Denver, Boulder make 'Fast cities 2010' list.

• Author: Cote, Mike
• Position: INNOVATION - Brief article

Xcel Energy's $100 million smart-grid system in Boulder and a taxpayer-backed Denver Public Schools initiative that provides incentives to teachers earned Colorado two spots in Fast Company magazine's "Fast Cities 2010" roundup.

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Fast Company singled out 12 cities nationwide in its May issue for embracing innovation: "Constructing the perfect city means blending the best and the boldest ideas from across the nation."

The magazine noted that corporate giants like Cisco, Microsoft, IBM and Google are working on efforts to transform the power grid into a digital network but that Boulder is the first U.S. city to pilot a large-scale system, one that allows residents to monitor power use and control appliances remotely.

The Denver Public Schools kudos quoted U.S. Senator (and re-election candidate) Michael Bennet, the former head of DPS. "We haven't changed the way we pay teachers in this country since we had a labor market that discriminated against women,"...