POLITICS
Police and Firefighter
Eligibility for Noncitizens, and other Key Denver Ballot Measures
PAGE 2
TRANSPORTATION
City Revising Proposed Road Designs for West 29th Avenue
PAGE 5
POLITICS
5 Questions with Denver City Council President Amanda P. Sandoval
PAGE 5
ARTS & CULTURE
The Denver DJ School Builds a Sense of Community Through Music
PAGE 8
THE GRAY ZONE
Women Who Broke the Age Code
PAGE 14
EDUCATION
Denver North Launches New Booster Club
PAGE 15
By Xavier Barrios
For students, graduation season marks the completion of one chapter and the start of another. But this season also began a new story of diversity, equity and inclusion as one group of students, adorned in caps and gowns, walked across the stage at Regis University.
This chapter was written by the inaugural class of five graduating GLOBAL Inclusive students, the first to complete the university’s program designed to give students with intellectual or developmental disabilities an opportunity to have a traditional college campus experience. In 2022, The Denver North Star reported on the GLOBAL Inclusive program’s launch, and then again in 2023 for a year-in report.
The unknown of post-graduation was waiting for GLOBAL Inclusive student Jordan Stewart, who said the milestone was thrust upon him whether he wanted to graduate or not.
For Stewart, the hardest part of his graduation was that he would no longer see his friends and peers daily. His routine switched from saying, “See you later,” to the harder, more formal, “Goodbye,” Stewart said.
Navigating this unknown isn’t an easy feat.
Stewart said he quickly realized his “bad thoughts” didn’t provide him much guidance, so he turned to “positive thoughts” to help him avoid anxiety. To provoke these happy thoughts, he said he turns to the movie theater as a source of positivity.
Stewart said the unknowns of graduation were also easier to navigate with the familiarity of his internship-turned-job at Booyah Advertising in downtown Denver.
While in the GLOBAL Inclusive program, students can participate in an internship or an on-campus job, according to their career development coordinator Lauren Gray. Stewart’s internship was through the digital advertising company that manages over $100 million in media each year for brands like Western Union, Uni-
lever, Discover Card and Aspen Skiing Company, according to the company’s website.
Dr. Jeanine Coleman, associate professor and the program’s director, said people with disabilities have been historically rejected from higher education, the workplace and other institutions.
“Nationwide, 16% of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities are competitively employed,” Gray wrote in an email to The Denver North Star. “In Colorado, that number is above average at 26%, but that number is still very low.”
“[People with disabilities] are part of our community,” Coleman said. “They want all the same things t hat anybody else wants, they want to go to college, they want to make friends, they want to get a job — they want these experiences.”
Booyah CEO Troy Lerner got involved with Regis’ GLOBAL Inclusive through his wife, a professor at Regis who was having a positive experience working with the program and its students. Lerner said he is actively trying to “make the world a better place,” and this is one of the ways that provides growth to Stewart, other Booyah workers and himself, as well as society at large.
“This just feels like a natural fit,” Lerner said. “It doesn’t feel like we are trying to force something to meet a mission statement or a mandate. Instead we have found somebody that fits in our community.”
During the first year of the program, Gray teaches a career development class, in which she asks students their career goals and interests. From there, Gray said she takes the information and tries to find the best individualized pairing through on- and off-campus internship opportunities.
Students, Gray said, have interests in opening their own businesses like restaurants, coaching sports teams or working in paleontology. Once a placement has been found, Gray works alongside the company to develop the student’s role.
“I reach out to employers that are in the industries that our students are interested in,” Gray said, “and explain what our program is, explain the internship
See REGIS, Page 15
By Jacqui Somen
The resonant chords from a guitar, the smell of roasted corn from a food truck, children frolicking in the grass. It's festival season in North Denver. What started as opportunities for a few neighbors to come together over shared interests have turned into well-attended gatherings for members of communities in North Denver and beyond. This September, North Denver residents can enjoy music, fun and food at two festivals: the Sunnyside Music Festival on Sept. 14 and Jamming on the Jetty on Sept. 21. Both are free events that gather neighbors with the goal of giving back.
