Letters

Crossing the Line
I couldn't believe my eyes as I was reading the first installment of the arrest saga of Kenny Be (Worst-Case Scenario, June 5). The same thing happened to me on Wednesday, June 4. I was walking to the evening Rockies game from my usual free parking spot with a friend. (I have parked in that area for the past couple of years for Rockies games.) As we proceeded toward the pedestrian tunnel by the ChopHouse, we noticed the police car parked down the tracks about halfway to the stadium. My friend was reluctant to cross due to the suspicious presence of the police officer. I said, "C'mon, let's just run across; he must be on a stakeout." Then I bolted across the tracks, while my friend chickened out at the last second.

About the time I reached the pedestrian tunnel, our hero, Officer Blea, screeched to a stop in front of me. He immediately jumped from the patrol car and demanded some identification. I asked him if there was a problem, and he informed me that I was trespassing. I told him that I had been using the crosswalk to go to Rockies games for years and he informed me that they had been patrolling this area and arresting people there for years. I told the officer that I strongly disagreed with him. I guess that because I didn't try to run away, he didn't formally arrest me but rather just issued me an arrest notice and let me go on my own recognizance.

I must say that Officer Blea treated me quite fairly. After all was said and done, I asked Officer Blea if he was going to make me walk back all the way around when I was only a few steps from the other side of the pedestrian tunnel. He said I could go if I didn't mind jumping over the new fence on the other side. This seemed redundant to me, considering that he was allowing me to do what he had just arrested me for.

P.S. I think the officer mistook me for Kenny Be (or vice versa) at Kenny's court appearance, because of how he mentioned that there were two people and one stayed behind.

Joe Hahn
via the Internet

Give 'Em Hellenic
I'm writing in rebuttal to Alan Prendergast's "It Takes a Greek Town," in the July 31 issue. First let me express my disappointment in the one-sided view of the "Greek Town" development going on at Colfax and Fillmore. I would like to know why the writer never took the time to talk with the neighborhood in the area to get the homeowners' opinions of what's going on. I for one, do not want or need a Greek Town on Colfax. While a few retailers in the area are Greek, there is nothing about the real neighborhood that even suggests a Greek enclave.

The Greek Town Cafe has been nothing but an eyesore and a detriment to the immediate neighborhood surrounding it. There is not enough parking for its customers, so of course, where do the overflow customers park almost every evening? On Fillmore and the surrounding neighborhood streets, leaving no space for locals or our guests. I have personally watched customers from the cafe litter the neighborhood on their way to and from the cafe. Trash from the overloaded dumpsters blows down the street regularly. Patrons who have had "way too much" to drink at the cafe "lounge" stagger to their vehicles outside my windows into the morning hours. On the weekends a fleet of rental trucks occupies part of the parking lot, adding to the shortage of parking on our street. The noise from the early-morning "dumping of the empties" into the dumpster echoes through the neighborhood, disturbing early-morning slumber for its residents.

Greek Town is nothing more than a plan to make the Greek owners a little more money and the neighborhood a little more crowded. Who will pay for the cleanup from all the tourists who will come to Greek Town to play? The taxpayers, that's who! Where will they park? On the already overcrowded neighborhood streets, that's where!

Greek Town--we don't need it and I don't want it!
Tom Rodman
Denver

Thank you for the informative article on Greek Town and for providing the names of many city officials and business owners involved in this project so I can contact them directly with my opinions.

I was greatly surprised to see the signs on Colfax that designated the area I live in as Greek Town. To cordon off an area of the City of Denver in this manner is, in my opinion, a move backward in the efforts to encourage diversity.

The businesses along the area of Colfax designated as Greek Town are very much part of this community. When the business owners live in the neighborhood that they want to develop they are more thoughtful in laying out their business plan. When they don't live in the neighborhood but are ethical business owners, they realize that what they plan will affect the private property of others. I fear the consequences of a business plan that includes a garish facade.