People & Places >>

• BEST NEW JOB FOR GOVERNOR BILL OWENS
  Mid-term replacement for Vice President Dick Cheney
  Governor Bill Owens says that when he's term-limited out of the governor's office in January 2007, he'll go into the "private sector," but it's not too late for him to reconsider and give just a few more years to public service. (No need to go the full Roy Romer route and become superintendent... More >>
• BEST NEW JOB FOR DAN HOPKINS
  Spokesman for Marc Holtzman
  No matter where Marc Holtzman is next January -- and we're betting it won't be the governor's office -- the shoot-from-the-lip Republican challenger could use a smooth, personable frontman. And there's no one more personable than Dan Hopkins, current spokesman for Governor Bill Owens. When his... More >>
• BEST CANNON FODDER
  Colorado State Capitol
  The State Capitol is full of many surprising finds -- and that's even before you set foot on the floor of the House or the Senate. For starters, there's the fact that unlike at the Denver City and County Building, the Capitol has no security check, so you can wander in and out at will. And as... More >>
• BEST POLITICAL PLAY-BY-PLAY
  Lynn Bartels Rocky Mountain News
  At the Colorado Legislature, you often can't tell the players without a scorecard -- and fortunately, Rocky Mountain News reporter Lynn Bartels is there to keep score. When she's not breaking news (and there's been plenty this session), she's offering amusing, insightful play-by-play on the... More >>
• BEST POLITICAL DECISION
  John Hickenlooper
  It took him long enough, but in the end, John Hickenlooper made the right decision. Disappointing those who wanted him to run for governor (and divide the Colorado Democratic Party in the process), he opted instead to complete a whole term (at least) as mayor of Denver, continuing to push the... More >>
• BEST POLITICAL AD
  Ken Gordon
  Democratic state senator Ken Gordon got his campaign for Colorado Secretary of State off to a rousing start with a quirky, hilarious Internet ad poking fun at other politicians' more memorable stunts, including John Hickenlooper's not-quite-free-fall to push Amendment C. But Gordon didn't stop... More >>
• BEST COLORADO AMBASSADORS
  PeaceJam
  We couldn't make up a story this outlandish. Ten years ago, former society scribe (for 87 days), artist and car-parker Ivan Suvanjieff decided he needed to do something to convince kids to stop the violence, and so started PeaceJam. Today he and partner Dawn Engle run a global operation out of... More >>
• BEST COLORADO AMBASSADOR -- SENIOR DIVISION (1 Comment)
  Jack A.Weil
  Sixty years ago, Rockmount Ranchwear's Jack A. Weil put the snap in snap-button shirts. And today, as the country's oldest working CEO at 105 (as of March 28), he's still full of snappy repartee. CBS News profiled Jack A. (his son, Jack B., works in the business, as does grandson Steve) earlier... More >>
• BEST NEXT HOME FOR
  CONEY ISLAND
  Tiny Town
  After 36 years in Aspen Park, the historic Coney Island hot dog stand is now an official resident of Bailey, where the giant stucco landmark will be open by summer. But should gentrification -- or one of those wildfires that always seem headed for Bailey -- endanger the hot dog's new home, we... More >>
• BEST SAVE FOR UNION STATION
  Colorado Midland Railway
  With Union Station slated for a major overhaul, it looked like one of its tenants might have reached the end of the line. The Colorado Midland Railway, the oldest model-railroad layout in the country, has been tucked into the basement of Union Station since 1935, where it's been run by... More >>
• BEST ESTIMATE FOR WHEN
  T-REX WILL BE FINISHED
  November 17, 2006
  It was fun while it lasted. Not. Over the past five years, we've all had ample opportunity to get up-close and personal with T-Rex, the massive, $1.67 billion project designed to ease congestion and speed up traffic through the southeast metro corridor but in the meantime blocking roads and... More >>
• BEST ESTIMATE FOR WHEN THE DENVER ART MUSEUM ADDITION WILL BE FINISHED
  November 8, 2006
  Sometime in the next month or so, the wrappings will come off the Daniel Libeskind-designed addition to the Denver Art Museum, and while work continues on the interior, the exterior will be complete. But even before that, the DAM will announce an official opening date for the Frederic C.... More >>
• BEST ESTIMATE FOR WHEN WARD CHURCHILL WILL BE FINISHED
  May 31, 2006
  At the University of Colorado, Ward Churchill has outlasted athletic director Dick Tharpe, chancellor Richard Bynny, president Betsy Hoffman, even football coach Gary Barnett. But we're predicting he won't outlast current president Hank Brown. The committee reviewing Churchill's work is supposed... More >>
