Above Beautiful Boulder Colorado
 

It was a lovely day yesterday, so I climbed to the top of one of the mountains in Boulder Mountain Park, and took a couple of photos of Boulder.

Boulder is generally considered Colorado's second city for urbanism. It is in a beautiful location at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. In many ways, Boulder is actually more walkable and urban than Denver. The bus service is amazing, our bike infrastructure blows Denver out of the water, and almost everything is walkable. Unlike Denver, it is also very easy to live in Boulder without a car. (We have grocery stores within walking distance of our downtown residential areas, and most places of employment are within walking distance, or a short bus ride away)

Anyhow...


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Walkable maybe. But not more urban, not in any way. And it's more walkable because it's a college town. Boulder isn't a real place with the problems and disagreements that real places face, so that's easy. Wealthy, stagnant, and everybody thinks the same. That makes everything easy. Also, boring.

Nice picture. Pity that there isn't anything under construction in it.

Amazing how walkable a city can be when you price everyone out.

Great pictures! I do have to take issue with the phrase "almost everything is walkable" though. I was born and raised in the neighborhood southwest of Table Mesa and Broadway, near Fairview High School if anybody is familiar with the area. This part of Boulder is most certainly not "walkable." The local, strip-mall style King Soopers and associated retail was about 20-30 minutes on foot from my house; and that's just the edge of the neighborhood. In fact, if you remove the tunnel vision outside of pre-war Boulder (Downtown, CU, The Hill, and the area around the hospital), the vast majority of town is actually a bit of a suburban nightmare.

And yeah... the bus system is better than 90% of America, but ironically growing up in Boulder taught me to dislike buses rather than to love them. From South Boulder it can take you 30-45 minutes to get to Pearl st. on the bus when you factor in walking time and waiting time. The same trip in the car is about 10 mins. My family NEVER took the bus, and the only time I ever really rode it was as an adolescent. When I turned 16, I cashed in my eco-pass for a driver's license and never looked back; and it certainly wasn't because my hometown was so "walkable."

This thread is ridiculous. Almost as ridiculous as the show that I'm watching right now about DIA having an underground chamber with extra-high urinals for aliens.

I disagree.

I live in a very nice 3 bedroom house in the Goss Grove neighborhood with 2 roommates. We pay 525 a month per person, plus utilities. Our house is just 4 blocks from downtown Boulder Pearl Street / Walnut area, and the grocery store is even closer.

People on this forum always talk about how Boulder has priced everyone out... I challenge you to find a 3 bedroom unit anywhere near central Denver that is walking distance to downtown with similar amenities to the place I currently live in in Boulder.

Fact of the matter is that central Denver is already WAY more expensive to live in than central Boulder. Denver has already become Boulder, only worse. Open your eyes. Denver has already out Bouldered Boulder

There is a very nice 4 story apartment building currently going up near 29th street mall. Which means that Boulder is building more dense than one of the projects in Union Station (the affordable housing project)

You can live affordably almost anywhere if you want two roommates. But adults generally don't want that.

Also, what would that three-bedroom house cost if you wanted to buy it? I guarantee the mortgage would be more than $1500. Probably closer to $3500. Buying, another thing adults like to do.

If your argument is that Boulder is affordable, you have lost all credibility.

Wait guys, did Eeyore move to Boulder? Boulder's biggest project is denser than Denver's smallest project, therefore Boulder wins? Three words for you: Pueblo Springs Ranch.

No my argument is that it is more affordable to live in almost any walkable area of central Boulder than it is to live anywhere in central Denver.

And this is true, is it not?

No but what I am pointing out is that Boulder is building denser than Denver is building next to one of the largest transportation projects in recent American history.

No, it is not true. You could easily rent a 3br in a garbage old house with two roommates. Just that most of us graduated college and moved on to adult life, and don't desire to live like we did when we were 20 anymore. When we complain about affordability we're comparing apples to your plums.

This is a ridiculous statement, it's a remnant site being used for affordable housing, which can't be built large and still be that affordable. It's a completely arbitrary boundary - if you took even the whole block it would be a density Boulder doesn't do. See seven's denverurbanism link.

Typical, however, that a Boulderite would lash out at the affordable housing project. You all spit on poor people as a matter of course.

The place I live in currently is far for garbage. wood floors, new appliances, etc

But, I'll play here. Can you provide me a link to a 3 bedroom house within walking distance of central denver for 1500 a month?

::Checks Zillow for your exact criteria, but in Boulder. Notices zero results in Boulder, period. Repeats on Craigslist. Same result. Repeats on sites like Forrent.com and Housinghelper.com. Same result.::


So you hold Denver to a standard that Boulder cannot fulfill? Right then.

I can find a few in Central Denver under 1500, but why is the price of 3 bedrooms some mark of affordability?

Most of my childhood was spent living below the poverty line and in my family a 3rd bedroom was considered a luxury not a necessity. It wasn't until college where multiple roommates meant more people sharing the rent that renting more than 2 bedrooms made more economic sense.

Methinks that there is a "my Daddy owns the building" factor at play in Boulder.

It's so cute when Boulder thinks they are being progressive.

I assume you are talking about Depot Square at Boulder Junction and the 78-unit affordable apartment project U/C there. Lumping in the 140-room Hyatt that will be built there and assuming the parcel is approximately 3.28 acres, this gives the project a density of 64 units/acre. In comparison, the affordable apartment project at Union, 1975 18th Street, is 108 units on a parcel of 1.13 acres resulting is a density of 96 units/acre. Boulder's idea of density is 67% that of one of Denver's lowest density projects.

If you are referring to 3100 Pearl, which is 319-unit apartment project U/C to the south of Depot Square, that project is on 4.23 acres and has a density of 75 units/acre. Even City House comes in at 94 units/acres. 80% of the density of the least efficient project around Union Station density-wise.

Boulder's wouldn't know density if it the word was mushroom stamped on every resident's forehead.