People & Places

Colorado’s current motto is Nil Sine Numine — “Nothing Without the Deity.” Territorial governor William Gilpin came up with it when the new territory needed a seal in 1861; it became part of the official state lineup sixteen years later. Which means it’s high time that we dump that mothbally motto for something a little newer, a little less ecumenical, a little more hip. After all, Denver successfully courted the Democratic National Convention, which in August will return to the state where it was last held a hundred years ago. Last fall, our Colorado Rockies garnered international attention with their last-second Cinderella win of the National League pennant. The square state has never been more hip. And while the Colorado Legislature recently laid claim to sentimental favorite John Denver’s “Rocky Mountain High” as a second official state song, we’re singing a different tune these days: “Hip to Be Square.” As both a reference to our geographical outline and a defiantly tongue-in-cheek nod to what many on the coasts have always considered Colorado, this cheesy Huey Lewis and the News song is perfect — and perfectly ironic.

In December, Forbes magazine pronounced Denver “the most lustful city in America.” And no, not because the Democratic National Committee chose to hold its 2008 convention in Denver. A single statistic earned the city this honor: Over-the-counter contraceptive sales in Denver are 189 percent higher than might be expected for a city this size. Safety first!

Back in 1998, before it was subsumed by Clear Channel, Jacor wound up with one more station than it could keep under FCC rules. Instead of holding a fire sale, execs donated it to the University of Colorado at Boulder, which up until then had made do with a school radio station that broadcast to the dorms using carrier current. A decade later, Radio 1190 is a station worthy of celebrating, with a reach that goes far outside of CU and even Boulder. It’s an oasis of exciting music, creative programming and community support in a desert of corporate mediocrity. Happy tenth, and may there be many more anniversaries to follow.

Nerf isn’t just the knowledgeable jock manning the boards during KTCL’s weekday afternoon-drive shift; as the station’s program director, he’s also the music lover behind the decision to add local acts to the regular playlist rather than limit them to a Sunday-evening slot. On the surface, this decision doesn’t seem like such a noble act of bravery. But in the commercial-radio world, where taking risks is virtually verboten, it’s a bold step that’s paid dividends — not just to KTCL, but to the entire scene, as more and more Colorado bands get signed, from the Fray to Single File, Meese and Tickle Me Pink, with the Flobots coming up fast. These groups, along with local music fans, owe Nerf a debt of gratitude.

The local nine and ten o’clock newscasts have been a real slugfest for years, yet Channel 9 continues to hold off all comers. One of the main reasons is quality: The station continues to break important stories with a regularity that’s got to exasperate the competition. But star power is an equally important factor. Adele Arakawa has outlasted an entire generation of anchors trying in vain to knock her off her perch, Kathy Sabine brings something akin to glamour to her forecasts, and Drew Soicher caps off the night with sportscasts that induce smiles even when the final scores don’t.

While other local morning shows seem like pale, perky imitations of Channel 9, the longtime ratings Goliath, Channel 2’s morning program dares to be different. Host Tom Green is the designated curmudgeon, wielding a dry wit that does more to get you going than a pot of coffee, while Natalie Tysdal serves as his good-natured, long-suffering foil. Add in mold-busting weathercaster Angie Austin and the often-bizarre tomfoolery of Chris Parente, and the result is an eye-opening change of pace from the same old same old.

When Channel 7 lured Jayson Luber away from KOA radio and Channel 9, it seemed like an odd — and expensive — move. After all, people don’t tune into newscasts just because of the guy in the helicopter, do they? But Luber has proved to be a valuable addition to the station’s news team, providing practical information in a clear, knowledgeable manner whether he’s floating high above a traffic catastrophe or in the studio, giving drivers alternate-route suggestions with assistance from his handy telestrator. You can get there from here — if Luber is showing you the way.

Eric Goodman has a more challenging position than other local sportscasters: He’s usually just a seat or two away from anchor Ron Zappolo, whom many viewers continue to think of as the dean of Denver sports broadcasters even though he’s specialized in news for years. But Goodman more than holds his own in the presence of the old master, delivering a smart, fast-paced compendium often supplemented by commentary segments in which he incisively cuts through the hype to the meat of the issues.

Talk about a fresh face. Ashton Altieri looks so young he could pass for an ambitious high-schooler who somehow managed to talk his way onto the set. But with his tender years comes an energy and enthusiasm that’s lacking in most of his prognosticating peers — and Altieri has an edgy sense of humor that makes his presentations worth watching even if the forecast is for clear skies and moderate temperatures instead of a city-paralyzing blizzard.