• BEST SPOT TO PONDER DENVER'S BURGEONING CULTURAL RELEVANCE
  13th Ave. and Broadway
  There are strips that are faster, but when you're heading west across central Denver, there's no more scenic route than Thirteenth Avenue. And if you happen to get stopped at the light at Broadway -- as you inevitably will -- your route will seem positively inspired. Rather than fume silently at... More >>
• BEST SPOT TO PONDER
  ENDING IT ALL
  15th St. over I-25
  Bart Simpson used to stand on highway overpasses just like this one and spit on the anonymous traffic below. God bless that little fucker. We can't believe there's no barrier here, no chain-link fence, nothing. We could hurl ourselves right over this railing right now, and nobody could stop us.... More >>
• BEST VIEW OF A BRIDGE
  Genesee Bridge
  The bridge at Genesee Pass, which separates the Clear Creek and Bear Creek drainages, as well as Gilpin County from Clear Creek County, may well be the most elegant structure in the state. The perfect fusion of form and function, achieved with perfect economy of means, it stands in silent... More >>
• BEST VIEW OF GOVERNMENT IN ACTION
  Denver Central Library
  From the street, Civic Center Park may just look like a good place to score cheap dope and tweak out, but climb to the seventh floor of the central branch of the Denver Public Library, step out onto the deck -- and it's as if you're Eva Peron, staring down at a world of graciousness and beauty.... More >>
• BEST NEW HANGOUT FOR HOMELESS TEENS
  Civic Center Park Fountain
  Like any other teenagers, homeless teens (and all the ragged posers and deadbeat twenty-somethings who lurk alongside them) need a place to hang, too. After getting run out of their long-held Skyline Park kingdom, the gangly crowd migrated up the 16th Street Mall to where it meets Stout Street... More >>
• BEST ADDITION TO THE SKYLINE
  Hyatt Regency Denver
  The Hyatt Regency Denver got off to an ignoble start when the old Denver Post Building, an art-moderne treasure by Temple Buell, was torn down to provide a site for a not-yet-lined-up hotel at the expanded Colorado Convention Center. But then things took a turn for the better when klipp, a... More >>
• BEST LAST-MINUTE SAVE
  OF A HISTORIC BUILDING
  Evans School 1115 Acoma St.
  It's been empty for more than thirty years, and before rehabilitation started nearly two years ago, the 1904 Evans School looked like it wouldn't need to be demolished, because it just might fall down all by itself. But the quality of the design by architect David W. Dryden, who did it in a... More >>
• BEST NEW INTERIOR IN AN OLD BUILDING
  Ellie Caulkins Opera House in the Quigg Newton Auditorium Denver Performing Arts Complex
  It sounds trite, especially since the analogy was repeated over and over during the construction process, but putting the Ellie Caulkins Opera House inside the historic Quigg Newton Auditorium really was like building a ship in a bottle. The auditorium -- a 1908 buff-colored brick building... More >>
• BEST CONSTRUCTION SITE
  Frederic C. Hamilton Building 13th Ave. and Bannock St.
  The Denver Art Museum's Frederic C. Hamilton Building is getting close to completion, although most of the titanium panels that cover it are still encased in plastic wrappers to protect them from airborne debris raised by the construction of the nearby Museum Residences. But from the moment the... More >>
• BEST LANDLOCKED LOBBY
  Captain Cook Apartments 1311 Cook St.
  To get a quick read on a prospective new landlord when apartment hunting, you need look no further than the lobby. If the foyer is completely devoid of adornment, turn around and run -- and don't look back. There's always another building with a beautiful theme and decorating scheme, including... More >>
• BEST SEAT ON THE
  16TH STREET MALL SHUTTLE
  Single seat, boarding side
  Next time you hop on one of RTD's free mall shuttles, look at the odd seating arrangement: All of the seats are located on one side, and most riders are uncomfortably bunched together, shoulder to shoulder, in an effort to avoid sitting too close to less savory passengers. But look over there,... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO GET CAUGHT
  ON TAPE BUYING CRACK
  E. Colfax Ave. at Logan St.
  Anyone who'd ever been to the bus stop at Colfax and Logan knew that you could catch more than the number 15 there -- until local businesses paid to install cameras at the corner last year. Today you may still see a casual slip of the sack in exchange for some cash, but now the eye in the sky... More >>
