In polarized Boulder, can’t we all just get along?

By the time this edition of BizWest hits the newsstand (if those exist anymore), the local election in Boulder will be on the verge of happening.

One thing is certain; the losing sides on the growth initiatives aren’t going to be happy campers.

I can’t remember a more polarizing time in recent history here. The only thing as reactive as this was a recall election in 1974 against a then-“hippie” City Councilman named Tim Fuller. Fuller was a supporter of an ordinance that would bar employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The power structure in place at the time either wasn’t having it, or didn’t understand it.

Things didn’t work out so well for Fuller; he was the only council member recalled in the last 100 years! Times have changed thankfully; Fuller probably would be branded as a thoughtful conservative in this day and age. But the old guard got really stirred up by this guy and his ideas. Things got quite intense, and took a bit of time to simmer down.

Flash-forward to today. It’s a little unclear to me why the different sides on development here in 2015 can’t find common ground.  Pretty much nothing substantial was built in Boulder after the 1999-2000 dot-com crash. Right after that, we headed into the deep, dark depression of 2008. Those were some scary times. I think we were all pretty grateful that our real estate values held up through that as well as they did. No one would argue that there was pent-up demand for new development, which in the case of Boulder is really redevelopment, or more often repositioning.

Supposedly the construction cranes outnumber the prairie dogs right now, and part of our population is telling us that indeed, the sky is falling. It seems to me that an important factor that isn’t being discussed well enough are the basics of supply and demand. It’s pretty elementary: If a need didn’t exist, the construction cranes wouldn’t exist. With all of the required due diligence, financial analysis and equity being raised for the various projects, a lot of smart people have figured out that there is need, and satisfying that need makes financial sense. Does it make for a better community? I think it does. In simple terms, to be an economically sustainable, vibrant community, people want choices.

I think it’s also about “tuning up” the competition. The old choices have to hit refresh to keep up with the new choices. It seems undeniable that we will end up with a better lifestyle simply by the fact that we have more choices in so many areas of business, dining, hotels, apartments, retail, and the list goes on. As new development occurs, the older product/property is forced to get better to stay competitive. We all win.

So how do you appease both sides of the growth/no growth coin? I think that in 12 to 24 months, the construction cranes will come down. As people begin to explore some of the new places to go, the anxiety level is going to drop. Is it going to be more crowded? Yes, but Boulder has always felt crowded. In fact, it was probably the number one complaint from people even in the 1960s, a time when you could throw a bowling ball down Pearl Street at 5 p.m. on any given day and not hit a car or pedestrian.

I think it’s probably time for both of the warring sides to come together and develop some improved transportation alternatives that help move auto, bike and pedestrian traffic. Maybe stop the war on the car, then synchronize the traffic signals and get things moving again. Now that we have Uber and Lyft, I think we could make do with at least a 50 percent reduction in the big empty buses that impede traffic on a daily basis in Boulder. Looks to me like ridership is minimal at best; it might be time to re-evaluate the whole bus program. In tandem with that,  maybe we focus on getting bikes in a more segregated and safe location, away from cars using side streets, underpasses and things like that. Boulder is never going to be Amsterdam; we should drop that comparison and come up with something that works here.

As the Beatles so succinctly put it, “come together, right now” might be a good new slogan to put on some of the never-ending multitude of street signs we have.

Geoffrey Keys is president of Keys Commercial Real Estate in Boulder. He can be reached at 303-447-2700 or via email at keys@keys-commercial.com.

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