Boulder of yesteryear- changes?? (Denver, Longmont: appointed, real estate, apartments)

[tceffo]

Let me ask you Boulder people this....> Back in 1978, I left Boston College to spend the summer visiting a friend who had moved to Boulder from our home state of NJ. Well I was A 22 yrs old kid (maybe 21??) and I thought I found the best small city on earth. Now I stayed over a year ** (screwed up my Boston college run - thats a different post)

This was a town that was being put together by many of the brighter bunch of my generation. My guess, would be that the serious students about bettering the world, left the SanFransico/ Berkley area & moved to a place that they thought they could maybe mold. They were just as concerned with bike lanes as lanes for auto traffic. Concerned about auto pollution before anyone else. Concered about thier beautiful real estate & they tried to keep everyone - residents, travelers, and tourists all aware of this - from the clean water to natural beauty.

For a buck (if I remember right) they had buses that went from Boulder to Denver & visaversa all day - I think it was a bit more during peak hours.

Over 30 years ago ,that town was already all over the envirormental issues. It was clean and pretty much crime free.
Family issues brought me back east to NJ, where a career and a family happed to me. I've never gone back (save for 1 business trip), but even that was 2 days in Denver.

This is when Mork & Mindy was a big hit & Robin Williams hung around down on the trendy "Pearl St"- I guess at this point Im just reminissing- but how about it?

Just for the hell of it- From some of you long time residents- How has one of my favorite towns in one of my favorite states changed in the last 30 or so years???

Going thru my memory bank on a rainy Saturday in NJ.

CEFFO

[CCCVDUR]

Great post ...
The Smart Growth model has worked in keeping unemployment low w/ recruitment of high tech businesses and a fantastic urban trail system and open space. However, as a visitor earlier this year, I was disappointed with the population density and air pollution in 24 square miles, with 500 cars parked near Chautauqua Park. For every Infilled apartment or townhome downtown, there is at least one subaru outback that still has to drive to the grocery store and pick the kids up from school. The New Boulder under the author's predictions of Smart Growth - II will inevitably feature more corner independent grocery stores, so that people do not have to drive 1-2 miles through 10 stop lights on 6 lane boulevards to Safeway and Kroeger

• Libertarian Approach to Smart Growth
  
• Featuring Genuine Mixed Use Developments
• A "Libertarian Smart Growth" Agenda from Micheal Lewyn http://www.planetizen.com/n...1:34 AM Oct 15th from web

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by tceffo

How has one of my favorite towns in one of my favorite states changed in the last 30 or so years??? Going thru my memory bank on a rainy Saturday in NJ.

I graduated from C.U. in the mid-seventies and wish I could have stayed in Boulder but there were no jobs in my field and Denver was pretty much in the middle of a recession. Went back several times and was amazed at how much Boulder had changed. When we were students, we walked everywhere and it was still fairly hippie-like. I remember places like Tulagi's and The Sink on the Hill, playing fooseball, the Walrus, The Catacombs, Fleetwood Mac playing at Folsom Stadium...

[suzco]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

I graduated from C.U. in the mid-seventies and wish I could have stayed in Boulder but there were no jobs in my field and Denver was pretty much in the middle of a recession. Went back several times and was amazed at how much Boulder had changed. When we were students, we walked everywhere and it was still fairly hippie-like. I remember places like Tulagi's and The Sink on the Hill, playing fooseball, the Walrus, The Catacombs, Fleetwood Mac playing at Folsom Stadium...

Believe it or not, Tulagi's, The Sink, the Walrus and the Catacombs are all still here. People still walk and ride bikes everywhere.

Hippie-like? Not so much, though some will argue it still is. There are many of us who were here in the mid-seventies, and before, who are still here now.

[Scott5280]

Tulagi's closed it's doors a few years ago, much of the University Hill was dying there for a while. The old Taylors location still sits empty. There have been some discussions recently about proposed redevopment on the Hill, mixed use ect. Not sure that will really fly, but you never know. The downtown area has given way to many high end condo/loft projects in recent years. The vacant lot that sat on Walnut forever is now a spa hotel..lots of things like that...Crossroads is now an outdoor mall called 29th street. East 38th just south of Arapahoe is a mixed use project called The Peloton. I grew up there in the eighties. I used to sneak into The Blue Note and Boulder's Coast , Pogos ect. as a teenager, some places that all died as well long ago.. Boulder is nothing like it was even in the mid 90's. Still very nice..just different. The Rainbow people, and collective conscious crowd has given way to more of the entrepenuer crowd. Real Boulder hippies only exist on relic postcards.

[CA4Now]

Originally Posted by Scott5280

Tulagi's closed it's doors a few years ago, much of the University Hill was dying there for a while.

Is the Flagstaff House still there? What about The Greenbriar, The Broker, Scornavacco's? I remember Crossroads as having only a supermarket and a discount drug store. I was impressed with what they'd done to Pearl Street the last time I was there, which was in the late 1990's.

[westiedogs]

I was there in the mid-70's too - in fact I remember seeing Fleetwood Mac at DU (think it was their field house) when they were the back-up band to Traffic - also fond memories of Zephyr, Tulagi's, just throwing a sleeping bag anywhere on the flatirons, the band that sang "White Bird", camping out for tickets to all the rock bands that played in Denver to make sure we would be in the first few rows, hitchhiking everywhere, nickel beer, funky mountain houses, and several other things I probably shouldn't mention.

[Neditate]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

Is the Flagstaff House still there? What about The Greenbriar, The Broker, Scornavacco's? I remember Crossroads as having only a supermarket and a discount drug store. I was impressed with what they'd done to Pearl Street the last time I was there, which was in the late 1990's.

Yes, the Flagstaff House is still here as is The Greenbriar.
The Broker hotel is now a Rodeway Inn, but I think the restaurant is still in operation. Haven't been there in ages, their Sunday brunch used to be awesome.

[tceffo]

Originally Posted by Scott5280

. The Rainbow people, and collective conscious crowd has given way to more of the entrepenuer crowd. Real Boulder hippies only exist on relic postcards.

In a way thats a shame- we kind of really tried there
.........and then, either life gets in the way- or you move on............

peace&respect
ceffo

[eon-krate32]

well i don't live in Boulder, I live in Longmont (some 15 miles to the northeast) and for the 13 years I've lived here Boulder has gone through quite a few changes. Boulder has become far more restrictive on it's height limit on buildings (from 25 down to 15 i think, i could be wrong) a few years ago, which really sucks because Boulder has such a great opportunity for some unique skyline action. But where it can't spread out, it spreads up by buildings mass numbers of 3 to 6 floor apartments and condos. The city has also gained quite a bit of High Tech industry, earning the Boulder-Longmont area the the rank of having the highest concentration of High Tech jobs in the nation. The traffic kinda sucks but they're fixing that (little by little, although the development of the nearby Interlocken area certainly didn't help).