Weekly Column: Regarding Boulder: Bicycles, Boundaries and Brunch

When an article is headlined, “This City Is Better than Yours” it has a tendency to grab your attention.

But the first paragraph begins with an impressive list of recognitions that Boulder, Colorado (population 94,000) has received: smartest city, thinnest city, best place for a runner, and “the top green city and clean city in the United States.”

The article continues by listing seven things one should know regarding Boulder. A sampling of three of the seven will be enough to make the point that the citizens of Boulder have indeed been bold in shaping a city on certain distinctives:

1. Bicycles – “The best way to explore Boulder is by bicycle (the number of bikes is nearly equal to the number of households, and they plow some major bike paths before roads when it snows).”

2. Boundaries – “The essence of Boulder’s beauty lies in a commitment made over a century ago by the city’s founders. The creation of an open-space system, a set of land-use limitations to control the city’s boundaries and to corral sprawl. . . .” (The Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan Policies guide decisions about growth, development, preservation, environmental protection, economic development, affordable housing, culture and the arts, neighborhood character and transportation.)

3. Brunch (at the Teahouse) – “For four years, artisans in Boulder’s sister city of Dushanbe, Tajikistan, worked to create their gift to the city. Today, the iconic Teahouse is an authentic representation of Persian art and architecture, and is the only building of its kind in the Western Hemisphere . . . The brunch menu offers Indian curry omelets . . . .”

To read about the rest of the seven, click here

P.S. And, Boulder “boasts more sunny days than San Diego or Miami.”