The Lowdown on LoHi

Although I haven't moved in a decade, I now live in LoHi. The reason? The area of town where I live -- right above I-25, at the very edge of Highland -- is newly hip, and a newly hip area needs a hippish name. Enter lohi, as it's referred to...

By Patricia Calhoun

July 3, 2008

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Although I haven't moved in a decade, I now live in LoHi. The reason? The area of town where I live -- right above I-25, at the very edge of Highland -- is newly hip, and a newly hip area needs a hippish name. Enter lohi, as it's referred to on Colorado Homefinder, or LoHi, as they capitalize it up at the LoHi Marketplace, which is actually the old Olinger's building at 16th and Boulder streets.

You can trace the origins of the LoHi nickname to this building. Turns out that when the developer took it over from the mortuary, Olinger's asked that its name not be used in marketing -- even though the Olinger's sign remains a neighborhood landmark. Enter LoHi, which will acquire another landmark when the Little Man Ice Cream Can is dedicated at 7:30 p.m. tonight, July 3, right by the LoHi Marketplace.

But it's another tenant of that building -- Lola -- that inspired the name I now use for the my neighborhood: SoLola.

And it is. -- Patricia Calhoun

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Patricia Calhoun is editor-in-chief of Westword, the alt-weekly she co-founded in September 1977. She’s been inducted into the Colorado Press Association Hall of Fame, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Hall of Fame and the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame. She’s also received dozens of local, state and national awards for writing, including first place for feature writing and first place for column writing with the Society of Professional Journalists. Patricia is a weekly commentator on Colorado Inside Out, PBS 12's public affairs roundtable, which has won two Emmys.

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