[palmer]

And except that federal and state authorities do transportation planning, and must decide whether to subsidize the commuting lifestyle. (I'm generally opposed to degrading functioning neighborhoods to slice a few minutes off commutes, my neighborhood being the kind of place that would be destroyed if the automobile-uber-alles crowd had its way.)

Not applicable. Boulder forces its workers into cars to commute into the city.

[sphinx]

I don't know enough about Boulder to react specifically, but in general, I like the idea of affordable housing in close proximity to job centers. Ideally, cities should be places where one can live, work, shop, and play without a car. Not everyone will choose to live that way, but it should be a logistically feasible option. This is often seen as an urban yuppie lifestyle frill (and it may be, although it is an attractive frill), but it is hugely important for the elderly, the poor, lower income working families for whom a second car is out of reach, the disabled, young people, etc.

Around DC, we have a plethora of suburban towns whose teachers and policemen, not to mention the mechanics and store clerks, can't afford to live there. That's crazy. Sounds like Boulder has the same problem.