|
||||||||||||||||||||
Features
On the March
Hummin' Along
Boulder's Pulse: IV
FAVORITE INTERVIEWS
• Walter Orr Roberts
• Scott Carpenter
• Joan Van Ark
• John Echohawk
By Shannon Burgert, Tyera Eulberg and Mary Jarrett
Only on GetBoulder.com, more conversations with Boulder's best. The questions we asked:
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 below.
Paul Weissmann
State Representative, D-Louisville, and Blue Parrot bartender
1. Where did all these people come from and where did they get all their money? When I moved to Boulder County in 1982, most of the houses in the eastern part were small. They don’t build small houses anymore, and the [existing] small ones are being enlarged.
2. We’re commuting both ways—out of Boulder to work or into Boulder to work. People don’t seem to be working near where they live.
3. Is this my bartending or legislative expertise? I think that Boulder County will continue to produce leaders at the state level. We currently have the House Majority Leader, and many chairs and vice-chairs of committees. The governor tapped leaders for his cabinet and staff. And we’ll still pour good drinks!
Mark Udall
U.S. Representative, D-Eldorado Springs
1. The biggest change that I have seen in the last 30 years is that Boulder County has become a national center for scientific and climate research, as well as a leader in aerospace industry and education. As a member of the Science Committee and chairman of the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee, I am proud to represent these important interests in the nation’s capital.
2. I believe that Boulder County will continue to attract talented individuals and innovative companies who want to take advantage of our landscapes and all that Colorado has to offer.
3. In my time in Congress, I have seen Colorado grow to the third largest space economy in the country. This economy offers high-tech and high-paying jobs which I think are good for Colorado. A great deal of our success in this area is owed to the world-class university we have in Boulder.
Warren Washington, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist, NCAR
1. Boulder is bigger. When I came here in 1963 there was not much beyond 30th Street going east and Table Mesa Drive going south. We have seen a large growth in the University research, NOAA, INST and NCAR. In my field of atmospheric science, there has been substantial growth in every aspect of the field. I recall someone saying to me that Boulder has the highest concentration of atmospheric and climate experts than any place else in the world. I am not sure that is true but it seems so.
2. The city and county are getting an increasing variety of things to do and be involved in. The number of interesting restaurants is impressive. The Twenty Ninth Street shopping area took a long time getting started but it seems to be quite successful. Unfortunately, the city is becoming even less affordable to people on the low end of the economic ladder, in spite of the city’s effort to provide low-cost housing.
3. With respect to the field of atmospheric and climate research, which I am involved in, the increasing concern over climate change and global warming has started to get the attention of the public and policymakers. We have to change our use of fossil based energy more toward renewables and conservation in order to preserve the climate system for our children and grandchildren. The research that came from Boulder based scientists and other scientists worldwide in this field have already led to new insights of how the climate system works and how we can better preserve the environment.
Art Rolander
Broker Associate, RE/MAX of Boulder
1. In my 33 years in real estate, a few of the biggest changes have been the “Danish Plan,” which limited new growth in the city of Boulder to 2 percent per year; the downtown commercial zoning-use review that redefined the prior regulations to a “mixed use” that included commercial and residential; “floor-area ratios” limiting finished square feet per site for renovations or new construction; and “density transfers” in the county that met certain socioeconomic requirements. Of the above, the mixed-use rezoning requirement has had the largest impact.
2. The Boulder area is becoming more attractive to those who have lived here and are now looking for places to invest for retirement. The new construction and sale of downtown “lofts” have been hugely successful. Rural sites on 1 to 3 acres within 15 minutes of downtown Boulder are also experiencing renovation and new construction.
3. Boulder will always continue to be in strong demand, especially for those who are looking for a high quality of life. Due to the increasing demand for residences and the limited supply of available land for developing as designed by the City Charter and open space purchases, we will see higher densities in certain annexed areas and see more single-family properties “pop-topped” for more living space. We may also see some industrial zoned land rezoned for residential and/or mixed use.
Mary Street
Attorney; former retail business owner
1.The biggest change city/county is the move of family to east county where they can find affordable family homes; the regional shopping is not Boulder anymore; and the city of Boulder needs to promote tax revenue-generating entities.
2. The biggest trends in the city are lock-and-leave housing for an aging population; fewer neighborhood schools; and change of community commitment.
