Ben Dover. That was the name of the mythical airline vice-president of finance skewered in a series of limited-edition cartoons last spring in Alaska. In faxes sent to that state’s legislators, reporters and the governor’s office, yuksters poked fun at “ColoradoAir” and its attempts to extort $40 million from Alaska…
It was Wednesday, and grease was the word. That meant one thing: the Mexico City Lounge (or Cafe, depending on which sign you pay attention to), in the 2100 block of Larimer Street, where the weekly taco specials draw people from all walks of life. In this instance, the walk…
A thousand miles away in California, the O.J. Simpson jury had just started deliberating when Denver County Court Judge Larry Bohning called his court to order. From the outset, the city’s case against Arisha McRae and DeShawn White looked like anything but a grand slam. Time had not only dulled…
“I’ve been here twenty years,” Ronald Ford says from behind the only register at Scott’s Market. “I didn’t even realize twenty years had gone by. You stay in this little place, and you’re cut off from the rest of the world.” For two decades Ford has helped the people who…
LoDo is over, the urban hipster said sadly. His pronouncement would certainly surprise anyone who has dodged through the throngs of well-lubricated partyers who roam the streets at 1 a.m. And he wasn’t even thinking about Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose proposed Planet Hollywood could terminate much of what’s still charming about…
This summer has been no picnic for Elitch’s. The relocated amusement park has been criticized for its long lines, crowded walkways and general stinginess displayed in the lack of landscaping, the high prices and the prohibition against bringing food into the facility. Because of the above complaints, or perhaps becaue…
They don’t have a prayer. As women from across the country arrive in Denver this week for the Summit on Women’s Economic Security, they may think they’ve come to talk about planning for retirement, or new technological opportunities, or dealing with daycare, or how to imbue girls with the proper…
These had been dull days in Denver’s newspaper war, marked primarily by a slide in circulation for the Rocky Mountain News, a slide into somnolence for readers of both papers, and the continual murmur from industry analysts that the city’s status as a two-newspaper town couldn’t last. And then last…
This is not a pretty picture. In a matter of weeks Denver City Council members, whose average aesthetic tastes tend to John Denver songs and paintings of big-eyed little girls, will suddenly find themselves in charge of handing out three-quarters of a million dollars to arts groups–every year. Suddenly it’s…
In Quebec, home of our soon-to-be NHL team, the soon-to-be-renamed Nordiques, it’s considered bad taste to call someone a “pepsi.” In Denver, it’s only considered bad taste to be caught cutting deals for Pepsi. But even before the clock struck 12 at the very end of May 8, the legislature’s…
From the halls of Montezuma County, the outraged cries carried all the way to Denver: Six years of hard work, soon to be undone by one stroke of Governor Roy Romer’s pen. For over half a decade, Montezuma County had fought–three times all the way up to the Colorado Supreme…
At daybreak on the Comanche National Grassland, the air is so sweet and the endless, empty vistas so breathtaking that it is impossible to imagine anyone going out of his way to screw this world up. This rough, beautiful country was the backdrop when Wes McKinley left his ranch in…
Oh, grow up. Last week New York Times architecture critic Herbert Muschamp hailed Denver as a new playground for adults, “a consumer product, recast as an escape from grown-up care,” its skyline a “sudden outburst of innocence.” Make that “gullibility.” Because we’re certainly paying to play. On Monday the Colorado…
Denver is becoming a very cheap date. This city rolls over for anyone who shows the slightest interest in scratching its economically soft underbelly. And the result, seen in the light of day, is rarely pretty. Witness the Platte Valley: The confluence of two rivers that gave birth to Denver…
Martin Scheriff did not need to introduce himself to the judge. By now, Denver District Court Judge Edward Simons knows Scheriff all too well. So do several other judges through whose courtrooms his case has passed. Over the past year and a half, Scheriff has become a familiar figure in…
By last week, Denver’s four mayoral candidates could finish each other’s sentences. This wasn’t because they were in such great accord–far from it, in fact: Consensus is not a word you’d use in connection with this campaign. Crotchety, maybe, even cantankerous on a particularly good day when the venomous juices…
Before Theresa Andress took her job with the Planned Parenthood clinic in La Junta, she managed a convenience store. “At the Loaf `n’ Jug, there was this kid, about sixteen, so sweet, always coming in to my store,” she recalled. “A few weeks after I came over here, he came…
“I know how Jesus felt,” said David VanderMolen. “This was a witch hunt.” But no witch ever cast a spell as successfully as VanderMolen, the longtime Longmont High School wrestling coach and physical education teacher as well as Amway salesman and PromiseKeeper. Early last month, while VanderMolen compared himself to…
Beneath his judicial robes Andrew Armatas has been stripped bare, right down to the 35 shirts (dress and casual), 8 pairs of slacks, “misc. socks, undergarments, etc.” and single tuxedo he lists among his worldly possessions. Augmenting these is $50 in cash, nothing in the bank and an inventory of…
There. That wasn’t so bad, was it? Denver International Airport actually opened Tuesday, on its fifth debut date, after such a drawn-out, stop-and-start ordeal that everyone had almost forgotten that’s what DIA was supposed to do: open. A city does not build a $5 billion airport merely to create jobs,…
At the moment, Westword may be responsible for the only positive revenue stream at Denver’s $5 billion new airport. That’s because we pay the city’s Airport Revenue Fund $1.25 for each piece of paper we are allowed to see regarding the fees paid to private legal firms retained by the…
Ironically, it took a legal threat to convince Denver city attorney Dan Muse to release the legal bills of Debevoise & Plimpton, the high-priced spread that’s rung up a $1 million tab representing Denver’s interests against the Securities and Exchange Commission’s “informal inquiry” into DIA bond sales. If an “informal”…
