Boulder is Changing

My employer has several offices within the city of Boulder, and at the moment I’m temporarily stationed at the office not far from the central part of the city. The other day I found an excuse to take break from the flagellating my soul goes through on a daily basis there and stepped out onto the balcony area that faces westwards. Surveying the scene before me, I was once again captivated by the sheer beauty of Boulder’s geography, with the majestic mountains forming the background for the fair city. At the same time, it was impossible to ignore the construction area directly in front of me. Below is a photo I took to give you an idea of what I was seeing that day.

Scanning the scene and thinking about what I was looking at, I came to the realization that in my mind I have a romanticized version of Boulder that doesn’t exist in reality. I like to think of Boulder as this idealistic town at the foot of the mountains—insulated from many of America’s woes. The truth is not so dreamy. Boulder is growing, as evidenced by all the construction around town, and due to the restrictive nature of new development it is experiencing some of the problems experienced in places like the California Bay Area. Rents and home prices are steadily rising and pricing people out of the city, and traffic congestion seems to get a little worse each year. In spite of these and other issues, there’s still a ton of things I like about Boulder, and I’d go so far as to say it’s one of America’s best cities, but there’s no denying that Boulder is changing. This fantasy version of Boulder in my head hasn’t existed for a least a decade, if at all. It’s time to embrace reality and exist in the real Boulder, taking the city as it is.