Hot or not--every boom must go a' bust.

• Author: Rundles, Jeff
• Position: RUNDLES WRAP UP

THIS IS AN EXCITING TIME TO BE LIVING IN Colorado, as there is an obvious economic boom underway, manifest mostly in visible construction, and it is truly something to behold. And this isn't just some idle observation: I have been witnessing the booms and busts of our fair state and its capital city up-close for nearly 40 years as a business reporter. Still, I have never seen anything quite like what is happening now.

But it begs some serious questions. For one: Who the hell is living in all of the apartments that are springing up everywhere?

We used to joke in the late 1970s that the State Bird of Colorado was the Crane--the construction crane, because so many skyscrapers were rising out of a relatively low-rise, low-key downtown. We were breaking stories that seemed to spring up every week about the latest massive development downtown, and everyone was wildly excited about the economic impact statewide what with new jobs being created and new companies coming to town. The commercial office space vacancy rate was at an all-time low and the money was flowing in to meet demand. Just a few short years later in 1984, the price of oil collapsed, and it all ended abruptly with vacancies soaring.

Back then oil fueled the boom and the bust. I don't know what is causing Colorado's current explosion--craft beer, technology, the reinvention of the great outdoors--but I do know, because I learned it way back when, the boom will eventually burst. "Boom," in economic terms, means "a period of unsustainable growth." So by its very nature, while exciting, it is very troubling.

There is, of course, plenty to celebrate. The new Union Station in downtown Denver is probably the most beautiful project, new or redeveloped, ever completed in Colorado, and it is now the centerpiece of a vibrant and expanding downtown. To see the light-rail corridor heading out of city center to DIA and the growth that will continue...