Expect 2017 to bring answers to questions of business, politics

2017 promises to be a year that brings clarity to many facets of our economic and political life — locally, at the state level, nationally and globally.

This year will see completion of — or substantial progress with — many construction projects that have sprouted cranes throughout the Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado. Finished will be major new hotels in downtown Fort Collins and Greeley, as well as central Boulder. Many smaller hotel projects will have been completed.

UCHealth will wrap up construction of its Longs Peak Hospital in Longmont and will begin construction of its new Greeley hospital. We haven’t seen the end of health-care construction in the region — far from it — but some of the bigger projects will progress or be completed. We’ll know fairly quickly what these projects and others will mean for competition for patients, quality of care, cost of care, etc.

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Colorado State University’s new on-campus stadium will be completed in time for the football season. Many other major development projects will wrap up, even as others progress rapidly — think Google’s new Boulder campus — or will begin. The impact on surrounding neighborhoods and arterials will begin to be felt.

Major new developments now emerging from the ground in Fort Collins, Loveland, Greeley, Boulder and elsewhere will help determine the fabric of our communities for decades to come.

Politically, 2017 should bring clarity to the 2018 Colorado gubernatorial campaign, as Republicans and Democrats vie to replace a term-limited Gov. John Hickenlooper. It’s almost surprising — as early as campaigns start nowadays — that no one has announced his or her candidacy already. But we’ll surely have a feel for the field of candidates before 2017 is over.

Nationally and globally, we’ll probably know within days, weeks or months what a Trump presidency will mean for our politics, international trade, immigration, taxes, the courts, health care, international relations and more.

Elsewhere in this edition, Entrepreneurs columnist Karl Dakin writes about the pace of innovation. Just as that pace has accelerated, the Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado is experiencing a pace of change that is perhaps unprecedented in our history, brought on by growth, construction, competition and many other factors.

Add in the change that is about to emerge on the national and world stage, and we should be in for a very interesting year indeed.