Pros:
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The outdoors: Wonderful parks, trails and bike paths are literally all around you. If you enjoy getting outside, it is very difficult to beat Boulder's location
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Healthy Living - Very healthy city, tons of resources for great food, both groceries and restaurants..
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Boulder's Startup Mentality - If you can get into a laid back work ethos, you should give it a look. We work hard here, but I don't think I've worked for a company yet that didn't push work-life balance. Does this ultimately their industries will have trouble competing with the coasts? Probably, but if you're looking for companies that will give you "Powder Days" for fresh snow and managers who encourage burn-out reducing vacations, Boulder is the place to work.
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Cycling - This could be lumped into the outdoors portion, but seriously, it has a decent set of bike infrastructure. You can get from one side of Boulder to the other without getting on a street, N, S, E, or W. As an avid bike commuter, I can't get over how enjoyable that it.
Cons:
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Growth (or lacktherof): Major companies that have started in Boulder have recently moved to Denver. We're getting a bigger Google office and I think Twitter and Github both have locations here, but for alternative, exciting tech, Boulder's scene is, IMO, stuttering a little. Decent ad-tech plays, but very few companies with invigorating change-the-world-type moon shots.
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Cost of Living - I initially listed this as a pro, because while Boulder is expensive, we aren't as costly as the Bay or NYC. Then I remembered that Boulder was literally 10,000% smaller than NYC and that didn't seem like such a perk. Our COL is even competitive with Seattle, a city 6.5 times larger and Portland, a paltry 6x larger, has a slightly lower cost of living. So yeah, maybe not so great, depending on how active a city life you want. (Denver is just 30 minutes down the road, but it's a long enough hassle that I stick to Boulder most weekends).
The city is going through substantial growing pains, and the older residents who've seen their property value increase from $200k to $2.5M are fighting density and affordable housing every step of the way. Boulder will likely remain held hostage by the entrenched interests and the start-up scene will stutter unless Boulder can figure out a compromise between businesses, wealthier residents, and the rest of us who'd like to live near where they work.
Overall I've really enjoyed my time here. I don't know if setting down roots will be possible in the long run but its been a wonderful stay so far.
