New West Network

My Page: Ben Casnocha

Guest Column

The weather is the ultimate common denominator in a population. It follows, then, that Boulder's cold, snowy welcome to me has been the subject of at least a dozen conversations I've had with locals since moving here two weeks ago from San Francisco.

There are several angles to these conversations. Most important there is disagreement among the locals over how long, exactly, it's been since this town has seen so much cold and so much snow. If you feel the urge to wager a guess (3 years? 9 years? A lifetime?), go right ahead: a conversation among "locals" is maximally inclusive, since Colorado seems so short on bona fide natives that, in a year, I could probably legitimately call myself an old-timer.

This is because flocks of transplants from the Bay Area and New York migrate to Boulder in search of mountains, clean air, good schools, and – let's face it, the factor which trumps all – a lower cost-of-living. The Economist recently reported that five million Californians now live outside the state, many in the Rocky Mountain West.
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