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Eat Local Week continues…

Boulder Reporter — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:10:00 +0000

Transition Colorado is hosting Boulder County’s EAT LOCAL! Week, Aug. 28 – Sept. 4, as an opportunity for citizens to explore and celebrate the abundance of local food, highlighting local family farms and farmers’ markets, along with the restaurants, grocers, and organizations which support them.

Not only is EAT LOCAL! Week a chance to celebrate and explore, but it is also a chance to discover local food sources, to meet local food growers, to become more active in the local food and farming movement, to experience the joys of fresh delicious food, and to feel what it’s like to be connected to the local food and farming system, rediscovering a deep sense of community.

Here are the remaining events:

* “Flat Iron Chef” Local Food Cook-Off (Thursday, Sept. 2, 5:30 – 8:00 p.m.). “Iron Chef” style, local chefs— Eric Skokan (Black Cat), Matthew Jansen (Radda/Mateo), Ayan Rivera (Chef at Large)—are paired with local farmers to produce a feast to benefit the Boulder County Farmer Cultivation Center, held at Highland City Club, 885 Arapahoe Ave. (sponsored by Slow Food Boulder, Highland City Club, Transition Colorado, and Everybody Eats!). Advance tickets $20 (www.TransitionColorado.org/events.php), $25 at the door.

* Local Foodshed Commons & Conference (Friday, Sept. 3, 9:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.), at University of Colorado’s Union Memorial Center, Glenn Miller Ballroom. Free! (see details below)

* EAT LOCAL! Celebration (Friday, Sept. 3, 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.) at the Millennium’s Outdoor Pavilion and Gardens and Thyme on the Creek, featuring local food prepared by local chefs, local music with Mojomama, DU4, and Jeff Brinkman, along with original local art. Admission $20 at the door.

* “Tour de Coops” (Saturday, Sept. 4, 2:00 – 5:00 p.m.). Become familiar with chickens and the variety of their dwellings in Boulder, plus visit beekeepers, goatkeepers and cultivators of special culinary gardens. Free!

Local Foodshed Commons & Conference, Sept. 3

As the centerpiece event of Boulder County’s EAT LOCAL! Week, on Sept. 3, Transition Colorado and CU’s Museum of Natural History are hosting a wellspring of community-supported agriculture, gardens and gardeners, urban farming, new farmer development, reskillings, Permaculture, food products, retailers, and farmers markets. The day begins at the spacious Glenn Miller Ballroom (9:00 – 5:30 p.m.) with the Local Foodshed Commons, featuring a variety of exhibits and demonstrations from local restaurants and chefs, local farmers and growers and their markets, local food retailers and distributors, non-profit organizations and community groups, local independently-owned businesses, Boulder-born-and-bred companies, renewable energy solution providers, sustainability services, green builders and developers, and many more! An open-mike farmyard stage will provide opportunities for brief presentations from exhibitors and enthusiasts, with sprinklings of local (acoustic) music.

In the accompanying Conference, several leading experts will share their knowledge and wisdom in special presentations and workshops. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn from and talk with Fred Kirschenmann, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture (author, Cultivating an Ecological Conscience); Vicki Pozzebon, Santa Fe Alliance; Bruce Milne, New Mexico Foodshed Alliance; and Bob McFarland, California State Grange. These will be held 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Sept. 3, at CU’s University Memorial Center.

The day will conclude at Millennium Harvest House’s famous Outdoor Pavilion and Gardens, with an extraordinary harvest-gathering celebration of those who support local organic food, offering culinary pleasure with awareness and sustainabililty. Here you can enjoy samples from Boulder County’s finest chefs, as local musicians offer their creative talents to bring EAT LOCAL! Week to a stunning conclusion. 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.

For more information to to Eat Local Week’s website

Tour of Boulder chicken coops Sept. 4

Boulder Reporter — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:42:00 +0000

By Laura Ruby in The Blue Line

It’s time to get ready for Boulder’s first annual Tour de Coops.

With thanks to Betsy Burton for her inspiration, Boulder will have its first annual biking tour of backyard chicken coops, edible gardens and bee hives. Betsy, who runs the Lyons Farmette, launched the first Lyons Tour de Coops last September, featuring 14 backyard coops around town.
[...]