3. In the area of retail, where I started, Boulder shoppers/students want high quality, low cost—good value, because they have lots of choices. The area I am in now is the legal community. It is expensive for the low to middle class, and indigent clients suffer from nonrepresentation in civil actions. The courts continue to do an excellent job, but there is more flux in the field as some attorneys burn out and change careers.
Mary Ann Mahoney
Executive Director, Boulder Convention and Visitors Bureau
1. My career has been in the hospitality industry in Boulder, which includes both the restaurant and hotel business. This industry has grown tremendously in 30 years. From casual dining and organic healthy everyday meals, to four-star elegant dining and fusion cuisine—all have created a great buzz around the state and country about dining in Boulder.
The lodging industry has grown as well. Thirty years ago, the Hotel Boulderado was not the “grand historic hotel” it is today. With the success of the Boulderado after its renovation, and the development of other hotels, there was a demand for upscale hotel rooms due to the success of various businesses in Boulder. Now there are a variety of lodging opportunities for the visitors that come either to visit friends and family or for conferences and meetings.
2. With the demand for hotel rooms and the business incentives in our surrounding cities, the lodging industry has developed beyond many people’s imagination. Broomfield was a sleepy little town next to U.S. 36, and Louisville was a few short miles off the highway. Now both communities have developed a strong link to the U.S. 36 corridor and have grown into their own destinations. Although the authentic sense of place does not exist within the cityscape in Broomfield, it has created its own identity. While Louisville has a historic downtown, it is not the business center of town like Boulder’s downtown. This sense of place and main-street business is authentic, and visitors recognize this as one of our many unique values.
The restaurant industry also may have grown in the outlying areas, but not with the sophistication and depth of great independently operated and -owned business. In the outlying areas more chain restaurants have opened, and I believe they are successful as well. However, the passion for quality food and testing the creative limits while supporting our local farmers and food producers is what makes Boulder outstanding in the culinary scene.
3. As Boulder explores the stability of its economy, many will find the tourism spending more attractive. The tourist comes, enjoys the surroundings, eats out, spends the night in a hotel, buys gifts, gas and many other items. While they do this, the tourist is leaving tax money behind. This person does not use essential services such as police or fire departments, or human-service needs. Their tax dollars pay for these items as well as our open space and mountain parks. This industry may become more important as we explore what Boulder will look like in the next few decades.
Mark Monette
Chef and Co-owner, Flagstaff House
1. The biggest change is the growth of consumer awareness in Boulder and surrounding areas—how wordly Boulder is in terms of food, culture and everything else. The customer now knows the difference between line-caught pompano out of Hawaii and Florida pompano. They know the difference between chanterelles, oyster mushrooms and shiitakes.
My father purchased the restaurant in 1976. In the ‘70s we always shot for the moon, basically—prime rib, baked potatoes, lobster, steak, crab legs. I left to work in New York City, France and Asia, and the first thing I decided after I came back in 1985 was that we’d have no more surf and turf up here. We got a lot of phone calls, so I put that back on. Half the menu was classic items; half was specials. One by one we dropped [the classics] off. Of course, we will cook them on request. Do I want to be making onion soup? It’s delicious—I order it wherever I go—but it’s an ego thing; it’s not the kind of food I want to portray up here.
2. Fresh and organic ingredients—going back to the farm. People understand now; they want to know where their food is coming from.
3. People will continue to demand the best they can find, the best service they can find, and they’ll continue to pay the price. A lot of people fly into Jeffco just to have dinner here—it happens once or twice a month. They say, “Money’s no object. I just want you to take care of me.”
Matthew Jensen
Restaurateur, Mateo/Radda
1. Since growing up here, I’ve seen an abundance of quality and a great collection of restaurants and chefs that are going to new levels with their menus, ingredients, service and wine savvy. The bar is constantly being raised with the influence of people traveling to, and moving here from, other parts of the country and the world. It’s great to see us become a real international city.
2. The current trend is restaurants going green and buying local. Colorado meats and local farms are being showcased. Our farmers’ market is making people aware of the great seasonal ingredients available here. All the vegetables, herbs and meats we use at this time of year are coming from within 50 miles. We try to showcase a few Colorado wines. You have to get a little creative and go wild and crazy with root vegetables during the five months that the farms are hibernating.