• BEST CORNER FOR THE
  CRACK SALES OVERFLOW
  E. Colfax Ave. at Pearl St.
  With cameras documenting all of the action at Colfax and Logan and the State Capitol just two blocks west of there, Denver's crack crack dealers have moved east, to a nice, shady corner next to an unoccupied building at Pearl -- but far enough away from Office Depot so that the rock-roasters... More >>
• BEST CRACKHEAD DETERRENT
  Nob Hill Inn
  The drinking hour comes early to Nob Hill Inn, where the alcohol starts flowing at 8 a.m. and doesn't stop 'til 2 a.m. This Colfax dive welcomes all comers -- from day laborers on their way to work to night-shifters knocking back a quick one before bed. But it has a strict zero-tolerance policy... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO HAVE A SPIRITUAL EPIPHANY
  E.B. Rains Jr. Memorial Park
  Do you believe in power centers? No, not factory-outlet shopping malls, but those magical spots where cosmic energies concentrate to inspire human beings to create meaningful monuments? And no, still not shopping malls -- think of Stonehenge, the Pyramids of Egypt, the Parthenon and the Louvre.... More >>
• BEST PLACE TO HAVE A TONSORIAL EPIPHANY
  4200-4300 blocks of S. Broadway
  If, as some say, God is in the details -- then surely Christ must be in the coiffures. What living creature doesn't want to look sharp for the Second Coming? To prepare your hair, start at Peggy's Barber Shop, 4382 South Broadway in Englewood, where the storefront signage reminds us that "Jesus... More >>
• BEST FRIEND OF THE
  FIRST AMENDMENT
  Karen Salaz
  Although judges are cutting back on public access to information across Colorado, don't blame Karen Salaz. The public-information officer at the State Court Administrator's office, Salaz balances the individual's right to privacy with the public's right to know, supervising the placement of... More >>
• BEST CORRECTION
  Denver Daily News
  RegretTheError.com, a website devoted to commemorating journalism's greatest mistakes, had plenty of worthy candidates to choose from when determining its correction of the year for 2005. In the end, however, the site's scolds couldn't resist saluting a simultaneously offensive and ridiculous... More >>
• BEST SUBSTITUTE FOR SUCKS
  Denver Post
  In a January piece about a town in which cell phones don't work, the Denver Post's Rich Tosches quoted a resident as follows: "Sometimes I actually forget that I even have a cell phone. It just (word meaning 'vacuum-like function')." Just what was that resident saying? That it just Hoovers? Just... More >>
• BEST MOVE FROM BAD BOY TO BOSS
  Willie B. KBPI
  Stephen Meade was once known as Willie B. Hung, and although he eventually dropped the last portion of this anatomical moniker, he still earned a reputation as the biggest dick on the Denver airwaves, thanks to a pair of criminal convictions a few years back (for participating in an ill-advised... More >>
• BEST PROOF THAT YOU
  CAN COME HOME AGAIN
  Steffan Tubbs KOA
  Steffan Tubbs was just a kid when he was hired by KOA back in 1994, and promptly earned a reputation for solid reporting and hunkiness that's uncommon in radio; a U.S. News & World Report scribe covering the trial of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh dubbed him "the Brad Pitt of the... More >>
• BEST ATTEMPT TO SAVE
  PUBLIC-ACCESS TELEVISION
  Deproduction
  Public-access stations are disappearing across the country, thanks (or no thanks) to the greed of cable companies, which want to employ set-aside channels for commercial purposes, and government officials, who would rather use the outlets' funding for purposes other than providing a voice to... More >>
• BEST HAIR ON A TV PERSONALITY -- FEMALE
  Asha Blake Channel 2
  When she came to Denver two years ago, Asha Blake brought an invigorating freshness to the market, and this quality extends to her hair. Rather than donning the typical beagle-eared style that's been a dog of a 'do since Snoopy's early battles with the Red Baron, she wears a thoroughly modern... More >>
• BEST HAIR ON A TV PERSONALITY -- MALE
  Kirk Montgomery Channel 9
  With rare exceptions, the TV dudes of Denver look a lot like second teamers for the Broncos: They wear the same helmets, anyway. No wonder entertainment reporter Kirk Montgomery scores over his more staid colleagues. He clearly understands the benefits of product, and he's bold enough to... More >>
• BEST FACIAL HAIR ON A TV PERSONALITY
  Ken Clark Channel 31
  Ken Clark, who handles traffic chores on Channel 31's morning program, compensates for his bald pate with a trendy, Satan-style beard. And those whiskers are visually appropriate, since a lot of the road problems he describes are the equivalent of hell on earth. More >>
• BEST TV NEWSCAST -- MORNING
  Channel 9
