Denver has narrowly escaped destruction numerous times. When the railroads crossing the country in the 1860s threatened to skip the infant city altogether, leaving it high and dry on the plains, boosters worked fast to secure a line — and a future for Denver (and a fortune for themselves). A…
The e-mails were flying before last Wednesday’s Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs meeting, which had one agenda item: the dismissal of executive secretary Carol Harvey, who’d been on the job since March 2010 and was let go in early November. But during that conference-call meeting, two Colorado tribal leaders agreed…
Yesterday was not a good time to tour downtown. As city officials jumped in pedicabs to check out the newly refurbished 14th Street, which runs along the edge of downtown starting at Market Street, quite a welcoming committee was waiting at the other end of what’s also oddly dubbed “Ambassador…
When you think of Colorado Springs, what do you think of? Pikes Peak? The Garden of the Gods? The Broadmoor? The Air Force Academy? Ted Haggard? Yesterday, while Visit Denver’s annual meeting was learning that National Geographic Traveler will feature Denver next year as soon as the magazine can find…
Update: The Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs conference-call meeting this morning was crowded, despite the fact that there was only one item on the agenda. But since that item was the dismissal of commission executive secretary Carol Harvey, there was plenty of interest in how Lieutenant Governor Joe Garcia, who…
If Thanksgiving is approaching, it must be time for another controversy at the Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs, which is overseen by the state’s lieutenant governor. Back in 1988, then-lite guv Mike Callihan created a ruckus with his plans for a feast in a Mayflower moving van. And now Carol…
Dear Mexican: Why is Mexico such a dump? Just to name a few of the problems: stray dogs running all over the place, piles of trash burning in the street, blown-out tires hanging from cactus by the side of the road, shredded plastic shopping bags plastering every fence in sight,…
To get a feel for the changing face of Denver, drive the twenty blocks of Larimer Street — which is now two-way northeast of Broadway — down to Larimer Square, and take note of all the businesses popping up along the way, all the people on the streets that were…
When the Colorado Gaming Commission heads to Central City for its monthly meeting next week, it will be greeted by a new casino. Or at least, a casino with a new name: Fortune Valley, which got its start as Harvey’s Wagon Wheel Casino, then became Harrah’s, will next be Reserve…
Occupy Denver is the first of the Occupy Wall Street camps across the country to elect a leader: Shelby, a Border Collie mix seen here, who was anointed after a long meeting Sunday night, and has already requested a meeting with Governor John Hickenlooper. Beyond that, Shelby doesn’t have much…
H&M opens at noon tomorrow in the Denver Pavilions, and eager shoppers who’ve already been waiting years to see this store are getting ready to get in line. While Occupy Denver has discovered that you cannot camp overnight in the city, tonight you can camp near the store. Occupy Denver…
Denizens of lower downtown thought their ship had come in that day in 1986 when McCormick’s Fish House & Bar opened in the Oxford Hotel, bringing fresh seafood and an incredible happy hour — known to all as “cheap time” — to an area that was pretty high and dry…
The passing of Republican powerhouse Freda Poundstone has us thinking about how this city might look if she’d never had her considerable career as a legislator/lobbyist. For starters, Denver might sprawl the way that Phoenix and other Western cities do — but instead, the Poundstone Amendment, passed by Colorado voters…
Dear Mexican: I am an Anglo intruder in New Mexico. When I moved to Albuquerque from Virginia, I fell in love with Mexican culture. I was impressed at what I called “Southwestern hospitality.” I have had so many second dinners when I go to people’s homes that I gained a…
Sadly, it’s too late to block the border. By now the professional picketers from Westboro Baptist Church, Fred Phelps’s “god-hates-fags” group, have likely made their way from Kansas to Colorado, where they’ve announced plans to picket two Jewish General Assembly meetings downtown today. They’re also threatening to show up at…
Steve Horner, the anti-ladies night crusader, gave Denver bars fits a few years ago, then took his campaign back on the road — most recently to Las Vegas. The slew of complaints he’s filed in Sin City against resort/casinos over special deals for bikini-clad babes are about to be featured…
Although the fancy architect is gone and the ownership of Santiago Calatrava’s DIA expansion design is still up in the air, plans for construction of the South Terminal, including a light-rail station and a public plaza, are moving forward. That means Denver could soon commission another $3 million in public…
Initiative 300, the paid sick-leave proposal on yesterday’s ballot, would have affected just about every business in Denver — but restaurants became the real poster child of the campaign, on both the pro and con sides. The Yes on 300 campaign used scare tactics — including pictures of cantaloupes on…
Harold Camping has predicted the end of the world three times — and each time, the ninetysomething Boulder native has struck out. Most recently, Doomsday did not arrive on October 21. Five months earlier, the Rapture did not occur on May 21. And there were earlier botched Camping forecasts, which…
Dear Mexican: These days, using the word “nigger” is considered so offensive that, in its place, we now use the term “N-word.” Of course, never mind that African-Americans use it among themselves as a term of endearment, pero esa es una historia para otro dia. Sin embargo, it raises a…
A week after Snobama buried the Front Range in hype and hope, we’re still shoveling out — and just dug up this fun fact: The Brown Palace has hosted every U.S. president since Teddy Roosevelt first visited in 1905, thirteen years after the hotel opened, except for two: Calvin Coolidge…
Mayor Michael Hancock’s choice for Denver’s new police chief, Robert White, was introduced at a hastily convened press conference at City Hall on Saturday. The announcement of Hancock’s pick for this most-watched post had been moved up several days because the news of White’s appointment had already leaked out in…
