While the national unemployment rate hovers around 8.2 percent, Boulder's unemployment rate has consistently beaten the national average for the past three years. That's not to say that the city hasn't been impacted by the recession. It has, but not to the extent of other cities.
I'd like to say it's because Boulderites are an incredible breed of entrepreneurs, our businesses are savvy, and we saw it coming in time to prepare. But other cities also have great entrepreneurs, and strong businesses.
So what's working for Boulder? It's our focus on the total package.
Boulder is a lifestyle. People want to be here for the recreation, the culture and the opportunity to be a part of something with global impact. The Boulder culture is not about competing with other cities to attract the biggest employers. It's about keeping the businesses we already have, finding the right mix of companies to complement existing businesses and creating a culture of innovation that grows new companies.
Boulder creates and enhances our culture of innovation in several significant ways:
- We enhance quality of life attributes. Boulder's vibrant community depends on careful attention to creating, protecting and sustaining an environment that provides recreational amenities, supports biking and alternative transportation modes, and ensures a high quality of life that attracts and retains a talented pool of creative workers. Boulder has carefully preserved more than 45,000 acres of open space and built an infrastructure that fosters alternative transportation for commuters and access to Colorado's great outdoors. This attention to "Life in Boulder" is a tremendous asset when recruiting businesses and employees who want to take it to the next level.
- We provide sponsorship support and active engagement to key industry clusters -- clean tech, natural and organic products, digital media and active living -- all of which have a large number of innovative, small start-up companies as well as mature, larger companies that work together to nurture local growth and success.
- The city partners with private and public business-support groups -- the Innovation Center of the Rockies, the Small Business Development Center, Colorado Labs, the University of Colorado, the Boulder Chamber -- to ensure collaborative approaches and problem solving in support of business growth and retention. It's not up to any one organization to create a solution. We collaborate -- the support groups and the companies who call Boulder home. Some of the strongest board rooms are the many coffee shops across the city where entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies brainstorm new innovations and mentor start-ups.
- City staff pays attention to the space and amenity needs of fast-growing companies. Boulder is careful to consider how the city's zoning regulations can better respond to the needs of these companies in a manner consistent with other community values. In 2012, the city is conducting a Primary Employer Study and Economic Sustainability Strategy that gathers input from businesses and informs area master plans for future development or redevelopment.
- Boulder leads a coordinated and targeted business outreach program. City staff, the Chamber, the Boulder Economic Council and Downtown Boulder meet regularly with the management of Boulder's primary employers to learn about the companies' needs and plans and to work on business retention and coordination of business resources to support these companies.
Boulder's focus on the total package is working because we're not just a job, or just a nice place to live. We're a diverse community focused on business retention, a culture of innovation that attracts entrepreneurs and fully committed to pushing the envelope in business and recreation. It's win-win for residents and employers.
http://www.coga.org/index.php/Economic%20Benefits
Too bad our current admin is doing nearly everything possible thru the Lisa Jackson EPA to put a lid on this.
Offshore oil and shale drilling permits and drilling activity has increased under Obama. You can find the proof in numerous sources on line, but one hard piece of evidence is the dramatic fall in natural gas prices for domestic NG. There is a glut, and industry is slowing down to compensate for overproduction. Obama HAS put regulations on drillers to capture emissions, but that's a good thing to all but the most rabid Obama haters, and it hasn't hurt the price of gas.
So put that in your pipe and smoke it. Just not too close to the many wells that have opened up recently.
http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2012/02/obama_administration_needs_to_1.html
EPA continues to put more regs in place - please don't tell me that makes drilling any easier....
Then when you brought in the wold monetary order, I fell off your bus.
Concerning “The World Monetary Order”; It will make sense to you when the present economic system collapse. Read it anyway and send me your comments?
-- From 2000 to 2010 Boulder's population grew just 2.9% while the state grew 16.9%
-- In 2010, whites were 88% of Boulder's population but only 81.3% of Colorado's population
-- In 2010, blacks were 0.9% of Boulder's population but 4% of Colorado's population.
-- In 2010, Hispanics were 8.7% of Boulder but 20.7% of Colorado.
-- In 2007, Boulder had 0.5% of business firms owned by blacks (1.7% in Colorado)
-- In 2007, Boulder had 1.9% of business firms owned by Hispanics (6.2% in Colorado)
These numbers would suggest that whatever "success" Boulder has enjoyed has come at the expense of restricting opportunities for minorities. I see nothing to brag about here.
"(Alexander) Hamilton saw the 'pursuit of happiness' (as in the total package) in the form of the greatness of the state as being above the happiness of its citizens. To the extent that the two were at odds, Hamilton would choose the former ... ." Unfortunately, the greatness of the state is about material gains. Period.
Read more at
http://lifeamongtheordinary.blogspot.com/2012/03/pursuit-of-happiness-part-one.html
Help those people that want or need it to create free, self sustaining eco-villages to live in. Let them help build them and then run them. Model them on the style of college campuses with shared kitchens, dining halls, laundries, clinics, libraries, etc. Modest housing, and organic veggie gardens and small farming for their food supply. There are way too many resources in this country for anybody to ever have to be homeless or hungry but it is the twin evils of profits and hoarding that makes it so. Let's fix this by demanding that it be different.
The homeless population is a diverse group -- you can't paint them with a broad brush. Some are working, some are not, some are living in temporary housing such as EFAA and the Homeless Shelter, some spend their days sitting outside the library getting drunk and stoned. Some are mentally ill, others are chronically physically ill, others are alcoholics and drug users. Some are all four at once. Others are sober and relatively healthy. Some have lived in Boulder or Boulder County for decades. Others moved here because the weather is generally mild and people are generally tolerant.
We can try to take care of "everyone" in our community, but what happens when the next 100 homeless people come into town? And the next 100 after that? This is a county-wide, state-wide, national issue and Boulder can't solve it all by ourselves.