People in Boulder prefer single-family housing

Some people just can’t stand that folks in Boulder are pretty happy with it. In his zeal to correct them, Stan Oklobdzija, in a recent guest opinion, resorts, in my opinion, to just making stuff up. If he really thinks that Boulder became a pioneer in urban development with the Blue Line and a vigorous Open Space program on the “basis of race” then his ignorance of Boulder history is profound, indeed.

The reason it’s difficult to build new housing is not because it’s “majority-white”; it’s because people here, starting over sixty years ago, did not want a lot of new housing — even if, as was the expectation, the houses would be filled with White people.

Oklobdzija also claims, without evidence, that Boulder homeowners are resistant to new housing because it will “dilute” the value of their assets. Nonsense.

Single-family homes rise in value in denser neighborhoods because of scarcity. People, especially those with children, prefer single-family housing.

Oklobdzija thinks that if we don’t build “dense multifamily housing” our streets will be choked with cars (this, from someone who lives in California), as if his suggestion wouldn’t make things worse.

He predicts that we will be a “declining” community (doesn’t sound so bad, really) of “extravagantly wealthy seniors.” Ageism aside, none of those seniors is going to last forever, especially the ones backcountry skiing and ice climbing. And what extravagance? High-end Subarus?

Anyone who thinks that more housing will solve the problem that “56% of Boulder’s 104,000 workers live outside the city limits” needs to have a better grasp of the issues of balancing jobs with housing. That and better transit would alleviate the problems he imagines without destroying Boulder’s quality of life. California? No thanks.

— Glenn Murray, Boulder