3. I think we’re going to continue to refine our skills and find ways to hopefully get ingredients year round. Will we stay healthy and green? The mystery is how innovative we will be at keeping up with trends from around the country and the world. It seems everything goes in cycles—in Europe people have been eating local ingredients and drinking local wines for hundreds of years. Things can get really innovative and then come back to local and traditional; they can go from very elaborate to very simple.
Antonio Laudisio
Restaurateur, Laudisio Ristorante Italiano
1.There’s a lot of young talent coming out of the culinary schools who approach their craft with a studied, measured step. On the negative side, there’s the management issue. The margins have been so greatly reduced that good management is essential. Good food and bad management will sink you faster than mediocre food and good management. The magic is to have both be excellent.
2. Wherever possible, we should search out local ingredients. The core issue for me is community. We don’t want to be looking all over the world for food that’s out of season. Seasons are nice: Between the notes, there’s silence. It’s the silence between the notes that makes the poetry and the music.
3. We’re headed toward being a world competitor in the food industry. You can eat as well here as anywhere. As a nation, however, we’ve got to be eating healthily. We have to take control of a renaissance from the middle down, not at the top of the food industry, if we’re going to outgrow the fast-food industry. That’s the trick to survival.
Karen Ripley
Retired Director of Cultural Programs, Boulder Public Library
1. The biggest change in arts and culture is that there is a lot more of all the arts. There is so much entertainment every weekend that it is hard to choose between them. Along with the quantity, the quality has improved, with many very professional artists residing in or passing through Boulder. Boulder was recently listed among the 100 best art cities in the country. That suggests it has come a long way.
2. There is growing understanding that the arts not only contribute to the quality of life; they also contribute to the economy. Keeping Boulder’s economy strong has become more and more important. The arts are a clean industry. They bring people into town who spend their money and do not appreciably increase traffic or strain the city’s infrastructure. The arts add beauty, excitiement and diversity to our community.
3. I think we’re headed toward a richer cultural life that acknowledges and honors the cultures and ethnicities that exist in Boulder. Boulder is at the top of the list when it comes to environmental issues and sports. It only makes sense that art and culture should round out the attractions we have to offer citizens and tourists.
Dick Devin
Retired Artistic Director, Colorado Shakespeare Festival
1. I believe that the most important development in the arts community during the past 15 years has been the movement toward arts organizations and artists working together for promotion and welfare of all of the arts. Due to the persistent encouragement of the Boulder County Arts Alliance, the Boulder Arts Commission and many arts leaders in the community, there is now a common desire to work together to build attendance and awareness of the thriving arts in Boulder through joint marketing and other creative projects.
2. Recently, 10 Boulder County arts organizations successfully worked together to complete a study of the needs and desires of our audiences with the help of grants from the NEA and the County Commissioners, with the leadership of the BCAA and BAC. The project has resulted in a study that will be useful to all of the arts organizations in building future audiences.
3. This attitude that we all benefit from each other’s successes will undoubtedly help the Boulder area to continue to earn its recent designation as one of the premiere arts communities in America.
Barbara Dilley
Department of Contemporary Performance, Naropa University
1. The dance scene has strengthened over these years through the work of Mary Wohl Hahn and the Dance Bridge. The creation of the Dairy Center and its performance venues has also enriched Boulder’s dance offerings. All in all there is a stronger commitment to the arts throughout Boulder.
2. The Boulder International Fringe Festival is the best developing activity in the arts for our community. It allows many diverse styles in its programming as well as a place for emerging artists. Places we don’t think of as theaters become gathering spots for experimental performances. It is the next generation that needs to be seen by the community as well as our wonderful established companies.
3. Teaching from a contemplative perspective in the performing arts, I hope for more “long wave” training and “sacred space” inhabiting. By this, I mean deeper, longer, more committed explorations into a vision by a group of dance-theater performers that might last a year. Our arts practice could bring great riches to many peoples in our community if we could live more simply and spend more time devoted to ceremony and celebration.