The Tour de Coops Boulder is an open tour that is free to the public, occurring in Boulder County September 4th, 2010, from 2-5 PM. An open tour is one in which there is no specific start or end location. You can find a list of properties on the Tour on the YummyYards website or the Transition Colorado website.

Read the rest of Laura Ruby’s story on The Blue Line

Ballot measures threaten state’s finances

Boulder Reporter — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:05:49 +0000

Three November state ballot issues—Proposition 101 and Amendments 60 and 61—would collectively cripple state and local governments in Colorado, Alan Boles reported Aug. 23 on the Boulder-based website The Blue Line.

His report continues:

“The measures have so far drawn strong support among the electorate, despite near-universal opposition from business and civic groups and both major political parties, according to Abigail Hinga, outreach director for the Bell Policy Center, Rollie Heath, Colorado state senator from the Eighteenth District, and Richard Valenty, a former Colorado Daily reporter and now aide to Senator Heath, at a PLAN-Boulder forum on Friday, the 13th of August.”
The three ballot initiatives propose revenue-slashing measures such as lowering the state income-tax rate and eliminating all state taxes on telecommunications, Boles reports.

And guess who's behind all this frugality: "Although the originators of the three ballot issues have deliberately (and probably illegally) obscured their identities, they are widely believed to be allies of [anti-tax activist] Douglas Bruce and probably to include Mr. Bruce himself."

Read the rest of the article on The Blue Line

Cowles challenges story on City budget

Boulder Reporter — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 18:29:53 +0000

Councilman Macon Cowles posted this note on the City Council’s Hotline, which is used for communication between Council members:

The Camera headline in the Sunday August 22, 2010 edition that “Boulder Council Seeks 27 percent Budget Increase” was false. First, it is the City Manager’s budget–not the Council’s. The very title of the budget materials for the August 24 Study Session declare that that is so: “2011 City Manager Recommended Budget.” Second, I don’t think anyone on Council has sought an increase of any amount for the Council in the 2011 budget. Third, any increase in the amount of money appearing on the City Council part of the 2011 budget is not caused by increased spending, but rather ALLOCATING to the Council Budget money that has been allocated to other parts of the budget in the past. The Camera article contained detail that was not in the material given to Council for the upcoming budget Study Session. For example, it listed “Council professional memberships” as $110,000. As far as I know, the City pays for NO professional memberships of any Council members. This category for $110,000 must include CML or DRCOG dues or National League of Cities dues. An explanation would be helpful. It would be very helpful to clarify the state of the City Council budget at the Study Session.

The study session is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. in Council chambers Tuesday, Aug. 24. The Camera’s story can be read online. Citizens can also read or subscribe to Hotline postings online.

City wants us to be “Driven to Drive Less”

Boulder Reporter — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:40:29 +0000

Source: City website, Driventodriveless.com

Let’s make a game out of going carless at least once a week. A game that everyone who plays wins. One day a week. That’s 14.3% less congestion, pollution and road rage for Boulder and the rest of the world.

Here’s how it works: Your car’s color corresponds to an assigned car-free day of the week (see chart). If that day works with your schedule, then give your car a well-deserved day off, and go forth carless.

Don’t fret—you’re not alone. We’ve set up a community here, on Facebook and on Twitter to provide you with all routes and modes of alternative transportation around Boulder. Not only that, we’ll be organizing social events for you to meet new carless compadres and carpool buddies, and our sponsors will be offering crazy awesome discounts and freebies for going car-free—which we’ll also post online.

Now, should your assigned carless day not work with your schedule, or if you can’t commit to one particular day on a regular basis, you can opt for the flex-day schedule. As long as you go carless at least one day a week, it’s all good. And if you’d like to be a rockstar and go car-free more than once a week, you’ll be our personal hero.

Sample Feedburner email

Boulder Reporter — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 17:53:08 +0000

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Pedestrian Shops turn 40 Saturday

Boulder Reporter — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 18:21:47 +0000

The Pedestrian Shops shoe store is celebrating our 40th Birthday on Saturday, August 21, by buying frozen yogurt from céfiore for the first 1,000 people who walk in to their downtown or Village shop and wish them a Happy Birthday.