On Sept. 14, the Sunnyside Music Festival takes place in Chaffee Park from 11 a.m. to 7:15 p.m. Entertainment will include free yoga with Better Buzz and performances by Dzirae Gold, The Reals, Roka Hueka, Taylor Scott Band and Rocky Mountain Grateful Dead Revue. Attendees can enjoy food, beverages and artisan vendors, as well as a special visit from Clifford the Big Red Dog. Last year, 8,500 people attended the festival.
"Our mission is unity through music," said Erin Shumaker, board member and president of Sunnyside Music Festival. "We've got so much divisiveness in our country in a lot of different ways, and this festival is just community, neighbors, music, food. It's a recipe for people to get together and remember that we're neighbors and have common goals.”
Sunnyside Music Festival isn't just a fun day for neighbors to gather in the park. The organization also runs a grant program that helps support neighborhood programs. According to its website, Sunnyside Music Festival awarded over $7,000 to North Denver youth music and arts programs in 2024. Recent grants supported class field trips to musical performances for students at Academia Ana Marie Sandoval and funded supplies, instrument repairs and arts programming at Beach Court Elementary.
JAMMING ON THE JETTY
On Sept. 21, visit Sloan's Lake Park from 1-8 p.m. to enjoy entertainment from Aiden P Band, Kalama Polynesian Dancers, ManyColors, Caitlin Gilmore (kids singalong), BBB Band and Los Mocochetes
By London Lyle
Denver voters will face many key ballot initiatives this November, a number of them brought forth by Denver City Council.
OPENING CITY POSITIONS TO NONCITIZEN LEGAL RESIDENTS
Council Bill 24-0849, a measure to remove the citizenship requirement for Denver police officers and firefighters, would open these highly understaffed positions up to noncitizens residing legally in the U.S. Currently, these positions are restricted to U.S. citizens, a limitation that supporters argue is doing a disservice to a city with a significant immigrant population. On July 15, the City Council voted to send the measure to November ballots.
Key supporters of the bill include Council President Amanda Sandoval and Councilwoman Jamie Torres. Torres has made the argument that barring noncitizens from these public service roles not only harms the community, but also violates employment discrimination laws, citing a Denver Sheriff Department $10,000 settlement agreement in 2016.
People who would become eligible for employment as firefighters or police officers, should 24-0849 pass, are legal permanent residents in the United States. They are not undocumented, and there is a significant distinction between the two under Colorado law. However, there has been misinformation surrounding the bill, something that Torres is eager to clear up before Denverites cast their votes on Nov. 5.
“This bill put before the voters in November is a question of whether to change the charter to allow the police and fire department to consider applications from immigrants with legal status,” Torres said. “These are legal, perma-
nent residents. Some are DACA recipients. These are members of our community who have graduated from our high schools, maybe even our colleges, who are making lives for themselves here in Denver, and who may want to consider this as their future job, but haven’t been able to because our charter restricts it.”
This move aligns with broader trends seen across the country: California recently passed an almost identical law, which led to the first DACA recipient to become a police officer in the state. Washington, North Dakota and Maryland all allow noncitizens to work in these roles as well.
Both the Denver Police and Denver Fire departments have come out in support of the measure. Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas noted that a priority of his is making sure the police force represents the diversity of the city. Denver Fire Chief Desmond Fulton expressed the same desire for the future of the fire department.
The Denver Immigrant and Refugee Commission has also backed the bill, with hopes of positive outcomes such as more diverse and inclusive workforces.
Others to endorse the measure include the Denver Latino Commission and the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC).
“The current citizenship requirement perpetuates discrimination against noncitizen residents, depriving them of the chance to pursue their chosen career paths based solely on their immigration status,” CIRC wrote in a statement of support.
Despite the endorsements, Council Bill 24-0849 has not escaped social media discourse unscathed, with commentary coming from self-described DACA recipients noting barriers to citizenship and the right
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to vote. Some online opposition has been rooted in misinformation, including the false belief that the policy would apply to undocumented immigrants.