David Ortolano
Executive Producer and Co-Founder, Boulder Fringe Festival
1. Moving here in the mid-1990s, I was disturbed at the amount of conversation there was about creating “community” and the apparent lack vision around what that actually meant. Since the inception of the Fringe Festival [January 2005], I’ve seen a dramatic increase in creative activities in the city of Boulder. Groups like the Society for Creative Aging and the Imagine! arts program for developmentally disabled adults have not only participated in the festival itself, but are also producing at least twice as much work now since their debut performances in the Fringe. Independent artists of all types and audiences from all over the country are coming here to participate in the event. The festival increased its audience from 7,000 to 10,000 between years one and two. This year we saw a 50-percent increase of applicants from outside Colorado. For the first time possibly since the ‘70s, Boulder is seeing its potential as a community of creative, independent innovators. The festival sets the stage for everyone to openly engage in the creative voice of his/her community without censorship or judgment. People have been naturally skeptical of the “unjuried” part, thinking that that means lower quality, but that has been quite the opposite. Last year, Mayor Mark Ruzzin declared the last week of August “Boulder International Fringe Week,” publicly announcing that the festival has become a vital aspect in the economic development of the City of Boulder.
2. I’ve seen Boulder in national news as one of the top arts towns in America, and increased marketing generated from the Boulder Chamber of Commerce to engage tourism on a much larger scale. The Boulder International Fringe Festival is now on the videos on all Frontier Airline’s flights. With the new cutting-edge MFA and BFA in Contemporary Performance at Naropa University, the new Atlas Center at CU (one of top three performance facilities in the country) and the increase of independent art in the community, it has become obvious to many art producers, curators and developers that Boulder’s bubble is about to burst.
3. We know from other models across the country—Minneapolis, New York, Los Angeles, Kansas City—that a creative community equates to a healthy community in terms of economic vitality and sustainability. The long-term vision, from the inception of the Boulder Fringe, has been to wake up the “bedroom culture” that resides here. Many famous artists and innovators of food, art, science and culture in general “sleep” in Boulder, but historically, if they want to make a living, they either teach or move to other places in the country. The mission of the Fringe is to turn this trend around. The festival increases of awareness of the value of art in the community, creates the opportunity for artists to make 100 percent of the sale of their artwork, and provides about 50 jobs in the arts to technicians, event planners and administrative staff. In 10 to 20 years, I predict that Boulder will be one of the hottest spots in the country to live, visit, perform, work, play and settle down.
Father William Breslin
Pastor, Sacred Heart of Jesus Roman Catholic Church
1. Besides the growth in population and in traffic and the shortage of parking, the biggest change I see in Boulder is the huge increase in the Latino population. One might not think of the city of Boulder as having a large Latino population, but we do. A careful look at who is working behind the scenes in almost any business will discover the hardworking Latino or Latina. Our parish has been in downtown Boulder since 1875 and has historically been a very Caucasian Catholic parish. We are now clearly one third Hispanic.
2. Boulder has always been a liberal town, even from its inception. Now, however, it is increasingly like a slice of Western Europe which has jettisoned its Western civilization and its roots in Christianity. The ideas and topics that increasingly occupy the culture of Boulder decidedly involve concern for the environment but not for God, preoccupation with one’s carbon footprint but not with the state of one’s soul, generosity for the animal shelter but not for breast cancer research, anxiety about the plight of the prairie dog but not of the ninth-month fetus. It’s so fascinating to me that I keep a scrapbook I’ve entitled “Only in Boulder,” with its most notable entry being the deceased couple who left their fortune to their parrot.
3. I believe that humanity is undergoing a spiritual dynamic called “the dark night of the spirit,” and that Western Europe and places like Boulder are well into that dark night. In this dark night all reinforcements for religious belief are withdrawn so as to test the remaining believers to see if they will have naked faith, faith in God despite all evidence to the contrary, and despite the ridicule they receive from the people in their lives who have abandoned God during the dark night. In Boulder, specifically in our parish, we’re headed in the direction to sustain those who have faith so as to be a beacon of light in this dark night.
The Rev. Debra Enquist
Pastor, Atonement Lutheran Church
1. The biggest change on the religious scene that I’ve personally experienced in Boulder (I’ve served here five years) is a new set of ecumenical and interfaith connections.
- During Lent a group of clergy from the Christian, Jewish and Muslim traditions met to read and discuss an account of Jesus’ last week. We plan to meet again around Jewish and Islamic texts.
- For the last two years the South Boulder community has enjoyed interfaith worship on Thanksgiving Eve.
- Restoring the Soul: Faith and Community Partnerships facilitates monthly brown-bag lunches to facilitate connections between faith communities and issues within the larger community.
- Our congregation and HospiceCare of Boulder and Broomfield Counties have been partnering to develop ways in which faith and community groups can become supportive communities in which to grieve. It’s been exciting to combine the expertise of HospiceCare with the community structure of a congregation. I expect a continuation of interfaith connections for the benefit of the larger community.
