Many of the readers who responded to our recent post “Why It’s So Hard to Make a Living in Denver Despite Strong Economy” told us that costs in the Mile High City are putting a major squeeze on their pocketbooks. And indeed, Denver is currently among the twenty most expensive cities to live in North America as measured by updated price data for basic commodities in the area.
Last Thursday’s 420 Rally was a disaster. The Denver police made 48 arrests, and Civic Center Park was trashed.On April 24, Mayor Michael Hancock held a press conference in the park to address concerns about the rally, and announced that he has launched an inter-departmental review to better understand what occurred at the event and which permit requirements weren’t met or went ignored.
A telephone survey seeking opinions about the expansion of I-70 through east Denver is generating irate protests from some respondents, who say the survey seems designed to elicit positive responses about the purported benefits of the $1.8-billion project.
After former Colorado state treasurer Cary Kennedy announced that she is running for the 2018 Colorado governorship on Facebook Live from behind the wheel of a moving car, the video went viral for reasons she hadn’t anticipated; political opponents and the press needled her for supposedly distracted driving. But rather than fuming over the response, she says she’s pleased that so many people got to hear her message, which she expands upon in a wide-ranging interview with Westword.
April has been a big month for marijuana news. Here are three things you might have missed during the 4/20 holiday:
Thanks to Denver’s red-hot real estate market, more and more people trying to buy a home in the metro area are finding themselves in bidding wars, resulting in offers that frequently blow past the property’s listed price. The incredible demand, as well as the speed with which purchases are being made, explains why some real estate agents have started putting up “Coming Soon” signs on houses before changing them to “For Sale.”
Blend, a group messaging app, reviewed the group chats of more than 300,000 millennial users on 4/20 to see what terms, emojis, and strains were most popular on the holiday. “Let’s smoke” was twice as popular as any other term, and Blue Dream had almost double the mentions of any other strain. Here’s the breakdown:
Yesterday was Earth Day, and while many people renewed their commitment to recycling and keeping the environment as clean as possible, others were talking trash about Denver’s new bin system. Dumpsters are scheduled to be eliminated by the end of the year, according to Denver Recycles and Solid Waste Management, and some readers already miss them.
Did you make it to Denver’s celebration of the sacred stoner holiday? If not, we’ve got you covered. Events all over town brought the crowds, despite the rain.
Every old T-shirt or toy you throw out sits in landfills forever. This spring, be wise about your waste.
Denver hosted one of the largest cannabis celebrations in the country this week and the party continues through the weekend. Check out our list of events you can still attend this weekend and our coverage leading up to 4/20, the 420 Rally, and how to create a cool marijuana-themed dinner at home.
4/20 is over, but there are plenty of cannabis events through the month.
The morning after the 2017 version of the Denver 4/20 Rally, Civic Center Park was still a mess and angry residents were phoning local TV stations with complaints. But as noted by Miguel Lopez, wearing a yellow hoodie that accurately identified him as “Chief Event Organizer” for the rally, his permit allows him until noon the next day to fully clean up the area. Lopez was confident he’d still be able to make that deadline despite delays caused after the festival was over by a man with a knife who’d slashed open garbage bags and scattered trash that had already been collected.
The Denver Police Department provided Westword with the final total of arrests and/or citations for the 2017 version of the Denver 4/20 Rally. The numbers are considerably higher than what was initially reported — twenty citations and five arrests — but fewer than in previous years when the festival was held on a weekend and sometimes covered multiple days.
The deal is probably a boost for the prospects of the Colorado properties involved, particularly Winter Park.
Forget sci-fi movies: For a real surreal experience, look no further than Golden. Colorado’s first capital is now the capital of the green movement and home to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which is celebrating its fortieth anniversary in July. NREL, which started out as the Solar Energy Research Institute…
Just over a year after the work started, the $1 million first phase of the restoration of Sullivan Gateway at City Park is wrapping up. The first phase of the restoration included refurbishing both the east and west lion-head fountains to include new mechanical and electrical work for operation and…
The Colorado Springs Police Department denies that Ryan and Benjamin Brown were racially profiled during an aggressive arrest captured on video even though the City of Colorado Springs has agreed to pay $212,000 and alter some policies in order to settle the case. The CSPD also accuses the ACLU of Colorado, which represented the Browns, of inaccuracy and more over the way it’s portrayed the matter. But the ACLU isn’t backing down.
How are you feeling today? Good? Great. Since 4/20 has already become a Colorado holiday, we’d like to suggest a secondary holiday on April 21. It would be like Black Friday, but without the shopping and stress. A day a day to relax with some CBD.
Former Sterling mail carrier Tayson Hidalgo, 23, has been sentenced for going postal in his own special way. The only violence he did was to some of the approximately 26,000 items he didn’t bring to people to whom they were addressed.
Banking has been a notorious pitfall for marijuana business owners. Even in Colorado, the first state to sell recreational marijuana legally, banks still refuse to work with dispensaries, growers and any other industry ventures for fear of federal scrutiny. The majority of Colorado’s marijuana economy is all cash-based, which comes with a variety of safety concerns for customers and gray area for business owners and tax officials. As a result, Littleton-based CanPay is becoming a popular solution.
For the second consecutive year, the vibe of the Denver 4/20 Rally at Civic Center Park was harshed by Mother Nature. The weather for the bash held yesterday, April 20, was far better than in 2016, when a snowstorm forced a postponement until May 21. But an afternoon rain that ranged from drizzly to steady increased the misery of those who had to stand in line for an hour or more in some cases in order to gain entry to the festival grounds, which were protected by a fence that attendees eventually broke down in the minutes before the annual 4:20 p.m. countdown.
