Boulder, Colorado

This is a photograph of the County Courthouse in Boulder, Colorado. We just returned from a 4 day visit. I had not been there since 1954.

We were told in advance that, "Boulder is just like Berkeley, but more so." Well, we did find many similarities. Both cities are dominated by a large university. Both have excellent restaurants. We had dinner at Frasca in Boulder which is at the same level as Chez Panisse. "The Buff" in Boulder is a breakfast and lunch restaurant similar to but better than Berkeley's beloved Rick & Ann's. Both cities have interesting shopping districts; 4th Street in Berkeley and Pearl Street in Boulder. Both cities have civic buildings build in the Art Deco style of the 1930s. But that is where the similarity seems to end.

Most of the buildings in Boulder are brick and seem quite new. There is a lot of new construction underway in Boulder including tract homes and big box shopping malls. Berkeley is full of older buildings mostly wood and stucco. There is limited new construction. Berkeley opposes big box buildings and shopping malls. It may be the weather, but we saw few homeless or aging hippies in Boulder. You can't walk around downtown Berkeley without tripping over them.

Perhaps the biggest difference is that with much larger shopping districts, many more upscale stores, and major expansion of retail space underway one senses that there is much more money in Boulder than in Berkeley. We did not stay long enough to understand why. I suspect that it is because Boulder encourages high tech industry and Berkeley does not.