Other opponents claim that if passed, noncitizens serving as police officers and firefighters would pose a security risk. However, supporters say the measure simply removes an arbitrary barrier that prevents qualified people from serving their community.
If passed by voters in November, a city employee collective-bargaining measure, Council Bill 24-0716, would extend collective bargaining rights to 7,000 additional municipal workers, such as librarians, social workers and more. Police officers, teachers and firefighters already have this right, allowing them to negotiate new labor contracts with union representation, according to Parker Yamasaki at the Colorado Sun. The initiative is backed by Teamsters Locals 17 and 455.
Council Bill 24-0717 proposes a 0.34% sales-tax increase to support Denver Health, which is considered Denver’s social safety net hospital. The tax is intended to shore up the hospital's finances and ensure continued access to essential health services for Denver residents. The final council vote on bringing this initiative to city voters is scheduled for Aug. 26.
Council Bill 24-0360 is a charter amend-
ment that would change the way salaries for City Council members are determined. Instead of council members giving themselves raises each year, the measure would create annual salary increases based on inflation.
A CITY OFFICE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Council Bill 24-0715 would establish a dedicated Department of Human Rights, which would focus on reducing discrimination and promoting inclusivity across Denver.
SALES TAX TO INCREASE CITY’S AFFORDABLE-HOUSING COFFERS
Mayor Mike Johnston has proposed a 0.50% sales tax to generate additional funds for Denver’s affordable-housing budget. This measure has faced delays and controversy in recent months as Denver continues to struggle with homelessness and council members press for accountability around previous expenditures. On Aug. 7, after several revisions to the original proposal, council’s Safety, Housing, Education and Homelessness committee voted to bring the bill forward to the full city council for consideration. It will need final city council approval by Aug. 26 in order to appear on the November ballot.
Denver voters will determine the fates of these ballot initiatives in November. These measures will be joined by other statewide proposals created through citizen initiative and referred by the state Legislature. The upcoming ballot is expected to be lengthy in an election that is not just about individual candidates and bills, but also about how they all fit together to shape Denver, Colorado and the United States.
The Projects
For years,
a dumping river
A new looking to and the communities mile corridor project within riverbank which will the health The first unilaterally which require include: a slated to feature tanical gardens, ground and and lighting as well as water quality ment of a and trail upgrades
A total of along the a 2023 $550 Army Corps Platte River Flood mitigation this summer, riverfront Most of the to 12 months Soil testing add to costs, rector of Urban Parks & Recreation,
way salaare determembers giving measure increases based
By Natalie Kerr
For years, the South Platte River has been a devalued and mistreated part of Denver’s geography, in decades past being used as a dumping ground making large sections of the river unswimmable.
a dedRights, which discrimination and
A new Denver City Council committee is looking to write a different future for the river and the communities that stretch along its 12.5mile corridor within Denver city limits. Any project within a half mile on either side of the riverbank will be considered by the committee which will assess how development will impact the health and accessibility of the river.
proposed a additional funds budget. and controcontinues and council accountability around 7, after proposal, Education and to bring council for city council appear on the fates of November. These statewide initiative Legislature. The uplengthy in an individual canhow they all Colorado and the
The first meeting on July 17 raised and unilaterally approved three projects, none of which require a new budget. Approved projects include: a riverfront park in Sun Valley that is slated to feature a community farm, ethnobotanical gardens, a central culture plaza, a playground and public trails; river trail widening and lighting improvements near Valverde Park as well as a new park featuring displays about water quality and conservation; and replacement of a structurally unsound retaining wall and trail upgrades along Vanderbilt Park.
A total of 13 projects are currently proposed along the river, which will be funded through a 2023 $550 million partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to invest in South Platte River restoration and reduced flood risk.
Flood mitigation projects will break ground this summer, while others like the Sun Valley riverfront park will begin development in 2025. Most of the projects are expected to take nine to 12 months to complete.
Soil testing and remediation measures could add to costs, said Cinceré Eades, assistant director of Urban Ecology and Trails at Denver Parks & Recreation, but developers won’t know
what’s in the river — though they expect there may be asbestos — until they begin digging.
