Nicole's Notes - Week of December 8, 2025

In this newsletter

• What's new?
• This week at City Council
• Get engaged
• Community Kudos
• What I'm reading/listening to
• Quote for the month
• Community resources
• Weekly Schedule

What's new?

• Learn the difference between legal e-bikes and illegal e-motos with new videos in English and Spanish and help keep Boulder's transportation system safe.
• Elevate Boulder participants share how guaranteed income has eased financial pressures, restored dignity, and opened doors to new possibilities. Read their stories and consider donating to keep this impactful program going.
• I’m exploring format and content updates for next year’s newsletter. If there’s something you’d like to see more of, please send me a note.

This week at City Council

City Council and Planning Board will hear and discuss recommendations from Boulder’s first Community Assembly on 15‑minute neighborhoods (communities where daily needs are within easy reach for pedestrians). The Assembly focused on how to make these neighborhoods work in practice, suggesting ways to expand affordable housing, support local businesses, and keep sidewalks safe and accessible.

Council and the Planning Board will also review emerging policy and land use direction for the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan major update. The update is moving toward a clearer, values‑based foundation to guide decisions across our community. Shaped by the most inclusive engagement process in the plan's 50-year history, it highlights “connection” as the guiding value for Boulder’s future.

Get engaged

Connect with community through myriad cultural events and celebrations, a parade, a neighborhood walk, a harp concert, a puzzle competition, and more.

Community kudos

Thank you to transportation crews for keeping roads clear during the season’s first big snowfall, to city staff for compiling resources for people with disabilities, and to Bettina Swigger as she concludes her tenure leading the Downtown Boulder Partnership.

What I'm reading/listening to

This week I’m reading about Boulder's new City Council, the Boulder County Republican Party's dangerously ignorant views on trans and nonbinary youth, community water solutions at San Lázaro, challenges for small nonprofits in Colorado’s grant system, and tributes to Senator Faith Winter’s life of service.

Quote for the month

In the middle of winter, I at last discovered that there was in me an invincible summer.

-Albert Camus, writer, Nobel laureate, and French Resistance journalist

Community resources

Click here to find local financial and social assistance programs, report an issue, contact staff or Councilmembers, learn about grant opportunities, and more.

City staff put together a list of food resources for those in need, and ways to help. If you're able to donate food or funding, please do.

Weekly schedule

Schedule office hours or find my weekly schedule and annual meeting tally here.