Reflections on a New Century: Virginia Patterson & Will Toor

Virginia Patterson, owner of The Printed Page

Boulder Magazine: What issues will be important as Boulder moves into the next century?
Virginia Patterson: I think the issues are going to be affordable housing, overcrowded neighborhoods, a sense of isolation. We are importing wealth and exporting our well-educated young people to earn their living elsewhere. What we’ll end up with is an idyllic island for all who are fortunate enough to be inside the moat before the gate goes up!

BMAG: What can we do to change this scenario?
Patterson: I think Boulder’s goals are wonderful, but I feel real anguish at the loss of young, growing families who can’t afford to live here. And how can we change this? We’ve already densified the core, which means we’d have to densify the next radius of homes and neighborhoods. I don’t know where we can grow out, so if we grow, it would have to be up. And that seems antithetical to people’s desires to keep Boulder a low-lying jewel at the foot of the Rockies.

BMAG: You raised three sons in Boulder, two of whom still live here. Is there still a sense of family in Boulder?
Patterson: I see a strong sense of family, which people seem to want. That’s why it’s going to be so hard for everyone when the lovely life that grandparents and parents enjoyed may not be available to their young people. I think Boulder wants to stay a small town, wants small-town values: courtesy, kindliness, consideration, thoughtfulness, respect for others. That part of the Boulder ethic will linger on for those fortunate enough to live here. But as much as I would like to think there’s a simple solution to the housing question, I don’t know what it is. I wish I did.

BMAG: We have all of this open space land. How about using some of it?
Patterson: I’ve suggested that the periphery of open space land be used for affordable housing, but it doesn’t seem to be a popular idea. I’m an optimist, and I always think that somehow we’re going to find the way.

BMAG: Do you think population pressures will prevent Boulder from maintaining its direction?
Patterson: We can’t predict whether people’s attitudes will change. Boulder, while being on the cutting-edge in so many ways, is slow to respond to initiatives that don’t reflect the community’s values. This will continue to be a town of well-educated professional people, a contentious, issue-oriented community with a lot of citizen involvement. We’ll continue to support and expect a lot from our systems of public education. We’ve chosen a somewhat elitist path, great for the people who live here and enviable for people who don’t.

BMAG: You mentioned a sense of isolation. What do you mean by that?
Patterson: In the neighborhoods I’ve known, people made a real effort to be neighborly. With apartments and condos and infills springing up, I just don’t see that same spirit. Boulder is certainly somewhat isolated by our idealism, though more of our neighboring communities are coming to the same conclusions on slow growth as we did.

BMAG: Given your many years of caring about Boulder what would you wish for our town?
Patterson: I wish that people would keep caring and thinking not only about themselves and their own families, but about the families that will come after, and continue to make this a welcoming, loving community.

Will Toor, Boulder Mayor and Director of the University of Colorado Environmental Center

Boulder Magazine: What issues will be important in the next century and new millennium?
Will Toor: As we move into the twenty-first century, the fundamental background issue is going to be how we deal with the impact of the human species on the global environment. First and foremost we’ll be dealing with global climate change. Despite international efforts, we’re still seeing a very rapid rise in greenhouse gas emissions, especially in the United States. In the near future, we’re going to have to grapple with either a serious, sustained effort to decarbonize our economy—change the ways we use and generate energy so we continue to have a healthy economy but with far less carbon emissions—or we’ll be seeing the effects of global climate change. It’s arguable that we’re beginning to see them already. It’s very likely that within our lifetimes, certainly within our children’s lifetimes, there will be major impacts from emissions even if we begin acting now.

BMAG: Where should we start?
Toor: Energy efficiency is probably the most important single issue in the short-term. About one-third of carbon emissions comes from transportation, and another third comes from the operation of buildings. As individuals, we must either reduce the amount of driving we do or purchase one of the new hybrid oelectric vehicles that will get sixty-five to seventy miles per gallon with three times less emissions. We can also take steps to make our homes more energy-efficient.
As a community, we can encourage energy efficiency when we encourage compact development. That helps reduce the distances that people drive, which certainly has an impact on emissions.
Ultimately, the major influence for change will have to do with things like the national tax system. If, as many economists have urged, we shift from taxing income to taxing carbon dioxide emissions, it would give a signal the entire economy would respond to. That’s the sort of change we’re going to need.

BMAG: How much impact can one citizen have?
Toor: We all have an impact through our individual choices, and also working through the political system. It’s very important that our elected officials, and in this case I think it’s primarily at the national level, get the signal from their constituents that we want them to take global climate change very seriously, that we want them to be looking out for the interests of the public, not just the interests of the coal company.

BMAG: Do you see any quick fixes?
Toor: There’s not any one magic bullet. In the near term the most important thing is energy efficiency. At this time, without any major innovations, we have the technical ability to maintain our standard of living and use far less energy. Most people could still get around in their own vehicles, at easily a third to a quarter of today’s energy consumption.
In the longer term, renewable energy sources will be very important and I encourage vigorous support for Public Service’s wind power program. To date, Boulder residents and businesses have responded the best by far to this program on a statewide level.

BMAG: Speaking as a new father, what will the new century bring your son?
Toor: I see two really fundamental issues that the City of Boulder and the entire region will have to contend with. One is housing. A key to my son being able to live in Boulder is going to be whether or not we are able to take effective action to maintain a diversity of housing stock for people of different income levels. The way the city deals with that issue in the next two years will have an enormous impact on Boulder for many decades to come.
On the regional level the question is are we able to do anything meaningful about growth management? We’ve all seen what’s happened along the Front Range and I-70 corridor, and there’s no end in sight. The explosion of growth will dramatically degrade environmental quality and quality of life in the state. Given what I see in state-level government, if this problem is going to get solved, it will probably be solved by the citizens through statewide initiatives.

BMAG: Your common theme seems to be that individual action has a lot to do with what happens in the future.
Toor: Individual action is very important, and so is collective action. It’s critical that people use the tools we’re lucky enough to have—our democratic system of government, our ability to influence elected officials, and the right to bring citizen’ initiatives—to band together and preserve the great things we’ve got.