1970 was a big year in Boulder’s history, marking not only the birth of the Pedestrian Shops, but also the nation’s first Earth Day, the opening of the Watts-Hardy milk processing plant that is now the Dairy Center for The Arts and the founding of Western Disposal.

Said Richard Polk, one of Pedestrian Shops’ founders, “It’s been great to make Boulder comfortable for 40 years. My daughters, Lauren and Zoe, and I are looking forward to the weeklong party.”

Polk and his then-partner, Tony Chirikos, originally started selling Earth Shoes out of a pickup truck in the late 1960s. Their first customers were employees at BrilligWorks bookstore. After graduating from the truck to an old Bookmobile, they opened a store at 1334 Pearl Street, across from the Courthouse, before the Downtown Mall when Pearl was still a street with traffic and parking. In the same block were Cotangent, where Anna Zapp and Rosie Cabas made cowboy shirts for rock stars, and the legendary Fred’s restaurant, where host Fred Shelton sang and played guitar to entertain his customers. In the 1980s Pedestrian moved to our current downtown location at 1425 Pearl. We also have had a store in the Village Shopping Center for 30 years.

Now the company is famed for firsts, including being the world’s first solar-powered shoe store, the world’s first shoe store to sell Crocs, and inventing the now popular concept of focusing on comfortable walking shoes. At least as far as we know.

For the rest of our birthday week, from Sunday through Friday, Aug. 22- 27, the Pedestrian Shops will continue giving free céfiore yogurt shop coupons to customers who make purchases. There will also be drawings for free shoes, and more.

The Buzz

Boulder Reporter — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 03:40:07 +0000

Thank you, David Sirota

Cogent analysis by David Sirota in Truthdig sums up our thoughts about the Bennet-Romanoff primary so well:

In just the 20 months since being appointed to fill the vacated Senate seat of now-Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Bennet became one of Congress’ top recipients of corporate cash. A wealthy businessman who had never held elected office before, he ultimately raised and spent almost $6 million on his campaign—more than any primary candidate in the history of Colorado. He was additionally aided by the Democratic National Committee and Organizing for America’s phone-banking, by President Barack Obama’s full-throated endorsement and by the built-in advantages that come with a taxpayer-financed Senate office.

Romanoff, by contrast, swore off special-interest money from the beginning. As a former state House speaker with a deep grass-roots network throughout Colorado, he constructed a scrappy campaign on less than $2 million of mostly small-dollar, in-state contributions. In the relatively few ads he was able to afford, he juxtaposed his own progressive economic platform with Bennet’s odious Senate votes to protect the big banks, oil firms and health insurance companies that Americans despise and that financed Bennet’s campaign.

Read the entire excellent post of Aug. 15 on Truthdig. (8/15/10)

Boulder Tops Portfolio.com “Quality of Life” ranking

Boulder’s done it again, this time ranking Number One on Portfolio.com’s “quality-of-life survey for mid-size U.S. cities.” Key criteria in their evaluations, the website said, were “healthy economies, moderate costs of living, light traffic, impressive housing stocks, and high-powered educational systems.” Using these criteria, the site commented on Boulder’s strengths:

– Fifty-six percent of Boulder’s adults have bachelor’s degrees, easily the strongest concentration in any midsize metro. Just eight other markets are above 35 percent.
– Slightly more than half of Boulder’s workers hold management or professional jobs, the sector that pays the highest salaries. The only other market above 50 percent is Ann Arbor, Michigan.
– There is a generous inventory of large homes in Boulder. Eighteen percent of its houses have at least nine rooms, a figure that only a pair of Utah metros, Provo and Ogden, can top.
– Boulder is seventh out of 109 markets in two key financial categories. Its median household income of $65,960 is the seventh-highest in the study group, and its poverty rate of 5.8 percent is the seventh-lowest.

