One citizen's view of Longmont, Colorado, USA.
Corrections, rotten tomatoes, recollections, and even nice words can be left as comments, or email to:
longmontian@gmail.com
In the alley behind 504 Main Street, I noticed this "Free Air For Cyclists" sign.
It's left over from High Gear Cyclery bicycle shop which closed 17 years ago, where they kept a floor pump here. Group rides used to start right around the corner.
Here is the same sign from 2009.
Today, it looks to be just a little faded and perhaps more crowded but well protected in the alley from the elements.
I wonder what people think when they see this sign today?
The 39th Longmont Criterium Bicycle Race, officially known as the Andrea Koenig/High Plains Bank Longmont State Championship Criterium returned to Longmont's Thompson Park neighborhood today. "Crits", as they are called, have faced recent difficulties in finding places to race on the Front Range. The long-running and well-known Twilight Criterium in Littleton ended their Saturday night race last year and yesterday's August 22 Niwot Criterium was cancelled just a few days before the event. Both towns cited disruption to their communities as the reason. As a result, crits often get relegated to drab and empty office parks on evenings and weekends.
Thankfully, Old Town Longmont continues to embrace this event and many riders say it is their favorite course in Colorado, among the trees, wide streets, and crowds. You can see the neighbors having watch parties along the course and many locals bring out their lawn chairs to see the action.
After a 25 minute lightning and rain delay, the women's top riders got underway:
Riders are doing a constant ~30 mph on this course:
Hope this event continues to return to Longmont.
Over the weekend, the previously closed half-mile section of the St. Vrain Greenway, between the Isaak Walton Clubhouse and Boston Avenue, was reopened. This completes the "Isaak Walton Reach 2" Project and you can now once again travel the length of the Greenway without detours.
I've been critical of the slow pace of the many Greenway post-2013 flood projects but in this case, I'll congratulate the City on completing this project way ahead of schedule; the committed finishing time frame was "Fall 2026" which technically could have stretched well into December.
Here's the new section looking west from Boston:
It's easy to cross town again on a bicycle. A quick look at the apple orchard in Rogers Grove shows that there will be no apples this year due to a late frost in the spring:
There are not many elm trees in Longmont but Thompson Park has a majestic one at the corner of 5th and Bross. Notice the distinctive vase-like structure of its branches from the trunk.
From the 1962 Longmont High School (LHS) yearbook, an architect's model of the planned new LHS between Sunset Drive and Francis Avenue, looking southeast:
The new school opened in time for the Class of 1965 graduation. You can imagine how modern and space-age this campus must have been for those coming from the old high school built in 1901. From the overhead view today, the open-roof section in the closest building is gone, if it ever happened, although you can sort of see where it could have been.
A group from the Front Range Passenger Rail (FRPR) District and local city and education officials led a short presentation and Q&A session on Wednesday evening, April 8, 2026 at the Longmont Museum auditorium. It was well-attended, with 2/3 of the auditorium full.
Curbside Little Free Libraries are common in Longmont and you'll occasionally see a Community Food Pantry but have you seen a Poetry Box? There's one on Carlton Place in Old Town, not too far from Central Elementary.
