Governor John Hickenlooper is revving up his eco-devo engine. Last month, he toured Colorado for four days, holding confabs in eight towns; Denver gets its turn today, at a Bottom-Up Economic Development Meeting at the Cable Center at the University of Denver. And have we got some ideas for him!…
A fourteenth hopeful has entered the Denver mayor’s race, and we’re disappointed we had to read about Gerald Styron’s candidacy somewhere else first. As Facethestate.comreports, when Styron was a write-in candidate for then-incumbent Rick Garcia’s District 1 City Council slot in 2007, he asked a Westword editor if he had…
The town’s biggest business trend last year — the fleet of gourmet food trucks rolling into Denver — also gave rise to some of the biggest rumors: The city was trying to keep trucks out of downtown and cut off our cupcake supply, some whispered, and even worse, the city…
Dear Mexican: My gabacho friends look at me askance for being a gabacho who enjoys mariachi music. They, and even some of my Mexican friends, run and hide when I go a step further and start listening to the mournful ballads of Vicente Fernandez, backed up by — you guessed…
In the fall of 2009, Denver City Council rep Charlie Brown realized that the city had to get a handle on the booming medical marijuana dispensary industry — and even as the Colorado Legislature was just starting to discuss MMJ, Denver was signing off on its ordinance. But now the…
We were a little disappointed not to see John Hickenlooper in his ’80s-era red ski outfit when he welcomed the Snowsports Industries America show to town with cowbells yesterday. “What do you think of my new duds?” he asked, showing off his jacket. Frankly, it seemed a little sedate for…
Gourmet food trucks were the surprise hit of 2010 — by December, over 150 mobile food vendors had been licensed in Denver, which almost put the movement on par with the medical-marijuana dispensary business. And like dispensaries, the food trucks have been causing some headaches for the city — and…
The president was not the only Obama to make a speech yesterday. Michelle Obama was at the Library of Congress celebrating the tenth anniversary of National Mentoring Month. My father didn’t know it was Thank Your Mentor Day when he took his mentee, Byron, to his suburban Chicago Rotary meeting;…
Dear Mexican: A few years ago, I moved to Tucson. In said city, I noticed that there were little piles of stuff accumulated on the medians of the main roads. It looks like what was Dia de la Muertos paraphernalia — I’m not so gringo as to not know what’s…
On January 15, in the middle of National Mentoring Month, my 85-year-old father was looking for his mentee – a hunt that took him into the heart of Cook County, Illinois, and a jail system that makes Denver’s look like Club Med. Byron had been raised by a single mom…
Colorado has incredible beauty, a colorful governor, and smart residents (and readers) who would prefer that tourists (especially Texans) stay home and wonder “Why do you need to spend money to advertise something that is timeless?” And although it doesn’t have an ocean, it will soon have an IKEA, down…
Welcome to Colorful Colorado! On today, Colorado Tourism Day, let’s revisit some of the greatest hits — and far greater misses — of the state’s tourism efforts. Currently, the marketing theme at www.colorado.com promises that “A world of scenic wonder awaits, in a Land Called Colorado.”…
City Hall will be going to the dogs today, with pit bull protesters converging on the building at 14th and Bannock streets at 11 a.m. today — if the protesters can get around all that Big Air scaffolding. But there’s already plenty of hot air in the dog-eat-dog world of…
Illegal immigrants took over the State Capitol yesterday — figuratively speaking, at least — when Senate Bill 54 was introduced by Senator Kent Lambert. It’s essentially a copycat of Arizona’s controversial (and constitutionally challenged) law, and a major waste of time. Until Arizona passed its measure, Colorado had the toughest…
Hank Brown could have had a big office under the gold dome: Back in the anyone-but-Dan Maes days, the former U.S. senator was urged to make a last-second run for governor. But while Brown was one of the first old-guard Republicans to drop his endorsement of Maes, he didn’t jump…
Where there’s smoke, there’s ire. Parker’s Jacob Christenson has been charged with second-degree arson that caused upwards of $195,000 in damages; he’ll go on trial in Arapahoe County in February. But it will be tough to find a jury of his peers: Jacob is ten…
Dear Mexican: I’m not Mexican (or from a Spanish-speaking country), but I get mad when the gabachos in my town say that all Mexican girls do is take drugs and get pregnant, drop out of school and end up on welfare. I know a lot of Mexican women who haven’t…
The weather looks promising for this morning’s Martin Luther King Jr. Marade — a march/parade that’s the biggest in the nation. But no matter the air temperature, the atmosphere won’t be as hot as last year, when the Denver Public Schools had planned a lunch in honor of MLK the…
Beer was flowing (figuratively, at least) when John Hickenlooper offered his first address to the Colorado Legislature yesterday and told the story of a brewpub. Not the Denver-centric story of the Wynkoop Brewing Co., the iconic LoDo spot, but a venture that grew out of that project: the Phantom Brewing…
Now that John Hickenlooper has been sworn in as governor, and Bill Vidal is officially Denver’s interim mayor, the focus will soon shift to the race for the next mayor. A dozen candidates have already declared, and two high-profile names — Linda Alvarado and Walter Isenberg — are reportedly mulling…
The most moving sight in a day filled with eye-popping activities surrounding the inauguration of John Hickenlooper: the lineup of former governors — Dick Lamm, Roy Romer, Bill Owens, Bill Ritter (and on video, John Vanderhoof) — on the stage of the Fillmore Auditorium. The oddest sight? Another lineup…
Eight years ago, John Hickenlooper was barely a blip in early polling for the 2003 mayoral election. Four years ago, he won re-election in a walk. This morning, he’ll resign the office of Denver mayor — and the happiest people in town will be the dozen candidates who’ve already declared…
