CITY GROWTH

Finding Old Boulder

By Amy Brouillette, 6-02-05

CITY GROWTH
Finding Old Boulder

It’s hard not to be nostalgic for old Boulder, a city so clearly struggling to square its bohemian roots with its reality as a growing city. A surge of new development here and all along the Front Range has brought with it a straighter, business-savvy crew into the Republic of Boulder, poised to domesticate places and storefronts where hippies once ruled.

Meanwhile, tucked behind the city’s constantly-evolving, increasingly upscale downtown, one old Boulder tradition has endured: the Farmer's Market—at least on Wednesdays—is proof the city’s hippie heart still beats. On a one-block stretch on 14th Street between Canyon and Arapahoe is the spot where locals still go during summer to get their week’s local organic produce, upholding a Boulder ritual nearly three decades old.

Once a low-key affair akin to grocery shopping, Saturday’s version now draws masses—even garnering a mention in a recent New York Times travel article—and has morphed into a spectacle that requires maneuvering through a maze of strollers and leashed dogs, and around weekend throngs more hooked on the market’s idea, the scene, than the actual goods.

At yesterday's market, howevever, the old-school Wednesday crowd mulled down the uncrowded block, replenishing their supplies for the week, gathering peas and fresh spinach, a stash of flowers, greeting vendors they've grown to know. Still, it’s clear no matter on what day, the Farmer's Market has changed—prices have gone up over the years as local farmers compete with each other and, now, with Whole Foods down the road. There is now a food court proper (albeit a healthy one) and, coming later in June, a beer and wine garden. While more polished around the edges, more civilized for sure, on that one square block of downtown on Wednesday, old Boulder still thrives.

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