BOULDER, Colo. — The New Year’s Day vehicle attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans has created a heightened sense of awareness in pedestrian areas across the country, including in Boulder’s popular Pearl Street Mall.
“You’ve got a lot of visitors, a lot of your normal pedestrians that live in the city of Boulder, as well as your downtown business partnerships,” said Boulder Police Officer Jill Mahoney.
It’s Mahoney’s job to patrol Boulder’s iconic Pearl Street Mall.
“We do have a main highway that comes through the Pearl Street area, which is our Broadway Street. So just making sure that we maintain compliance with pedestrian traffic is huge for us,” explained Mahoney.
In the aftermath of the attack, Denver7 asked the Boulder Police Department how it plans for the unexpected.
“Those are things that are constantly going through our minds,” said Mahoney.
Walking along the four-block mall, Mahoney pointed out some prevention measures in place to protect visitors.
Denver7 News “These are our permanent barriers. These are just for the day-to-day piece of our pedestrian traffic to prevent vehicles from coming through here,” she said. “They’re here if we need them, but we hope they’re never utilized.”