As a teenager, Michael Hancock told Channel 4 that one day he wanted to be Denver’s first black mayor. Wellington Webb beat him to that title, but still, Hancock made history with one of the strangest-ever starts to a mayoral term. He was elected to the office by a huge…
When I picked up the Denver Post yesterday, with the big headline “Nothing incriminating in Hancock cell records” across the top of the front page, I was quickly transported back to the first edition of the Cornell Daily Sun I helped edit, when the night editor insisted the headline on…
How did Colorado’s “Second Largest Industry” perform in 2010? We’re guessing pretty well, since that’s the header regarding the latest Longwoods Report, an industry analysis of Denver and Colorado tourism. But then, this industry has a secret weapon: Governor John Hickenlooper…
The city has removed the porta-potties from Sunken Gardens Park — but the smelly temporary toilets weren’t the reason that neighbors were raising a stink. Over the last month, there’s been an influx of heroin dealers in the area…
Michael Hancock, mayor-elect of Denver, is trying to move his future administration forward — DenverForward is the name of the transition group that’s looking for volunteers and interviewing potential appointees. But first, he has this pesky Denver Players scandal to put behind him. And so late Friday, he sent this…
Wednesday was a tough day for independent Denver restaurants. Virgilio Urbano closed his original Virgilio’s near Belmar ; he’s concentrating on the second place he opened earlier this year in Littleton, Virgilio’s Pizzeria and Wine Bar. And David Pellegrin and his wife, Rebekah Donovan Pellegrin, closed Eco-Burger, the joint they…
The massive Better Denver bonds project that voters approved in 2007 has resulted in one much better Denver Animal Shelter, replacing an almost forty-year-old pound that was definitely a dog. And when it celebrates its official opening tomorrow, it will also celebrate one of the city’s great animal lovers: Carla…
Can the big dog ever win a mayoral election in Denver? Since 1983, the victor has always been an underdog, someone who barely registered a blip on the radar five months before the first round of voting. Chris Romer was definitely the big dog in this mayor’s race, and he…
Michael Hancock wasn’t the only big winner last night. His campaign headquarters at 1100 Bannock Street just scored another major victory. This could be the luckiest address in town, a golden spot in the Golden Triangle…
Even after millions of dollars have been poured into the Denver mayoral campaign, and endless words poured out at debate after debate, I kept hearing from friends yesterday who were still undecided on who they should vote for…
Two city crews descended on the triangular park bounded by Broadway, 22nd and Lawrence just after 6 a.m., the eight workers gingerly picking up the trash — bags and bags of trash, stuffed with everything from human feces to used syringes — before the park started filling again. But it…
Old swinger stories never die. Late Thursday, Complete Colorado broke a story about Michael Hancock allegedly being one of the clients of Denver Players, the prostitution/escort business that three years ago ended the career of Chief Judge Edward Nottingham — the only name that came out at the time, although…
Denver County has never had a Denver County Fair — but that century-in-the-making event will finally come to the National Western Stock Show facility July 28-31. Denver does have a County Fair, though, and today it will celebrate the life of councilwoman Carla Madison…
Turns out that Tom Tancredo was not the only Michael Hancock supporter to start shouting “Viva Romer.” State representative Crisanta Duran gave $100 to the Hancock campaign, a donation recorded on May 10 — the day before she endorsed Chris Romer and became deputy manager of his campaign…
Movers and shakers usually donate to political campaigns so that they can get the ear of an office-holder. But at today’s debt-retirement fundraiser for Doug Linkhart, they’ll be lucky if they get this lousy T-shirt… and the thanks of a longtime public servant…
The end of the endless Denver mayor’s race is just a week away, and no matter how Chris Romer or Michael Hancock may feel about creationism, there’s little evidence that this campaign has evolved. A Romer-supporting 527 is still wallowing in the mud…
Memorial Day is still three days away, but all week I have been carried away by memories. The extended Westword family lost one of its members this week when Chris Power Bain, who’d served as advertising manager in the early ’80s, passed away. There’s much more to her story than…
“Viva Romer!” That was the word from Tom Tancredo yesterday morning on Peter Boyles’s radio show, responding to the dirty-tricks campaign designed to turn Latino voters against Michael Hancock by claiming that Tancredo has endorsed Hancock. Except, of course, that Tancredo has never endorsed Hancock…
In a Denver mayoral campaign that was supposed to be so clean, the dirtiest deed yet is tied to a man who does not even live in Denver and has not actually talked to either candidate. “That’s what you get for going to lunch with Peter Boyles,” says Tom Tancredo…
Just when you thought this mayoral campaign couldn’t blow any harder, Tom Tancredo enters the ring. Not that the five-term congressman, one-time presidential aspirant, one-time gubernatorial candidate and all-time House Crazy asked to get in on the action. But once the negative ads start, how much lower can you go?…
My official ballot for the City and County of Denver’s municipal run-off election was shoved through my mail chute yesterday and I picked it up gingerly, wondering if the slime would come off on my hand. Increasingly, this campaign has made me long for a John Hickenlooper-like no-negative-campaigning shower…
“Police Brutality is Killing Us.” That was the stark message, laid out in black-and-white, in the editorial pages of the Denver Post yesterday. But this wasn’t an editorial: It was an ad placed by the America Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, part of a new Race to Justice campaign designed…
