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Comment by mrfusion | Hacker News Reader

Does anyone live in Boulder? It sounds like a nice place, or is it just a suburb on Denver? I couldn't tell from the map.

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Boulder has a population of around 100,000 (about 30,000 are students at the University of Colorado.)

In some ways it feels like a (distant) suburb of Denver; there are people who commute from one to the other, though it's about a 40 mile drive. But in other ways it's very isolated. It's politically comparable to Berkley or Austin. It's racially a strong white majority with few hispanics (Denver is over 1/3 hispanic).

As another commenter mentioned, Boulder has intentionally created open space around itself. There's a city ordinance limiting water service to under a certain elevation in order to reduce the attractiveness of building up on the mountainsides. The city owns a huge amount of open space around its borders and allows only very limited, controlled development.

It's definitely not a suburb of Denver. It's relatively close, but it's a different place. It's a lot like Ann Arbor, Madison, or other cities of about 100k which have a large university in town.

It's actually got a fair bit of tech activity--nothing like top tier cities like SF, NYC, Boston, or even Austin, but for it's size the tech scene is significant.

I've heard over and over that Boulder (county, which is around 300,000 people) is #1 in the country for software jobs per capita - but unfortunately I don't have a tangible source for that.

For the HN crowd, think of Boulder as the Marin County of the Silicon Flatirons.

Heh, yes. I live in Boulder. I am not quite sure where others get the 40 miles to Denver number. To South Denver, sure, but it's about 23 miles to Downtown.

I don't consider (nor do any of my friends) consider Boulder to be a suburb of Denver. If anything it serves as "the city" to places like Lyons, Longmont, Lafayette and Louisville.

Of relevancy to this article, Longmont approved municipal fiber a year ago.

Taking 93 or 36 it might as well be 100 miles away :) The commute between Denver and Boulder (which I did for 3 years) is brutal no matter how you slice it.

Very true. 36 is 101 levels of bad at times. Thankfully for me I walk to work right now.

yeah. the route to south denver gives you the added bonus of enduring denver traffic and scattershot construction projects.

I don't live there, but I've been several times. As I understand it, Boulder county owns all of the land around Boulder and won't sell it, so the city can't expand. I think there's also a lot of restriction on how high buildings can be. The result is a small-town feel, but with a college atmosphere. There are a lot of engineering firms in and around Boulder, and plenty of beer. Add to that a culture of outdoorsy-ness, and it's one of the most lovely places I've had the pleasure to visit.

Map: http://gisweb.ci.boulder.co.us/agswebsites/osmp/OSMPTrails/

Everything green is open space.

I've lived in Boulder for about 6 years now and stay for the environment. It's about a 40 minute drive from Denver on a good day and has a very different feel from the city. There's definitely a lot of opportunity in technology work-wise, endless opportunities in the outdoors, but some left to be desired culturally.

As a sibling mentioned, the city and the county together own a "green belt" around the city proper that is meant to be permanent. It was actually started in the 50s and has been a great legacy for us nowadays.

Great place just to visit for a few days too!

That's pretty cool. Is there anywhere you can have a small house with a couple acres or more for cheap and still be within 30 minutes of Boulder?

"Cheap" is a very subjective term around here :D

Land east of Boulder a ways (30 minutes+) can be affordable. Land < 30 minutes from Boulder in the North and East directions can get _very_ expensive. Lots of land west of Boulder in the mountains that can be built on too, but it's also expensive and can be pretty rough regarding roads, fires, floods (as we learned last year), etc....

6 acres of land IN Boulder with one house, water rights, and agricultural zoning has been for sale for a few years for $5m. One of the last parcels like it in the city. Will probably sell soon though for redevelopment.

EDIT: Regarding "cheap" being a subjective term. The neighborhood I rent in is < 10 minutes by bike to downtown and has mostly 1/8th acre single-family-home lots. Recently rebuilt houses with more 2000+ sq. ft. on these lots sell for ~$1m+. There is a lot of money being spent to live in the area.

Wow, maybe I should look at other parts of CO? I just looked on zillow and saw some properties for sale in the mountains to the west, but they all seemed to be 1.5+ hours from Boulder. (even though they were less than 30 miles) I didn't see anything closer in my price range.

Loveland, Longmong and Niwot are all relatively close, and have similar quality of life properties, but are quite a lot cheaper--they don't have the university, which can be a bug or a feature depending on your perspective.

Fort Collins is another university town but with a lower national profile than Boulder, which again can be a good or bad thing.

+1 on Fort Collins - relocated here five years ago. It's a fantastic town - many big city amenities for a small city. (For example: it has a ton of restaurants. I used to live in NYC, and many places in Fort Collins are comparable in quality.) Cost of living in town and in the surrounding area is very reasonable, and quality of life is great.

Do you still get mountain views there? Is there a lot of outdoors stuff to do?

Mountain views everywhere - the whole town is only a few miles from the mountains, similar to Boulder. Tons of parks, trails, mountain biking, etc. The city is very bike-friendly. Whitewater rafting is also close by on the Cache La Poudre River, which exits the mountains ~10 miles NW of the city. Public access boating available on Horsetooth Reservoir.

I live in Boulder and love it here.

Also there's a lot of stuff in Erie and Lafayette which are both fairly close and less expensive. In a Zillow search I found some 4 bedroom houses in Lafayette with an acre in the $400k region, a 20 min drive from being in town.

I lived there for several years, and yes lots of people also live there. The view from Google Maps should make it clear that it is definitely not a suburb of Denver.

Once you get there you realize that the two towns are worlds apart. It has a decent tech-scene and extremely beautiful outdoor environment. Good food and beer can also be had very easily.

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