Best of the Rest

Story/Issue We Never Covered
• CRITICS: The rights of prairie dogs
It seems that everybody wants to build beautiful and environmental-friendly developments. Throughout the process, we seem to forget that no matter how green a new home is, it’s displacing an adorable prairie dog. It’s time we build colonies to support the huggable animals.

Local Blogger
• CRITICS: Dan Powers, East County Blogspot
A tiff over whether anonymous posters should be allowed on Dan Power’s site ended up ruining a good thing. But for two years, ending in December, Dan covered everything local better than everyone else (present company excluded, naturally).
• READERS: Jennifer Love-Davis

Category We Should Include
• CRITICS: Best Yellow Scene full-time editorial staff member
Okay, so there is only one full-time editorial staff member, which would mean a guaranteed award for the editor’s wall each year. A little appreciation is always nice. Just saying.
• READERS: Best Gift Store

Category We Should Remove
• CRITICS: All of them
Seriously. This year just about killed us. We more than doubled the categories from last year all in the hope of finding the coolest stuff in the North Metro area. But we’re really, really tired, burnt out and ready for a weekend getaway to Costa Rica.
• READERS: 30% “Best of” Voting Requirement

Environmental Effort
• CRITICS: Walking Bus, Bear Creek Elementary School
While the students participating in the year-old program aren’t saving the world (yet, anyway), starting kids on a path toward eco-friendliness before the teenage years is a great way to encourage a long life of living green. Each day, two dozen or so students meet a mile from school and form a walking bus, picking up others on their “route” to school.

Neighborhood to Live In
• CRITICS AND READERS: Prospect, Longmont
Laugh if you will at the eclectic gathering of vibrantly-colored homes, wealthy Boulder County liberals and leisurely lifestyle that seems to put a priority on drinking lattes and wines by the flight. Give it to Prospect developers—it has developed a close-knit community that offers residents a chance to live, work and play.

Place to Hide During The Democratic National Convention
• CRITICS: Nederland
Thousands of politicians, big wigs and members of the media are going to take over Denver and the surrounding areas for the latter half of August. As much fun as it’ll be to see the spectacle, it’ll be much more relaxing to avoid it all. There’s no better place in Colorado to hide. Grab a few beers at the Pioneer Inn and wait ’til Election Day.
• READERS: Estes Park

Private School
• CRITICS AND READERS: Alexander Dawson School, Lafayette
Do you want your child to go to Brown, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, University of North Carolina or Duke? That’s somewhat of a rhetorical question, but that’s just a sampling of the colleges Dawson students have graduated to recently. Top academics, an absolutely beautiful campus and five-star cafeteria cooking will have you forgetting about the cost of tuition in no time.

Public School
• CRITICS: Lafayette Elementary, Lafayette
If a school’s students fail CSAP tests, state funding can dry up. That was what Lafayette Elementary faced a few short years ago, when one-quarter pass rates were standard. Along came Principal Holly Hultgren, and now the school is consistently atop Boulder Valley in scores. She has fostered a new environment—recognized by her being awarded a National Distinguished Principal of the Year in ’08.
• READERS: Centaurus High School, Lafayette

Reason to Live in the North Metro ’Burbs
• CRITICS: All the really cool Old Towns
With rare exception, each of the North Metro communities have quaint Old Towns that feature great restaurants, dynamic shopping options and a sleepy Mayberry feeling. They pump life into the suburbs, giving each community a unique identity.
• READERS: Traffic, or lack there of

View
• CRITICS: Highway 52 and County Line Road
One of the reasons the northern ’burbs are popular is the views. It’s pretty simple actually. And there’s no better place to appreciate this than Highway 52 and County Line. Pull your car over on a side road and check out sweeping views of Pikes Peak, open space and the growing North Metro area. It’ll put in perspective that odd relationship the old farming community and the new growth of the suburbs. Just watch out for roving cattle.
• READERS: Looking at the Mountain