3. Boulder stands in contrast to other places I’ve lived, in that our very gifts of wealth, intellect and independence are a challenge to creating community. Who needs the hassles of community if one can get along on one’s own just fine, thankyouverymuch? And yet, a culture of extreme individualism gets lonely. I think we can expect a growing awareness of need for true community; places where individuals can belong, be valued for who they are, grow emotionally and spiritually, and contribute to others.
Judith Simmer-Brown, Ph.D.
Professor of Religious Studies, Naropa University
1. The biggest changes have to do with socioeconomic groups in Boulder—a move away from middle-income families toward wealthy singles and couples moving here from out of state. This has affected the sense of community and neighborhood.
2. We have moved from careful and slow growth, cautious about business and development, into greater encouragement toward business and development. I appreciate the greater balance we have now, and hope that we can avoid both extremes. I also think we need to cultivate civic engagement, not just around recreational activities.
3. It is important to cultivate greater communication and dialogue in our community, encouraging diversity while fostering collaboration and honoring difference among our spiritual and religious communities.
Lee Shainis
Executive Director and Co-founder, Intercambio de Comunidades
1. I’ve been doing this for a little over six years now, and I see more and more people wanting to engage in something positive around breaking down language and cultural barriers. Part of the community is increasingly fearful, because there is so little human interaction and understanding between immigrants and nonimmigrants, while some people are coming together to create crosscultural friendships that wouldn’t exist outside of a program like Intercambio. Over the last six years, I have not seen the population numbers change drastically, but the environment and the media have shifted many people from apathetic to fired up.
I also see people seeing the increased value of being bilingual more than I once did. Many U.S.-born residents have a strong desire to interact with Spanish speakers to improve their language skills. Immigrants are also recognizing more the need to speak English in order to succeed in the U.S.
2. I see a steady but very minimal increase in the number of immigrants in Boulder County. There is still a huge need for English classes, and we often have a significant waiting list. I never completely trust census data, and right now jobs are scarce according to immigrants I’ve talked to recently, so I don’t anticipate a huge increase in the near future. When jobs are abundant more people come. The strong anti-immigrant sentiment within Colorado and the harsh laws that have passed recently are also deterring some immigrants from coming to Colorado and encouraging some here to relocate.
3. I think as a whole our communities are becoming more divided and more fearful, but I see programs like Intercambio working effectively to bring people together face-to-face with the intentional goal of building cultural understanding. The media and technology is becoming a larger and larger influence on our society, and people are spending more time with computers and televisions than they are with other human beings. And we often tend to interact with people similar to us, whereas I believe we become stronger by also having friends who have different ideas and experiences.
I foresee a rough next few years because the country is so divided on the issue of immigration and there are few efforts like Intercambio, that work on the root cause of the issue and begin to build respect and reduce fear. Eventually people will realize that our communities are better places for everyone when we begin to respect everyone as humans and understand that everyone is the way they are because of their past experiences. I also hope to get out in the open the real concerns that immigrants and nonimmigrants are hesitant to voice. There is often talk of economic impact of immigrants on U.S. society, but there have been studies to demonstrate the benefits and others that show the harm. I think that people’s sincere beliefs stem from cultural misunderstandings rather than a sincere concern for our nation’s economy, because that issue is not black and white.
David Luce, M.D.
1. The explosion of complementary medicine. When I came to town there were three people doing accupuncture in Boulder, and now it’s everywhere. The complementary field has integrated, and the lines between conventional medicine and what’s considered alternative or complementary are beginning to blur. The traditional M.D. is losing his share of the marketplace.
2. There continues to be opportunity for practictioners to come to Boulder. The level of expertise in all levels of health care has deepened and broadened.
3. I think Western medicine currently specializes in disease care, and in Boulder County the complementary medicine specializes in “health care.” Western medicine is going to discover the need for delivering this “health care.” Amazingly, most primary-care physicians struggle to make a living in 2007, yet people spend huge amounts of cash on health care not covered by insurance. There is so much good complementary care that Western medicine has got to wise up and realize what the other guys have uncovered afor them. We must learn to expand the scope of care we deliver by turning our scientific attention to defining and creating health.
Barbara Mahler
Acupuncturist
1. When I first came to Boulder 20 years ago there were only two other acupuncturists practicing herbal medicine, and a handful of practitioners using different styles of acupuncture. Now we have three schools in the area and dozens of acupuncturists.
