Don’t be fooled by the hucksters from the Chamber of Commerce, the Realtors Association, developers and speculators who argue that we should continue to build higher and denser downtown.
They argue that this continued development will allow workers to live within the city and thus unclog our highways, put less cars on our streets and encourage bike, bus and pedestrian traffic. But, what they don’t tell you is that none of this density, “our new open space,” they call it, is affordable to the average worker. This “targeted in-fill” by speculators is not going to provide any reasonable housing options for people in Boulder, but, increase the amount of traffic downtown, tax an infrastructure already overburdened, take away the rest of our skyline and view of the mountains and concentrate even more pollution downtown.
If our city leaders were really serious they wouldn’t already have allowed developers to opt out of providing affordable housing by paying a fee rather than providing it. They would not continue to provide additional options such as more underground parking but block off streets and force public transportation.
Higher density and more mixed use development downtown will only provide more housing for the rich, perhaps their home away from “home,” add more “bizynezzez” for the tourists and profits to the landowners, and, less open space and tranquility for the rest of us. The percentage of actual residents downtown on a given day has actually gone down as the quality of life has decreased because of the greedy schemes of these hucksters.
They’ll tell you that this “infill development” will cut down vehicle use but have you noticed a decrease in congestion downtown? They’ll tell you this density won’t require additional city services or infrastructure. Do you think we’re that stupid?
Finally, they’ll tell you these projects will be built with the newest environmental and energy standards in mind, lowering our carbon footprint, all “affordable,” of course. They’ll say anything to get a green light to sustain the continuing development downtown, like growth in building density and population downtown is sustainable and good for the environment.
They’ll tell you “density is the new open space,” as if they’ll be providing a public service by filling in actual open space. The sky is a commodity to them.
These hucksters will turn logic on it’s head for their own short term profits at the expense of our quality of life and standard of living, forever.
Seth Brigham
Boulder