Downtown Boulder Blog

It’s the equinox, and that means I’m reflecting on balance. Here in Downtown Boulder, we see a delicate balance, a microcosm of society every day. People gather in our shared spaces for festivals, for fellowship, for free speech events, and for moments of mourning. Businesses open and businesses close. And it’s also a place where policy is decided: policies discussed over coffees, lunches, cocktails, and in our elected officials’ chambers. Sometimes those conversations are balanced, and sometimes they feel exhausting.

It’s been a fun summer with the Pearl Street Arts Festival and weekly free concerts at Bands on the Bricks. We’ve welcomed a number of new businesses, and visitors are out in full force. But it’s no secret that this summer of 2025 has also brought its fair share of challenges to our beloved Downtown.

The Pearl Street Mall is Boulder’s quintessential third place. With its well-tended flower beds and shady trees, benches, play structures, and plentiful street performers, it’s a place where people linger, not just pass through.  It’s walkable, relaxed, and full of life.

Sundance Film Festival plus 50th Anniversary of Clela Rorex signing same-sex marriage licenses plus National Historic Landmark equals economic opportunity.

CEO Bettina Swigger's op-ed in the Daily Camera. "Given my commitment to walkability, you may think that I’d be in support of the Pearl For You petition circulating that is asking the city to put a ballot initiative to close West Pearl to private vehicular traffic. On the surface, this seems like a shiny, happy idea. To those who appreciated the novelty of pandemic-era emergency innovation, spending a sunny day walking and dining on streets normally used by cars sounds great.
But the current reality is much different, and this petition is not in the best interests of our community and the people who love spending time in our downtown and come here every day. Please join our growing coalition to Keep West Pearl Open."

Earlier this month, we gathered downtown business owners and stakeholders for our Fall Town Hall at eTown, where we learned about the results from our 2024 Visitor Intercept Survey, conducted by RRC, commissioned by Downtown Boulder Partnership, Visit Boulder and the city of Boulder. This survey has been conducted every other year since 1995 which provides meaningful longitudinal data to see why and how people come downtown and what they think about, it once they got here.
This summer, 775 people took the survey, compared to 669 in 2022. Despite a high office vacancy rate, (a lingering effect of post-COVID redefinition of the traditional office model), locals are coming downtown. Just over half of the Colorado respondents in the survey were from Boulder vs. 43% in 2018. Among locals, 25% live in north Boulder, which is likely a result of more housing being built in that part of town. Aside from Boulder, the biggest Colorado cities of origin are predictably Longmont, Denver, Lafayette, Broomfield and Louisville. Out-of-town visitors play a crucial role in sustaining and energizing downtown Boulder’s economy.

It’s no secret that CU Boulder has an economic, social and cultural impact on our community, as consumers, neighbors and workers. And that includes our restaurant community.

I invite you to think back to your first walk on the Pearl Street Mall, your first visit to the Boulder Book Store, to Peppercorn, to the Farmers’ Market. That first experience created quite an impression, didn’t it? The fact is, first impressions matter.

"Magic doesn’t just happen. It’s made by people."