2. Over the years Traditional Oriental Medicine has gained greater acceptance by the allopathic medical community. The cancer center scheduled to open in the next few years is planning on having acupuncture and bodywork available for their patients. I think you will see more and more integration of different modalities. By working as a team and honoring our different strengths, I think the patients will get the best possible results on their healing journey.
3. One of my areas of expertise is supporting cancer patients through their treatment with Western medicine. Definitely I already see greater integration and acceptance of Chinese medicine in this area. My hope is that new research will be able to mobilize our own immune system to fight cancer. In terms of women’s health, I think we are seeing individuals feeling more empowered to stay healthy with diet and mental and physical exercise, and by using their health practitioner as a resource.
Ceal Barry
Former Coach, CU Women’s Basketball
1. In women’s basketball, the biggest change is the number of games that are televised throughout the regular season as compared to 20 years ago, when no games were televised. Currently, Fox Sports televises at least seven regular-season contests for the Colorado women’s basketball team per year.
2. The Boulder Rockies, a girls’ club basketball team run by Kim LaLonde Thompson, is one of the strongest in the region, developing the skills of young female basketball players and traveling to national competitions across the country.
3. Women’s basketball is the premier spectator sport amongst women’s sports at the collegiate level. I think the Big 12 Conference that the Colorado Buffaloes are members of, and the Colorado women’s team under head coach Kathy McConnell-Miller, will continue to rise and be amongst the top programs in the nation.
Michael Aisner
Race Director, Red Zinger/Coors Classic
1. Since I moved here in 1970, other than more stoplights, the disappearance of Boulder Furniture Mart and the burning of Caribou Ranch Studios, I have also seen a lot of consistency: our greenbelt initiatives, the university’s contributions to our culture and a great music scene with etown and great clubs. Events too: Bolder Boulder and Kinetics are world-class events, but international bike racing is rare here, and that is sad.
2. I wish there were a greater ethnic diversity here. It may be my only complaint. and I see little trend to a better mix.
3. Boulder still has an extraordinary quality of life which I see in our future. Older people are out and active and dressed naturally, and smoking is rare. Events like Thursday-night cruiser rides and Pumpkin runs, and facilities like the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine, put us on the map and need to be preserved so this town remains a mecca of health and fun.
Jared Polis
Politician and philanthropist; former chair of Colorado State Board of Education
1. Boulder now has more public and private educational options than ever before. New kinds of schools empower parents to choose different types of educational programs for their kids; the flip side is the decline of neighborhood schooling in Boulder.
2. With the passage of the Boulder Valley School District bond initiative (3A) last November, the district is poised to make significant upgrades and create the capital infrastructure needed for educational success in the coming decades. A lot of young professionals from the East and West Coasts are choosing to move to Boulder to raise their children because of our family- friendly environment and strong educational system.
3. Boulder is poised to enjoy continued vitality as we build our cultural capacity while continuing to preserve open space and environmental assets. With the passage of the bond, Boulder will remain on the vanguard of educational choice and quality in Colorado.
Lorynda Sampson
St. Vrain Valley School District teacher and 2003 Colorado Teacher of the Year; incoming principal, Westminster Elementary School
1. In the last three decades I’ve observed that educators come into the field with more skills and abilities than ever before. We now have more and higher levels of achievement targets than ever before in public education. We also have more educational choices and a greater variety of programming for students and their families, both in public and private schools. There’s a huge increase in the width and depth of diversity in our student populations in Boulder County.
2. I see that we’re beginning to become “re-aware,” so to speak, of the need to foster understanding, appreciation, celebration and acceptance of diversity. I personally think we’re off the mark using the word tolerance. We have to go beyond tolerance in order to make a lasting, positive impact when it comes accepting diversity of all kinds. Education is starting to make some new attempts in that direction. Accountability for students and educators has definitely increased; that’s a good thing. How we measure and hold students and educators accountable, and for what, is still being ironed out ... especially as we listen to the needs and demands of a more vocal and global and technology-based workplace.
