Pearl Street Mall in Boulder
Today, in a desperate attempt to do something other than sit around behind a computer all day, I drove into Boulder to revisit Pearl Street Mall. My first, and only, visit to Pearl Street a few years back left me with a bad taste in my mouth. It seems to be more of a place to dress up in your $200 designer jeans and parade around how cool you are… or begging… you pick.
Honestly, there is (was) a surplus store right at the fringe of the outdoor mall that I have been wanting to visit since my last stop in 3 years ago. Unfortunately, what was a great Army-surplus store has turned into yet another blah-mall store full of hemp clothing and the same camping gear I can find at Walmart (for twice the cost of course).
Although I tried the bad taste remains. While the store-fronts are unique… not a bunch of same-ol’ department stores that you can find anywhere… unless you are willing to pay $100 just because someone can throw a coat of paint onto an old exhaust header from a 1960’s car and call it art, it isn’t any different than any other tourist trap except for two things;
1) There are as many street performers as mall visitors. Literally, you can not walk 10 yards without having to step around yet another half-hippie with his bongos singing away. And to make matters worse, not a single one was worth stopping to listen too.
2) The number of rules and regulations just to walk along 5 blocks of PUBLIC space is ridiculous… and not a single one was being followed. No matter how many signs were sprinkled onto every visible vertical pole, it seemed everyone there had a dog of one sort or another in tow. “No bikes” signs were no better off. Of course, anything not already covered in city ordinance signs was covered in colored paper advertisements for yet another band playing or dog-walking. The one sign missing was the most recent law to hit the books; No Smoking. They actually banned smoking (not that it was being followed) in all of the downtown mall area. And the one police officer I saw patrolling on foot (an elderly female officer) had her hands full trying to enforce these unenforceable laws.
Yes, as you can tell I am still not impressed by the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder. I didn’t spend a dime and was happy to get back in the car to get the heck out of there. Any other strip-mall, or Amazon.com, would be a better place to go shopping. However, if you want to see some very odd people while having a meal, the Pearl Street Mall gives you ample opportunities to sit outside and watch the chaos as you enjoy a burger and beer.
