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But how do you know that Boulder real estate won't get more expensive if Google moves in? Seems like they'd be adding at least a couple percentage points to the
by lexap 12y ago
But how do you know that Boulder real estate won't get more expensive if Google moves in? Seems like they'd be adding at least a couple percentage points to the higher income working population, which would have that effect.
- mathattack 12y agoLet's say they say No, and Google moves a town over. What happens then?
- hkarthik 12y agoGoogle moving a town over would be the same as choosing a town like Longmont or Broomfield. Which is likely to be just fine, and provides just as many jobs for graduates in the area, without getting mired in Boulder politics. That's exactly what Sun and every other big tech company did in the 1990s when they had a footprint in Colorado.
- mathattack 12y agoBeing the Devil's advocate - does it still push up Boulder's home prices?
- davidw 12y agoAnd also, for people who purport to care about urban sprawl, is pushing things farther out and increasing commutes a good answer?
- hkarthik 12y agoThe only way to decrease sprawl would be to increase density, and frankly few Coloradoans would go for that. Few cities outside of Denver have tall buildings because people don't like their mountain views obstructed. And public transportation is pretty limited. Many people live in Colorado to enjoy the outdoors, and to do so, you need your own transportation. Once you have your own transportation, there's very little incentive to take a bus or train on a regular basis.
- davidw 12y agoOk, but Boulder is supposed to be fairly liberal, environmentally conscious and so on. They seem a bit out of touch with reality: they don't want to increase housing stock, but they don't want higher prices either.
- hkarthik 12y agoHighly unlikely. Boulder's incentive is also to keep the prices reasonable so that there is enough affordable student housing for the 31,000 students that live in the town. Students make up 30% of the population of the entire town. The student population doesn't care much for things like public school and property taxes that tend to drive housing prices up or down. For them, it's purely about cheap rent, good access to the bus system, and walkability.