Alan Gionet served as a Channel 4 staffer for several years in the’90s, before he left for a chief-anchor job in Jacksonville, Florida. He recently returned to Denver, better than before: more comfortable and commanding, with a gravitas that had previously seemed just beyond his grasp. At the anchor desk, he handles hard news and happy talk with equal aplomb, and his “Good Question” segments, in which he answers viewer inquiries, is far less cheesy than it could be, thanks to his relaxed manner and steady intelligence. This is one anchor that shouldn’t be dropped anytime soon.

Far too many TV-news personalities boast hairstyles that seem to have been coated in lacquer and shaped using a hammer and chisel. So it’s a relief to rest our eyes on Bazi Kanani, whose hair is cut in a style that’s light and casually elegant, deftly complementing her delicate features instead of looking like a plasticized shell that she can remove and set on a shelf at the end of the day. Pulling off such a fashionable but unfussy ‘do is undoubtedly more difficult for busy Bazi than it appears, but the result is definitely worth it.

Long before commuting was cool, green-thinking Boulderites started hopping the B Route when they needed to get to downtown Denver — for a meeting, for a dinner, for a play. But just sitting on the B bus can be entertainment enough, since it gives you easy eavesdropping access to conversations involving everyone from MacArthur Foundation grant winners and University of Colorado professors to fraternity leaders planning the next big bash.

How do the managers at Denver’s Fox affiliate keep finding so many on-air dudes with great ‘dos? Could they have a deal with the devil — or maybe Paul Mitchell? Whatever the case, Leland Vittert displays hair heroics in the glorious tradition of such predecessors as Phil Keating and Jeremy Hubbard, sporting a pillowy coiffure that floats over his cranium like the sort of brown cloud not even the Environmental Protection Agency would dare oppose. And while his hair looks soft and pliable, it stays put no matter the climactic condition — as if the gods themselves wouldn’t dare mess with such perfection. Hmm, maybe Fox does have a deal with the devil.

It seems like just yesterday that Brad Jones was pissing off young liberals at the University of Colorado at Boulder as the snot-nosed president of the College Republicans. But just look at him now: all grown up into the snot-nosed twenty-something managing editor/owner/spokesman/shadowy frontman behind FaceTheState.com. What was launched exactly one year ago as a Colorado-centric news aggregation site has expanded into a clearinghouse for right-of-the-aisle editorials, news items and, increasingly, actual investigative reports. Jones’s overtures into an area long the sacred province of journalists has rankled longtime reporters, liberals and legislators, who point out his work as a Republican consultant and question the backgrounds of his unnamed staff of writers. But like it or not, no one can deny the website’s headline-grabbing successes, from revealing Democratic representative Mike Merrifield’s “e-mail from hell,” to breaking news of Governor Bill Ritter’s discussions with union reps about a statewide collective-bargaining order, to scooping other media outlets with the revelation that Democrat Michael Garcia had exposed his junk to a female lobbyist. The representative resigned soon after — but Jones isn’t about to go away as easily.

An outgrowth of the Rocky Mountain Progressive Network, ProgressNow.org and its sister site, ProgressNowAction.org, have been burrs under the conservative saddle for several years, and if Michael Huttner and his cohorts have their way, the ride will become increasingly uncomfortable as Election Day nears. The group’s approach, which combines grassroots organizing with action plans targeting right-wing candidates and causes, has proven so effective that it’s being employed by numerous emulators around the country, and ProgressCon, a gathering of left-leaning bloggers and other activists planned in conjunction with the Democratic National Convention, should spread the word even further afield. Progress, indeed.

The fact that Dick Wadhams still has a viable political career shows just how good he is at engineering comebacks. In 2006, Wadhams oversaw one of the Republicans’ most disastrous campaigns, the re-election crusade of Virginia’s George Allen, whose unexpected loss — fueled in part by Allen’s use of an obscure racial slur, “macaca” — handed the Democrats the majority in the U.S. Senate for the first time in years. But Wadhams soon rose again, first as head of the Colorado Republican Party — a spot from which he can battle his ideological enemies on a national as well as a local level, thanks to the Dems’ decision to locate their nominating convention in Denver in August — and now doing double duty as head of Bob Schaffer’s campaign for the Senate. As lefties know, this Dick can take a beating without retreating.

