For Sol Trujillo, these are the best of times. Granted, he’s now out of a job. But with unemployment benefits like these, losing your job is even better than winning the lottery: Two weeks ago, Trujillo filed notice of his intent to sell 354,740 shares of US West stock, which…
Four years ago, the Cherry Creek North neighborhood was the site of a confrontation between people who wanted to save a hundred-year-old American elm on a Madison Street lot and a developer who wanted to cut it down so he could put up two 5,000-square-foot condominiums. A group called Eye…
The Glenwood Springs headquarters of the White River National Forest looks like it was furnished during Teddy Roosevelt’s administration. Banged-up wooden doors inside the two-story former post office building creak open to reveal antique desks that could have been used by the former president during one of his swaggering, turn-of-the…
Mayor Wellington Webb is so confident in Denver’s economic future that he’s willing to bet the house on it — or at least the city’s convention center. Webb agreed last week to give developer Bruce Berger a $55.3 million subsidy to build a Marriott hotel adjacent to the Colorado Convention…
Like much of the area northeast of Coors Field, the 2600 block of Larimer Street has become somewhat jumbled lately. People with a fondness for discount gin have always been at home here, but they’ve been joined by Merlot-sipping loft-lovers drawn by the neighborhood’s “character” — though the street’s characters…
Eagle is the kind of Colorado town that people in less scenic places dream about. For decades it survived as a supply center for the ranches that were the mainstay of Eagle County. The downtown streets — wide enough to maneuver a horse and wagon — are lined with century-old…
The state health department has proposed a settlement in a bitter dispute over water pollution from natural-gas wells in Las Animas County, but federal environmental officials say Colorado has gone easy on the polluter, and at least one person wonders if the administration of Governor Bill Owens — who worked…
For years, Jan Pacheco led a quiet life as a Pueblo homemaker, raising two sons and counting on her husband Howard’s job in the huge steel mill that looms over the south side of town to pay the family’s bills. The Pachecos enjoyed their comfortable home near City Park and…
Few people love Denver International Airport as much as Gregorio Bonifacio. More than five years ago, Bonifacio began working at DIA as a security guard while it was still under construction. He then held a series of temporary jobs at the airport, doing everything from driving a fuel truck to…
Last year more than 40,000 Coloradans faced delays in getting new telephone service, and frustration with US West became front-page news all over the state. Adding fuel to the fire were revelations that US West routinely lied about installation dates — a policy dubbed “customer not educated” — and ranked…
Giving up her daughter to the state was the hardest thing Ellen Laurence has ever done. Four years ago, Laurence and her husband decided they could no longer cope with Annie, now eighteen. Born autistic, Annie suffers periodic seizures and often becomes highly aggressive. As a young teenager, she had…
Coloradans have watched in despair the past few years as ticky-tacky subdivisions and ugly big-box retail stores have sprung up in once-bucolic landscapes. Growth now routinely tops the list of issues residents are most upset about, and the coming year will be a pivotal one for those who want to…
It’s a cold Friday evening in Denver, and 100 people have gathered at the Catholic Worker Soup Kitchen for a free meal. Steamy bowls of cream of chicken soup sit next to servings of tossed salad and slices of apple pie; a friendly volunteer walks around the room, pouring coffee…
At a hearing last week, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission invited anyone who wanted to comment on US West’s pending merger with Qwest to come forward and speak. Only a handful of people showed up at the meeting overseen by PUC chairman Ray Gifford, but those who did had a…
A group of people who live near the Cherry Creek Shopping Center are holding up the construction of a Nordstrom department store because they believe that the mall’s owner has a history of making false promises to them, and they’ve had enough. The Taubman Company plans to build Nordstrom on…
For years, Coloradans have been wondering: What exactly is the problem with US West? As thousands of customers from Fort Collins to Parker waited for months to get new phone lines, neighbors asked each other why a regulated monopoly with guaranteed profit margins couldn’t seem to get its act together…
When Stephen Keating picked up the cable and media beat at the The Denver Post in 1995, he didn’t realize that the industry was on the verge of revolutionary change. “I was lucky enough to be covering this just as it happened,” says Keating. “I didn’t have any foreknowledge or…
Richard “Buzz” Geller was born in a house on the corner of Colfax Avenue and Adams Street in 1945. He remembers East Colfax as a friendly neighborhood retail strip, the kind of place where grandmothers shopped for fresh vegetables and children walked to the pet store to look at goldfish…
A slow-growth political insurgency that’s stirred up traditionally conservative Golden will mount its biggest challenge yet in next week’s election, when three candidates who have operated a “shadow council” for the past several months make a bid for seats on the city council. They promise to change the pro-business slant…
A Mississippi company plans to offer local telephone service in Colorado soon, at a price most people would consider a ripoff: $36.50 per month. Despite the high price, however, NOW Communications expects to have thousands of customers, even though US West offers a similar service for as little as $16.91…
For Angelica Harris, working for United Parcel Service seemed like the perfect job. A single mother with a two-year-old daughter, Harris was looking for a part-time job that would allow her to spend some of the day with her child while providing benefits for her. A help-wanted ad for UPS…
Downtown developer Bruce Berger is giving Denver a lesson in real estate speculation, and it will only cost the public $45.8 million. Fourteen months ago, Berger bought the square block between California and Welton streets and 14th and 15th for the bargain-basement price of $3.3 million. He spent an additional…
