Best Place to Have Your Flag Cleaned 2002 | Carousel Cleaners | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
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Best Place to Have Your Flag Cleaned

Carousel Cleaners

It feels great to put on a fresh, clean pair of pants and a shirt, and according to Mike Miller, it feels even better to hang a fresh, clean United States flag from your home or car. That's the way Miller has felt ever since he bought Carousel Cleaners 32 years ago and began offering flag cleaning for free. "We've always done it, but not too many people took us up on it until September 11," says Miller, who served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War. "But after September 11, we've cleaned hundreds. I don't think we did it with the idea of profit. We did it with the idea that America is America. I'm a patriot and I love my country. After September 11, everybody wanted to do something, but what can you do? You can't bring those people back, but if you can bring nationalism back, then why not?" Miller says his employees will even press, hang or fold your star-spangled banner if you want them to. Old Glory may be old, but at least it will be clean.

Best Place to Have Your Flag Cleaned

Carousel Cleaners

It feels great to put on a fresh, clean pair of pants and a shirt, and according to Mike Miller, it feels even better to hang a fresh, clean United States flag from your home or car. That's the way Miller has felt ever since he bought Carousel Cleaners 32 years ago and began offering flag cleaning for free. "We've always done it, but not too many people took us up on it until September 11," says Miller, who served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War. "But after September 11, we've cleaned hundreds. I don't think we did it with the idea of profit. We did it with the idea that America is America. I'm a patriot and I love my country. After September 11, everybody wanted to do something, but what can you do? You can't bring those people back, but if you can bring nationalism back, then why not?" Miller says his employees will even press, hang or fold your star-spangled banner if you want them to. Old Glory may be old, but at least it will be clean.

Best Parade

Martin Luther King Jr. "Marade"

This past January, 30,000 people marched from City Park to Civic Center Park in Denver's Martin Luther King Jr. "Marade" (a word that combines the civil-rights leader's name with 'parade') to remember one of the greatest men in American history. The annual event -- one of the biggest MLK celebrations in the country -- is also just plain fun. For one day, differences between people seem to melt away, as black grandfathers march with Hispanic teenagers and white mothers pushing strollers, politicians rub shoulders with labor leaders and teachers march with students. The whole thing makes Colfax Avenue seem like the friendliest place on earth.

Best Parade

Martin Luther King Jr. "Marade"

This past January, 30,000 people marched from City Park to Civic Center Park in Denver's Martin Luther King Jr. "Marade" (a word that combines the civil-rights leader's name with 'parade') to remember one of the greatest men in American history. The annual event -- one of the biggest MLK celebrations in the country -- is also just plain fun. For one day, differences between people seem to melt away, as black grandfathers march with Hispanic teenagers and white mothers pushing strollers, politicians rub shoulders with labor leaders and teachers march with students. The whole thing makes Colfax Avenue seem like the friendliest place on earth.

Best Way to Avoid Standing in Line at City Hall

www.denvergov.org

The city's official Web address, www.denvergov.org, has been pumped up of late. Real-estate property-tax records have become searchable online, as have contractors' license records -- and businesses can even file their personal-property declarations using the site. That's your government working for you.

Best Way to Avoid Standing in Line at City Hall

www.denvergov.org

The city's official Web address, www.denvergov.org, has been pumped up of late. Real-estate property-tax records have become searchable online, as have contractors' license records -- and businesses can even file their personal-property declarations using the site. That's your government working for you.

Best Reopening

The doors of the City and County Building

In the wake of September 11, security experts decided that the main entrance to the City and County Building should be locked and all traffic funneled through a side door. Besides being a big pain in the neck for workers and visitors alike, it smacked of a siege mentality gone too far. The decision to finally reopen the doors of City Hall on January 28 afforded Mayor Wellington Webb an opportunity to do a bit of grandstanding: "This is the people's building, and we are not going to let the terrorists win," he said. But the plain fact was that taking off the locks and chains provided a minor but significant sign that normalcy was returning.

Best Reopening

The doors of the City and County Building

In the wake of September 11, security experts decided that the main entrance to the City and County Building should be locked and all traffic funneled through a side door. Besides being a big pain in the neck for workers and visitors alike, it smacked of a siege mentality gone too far. The decision to finally reopen the doors of City Hall on January 28 afforded Mayor Wellington Webb an opportunity to do a bit of grandstanding: "This is the people's building, and we are not going to let the terrorists win," he said. But the plain fact was that taking off the locks and chains provided a minor but significant sign that normalcy was returning.

Best New Building (Since March 2001)

Civic Center Office Building

One less ugly, crumbling parking lot; one more nice Denver building. For the last several years, the Civic Center Office Building, a gleaming new twelve-story edifice, has been rising at the north end of Civic Center Park. When it opens this summer, the structure, designed by David Owen Tryba with RNL Design, will provide badly needed office space for the City and County of Denver. The building -- especially the main tower, a contemporary neo-modernist confection with dramatically curving walls of aluminum and glass -- will also provide a nice complement to the rigidly rectilinear 1949 city-owned international-style Annex I, which will be connected to it by a large atrium. The new building's height allows a graceful transition between the relatively low profile of the monumental public buildings of the Civic Center and the much taller commercial skyscrapers just behind it in the central business district.

Best New Building (Since March 2001)

Civic Center Office Building

One less ugly, crumbling parking lot; one more nice Denver building. For the last several years, the Civic Center Office Building, a gleaming new twelve-story edifice, has been rising at the north end of Civic Center Park. When it opens this summer, the structure, designed by David Owen Tryba with RNL Design, will provide badly needed office space for the City and County of Denver. The building -- especially the main tower, a contemporary neo-modernist confection with dramatically curving walls of aluminum and glass -- will also provide a nice complement to the rigidly rectilinear 1949 city-owned international-style Annex I, which will be connected to it by a large atrium. The new building's height allows a graceful transition between the relatively low profile of the monumental public buildings of the Civic Center and the much taller commercial skyscrapers just behind it in the central business district.

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