in 2003, and Business Incentives Pilot Program, launched in 2007, to retain these individual and business assets.

3. I believe Boulder will continue to be a wonderful place for years to come. There is a strong desire to maintain and respect the live/work balance that makes this place stand out from the crowd, and I am constantly impressed by the caliber of the people I meet here. I see a continued focus on innovation, not only within our government or via the university, but also by the citizens and businesses residing here. Boulder County is truly a place that embraces the entrepreneurial spirit—a spirit that should lead to continued ingenuity, economic benefits and social advancements.

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Eric Lombardi
Director, Eco-Cycle

1. Eco-Cycle helped Boulder start a revolution as one of the first 20 cities in America to offer curbside recycling in the 1970s. Now, 30 years later, Boulder is doing it again as one of the first 10 cities to pass a resolution calling for a Zero Waste society. Back then we created a model recycling program the rest of the country followed; now we’re creating a model Zero Waste Community program the rest of the world can follow.

2. The good news is the focus on having fewer cars, less trash and more bike paths. The negative trends I see are less-active citizens, more risk-adverse politicians, and an excessively powerful merchant class impacting community affairs. I hope we become more like Europe in the future, in that the business class understands that the community sets the rules, and then they get to make money within those rules.

3. Eco-Cycle is working with other community partners to put Boulder firmly on the Zero Waste path. However, this is a big vision and will only succeed if it is supported with financial resources, land to replace the landfill with alternatives like composting and recycling centers, and public servants’ support for the grassroots voice. I hope that we’re entering a new era of citizen participation, because in action lies hope.

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