A group of Park City government, business and not-for-profit leaders, and others from the community, in the early fall of 2017 boarded a bus headed east on Interstate 80 before turning south toward Colorado.It was the annual City Tour and the first stop was Boulder, Colorado, a college town that, al though significantly larger than Park City, could offer lessons to the travelers. Boulder, the location of the University of Colorado, has a popular pedestrian mall, has long protected open space and is a place where environmental activism is ingrained in the community. Those are all topics of interest to Parkites.The City Tour, designed as a fact-finding mission that offers perspectives about the mechanics of the communities the group visits, in 2017 covered numerous issues in Boulder that seven-plus years later are notable again for people in Park City. Sundance Film Festival organizers in late March selected Boulder as the host of the event starting in 2027, opting to move after decades in Park City.The top marketplace of independent films in the U.S. will be held in Park City in 2026 and then relocate to Boulder. The finalists in the Sundance selection process were Boulder, Cincinnati and a combined effort by Salt Lake City and Park City that would have moved much of the festival activity to Utah’s capital city.A summary of the City Tour of 2017, drafted shortly after the travelers returned from Colorado, highlights what the contingent from Park City learned in Boulder in the pre-pandemic era and long before there was any notion Sundance may leave Park City. There are similarities, and stark differences, between the two communities, the summary underscores.The summary recounts remarks made by officials in Boulder touting the community and comparing it to Park City. The mayor of Boulder at the time, Suzanne Jones, “pointed out some of the shared attributes of our two communities: outdoor settings that support a high quality of life; engaged public; politics making us pockets of blue in red states; and challenges such as affordability that come from our popularity.”“She did admit Park City has better powder, but asserted that Boulder has better beer. (A claim with which some of our group would disagree.),” the summary says.There was also talk of the real estate and rental situation in Boulder, with comments from officials there indicating “workers struggle to find housing.”“Supply constraints mean half the city’s housing is out of the reach for even the middle income residents and community consensus supports affordable housing,” it says, explaining officials in city and county government cooperate on housing and, when new residences are developed, a bloc needs to be set aside as “permanently affordable.”The City Tour also delved into the Boulder economy. That topic is consequential in the context of the Sundance move with the festival being a lucrative 11 days on Park City’s tourism-industry calendar in sectors like lodging, restaurant and transportation.The summary describes commentary from Boulder presenters about the community being one that “thrives because of a diversity of industries from aerospace to clean energy to tourism.” Boulder’s “economic engine runs on innovative entrepreneurship fueled by UC Boulder’s R & D funding, as well as private and public innovation and collaboration,” it says.The City Tour also learned about the pedestrianized Pearl Street Mall in central Boulder, a popular commercial district that will almost certainly attract the Sundance crowds. A business group spoke to the Park City travelers about “maintaining the social, cultural and economic vibrancy of the area encompassing the 49 square blocks around the Pearl Street Pedestrian Mall.”“The organization markets to Denver day-trippers, affluent local families and downtown employees … not the college crowd,” the summary says. “It balances events appealing to both the local market and the tourist trade.”The summary adds: “To protect local merchants, there is a 10-day break between big events on the Pearl Street Mall, an idea which captured Parkites’ attention.”The longtime organizer of the City Tour, Myles Rademan, in an interview described Boulder as a “very cosmopolitan city.” Rademan’s professional background includes time in Colorado and he said he received a call from Boulder during the Sundance selection process that included talk about that city increasing hotel bookings in January with the festival.Rademan said Boulder has had a left-leaning vibe for decades and he talked about the community’s efforts to preserve open space. The Boulder weather in January when Sundance is held is nice, he said, without as much snow as Park City. Rademan also spoke about the Pearl Street Mall, saying Boulder was an early adopter of pedestrianization. He said the Pearl Street Mall could play a similar role to the one Main Street in Park City holds during Sundance.“They’ll really put together a whole program to activate the mall,” he said.The post Pre-pandemic Park City trip to Boulder offers insights into Sundance’s destination appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less