Audio By Carbonatix
“Meet the Neighbors,” Alan
Prendergast, August 18
Neighborhood Watch
I live in Capitol Hill and agree with my neighbors generally about Open Door Ministries: We have too many group homes and similar spaces in such a concentrated area, and we don’t need another.
However, I disagree completely with the entitled NIMBYism of some of my neighbors reflected in the attitude that the only acceptable use for the Bennett-Field House would be as a single-family home, or in their opposition to the Eighth and Emerson project.
Less than 20 percent of Capitol Hill residents own their homes, yet so much of what gets decided in the community is by homeowners who feel they are the only ones who matter. Capitol Hill’s vibrancy depends on being able to attract a wide spectrum of residents of various socio-economic backgrounds, not just the ones “desirable” to your property values.
I don’t understand the logic that suggests that a vacant lot or an abandoned building is better than apartments filled with actual people. Yet these upper-class NIMBY homeowners want to nitpick and dictate everything about what we apartment dwellers can do. (Storage on balconies? Who dictates what can be put on your porch?) The diverse apartment dwellers are what really make Capitol Hill. And if these whiners don’t like it, Highlands Ranch is out there waiting for them.
Julio Trujillo
Denver
I live a block away on Clarkson, and it’s a crying shame that a family didn’t buy this stately home. Capitol Hill’s been a dumping ground for halfway houses for decades. Now the neighborhood’s finally clawing back and should fight junk like this that drags down values.
Kendall Creighton
Denver
Seven hundred thousand dollars is well within the budget for a single family that enjoys all the great things that city living has to offer. Many of the homes on that block are single-family-owned and worth well more than that. But how can you expect a single family with young children to invest that much in a home in the area, only to then be stabbed in the back by the city? Which is just the case here: That facility would hurt the safety and makeup of the area, not to mention that the single family who purchased in the neighborhood will lose up to 30 percent of their home value.
There are plenty of other places they can put their facility; they don’t need to further burden this area. Walk around the neighborhood: There are beautiful historic homes that families have put a lot of time and money into preserving. The city needs to help support them, not hurt them.
Jason Rislov
Denver
Westword, is there any reason why you keep publishing these stories that just seem to ooze anti-Christian this and anti-Christian that? Seriously, this is getting old. People can read between the lines. If this didn’t have to do with a Christian-provided service, you would care less. Are you ever going to print anything we can actually talk about?
Joe Smith
Posted at westword.com
“Cooped Up,” Off Limits, June 16
Bird-Brained
Denver’s Museum of Contemporary Art is going off the rails by keeping pigeons in rooftop coops. This plan isn’t artistic, it’s cruel. Pigeons are living beings, not props. Subjecting these beautiful birds to cramped cages and then tossing them to the wind to fend for themselves is wrong. Pigeons are sitting ducks for hawks and other predators, particularly cruel humans who hate pigeons and enjoy targeting and poisoning them.
Instead of reveling in their beauty and agreeable presence in our urban landscapes, we harass pigeons, ignore them or exploit them. The MCA should scrap this reckless plan.
Gabrielle Allen
Littleton