Whether he’s calling a particular issue “icing on the pound cake” for voters or noting how a proposal puts him on the “horns of a dilemma,” District 7 Councilman Chris Nevitt always has a creative — if occasionally confusing — way of putting things. Last year, for example, he predicted that the controversy over proposed new power towers in Ruby Hill Park would be difficult to resolve because “a lot of bad blood has already gone under the bridge,” and later pronounced that those towers “have been a crown of thorns on top of the heads of the neighborhood’s residents.” In image-conscious Denver, energetic freshman Nevitt wins the war of the words.

Although he’s known more for his scooter and his goofy grin, Mayor John Hickenlooper has stepped firmly into the spotlight as the state’s fashion leader. In September, Hizzoner looked dashing in Esquire magazine’s fall fashion special wearing a $1,275 Armani suit, a $575 Dolce & Gabbana shirt and a $160 Prada tie. But in the new year, Hickenlooper proved that casual is also cool when he was photographed in his jammies and fuzzy lion slippers at the annual PJ Day homeless fundraiser, and then at another event in an unbelievably loud red, yellow and blue cowboy shirt depicting the Denver flag. Keep your eye on the catwalk as the mayor moves Denver fashion-forward.

Slow and steady wins the race, as a bunch of determined Skyline Vista Elementary School students proved when they successfully lobbied the Colorado Legislature to make the Western Painted Turtle Colorado’s official state reptile. It joins such other notable state symbols as the state bird (lark bunting) and state fish (greenback cutthroat trout).

You know you’ve arrived as a wine-producing (and not just -consuming) state when you hire an official State Enologist. Stephen Menke, who previously served in the same role in Illinois, came to Colorado with a stack of credentials, including a degree in agriculture and a doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biology. More important, he loves the science of wine and considers the high-altitude peculiarities of Colorado’s wine industry to be a challenge well worth pursuing. In vino veritus!

Join us in raising a glass to state senator Jennifer Veiga of Denver, for proposing the repeal of Colorado’s longtime ban on Sunday liquor sales. The measure not only made it through both houses (it’s currently awaiting Governor Bill Ritter’s signature), but lawmakers even moved up its effective date to July 1. And so, on July 6, 2008, thirsty consumers could finally be able to rest easy on the purported day of rest — and purchase full-strength alcohol at liquor stores across the state. The continued existence of Colorado’s teetotaling blue laws had long mystified residents and visitors alike, who had to remember to secure their wine, whiskey and wheat brews by midnight Saturday or else settle for a case of crappy 3.2 beer from the supermarket on Sunday. While a second bill that would have let grocers enter the alcohol market died, now that drinkers have gotten a taste of libation liberty, they could soon be demanding the whole bottle. Drink up!

Just in time for the premiere of Douglas Bruce, legislator, Colorado Open House debuted with the start of the session this January, giving reality-TV lovers the chance to watch their favorite members of the Colorado House of Representatives live on the Internet and on Comcast cable channel 165. Next year, there are plans to televise the Senate and possibly committee meetings as well. You won’t want to miss a single episode!

Back in 1984, Westword‘s first Best of Denver hit the streets — an 84-page issue touting everything from the Best Radio Station (KBCO, then six years old) to a long-defunct mobile hot-tub business to the Best Gallery Openings at Pirate Contemporary Art Oasis, still going strong on Navajo Street despite plenty of competition from other now-booming arts districts. But no honor was more farsighted than the one given the Denver Broncos’ brand-spanking-new quarterback, who’d had a very discouraging season after gracing the cover of Westword during his first days at training camp. Even so, that Best of Denver called a winning play and gave John Elway the Best Future award. “A Hall of Famer, for sure,” we succinctly predicted.

For years, the Civic Center has been under threat — most recently with a proposal to move the Colorado History Museum into the park itself, opening up space in the 1300 block of Broadway for a revamped Colorado courts structure. But after months of debate, the board of the Colorado Historical Society instead wisely decided to build the new museum on a surface parking lot a block south on Broadway, right across the street from the Daniel Libeskind-designed complex that includes the Denver Art Museum’s Hamilton Building. David Owen Tryba’s firm will design the museum as part of a project that will also include office towers. So instead of shoehorning a shoebox and basement into Civic Center, as he’d proposed, he’ll now get to mastermind an enormous, prominently placed work of architecture. That makes this decision a win not just for preservationists, but ultimately for Tryba, as well.

Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon may be term limited, but he’s not going out quietly. A former public defender, he started representing the interests of Denverites long before he was elected to the Colorado House in 1992, and even won a Best Pro Bono Attorney award in the Best of Denver 1988. Now in his last year in the Colorado Senate, he continues to tackle tough issues, including fighting district attorneys around the state to establish standards for how long DNA evidence should be kept — and perhaps even win a new trial for Clarence Moses-El, who was convicted of rape twenty years ago and whose attempt at an appeal was stymied when a rape kit and other evidence was tossed in 1995. But Gordon’s not all about blood and guts; he’s also leading the charge to improve Colorado’s voting systems, pushing measures involving everything from redistricting to all-paper ballots to letting voters rank candidates. “Ken is more interested in the details of election policy than most people would care to admit,” his website admits — but then, he narrowly lost a race for Colorado Secretary of State in 2006, when long lines kept many Denverites from the polls. But our vote’s in: There are no limits to Ken Gordon’s talents (his comic campaign ads were classics), and we’ll be sorry to see him leave the legislature.

We first encountered Joe Rice, who now represents House District 38 in the Colorado Legislature, when he was the baby-faced mayor of Glendale, trying to save the town from turning into Titty City. Since then, the longtime military man has faced even bigger battles, including three tours in Iraq. But he’s been fighting the good fight at home, too. Elected to the Statehouse in 2006 from a largely conservative district in the south suburbs, the freshman Democrat passed eighteen bills his first year, including one that established a statewide cold-case unit for unsolved homicides. This session, he’s been seriously pushing for business and veterans — but he’s not afraid to have some fun, too. To push his proposal that parent-teacher organizations be allowed to avoid sales tax on school fundraisers, Rice recently posed with a big blue Tax Monster. “Right now, these small, volunteer organizations spend way too much time and money on paperwork,” he noted. “The government should just get out of the way so they can do what they do best: raise critical funds for their schools.” We’re with you, colonel.

Since he began campaigning for president (back in 1961, the year he was born), Barack Obama has been promising to bridge the partisan divide that has split the country into red and blue states. So what better place to visit during the Democratic National Convention than the physical divide that separates the country: the Continental Divide, which runs right through this state? Besides, since Barack had Denver all sewn up at the February caucus, he doesn’t need to waste any time campaigning around this town.

By August, we’re betting that Hillary Clinton could use a good laugh. And so during a break in the action at the Democratic National Convention, she should make tracks to the scene of one of Colorado’s most surreal moments, which occurred the last time this state hosted a high-profile international event. Back in 1997, Denver was the site for the Summit of the Eight, and while Hillary’s hubby, President Bill Clinton, met with other world leaders, she and a contingent of First Wives hopped aboard the Ski Train for a trip up to Winter Park. The train was passing through Tolland, just short of the Moffat Tunnel, when a couple of fans greeted the women — by mooning them. “Ooh, there are people like that in every country,” Bernadette Chirac assured Hillary.

The city was agog at reported Britney Spears sightings earlier this year. But her best Colorado appearance was in cartoon form — as if that isn’t always the case — on a recent episode of South Park, the Comedy Central series that just celebrated its tenth anniversary. In “Britney’s New Look,” the pop princess fled the paparazzi and landed in South Park, the mythical creation of Colorado boys Matt Stone and Trey Parker, where she wound up losing her head. As if you could tell.

Isaac Slade, frontman for the Fray, Denver’s first double-platinum band, has been living the dream in more ways than one. Last year he met up with Sir Benjamin Slade, an English aristocrat in search of an heir to inherit his thirteenth mansion. The estate, valued at $15 million, includes three lakes, a ballroom (perfect for private rock shows), hundreds of cattle — and plenty of expensive upkeep projects. Sir Benjamin had been looking for an heir for eighteen months before he decided that Isaac might be just the Slade he was looking for; at last report, Isaac still hadn’t decided if English manor life was for him.

It wasn’t a happy Halloween for Vincent “Don Vito” Margera, a fixture on the MTV series Viva La Bam. Despite the legal assistance of Pamela Mackey, the attorney who helped Kobe Bryant skate away from a trial in Eagle County, on October 31 Margera received two guilty verdicts in relation to a 2006 incident at Colorado Mills — and upon learning of his fate, he let loose with an epic tantrum. According to a Rocky Mountain News account, he hit the floor screaming lines like this: “Jesus! I can’t spend the rest of my fucking life in jail! Just fucking kill me now!” Margera was eventually helped to his feet, but left behind a memento of his reaction — a miniature Hershey’s candy bar. Sweet reaction, dude.