See the original article on Portfolio.com’s website

This little iPhone went back to the store

Hilarious, and sobering, account by Andrew Hyde, Boulder’s Mayor of Everything Web & New Tech, about why he hauled-ass back to the Apple store with his new iPhone and told ‘em no thanks. Dropped calls, apps that wouldn’t load, iTunes that couldn’t be bought, etc. etc. etc. Excerpt:

His Jobsness just had that big PR event saying that the community was up in a roar about nothing. With equal respect and volume: screw you. Almost everything about that experience was broken.

Read it and laugh on his blog. (7/21/10)

The tourists are back

Or hadn’t you noticed. Traffic surges. Out-of-state license plates proliferate. Our restaurant recommendations for them were here, but we moved them to a different page to facilitate commenting.

Naropa turmoil

Reporter columnist Joe Richey jumped on the breaking story of turmoil at Naropa University with this column posted July 1. Now, a website has been established by folks rallying to save Naropa’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics (it’s called “Save the JKS”). In its initial news-release-style posting, what jumps out as striking is its reference to Naropa’s recently hired president, Stuart Lord, as a “creationist Christian that does not understand the original principles of the Buddhist inspired learning institution.” This information is disquieting. The website goes on:

Current students have an impromptu early meeting with President Lord at 10AM today on Naropa’s Arapahoe Campus, called by the President to address concerns over the restructuring – which is during Kerouac School’s scheduled intenstive summer schedule, and will likely be unattended. 6PM today, Friday July 2, 2010 on the same campus a “Creative Action” is planned.

Many of us remember the early years of Naropa and the Kerouac School, when great poets like Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and Anne Waldman all walked our streets every summer, along with that greatest of poets and teachers Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche himself. These memories are to be cherished. Naropa is perhaps Boulder’s finest cultural asset, one to be cherished and protected. (7/2/10)

PS: There’s also now a “Save TKS” Facebook page.

Creekfest weekend

The Farmers Market is under seige this week, as the Creek Festival encroaches from all sides. People wanting $5 for parking. Strange circus rides roll into town and plunk down in parking lots. Antonio Laudisio gamely offers breakfast, but from a scrunched-down spot with no apperent seating. We arrived early, bought our spinach and cheese and radishes and the rest, then escaped to Radex Bistro, safely away from downtown at Iris and 28th St., for a wonderful breakfast. Arriving early, we were almost alone there, experiencing perfect food and fun, attentive service. The boosterish Camera says if you go to the Creekfest, “you know you’re going to have fun.” Our advice: avoid. (5/29/10)

Questions based on driving around Boulder

Why do men who drive giant SUVs always wear baseball caps?
Why are women who drive Range Rovers always blonde and talking on their cell phones?
(5/3/2010)

Boulder as startup haven

The accolades keep rolling in. Business Week, in its April 22 issue, declared Boulder “America’s best town for startups” and said it’s “largely because of a bottom-up revolution led by entrepreneurs.” The article also said “Boulder now has the highest concentration of software engineers per capita in the nation.” Wow! Add it to the steady stream of Boulder mentions on Top 10 lists and other prestigious rankings. Read story on Business Week website. (4/27/2010)

Overheard on Enchanted Mesa Trail

One svelte thirtysomething mom to another: “Open enrollment is such a drag. If you’re not out researching charter schools, you feel like you’re a bad parent.” (3/17/10)

Camera’s iPhone witchhunt

Who at the Daily Camera launched overworked city politics beat reporter Heath Urie on a crusade to challenge the City’s providing of Council members with iPhones (see March 11 Camera story)? The story’s tone kinda outed someone’s harrumphing outrage (they got the 3GS, “Apple’s newest, fastest and most expensive model”). Camera, through its attorneys, sought disclosure of details. City shot back that the Council’s phone-call records are “not public,” and that fielding the paper’s info requests was “wasting enormous city resources,” as Urie’s article noted. Mayor Susan Osborne told Urie that the iPhone “is the only way she manages the 150 e-mails she receives each day.” Pardon our iPhone fanboy bias, but did anyone at the Camera consider the major productivity boosts the phones might provide to Council members as they conduct the City’s business? Just a thought.– BW (3-15-10)

Smashburger coming

Not sure of the significance of this, but Dave Taylor tweets that Smashburger is opening a restaurant in the 29th St. complex. Anybody heard about whether it’s a good place? Sorry vegetarians, to think such a thing. Details on company site. (3/5/10)