3. I think those of us in education are committed to working more as true teams and in collaboration, versus in isolation, to meet the needs of students and our communities. We’re also quite serious about changing the whats and hows in schools so that we close those very real achievement gaps for males, lower socioeconomic groups, etc. Educators, administrators, businesspeople, families and students alike see a pressing need to provide a relevant, rigorous education for today’s students, who come with very different learning styles, expectations and experiences than they did even two decades ago. We also need to prepare them for a future that’s very different— fast-paced, technology-oriented and -driven and ever changing—than the one in which we now live, learn and work.
Candy Hyatt
Retired BVSD middle-level and elementary school principal
1. I think the biggest change I’ve observed in Boulder in the field of education is the increase in diversity in the population of the students over the past three decades. There are so many more students learning English as a second language in our schools, which presents a challenge to teachers and adds a very rich multicultural dimension to schools which used to be so homogeneous.
2. Significant trends I see developing in the city and county of Boulder are related to an increase in the numbers of people in this area. As the population in Boulder County grows, I see a decline in altruism and acceptance of differences. This has affected the schools in many ways.
3. It’s difficult to predict. This community places a high value on education, which has made working in the schools very rewarding. However, the future of our local educational system is increasingly linked to federal and state mandates. The outcome of our next general election will greatly influence what happens in the schools in Boulder.
Philip DiStefano, Ph.D.
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost, CU
1. When I came to the University of Colorado in the mid-’70s, the campus had under 20,000 students, and although we were an AAU institution, our reputation as a national and international research university was in its infancy. Former president Arnold Weber put CU-Boulder on the map when he declared that the campus would be No. 1 in the country in the space sciences.
2. The city and the university are truly in a partnership to improve the quality of living for both citizens and students. This is the mlst relationship that I have seen in the last 30 years, and it is due to the collaborative efforts of Chancellor Peterson and City Manager Frank Bruno and their staffs.
The university is recruiting outstanding faculty and students to Boulder, and this recruiting will improve the reputation of the campus and the city. Since 1998, CU has had four Nobel Prize winners, and I expect more in the near future.
Anne Bliss, Ph.D.
Senior Instructor in Writing and Rhetoric, CU
1. The change from a “town” with “farm stuff”—rodeos, square dancing, neighborhood bars that were family friendly. People are still friendly, but there are many, many more unfamiliar faces.
2. Push toward green building, recycling, a strong emphasis on protecting the environment. The cities within Boulder County are recognizing that they’re significant parts of the county/metro area/state. It seems to me that Boulder is becoming even richer, e.g., condos that cost more than a million dollars signal the presence of more significant wealth than in the “old days.” As the population ages, I foresee more facilities such as Frasier Meadows, in which people can have an apartment, and then move to assisted living and then to nursing care. But aging Boulderites also want a lively facility, with plenty of youthful activities.
3. More urbanity, but with the recognition that we live in a very special place on the planet. That will continue to draw individuals who love the outdoors, are athletic, and want to contribute to making the planet a better place to live. Eco-consciousness, coupled with the creative entrepreneurship in our fair town, has led to organizations like Resource and Eco-Cycle. I think Boulder will be at the forefront in intellectual pursuits, particularly research in scientific fields but also the arts.
I’d like to say that I think we’re headed toward a more civil society here, but I’m not sure of that given baby killing, rapes, and nastiness on the streets.
Tim Combs
Owner, Lyons Antiques
1. More ties! There used to not be very many suits and ties in Boulder. On the good side, there is more sophistication and culture. On the downside, things are less casual. There’s more of having to impress and put on the front. Less Western. More parking problems, more traffic problems.
2. The better understanding of our need to be self-sufficient. There are all kinds of energy issues that the state and the county will take a lead in, which filters down from the state to the county to the cities. Boulder has unlimited potential that it is now starting to realize it should use. I really think this state needs to be a model for the rest of the West. Boulder is starting to show up, to take its potential and do something with it. Boulder has the intellectual community of Berkeley, the money of Hollywood, and the art of Santa Fe. With those three things is has real potential to set the pace.
I think Boulder is going to take the lead for alternative energy in the state. We have the highest number of high-paid scientists in the world, between NIST and NOA and NCAR and everything else. It used to be Los Alamos, but that’s the past.
3. We’re all interrelated here now. Being an optimist, the future holds that we finally come together to make the model community to show people how to be more self-sufficient, energy-wise and economically, and that we put the quality of life higher than anything else. That’s our challenge and I think we’ll be able to do it. The secret is balancing the environment and the economy. I think we’ll be a shining example.
Copyright 2007 Brock Publishing
info@brockpub.com
