Commerce City is no longer going to the dogs. A few years ago, the industry-heavy town north of Denver thought it was in such need of a new image that it considered changing its name. Instead, it’s now aggressively working on a physical makeover — and has just purchased the…
Most restaurant closings are not good news. But when City, O’ City closed its doors on Sunday night, it was a cause for celebration. “In a mescal-induced dance-party frenzy, we knocked the wall down between the existing space and the new space,” reports Dan Landes, president of City, O’ City…
Representative Doug Lamborn has learned the very hard way that using a too-colorful term can put a politician in a very sticky situation. And now I’ve gotten pulled into the tar baby mess, too…
Dear Mexican: A few years back, when I was in high school, my social studies teacher and the leader of our high school M.E.Ch.A. club had deep resentment toward the Spaniards/conquistadors who killed hundreds — probably thousands — of Aztecs. He went so far as to deny that his own…
On Colorado Day, it seemed very appropriate to run into one of the creative entrepreneurs who are as much a part of this state’s landscape as the Rockies: Denver designer and hair stylist Fallene Wells, one of our 2010 MasterMind winners and a contestant on this season’s Project Runway…
I made a marathon drive back to Colorado yesterday, arriving on the eve of this state’s birthday — just in time to watch a Coloradan make a splash on America’s Got Talent, where the self-proclaimed Professor Splash executed a record-breaking belly flop into twelve inches of water, at about the…
Sixty years ago, metro boosters celebrated the feds’ decision to put a factory that would manufacture plutonium triggers for bombs sixteen miles upwind from Denver. Today, the government is still wrestling with what to do with the former Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant, now slated to become a wildlife refuge…
Charley Garcia is gone from the Denver Manager of Safety’s office almost as quickly as he came in. In March, then-mayor Bill Vidal had appointed Garcia, a former state public defender, to the post, making him the fourth person to hold it in a year. He replaced interim manager Mary…
With many Denver streets undergoing repairs these days, traffic around town can be stop and start. On13th Avenue last Thursday morning, it came to a full stop for me. I was heading west in the left lane shortly before 9 a.m. when the already fitful traffic flow ahead of me…
A week after his inauguration, Mayor Michael Hancock really takes the reins today. This morning, he’ll hold his first Mayor-City Council meeting (five of the reps are complete newbies — unlike Hancock, who was on council for eight years). That’ll be followed by the initial gathering of Hancock’s National Western…
Dear Mexican: A few years ago, my girlfriend and I visited the beautiful city of Merida in the Yucatán. We were surprised to see a sentence in our guidebook warning us to be on the lookout for Mennonites peddling queso in the mercado. Sure enough, we bumped into a bearded,…
Want to run for political office? Have we got a deal for you! The luckiest address in Denver, 1100 Bannock Street, has a “for lease” sign on the door, and this golden spot in the Golden Triangle doesn’t rent to losers…
Back in the fall of 2009, trying to get a handle on the growing medical marijuana business, Denver City Councilman Charlie Brown visited Los Angeles, where he discovered that there were more dispensaries than Starbucks outlets. In January 2010, the Denver Post reported that there were now more dispensaries than…
A year ago, one-time gubernatorial favorite Scott McInnis was grappling with charges of plagiarism — leaving the path clear for darkest of dark-horse candidates Dan Maes to win the Republican nomination for governor. He was soundly trounced in November by John Hickenlooper, but at least he has something to show…
There sat Senator Michael Bennet in the Newseum, no jacket and shirt-sleeves rolled up, chatting about the debt ceiling, the gridblock in Washington and the challenges of creating change. And the audience, a combo of Democrat and Republican voters, was eating it up. So was the host of the chat,…
Dear Ask a Wetback: You and your fellow law-breaking wetbacks don’t like Arizona’s SB 1070? Too damn bad. Trot back to Make Sick O and protest there, see where it gets you. If you’d work half as hard cleaning up your dump nation as you do sneaking in here, your…
Imagine a great slogan. State legislator Federico Peña was a dark-horse candidate for mayor back in 1983, but he stood out in a crowded field with his progressive politics, his ethnic background, his age — he was just 36 — and a very smart slogan: Imagine a great city…
Michael Hancock hasn’t yet taken office as mayor of Denver. That’s on tap for later today. But Hancock’s already being pressured by some arts advocates to take another look at the recent merger of the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs and the Division of Theatres & Arenas into Arts &…
Michael Hancock may have gotten off to a sleepy start as the mayor-elect (more like a nightmare, dealing with that Denver Players mess). But with yesterday’s introduction of his “Dream Team” to steer the city’s financial future, Hancock’s administration is definitely waking up…
Denver has a lively downtown — sometimes too lively, if you’re on the 16th Street Mall at prime begging time — and it promises to get even better if the Downtown Denver Partnership makes good on its vow to bring a public market to the center of town…
Jaycee Dugard got a $21 million settlement from California, a book deal and a two-hour, prime-time interview with Diane Sawyer Sunday night. Kristen Stillman got a bill from Denver County and a story in the August Glamour, hyped on the contents page — under a story on jeans that make…
Dear Mexican: Say the immigrant makes a few bucks and goes back to his/her home town. Think they’ll put up with the shit that prompted them to move in the first place? (How ya gonna keep them down on the farm…). Putting the Red Into Redneck Dear Gabacho: Absolutely not…
