On Wednesday, June 3, Boulder Chamber Transportation Connections welcomed 150 guests to our first Connect Boulder Summer Social and Business After Hours happy hour at Hyatt Place Pearl Street in Boulder Junction. The event featured a fun community walk, conversations with dynamic guest speakers, and hands-on transportation-oriented activities hosted by Boulder Chamber member businesses.
Before our speakers took the stage, TDM Outreach Specialist Will Shepherd and City of Boulder Director of Parks and Recreation Alison Rhodes led a community walk and roll to the site of the planned Boulder Junction pocket park. The new park will connect the Goose Creek Greenway with RTD’s Depot Square Station and include a playground and creative-play spaces for neighborhood families, an outdoor classroom space with a stage and amphitheater seating, and space for food trucks and shaded picnic seating, among other amenities. Community engagement to help define park elements will happen this fall.
After the outing, attendees filled the meeting room at Hyatt Place to listen to our guest speakers – Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) Executive Director Shoshana Lew, City of Boulder Director of Transportation and Mobility Blythe Bailey, and City Thread Partner Kyle Wagenschutz – who shared insights into how our state and local transportation policies, planning practices, and methods of community participation all contribute to accessibility and quality of life.
Speaking about the recently released CDOT 10-Year Vision Plan and projects that sustainably increase transportation choice around the state, Director Lew mentioned how some multimodal projects have generated pushback from engineers and residents alike. But once they are in place, mobility hubs, crosswalks, and transit-oriented projects become popular. “If you build it, they won’t want it to go away,” she said.
Taking that concept further, Boulder’s new Director of Transportation and Mobility, Blythe Bailey, highlighted how “public spaces form the backdrop for public life,” with people-oriented design and infrastructure facilitating friendly interactions and building community resiliency. Bailey moved to Boulder last fall from Chattanooga, Tennessee. As an architect and urban designer who previously led Chattanooga’s Parks and Recreation and Transportation departments, Bailey discussed the significance of Boulder’s long-term investments in places that help people connect with each other, as well as the data collection to support those investments.
“While any individual project may seem incremental, over time those investments accumulate into something larger,” Bailey said, “a safer city, a healthier city, and ultimately a more joyful one.”
It takes broad coalitions to achieve safe, healthy, and joyful cities, and Kyle Wagenschutz of City Thread described how that organization helps bring the right people together to get community-oriented infrastructure, such as trail networks and connected bike lanes, built. “We know the real driving force behind meaningful change is community and relationships,” Wagenschutz said, noting that the development of diverse coalitions often helps mobilize funding and policy change to facilitate investments in quality of life. Wagenschutz reflected on his background in community organizing as a key to his success in both city government in Memphis, Tennessee, and nonprofits such as PeopleForBikes and City Thread.
After the presentations, attendees enjoyed handmade baked goods from Willow’s Wonderful Treats (which you can purchase at Logan’s Espresso in Boulder Junction), and BCTC gave away a 30-liter Patagonia Refugio Daypack to one lucky participant, who happened to live in the Boulder Junction neighborhood.
With the start of Business After Hours, attendees enjoyed a Mediterranean buffet provided by Zeal and engaged with interactive experiences hosted by member businesses, including an e-bike prize wheel and photo booth with Beyond Boulder Adventures, an invitation to explore walking adventures on the Camino de Santiago in Spain and in Boulder with Lisa Corrado Coaching, and a comment board about community transportation hosted by Via Mobility Services.
Thanks to the City of Boulder, Via Mobility Services, and Hyatt Place Pearl Street for making this event a success!
Photos by Lorikeet Creative. Click here to watch the event recap video by Lorikeet Creative.