City to Google: choose us for fancy fiber loop

Boulder is launching a major campaign to convince Google to choose Boulder as the deployment site for its new Google Fiber Project, which would serve up 1-gigabit-per-second data rates via fiber optic links extending all the way to homes. City’s rounding up data to sell the deal, and is urging us normal folks to join the campaign. Plans were announced Tuesday night, March 2, at the monthly Boulder New Tech Meetup at the Law School. The campaigners have set up a special website with the facts, and a place for you to invite Google to choose us, pleeeeeze. City’s economic vitality coordinator Liz Hanson told the assembled techies, “Boulder needs to win this.” (3/2/10)

“Blue Line” website debuts

Seems a group fairly closely associated with PLAN-Boulder County has decided to take communication into their own hands with a new website, designed mostly for info-sharing among people involved in ongoing civic and planning discussions. Those involved include PLAN-Boulder County chair Pat Shanks and former City Council Member Steve Pomerance. It’s to be known as The Boulder Blue Line and reside at www.boulderblueline.org. It’s launched, ready for your perusal. (2/24/10)

Dairy Center to get a facelift

Boulder Reporter — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 20:03:20 +0000

Architect’s rendition of a new look for The Dairy Center

The Dairy Center for the Arts announced that Western Disposal will donate $300,000 over the next three years to fund a new entry for The Dairy’s historic building at 26th and Walnut streets. Dan Souders, founder of Western Disposal, and Gary Horton, president, announced the gift Tuesday, Aug. 3, as part of the company’s 40th anniversary celebrations.

Western Disposal joins the Boulder-based Boedecker Foundation as a major donor to The Dairy Center for the Arts. Last November The Boedecker Foundation announced it would fund an art house cinema theater that is expected to be completed late this year.

Western Disposal is a local family-owned trash collection business that started with one truck, about the same time that The Dairy’s building began its life as a milk processing center for Watts-Hardy Dairy. Western now has 120 employees, more than 70 vehicles and 35,000 residential and commercial customers.

The Future of The Dairy is a major renovation that will complete the repurposing of the 42,000-square-foot facility, a nationally recognized model for adaptive reuse of an abandoned industrial space. A dramatic new façade will enclose a large portion of the out side patio, adding a safe and convenient entrance along with programming and gallery space. A flowing curved roof covers a transparent glass atrium and dramatically enhances the solid, block forms of the existing building.

The larger lobby provides additional programmable space, allowing simultaneous access to separate events and added display space using movable walls and partitions. The Dairy’s success has dramatically increased audiences, classes and performances. Crowds routinely pack the main lobby and other venues.

In addition to the new cinema, The Dairy includes black-box theaters of 80 and 100 seats, a 250-seat performance space and multiple galleries. The cinema, at the south end of the building in a space that formerly housed CATV, will offer a high-quality experience for arts-related cinema programming including films and documentaries, broadcasts of operas and live theater, with state of the art acoustics. It can accommodate live performances or speakers as well.

Bald Mountain hike next Thursday

Boulder Reporter — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 00:36:47 +0000

IN DAPPLED SUNLIGHT, Boulder County Parks & Open Space department’s Michelle Bowie sat on a picnic bench at Bald Mountain Friday planning her talk for next week. (Reporter photo)

Boulder County Parks & Open Space department will host an easy guided hiking tour and talk at Bald Mountain Scenic Area on Thurs., July 29, from 10 a.m. to noon.

The department’s Michelle Bowie will talk about Bald Mountain’s past and present and what surprises may lie in its future. She’ll discuss ongoing resource management efforts undertaken at the 108-acre park. The pace will be easy-going to accommodate seniors, to whom the event is targeted as part of an ongoing monthly series.

Bald Mountain Scenic Area, located five mile (about 10 minutes) from where Sunshine Canyon begins at the west end of Mapleton Ave., was the first land acquired by Boulder County for park purposes.

For more details about the park’s features and terrain, plus a map, visit Open Space’s website. For more information on the event, call Open Space at 303-678-6214.