When David Killingsworth purchased the Morrison Holiday Bar (known as the “local cure” by Morrisonites), he made a few changes. The bar now boasts a window to the next-door deli, for example, so that bar patrons can order food. But one thing Killingsworth didn’t mess with was the blinking neon arrow above the front door. The fifty-year-old sign was an unofficial Morrison landmark, so when Killingsworth was told that the light didn’t comply with the town’s sign code, he appealed his case all the way to the Morrison Board of Trustees, which in February decided that the sign could stay. For saving a beloved institution from pointless bureaucracy, someone should buy that man a drink.

This five-story LoDo treasure, just behind the Tattered Cover, is more than a nicely updated historic building. It’s also one of the greenest retrofits in town, registered for two LEED certifications — and home to a couple dozen leading nonprofits, from the Sierra Club and the Center for Native Ecosystems to Colorado Common Cause and ProgressNow. With its krypton-gas-infused windows, sensors that detect natural light and adjust light fixtures accordingly, dual-flush toilets and other features, the Alliance Center is a place for groups committed to sustainability to walk the talk.

During World War II, the Rocky Mountain Arsenal was established north of Stapleton — and the resulting Superfund site was such a toxic cesspool that even after cleanup, parts were so polluted that the land could never be developed — so instead, we got the Rocky Mountain Wildlife Refuge. Immediately to the west of that is Prairie Gateway, where the new Commerce City Civic and Justice Center — which houses offices, courtrooms and the police department — boasts a lovely view of the dump, er, nature preserve. But this building is also worthy of a look: It’s a handsome, neo-modernist structure crowded with details such as sunscreens over some windows. Not only that, but different parts are finished in different materials of different colors. Given the checkered past of its setting, though, the best part of the project could be that RNL designed it to be “built green,” with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.

The Tattered Cover bookstore in Cherry Creek was a beloved gathering place, but the building that housed it was an ugly lump. It wasn’t always that way, however. Originally, the structure at 100 Fillmore Street was a swank, modernist landmark housing a branch of the now-defunct Neustseter’s department store; in the 1970s, when mid-century modern was out of style, the chic curtain walls were stripped off and replaced by aggregate. But now, in its reincarnation as Pura Vida, a glitzy gym and spa, the building has recaptured its lost glory, clad in a neo-modernist vocabulary of details, including huge wraparound windows on the upper floors. The spa is owned by a partnership including J. Madden, son of big-time developer John Madden. But it was the work of developer the Sturm Realty Group and the good folks at Gensler notably Blake Mourer and Semple Brown Design that turned this sow’s ear into the best silk purse in Cherry Creek.

Who says that watching laws being created has to be boring, dry or, as the famous quote goes, like sausages (best not to see them being made)? With Colorado Springs anti-tax crusader Douglas Bruce now in the Statehouse, the entertainment level has picked right up. From kicking a photographer to grandstanding, Bruce has made plenty of headlines — if not many friends — and quickly become the most entertaining part of the place. What will he do next?

René Marie started singing early, but she didn’t decide to pursue music full-time until after she turned forty. A decade later, she picked up and moved to Denver, where she quickly became a valued voice on the scene. And now Donald Rossa, the brains behind Dazzle, would like to make sure that she’s heard not just in this city, but around the world. He’s proposing that Denver honor both jazz, an original American art form, and René Marie, an original artist, by having her perform her “Voice of My Beautiful Country” — which puts the lyrics of “America the Beautiful,” “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” and “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” to different melodies, including that of “The Star-Spangled Banner” — at the Democratic National Convention this August. Hear, hear!

Mega-developer Forest City was not interested in preserving historic architecture as it built out its new-urbanist fantasy on the site of the old Stapleton airport. But that put Forest City on a collision course with preservationists over the fate of Hangar #61, which was designed by the premier mid-century architectural firm of Fisher, Fisher and Davis. Constructed in 1959 to shelter the corporate plane of the Ideal Basic Cement Company, the little hangar is an expressionist wonder, with a set of four intersecting hyperbolic arches carried out in thin-shell concrete. And now future generations will be able to enjoy it, because at the end of last year — and after years of efforts spearheaded by artist David Walter — Colorado Preservation took over ownership of the building with the promise to stabilize it and to find the best future use for it.

