Boulder the "most liberal city" in Colorado?

My rent is pretty damn cheap. I think it's a renter's market here. To buy a house is pretty ridiculous, but I think that's pretty much everywhere. I pay $475 all utilities included for a washington park 1-bedroom (it's tiny, though). Groceries are the only thing that seem overpriced to me.

Boulder is far more expensive compared to Denver. I think most one bedroom apartments are $700-1000 where they are probably $450-900 in Denver (depending on neighborhood and etc.)

in other news, thank fucking god Pete Coors didn't get elected to Senate, though there's a running bet going on in my family on how long it'll take Salazar to switch sides.

So, I'm going to be in Boulder for a summer internship. A friend of mine who grew up in Denver says that Boulder is sort of a hippie town. I'm prepared for that, though, I think. It's all about what kind of hippie town it is. I'm in Ithaca right now, which leans toward the burnt out hippie side. As long as Boulder isn't full of people stumbling in and out of the bong shop, staring distantly and muttering things at my shoes, it should be alright.

Every third craig's list post in the subleasing section goes out of its way to mention that they are "420 friendly".

oh, ZS do you know this girl:

http://photos-d.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v107/72/81/43300184/n43300184_30531059_1299.jpg

if you wanna get high give me a call ZS

boulder is okay. i mean, it's real pretty. but there's something about it that is slightly depressing. like, all my old co-workers would go on hikes after happy hour and go running during lunch.

also that movie 'catch and release' was set in boulder and it was terrible.

Ha, I know that girl AND that guy. That's Greg, right? I see him pretty often at Korova, although he always gives me that look like "what's that dudes name? oh well.."

The girl I met a few weeks ago, I think, when some people came over to our house after the Excepter show.

Might definitely take you up on that homosexual II.

Oh wait, that's not Greg. God I'm a dufus today. But he works at No Radio, correct?

You'll be fine in Boulder. Lotsa people from Ithica there. It's hippie rep is pretty overblown these days. It's more of a rich, white liberal town now, with a healthy dollop of granola. If you're not into XTREME sports, it can be a pretty boring place. We moved to Denver.

Make sure you listen to Radio 1190!

I'm in Boulder now.

I'm in a kind of crazy living situation. I'm living with other guy, but he's best friends with all of his neighbors, and they've knocked down the fences in their backyards so it's like an open community area. I have been smoked up like fifty times since I got here yesterday, and have been offered a margarita by a stranger not once but twice.

The roommate and his friends are nice, but they probably think I'm a weirdo. I played them the Santana Shredz video, and they didn't think it was that funny. Then one of them was like "Why don't we watch a REAL Santana song?" and before I knew it we were watching Santana live at Woodstock 1969. Admittedly, that Woodstock footage was pretty cool. But the thing is, they weren't looking for woodstock footage. They were looking for ANY Santana footage. And I'm already getting really sick of listening to Sublime. They're still cool dudes though. My roommate says "Yeah, right?" anytime he agrees with someone else, which is endearing.

Anyway, Mandee (or anyone else in Boulder) send me an email if you want.

yikes, Sublime!

Emailing you ZS.

also reply to mandee wright at gmail dot com - the email address im registered under is defunct.

omg boulder is my least favorite place in the world

The Honorable Stanley Fish

the email address im registered under is defunct.

Ooooh, that makes sense. I sent you a few emails the other day, but it's better that they went to a defunct email address because they were written the night before I took the flight out here, and I was in a crazy situation where I didn't know the exact address of the place I'm subleasing at, and the subleaser was in Utah mountainbiking and couldn't be reached by telephone. So I sent you a message like "Umm...I'm really sorry, but there's maybe a 2% chance I might need a favor from you as soon as I get into Boulder".

I'm leaving for the first day at my internship now, but I'll be sure to check my email later.

