BOULDER — When Denver7 | Your Voice visited Boulder last week, community members expressed their hope for a future in the city that preserves the past.
Many people acknowledged that change is inevitable, and often a good thing, but they simultaneously longed for the Boulder from decades ago — the city they first fell in love with.
When asked where that quirky character still resides in Boulder, a handful of people mentioned a certain store on Pearl Street Mall: the historic Boulder Bookstore.
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"I have been coming here since this store opened, since before there was a mall on Pearl Street," said Jed Shapiro. "There were cars going by in front of this store.”
Shapiro is considered a regular at the store, which sprawls across several floors and encompasses an estimated 150,000 books.
"It's a meeting place for me, at least," Shapiro said about the store, where he often runs into people he knows.
The owner of the Boulder Bookstore, David Bolduc, said the store has been open for more than 50 years.
"People are still buying books, which we thought they said the book is dead at one point," Bolduc said while surrounded by the massive collection in the store. "People don't see bookstores of this size, probably, unless they live in a very, very big city like New York."
Bolduc believes there is something special customers are seeking when they enter the store.
“All that kind of intimacy that I think we've lost a lot as we've gotten larger and larger, they can find here," said Bolduc.
As many things change in Boulder, there are some that stay the same — as seen inside the Boulder Bookstore.
"They appreciate the connections with the past, and are not willing just to say the past is worthless and everything's got to be new," said Bolduc. "I think people see the value of things that have come before them and can build upon those."
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