The stately Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center is one of the most important buildings in the Mountain Standard time zone. Built in 1936, the concrete-and-black aggregate structure combines Pueblo style with art moderne design, and was unquestionably the high point of architect John Gaw Meem’s career. But while the building remained stunning, sixty years after its completion, it was also too small. After a misguided attempt to enlarge it failed, Denver architect David Owen Tryba and his crew were hired in 2003 to come up with a solution. And they did. The addition, which debuted last summer, is tucked behind the original building, giving the center adequate facilities to both showcase its impressive collection and host traveling shows while preserving the integrity of the original design.

When Cydney Payton became director of the Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver, it was located in a former fish market. She immediately started pushing for a permanent home for the institution, and less than eight years later, through the sheer force of her will — and a lot of donations — the MCA is now in its own building. And what a building it is: Designed by an international up-and-comer David Adjaye, a London-based architect who won a competition for the job, it’s a neo-modernist gem with deconstructionist tendencies. It looks like a pseudo-cube coming apart at the seams, but the interior has a savvy setup that facilitates Payton’s concept of presenting different art mediums in specifically dedicated spaces. Adjaye’s best idea, though, was the glass walkway on the roof that does double duty as a skylight, flooding the atrium inside with natural light. Well, that and the rooftop bar with a stunning view of downtown.

Be flattered, not fearful, if a young redhead approaches you on the street and asks to photograph your torso. Then…try to look cool. Because Renee Mudd’s fashion blog, The-Intersection, sure does. “A young gal out and about in Denver in search of the city’s most inspiring and expressive fashions and street style” is how the University of Colorado Denver student describes her year-old project, which stays simple by presenting single photos of on-the-spot models with minimalist commentary. The offerings range from understated to outlandish and allow the rest of us to examine the threads of these day-to-day fashionistas without having to stare at them in real life.

A few years back, crews of underground street knitters began tagging up cities across the nation — but Denver’s street-art scene remained in the cold. Local light poles were left naked, bus benches stayed bare, and orange construction cones looked chilly without their little yarn hats! But thanks to the tireless work of the young women at the Ladies Fancywork Society, Denver’s urban grit has gotten a little more warm-and-fuzzy of late. The anonymous knitters have donated an abundance of parking-meter mittens, trees scarves and bike-rack cozies, making the city a much warmer place. Needless to say, Fancywork members should not be harassed while applying the tricks of their trade, as knitting needles can be sharp. Thanks, ladies!

Named for its location in an alley southeast of the Colorado Institute of Art — though it has no official affiliation with the school — the CIA Wall serves as a rotating showcase for some of the best graffiti productions in Colorado. Legal ones, at that, although “legal” is a relative concept in the graffiti world. The owner of this property’s retaining wall long ago started allowing spray-can artists to paint murals here, but if they don’t have serious skills and the blessing of some specific high-ups in the local graffiti scene, they can find their hard work crossed out — or worse. This unseen but stern management keeps the artistic quality of the wall work first-rate and free from the gang graffiti and tagger crap that mars Denver’s other graf yards.

It’s late at night, you’ve had a few too many to drink downtown, and if you’re smart enough to leave your car in LoDo, then you’re also smart enough to steer clear of the narrow, dark sidewalk that runs along 15th Street over I-25. So how to get home? Pick up 20th Street at Wazee and stagger past Coors Field, over the train tracks and the highway, and emerge on the other side at Central. (If you’ve been drinking in Highland, do the reverse.) An added benefit of this clean, well-lighted route is the view it affords of the Denver Skatepark — as long as watching all those spinning wheels doesn’t send you spinning, too.

When a new, $8 million pedestrian bridge opened over I-25 at what would be 16th Street, it seemed to offer a quick, safe way for people to move between downtown — via LoDo, the Millennium Bridge and the Platte Valley — and Highland, at the edge of north Denver. But the convenience of the bridge comes to a crashing halt at 11 p.m., because the route runs through public parks in the Platte Valley — and Denver curfew rules close the parks at that hour.

No matter how much the city cleans up East Colfax Avenue, RTD’s #15 bus will always be the true gauge of this neighborhood. Hop on between Colorado and Broadway, and listen to East High School students talking with the homeless. Or as happy hour turns to night, watch as drunken blue-collars heading home from the strip’s rougher bars rub shoulders with twenty-something hipsters on their way to hear live music. Conversation is the sole soundtrack to this route, because music is allowed with headphones only — and you’d better have exact change, because RTD doesn’t dish any out. Other than that, though, no rules apply and all bets are off. Whether you’re chatting with an immigrant about the world he left behind or hoping that the drug dealer to your left will leave you alone, the #15 delivers the bold, hard facts on the real Colfax.