  Last year, Channel 4 seemed ready to give longtime ratings champ Channel 9 a run for its early-morning money, but it couldn't slow the 9News juggernaut. Today, with CBS 4 releasing sportscaster Mark McIntosh and planning to move weathercaster Ed Greene into prime time, Channel 9 lacks any real... More >>
• BEST TV NEWSCAST -- NIGHT (1 Comment)
  Channel 4
  Since the '70s, 9News has dominated the 10 p.m. ratings -- but Channel 4 finally appears ready to chip away at that station's nighttime lead. Veteran forecaster Larry Green's on the way out, but morning-sider Ed Greene should seamlessly fill his green-screen silhouette, and sportscaster Vic... More >>
• BEST TV ANCHOR (1 Comment)
  Anne Trujillo Channel 7
  Anne Trujillo has been the mainstay on Channel 7's evening newscasts for ages, but because that show's ratings are far from stellar, she's often taken for granted. That's unfair but not surprising, since Trujillo prefers to get out of the way of a story rather than bid for attention. Despite her... More >>
• BEST TV SPORTSCASTER
  Vic Lombardi Channel 4
  While Vic Lombardi is a sports communicator from the ESPN generation, he doesn't let shtick dominate his presentations. He can be a funny fellow, but he knows when to dial down the comedy in favor of reporting or perspective, and he leavens his wit with the enthusiasm of an unabashed fan.... More >>
• BEST TV WEATHERCASTER (13 Comments)
  Angie Austin Channel 2
  Stations take up a lot of airtime touting their assorted weather gadgets, but the gear hasn't made one signal more accurate than the others. All of TV's predictors have about the same success/failure rate, so their differences have more to do with personality than prognostication abilities --... More >>
• BEST LEGAL COMMENTATOR
  Andrew Cohen Channel 4
  As top legal commentator for CBS, Andrew Cohen regularly jets to important trials and legal proceedings across the country. But because he lives in Denver, we get to hear more of his characteristically cogent on-the-scene reports and opinions than viewers nationwide, who usually have to settle... More >>
• BEST LOCAL RADIO STATION (1 Comment)
  Radio 1190
  Commercial radio gets lamer with each passing year, which only makes Radio 1190 sound stronger by comparison. Because the station is staffed by students from the University of Colorado at Boulder, the turnover is continuous. Yet the outlet has maintained a high level of quality, thanks to the... More >>
• BEST RADIO DJ (2 Comments)
  DJ Chonz KS-107.5
  DJ Chonz is a member of the Radio Bums, a collective devoted to promoting forward-looking hip-hop. Yet urban-music buffs in these parts know him best for his work at KS-107.5, where he brings an underground sensibility to the mainstream, presenting live mixes on weekdays and really getting the... More >>
• BEST RADIO TALK-SHOW HOST (1 Comment)
  Dan Caplis and Craig Silverman KHOW
  This award's a two-fer. Yeah, Dan Caplis can be infuriating, especially when he refuses to find fault with such favored institutions as the University of Colorado, and Craig Silverman's nasal honk is so pronounced that listening to the show outside invites attacks by dive-bombing geese. But... More >>
• BEST REVENGE FOR A
  RADIO REJECT
  Kingdom
  Back in the '90s, Kingdom was one of the area's top MCs. Nevertheless, the station that became KS-107.5 refused to play his music, turning a deaf ear to protests from both Kingdom and the rest of the local hip-hop community. But now the power's shifted -- and how. Today Kingdom appears regularly... More >>
• BEST WEBSITE FOR RADIO INSIDERS
  www.DenverRadio.net
  Like working folks everywhere, radio types love to dish about their jobs -- and fortunately for us voyeurs, jocks, hosts, board ops and other local pros are eager to do so in public, as long as they're protected by pseudonyms. DenverRadio.net has gone through many permutations over the years,... More >>
• BEST BLOG
  The Denver Defenders
  This place just hasn't been the same since Joe Phillips, aka the Commish, founder of the Denver Kickball Coalition and general city asset, headed west. But Phillips hasn't left Denver entirely behind. In fact, he's now producing an online comic titled "The Denver Defenders" -- "the world's most... More >>
• BEST GRIM JOURNALISTIC REAPER
  Rocky Mountain News
  For a relatively young man, Jim Sheeler certainly has a thing for death. As a freelancer, he wrote vivid, long-form obituaries for the Denver Post, the best of which will appear in a book, tentatively titled The Woman Who Outlived Her Tombstone, that's slated for publication later this year.... More >>
• BEST LONG GOODBYE
  Andrew Resnik
  After most workers are let go, they're upset, not magnanimous -- which only makes the final farewell of former 9News anchor/ reporter Adam Resnik seem all the more remarkable. When his contract wasn't renewed, Resnik sent a 2,400-word e-mail to colleagues -- but instead of ripping into station... More >>