‘Opinion’ Archives
Does Boulder Have Too Many Jobs?
Does Boulder have too many jobs? If you are out of work, then Boulder needs at least one more job. If you are a commercial developer then Boulder needs as many jobs as you can convince the planning department to let you squeeze onto your particular [...]
FOR the Measures 300 and 301
Photo courtesy Allyn Feinberg Dear Fellow Boulder citizens: Are you dismayed by the congestion and traffic you are encountering in Boulder? Are you shocked by the price of housing and rents that we are experiencing? Do you wonder what is [...]
AGAINST the Measures 300 and 301
Photo courtesy Will Toor This fall, voters will face two ballot issues that have been placed on the ballot by a group calling itself Livable Boulder. The proponents are good people, and I count some of them as personal friends. But I think they [...]
What’s Right about Right-sizing
Wouldn't it be great if there were a simple way for Boulder to: reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions; support local businesses; strengthen social bonds in the community; reduce living costs for the most needy; improve human health; and [...]
Citizen Participation in Boulder: Real or Charade?
2010 aerial photo by Doc Searls (flickr creative commons https://flic.kr/p/8UoZod) Anyone who’s paying attention knows that there has been a lot of controversy surrounding citizen engagement efforts in connection with the city’s “Housing [...]
Safety First!
I love living in a dense, urban environment. I've lived in the urban core of both Amsterdam and San Francisco for extended periods, where I enjoyed the ability to walk to work, shopping, restaurants, and entertainment. I cherish the human contact [...]
Sense of Place
photo by Bo Insogna (flickr creative commons https://flic.kr/p/asddPf) “A place belongs forever to whoever claims it hardest, remembers it most obsessively, wrenches it from itself, shapes it, renders it, loves it so radically that he remakes it [...]
Are Boulder’s Downtown Streets Off-Limits To Bicyclists?
Sidewalk cycling on Broadway between Walnut and Pearl What are the factors that induce people to bicycle? Two of the most important are relatively short travel distances and relatively slow motor vehicle speeds. Given this, the town center [...]
Securing the US Electric Grid with Distributed Energy and Microgrids
Author's disclosure: Occasionally HOMER Energy pays me to get the word out about their company and that is the case with this story. The local NREL spinoff develops software that allows rapid design and cost comparisons of hybrid renewable [...]
Transportation is Destiny: Design for Happy People, Not Happy Cars
The following is a summary of a talk I was invited to give at a PLAN-Boulder County forum on Friday, January 24. As a town and transportation planner, I cautioned Boulder not to put too much emphasis on easing car traffic flows—particularly by [...]