Jhoshea - the key in life is to start your way at the very bottom and gradually work your way up, and that way everywhere you go seems like an improvement. This is why I was fortunate, in retrospect, to grow up in a shitty tiny town in rural Missouri. Because hey - at least Boulder has mountains and stuff.

yah i have deep and abiding love for the colorado rockies - and a number of people im quite fond of live in boulder - still it is my nemecity

uh anyway yr just there for an internship right

I can really appreciate Boulder now that I live in Denver and am only there once a week.

Denver is way better than Boulder, though!

But it takes a few years before one can see its charm.

ive only ever spent a few days in denver - i liked it tho

i think boulder would be awesome if it weren't for all the people

everyone says it was amazing in the 70s

i think a lot of colorado was amazing in the 60s-70s. e.g. Aspen, when Hunter was running for sheriff.

http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u33/icedcake/HunterSeason1front400x286pixcels.jpg

In response to the original thread question: I lived in Boulder for a time and yeah, like others have noted above, how liberal can a place actually be when it is largely a haven for the super-rich? Like Ann Arbor, another town in which I have lived, there is plenty of leftist hand-wringing being performed over California Sirah and expensive vegetarian cuisine, but I imagine there is also a lot of secret appreciation for capital gains tax cuts and supercheap Mexican labor. Also, at least as of the late 90's, about 70% of those same people commuted to Denver every day in gigantic SUVs. Everyone else seemed to own a Saab, for some reason.

Ann Arbor and Boulder are a far cry from the hotbeds of anti-establishment activism they were before Reaganism set in, yet both towns somehow maintain that illusion. In both cities, people are far too comfortable to be genuinely pissed off at corporate culture.

Seasonal tourists excepted, the real "most liberal city" in Colorado is probably some hippy mountain utopia like Telluride or Crested Butte.

Telluride is Aspen v.2.0 and heaving with rich folk. Crested Butte is a main drag with a pizza place that serves 40s and many dirty bros.

Durango is probably more "liberal" than either of them. But fuck it, I just want to move to Marble or Silverton.

there is plenty of leftist hand-wringing being performed over California Sirah

Syrah? Petite Sirah? neither is close to CA's most notable grape.

Durango is probably more "liberal" than either of them - Oops. I meant Durango, not Crested Butte. I've never been to Crested Butte. Regarding the Telluride/Aspen thing: that's really too bad, though not surprising at all. I haven't been there in over ten years, but at the time it was a comfortable change of pace from the increasingly upscale and homogenized environs of the Vail/Summit County towns. I suppose its co-option was inevitable. I have purposely avoided Aspen, but I'm sure it has changed drastically from the days when Hunter Thompson was elected Sheriff (or very nearly elected - I forget).

Syrah? Petite Sirah? neither is close to CA's most notable grape. - OK, youve got me. I was referring to Petite Sirah, as it is generally pretty expensive, but you are welcome to subsitute that with any California red you feel to be more appropriate.

gbx they cancelled iron horse as silverton had 12" of snow on saturday. i would like to live in durango i think.

boulder, ugh.

I've actually explored very little of CO's mountain towns - must be because I'm from the NoCo prairie. Actually I have no excuse as I've lived in CO for 28 years.

Durango's the most liberal?

i wouldnt think so.

its got a small cottage and lots of outdoor types, but its also got a lot of ranchers and regular semi rural ppl from my experiences there

"college" wtf

yeah, that's what I was thinking, though the county (of which the 'city' is 1/3, apparently) did go Kerry, barely

i forgot that.

san miguel county had the highest kerry at like 75+% as i recall, but thats because it has telluride, sawpit, and not much else. gunnison county where cb is has lots of ranchers etc.

the blue counties in 2004, in descending order of blueness:
San Miguel (Telluride)
Denver
Pitkin (Aspen)
Costilla (San Luis, tiny)
Boulder
Summit (Breckenridge)
Saguache (tiny)
Gunnison (Crested Butte)
Gilpin (Central City)
Routt (Steamboat Springs)
Clear Creek (Georgetown)
Pueblo
Eagle (Vail)
La Plata (Durango)
San Juan (Silverton)
Adams (Aurora-Commerce City)
Las Animas (Trinidad)

the great thing about 'catch and release' is it made the people of boulder seem so horrible that it surely could stop anyone from moving here if, of course, more than 8 people had seen it.

