News, Analysis and Opinion for the Informed Boulder Resident
Tuesday October 15th 2024

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Council candidates 2019 Council candidates 2019 »


Dear Blue Line readers, The Blue Line won't be doing any municipal election coverage this year. We're [...]


Xcel’s Municipalization Offer:  Heads They Win, Tails We Lose Xcel’s Municipalization Offer: »


Two weeks ago, Xcel made a set of 11th hour electricity provision offers to Boulder, a so-called [...]


Remembering Al Bartlett Remembering Al Bartlett »


Editor's note: On Tuesday, November 1, the Boulder City Council will hold a public hearing to designate [...]


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How We Got Here, in Part »

How We Got Here, in Part


For newcomers, here is Al Bartlett's account of the citizens' efforts to establish Boulder's first growth boundary, back when Boulder had fewer than 40,000 people. This piece was originally posted to the Blue [Read More]


Neighborhoods

Redeveloping the Boulder Community Hospital Site Redeveloping the Boulder Community »


The most important task of the urbanist is controlling size. —David Mohney As [...]


Al Bartlett’s Legacy Al Bartlett’s Legacy »


On Tuesday (Nov. 1), City Council will consider landmark designation for the home of the [...]


“The Belonging Revolution” Sweeps Through Longmont, Neighborhood by Neighborhood “The Belonging Revolution” »


Longmont condos (photo by Sam Cox flickr creative commons [...]


More Articles

High Country News | Have we underestimated the West’s super-floods?

High Country News | Have we underestimated the West’s super-floods?

"By combing the Colorado River, the Green River and others in the Southwest for sediment deposits and other flood evidence and then carbon-dating the results, Baker has concluded the short-term record severely underestimates the size and frequency of large floods." Read the entire article at High County News: Have we underestimated the West’s [...]

Denverite | Climate change will likely bring stronger storms and more 100-degree days to the Front Range

Denverite | Climate change will likely bring stronger storms and more 100-degree days to the Front Range

2013 flood extents(image from the Boulder Data Hub, source: City of Boulder) “… reports also project that storms of a half-inch of precipitation or more in one day will be more likely with continued high emissions: 16 percent more frequent by mid-century and 36 percent more frequent by late-century in Boulder County; 12 percent more [...]

ProPublica | Boomtown, Flood Town

ProPublica | Boomtown, Flood Town

“…Scientists say the Harris County Flood Control District, which manages thousands of miles of floodwater-evacuating bayous and helps enforce development rules, should focus more on preserving green space and managing growth. The City of Houston, too. And they say everyone should plan for more torrential rainfall because of the changing [...]

Coloradan Magazine Archives | Open space

Coloradan Magazine Archives | Open space

Emeritus professors Al Bartlett, left, of physics and Lynn Wolfe (MFA’48) of fine arts stand on Boulder’s Bobolink Trail "Hordes of veterans flocked to CU to attend school on the G.I. Bill after World War II. The Bureau of Standards moved to town, bringing jobs. And in 1952, the Boulder-Denver turnpike opened, sparking a meteoric rise in [...]

Vox | How the sugar industry has distorted health science for more than 50 years

Vox | How the sugar industry has distorted health science for more than 50 years

"The sugar industry has a long history of shaping nutrition policy in the United States, working to mask the potential risks of consuming too much of the sweet stuff." Read the entire article at Vox:  How the sugar industry has distorted health science for more than 50 years

Forbes | The ‘Other’ Human Influences On The Maryland Floods You May Overlook

Forbes | The ‘Other’ Human Influences On The Maryland Floods You May Overlook

"Urban Flooding = Increase in intensity of top 1% rain events + expanding urban impervious land cover + storm water management engineered for rainstorms of 'last century'" Read the entire article at Forbes: The 'Other' Human Influences On The Maryland Floods You May Overlook

NYT | Flooding in the South Looks a Lot Like Climate Change

NYT | Flooding in the South Looks a Lot Like Climate Change

“'If you look across all our natural disaster policies, they’re predicated on the wrong assumption that our flood risk in the future looks identical to our flood risk in the past,' he said. He said that initiatives like the National Flood Insurance Program, which focuses on helping people rebuild in areas that have been flooded, were [...]

Planetizen | A Paradigm Shift for Affordable Housing: Preserve What’s Left

Planetizen | A Paradigm Shift for Affordable Housing: Preserve What’s Left

"Most operating housing stock is safe, decent, sanitary, and habitable—and a large portion of it is operated at below-market rates," he says. "Shouldn’t a significant portion of dedicated affordable housing funds be prioritized to ensure these units remain affordable?" Read the entire article at Planetizen: A Paradigm Shift for Affordable [...]

Citizen-Times | 5 interesting findings from Asheville bear study

Citizen-Times | 5 interesting findings from Asheville bear study

"Researchers kicked off the study in the spring by catching bears using baited culvert traps — large metal containers with a doors that slam shut when a bear goes inside. Captured bears were tranquilized to allow researchers to attach the collars, then released unharmed a short time later. "The GPS collars are programmed to automatically [...]

NYTimes.com | In San Francisco and Rooting for a Tech Comeuppance

NYTimes.com | In San Francisco and Rooting for a Tech Comeuppance

"For every person who moves to San Francisco, another two start commuting to work here. Traffic is down to a crawl: The average afternoon speed on the roads feeding into the highways has dropped 20 percent in the last two years. And the BART trains are squeezed tight: Since 2012, average morning rush-hour ridership from the East Bay has risen 30 [...]

Rooflines | Seeking True “Multifamily” Housing

Rooflines | Seeking True “Multifamily” Housing

Image by Aaron Burden from Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/aaronburden) "City planners and real estate professionals use the term 'multifamily' to describe apartment and condominium buildings. But is there a greater misnomer in our field? Most of our nation’s apartment stock is comprised of one- and two-bedroom units better suited for singles [...]

CityLab | Historic Preservation Districts Are Key to Great Cities

CityLab | Historic Preservation Districts Are Key to Great Cities

"Historic preservation districts also help Americans to tell the story of their nation, in all its complexity and diversity. No one would argue that certain historic districts feature grand historic homes and affluent residents. But for every Georgetown or Beacon Hill, there are places like Eatonville, Florida, or Detroit’s Corktown, modest [...]

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