Boulder may be happy -- but is it as green as it wants to be?

Some types of national publicity are better than others. At around the same time Boulder was named the happiest city in the country in a Gallup-Healthways survey (apparently without taking into account the impact of weed), the city was being tweaked for its difficulty in meeting targeted environmental standards in...

By Michael Roberts

February 16, 2010

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Some types of national publicity are better than others. At around the same time Boulder was named the happiest city in the country in a Gallup-Healthways survey (apparently without taking into account the impact of weed), the city was being tweaked for its difficulty in meeting targeted environmental standards in an ultra-prominent Wall Street Journal story, accompanied by the video seen here. The piece ends with a quote attributed to regional sustainability coordinator Jonathan Koehn: "People say, 'It's Boulder! Kooky Boulder! Of course you can do it.' Not necessarily." This calls for more weed.

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Michael Roberts began his career with Westword in 1990 as music editor. In 1999, he took on a new role, full-time media reporter, as author of a column called The Message. In 2008, he became the lead writer for Westword's news blog, The Latest Word, a position he held until January 2023. Michael continues to freelance for Westword, covering everything from business to sports and the media; he also contributes to Jazziz, a national music magazine. He holds a bachelor's degree from what is now Colorado Mesa University and master's degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, and Northwestern University.

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