Opinion: Is this the future we want for Boulder?
Boulder’s latest “Community Profile” has both commercial and residential growth continuing at exactly the same percentage rate per year from now through 2035. Currently Boulder has almost 60,000 in-commuters. Given these matching growth rates and the current large surplus of jobs over workers, the number of in-commuters will continue to increase as we add at least another 60,000 jobs and 20,000 or so more residents to what the planning department calls “reasonable build-out.” Is adding more and more employment where we should be headed? It increases traffic congestion and drives up the price of housing, resulting in decreased “diversity.” The spillover effects of adding housing to try to catch up to jobs are equally pernicious — city and school district facilities are overcrowded, services are stretched thin, traffic is made even worse, and finite resources like water and open space are stressed. None of this is desirable, so why are we going there? The excess of in-commuters can