Boulder has really good beer though.

I also liked the Sundown Saloon when I lived there.

The place can get really depressing though. Everyone really is a mountain climbing gearhead with bad taste in music. Also, there is very little grasp of sarcasm in that town. Everyone is just so "sincere" about everything, unless they are some rich college kid.

I lived there in 2004-2005. My landlord, who lived next door, would routinely come by and leave pro-Kerry stuff on our front porch. You'll find that despite the illusion that Boulder is a friendly and accepting town, most of the people are quite rude. I moved there from Virginia, driving an old Jeep Cherokee. I was routinely derided for this, and generally assumed to be a republican.

Everyone really is a mountain climbing gearhead with bad taste in music. Also, there is very little grasp of sarcasm in that town. Everyone is just so "sincere" about everything, unless they are some rich college kid.

siiiiiiigh, yes. 2 more months.

Hey ZS, Albertson's (here, anyway) has a sale: buy 3 boxes of general mills cereal & get a gallon of milk free.

Oh, and it's $5 for the three boxes (plus the free milk).

Whoa, nice!

The odds of me getting there are not so good, though. Technically it's within biking distance from where I'm at, but I wouldn't be able to carry back much more than the 3 boxes of cereal and gallon of milk. Plus the guy I'm staying with appears to be emotionally attached to King Sooper's.

I caught a bunch of shit when I got here about not knowing what King Sooper's was.

I am coming to rescue you!!!

No worries, I'm doing ok for tonight (check yr email)

Although one guy did say "Dude, you can't say ...."currency" and...uh...."fecal matter" at night, those are daytime words. Normally I would understand, but..." after I said something like "but 80% of currency has fecal matter on it anyway, right?" in a conversation tangentially related to how dirty beer pong is (due to the missed throws hitting the table, floor, dirt etc).

ie, fuck you dude we're grownups.

I know no one cares, but I have to say,

There are two dudes I barely know hanging out in my weed stenched living room. They just kind of hang out here. All the time. One of them, on the left, was described to me as "just like Kramer" before I ever met him. He's like Kramer in that he always walks in uninvited and is just kind of...there...he's unlike Kramer in that he's never funny, ever. He's has also told me that he has a crush on a 16-year-old girl and the girl's mother, and that girls are best when they're "on the edge of the range" like that.

The other guy, he seemed pretty good natured the first few times I met him, but now, as he lays all over one of the couches, I realize that I'm almost certain he has had his hand down his gym shorts for like half an hour. Not really scratching or jerking it or whatever, but just down in there. Like Al Bundy but way further down. I don't know what to say anymore. What the fuck is wrong with this town?

like farther than this:

http://robotninjawhores.com/wp-content/2007/04/paris-hilton-bikini-hand.jpg

I think that's technically safe for work, but sorry.

I moved back here, to Boulder. I got dragged to some awful show at the Boulder Theatre (Charlie Hunter), with a bunch of people standing around not even paying attention to the music.

This is the weird thing about the jam band scene. Most of the people I know who go to these shows walk around and socialize, meet people they saw half way across the country at some other lame show, and only intermittently notice the music.

Other than that, I am extremely happy. I've lived here before, when I could hardly bare it,but now I've got a decent job and can actually enjoy the place. Side note, this is one of the most fit conscious cities in the country, yet when I live here I pack on the pounds.

Family vacation in Steamboat Springs next week, meeting up with even more family. I've always had an irrational hatred of Colorado, so I admit I am prejudiced, but I'm also open to having my mind changed. So: what am I in for? Hippies? Bobos? Bozos? I'm sure it will be fun with fam regardless.