Historic flooding and industrial runoff from dog waste, industrial plants, homeless camps and malfunctioning septic systems have contributed to pollution in the river. The biggest flooding event was in 1965, one of Denver’s largest natural disasters to date, which claimed 21 lives and damaged or destroyed nearly 2,000 buildings — many of which were built with materials containing asbestos.
District 7 council member Flor Alvidrez, whose district includes the stretch of the river from West 6th Avenue to Yale Avenue, expressed a desire to learn more from the proj-
ect managers about how stormwater flowing into the river will be protected from industrial waste, trash and fecal pollution, which has seen an uptick in recent years.
“I would like the public to understand what we’re doing,” she said. “I am concerned and would like to learn more about how we’re protecting our water from trash and human waste.”
The committee is made up of seven council members representing districts along the river. The committee will meet monthly each second Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. at the City and County Building and on Channel 8.
The committee endeavors to bring more visibility and coordination to efforts to improve
the river for recreation and its protection as a vital natural resource, said committee chair Jamie Torres.
Alvidrez hopes to see her district's relationship to the river change from a place that people stay away from, to a place where people can gather to build community and enjoy Denver’s natural landscape.
“This is a really big change in the way we have lived next to the river,” Alvidrez said. “Right now if you go to the district and you go to the river, it's pretty much industrial businesses, so to continue to make it a place for people to have access to water is so exciting — for wellbeing, for mental health, for so many reasons.”
By Matt Geiger, BusinessDen
Some businesses and residents on a road near Sloan’s Lake are hoping the city takes a U-turn on a proposed protected bike lane that would eliminate street parking for the entire corridor.
“I want to make it very clear that if you guys do not omit our corridor, you will very likely … kill my business,” Sarah Green said in a meeting with city officials last Friday.
Green has run Leroy’s Bagels at 4432 W. 29th Ave. since 2017. By all metrics, her shop is doing great, selling over a thousand bagels a day with plans to expand to a second location. But Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, DOTI, could soon take away what Green sees as a vital lifeline for her business: parking.
“The majority of my sales come from people driving into town,” Green said. “The reality is I have people who bike and I have people who walk on the weekends. But bear in mind that we live in Colorado, we have inclement weather six months of the year … I know I won’t be able to be profitable in the way I have been.”
DOTI is considering two options for 29th Avenue between Sheridan and Zuni, which already has an existing unprotected bike lane in both directions and no street parking on the north side of the street.
The first option is to implement “traffic-calming” measures such as speed bumps, improved signage and a narrowed roadway. The second option would do the same but also beef up the bike lane with protections, eliminating street parking on the south side of the road.
In a meeting with Councilwoman Amanda Sandoval, Green and Seth Rubin, another business owner on the street, DOTI officials told them to expect a decision by the end of this week.
“The only thing we can promise is we will be transparent in the process,” Molly Lanphier, a DOTI staffer, told them, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by BusinessDen.
But not all residents and nearby businesses have been satisfied with the process.
“This whole process has been very rushed and concerning. I feel like they’re making these decisions in a vacuum and are purposely leaving businesses out of it,” said Christina Trostel, owner of Salon Ostara and the building it occupies at 5020 W. 29th Ave.
Trostel said she first heard of the bike lane proposal earlier this month via a mailed flier. She received it on Tuesday, and it advertised a meeting the next day. Trostel said she scanned it quickly and ignored the notice, figuring it had to do with construction on the street.
The same thing happened on the following Thursday, when she received an email for a meeting the next day, Trostel said. In both instances, she said that the late notices made it impossible for her to attend anyway, since her appointments those days had been on the books for months, as is typical for a salon.
“Women do not ride their bikes to get their
hair done … They’re not gonna put a helmet over a $200 cut and color,” Trostel said.
DOTI has done two rounds of outreach, department spokeswoman Nancy Kuhn told BusinessDen in an email.
The first was in April, a community event at SloHi Bike Co., 4434 W. 29th Ave., “to discuss current conditions along W 29th Avenue,” DOTI’s website reads. An owner of the business told BusinessDen Tuesday he was not informed enough to have an opinion on the potential changes.
Feedback from the meeting included concerns from bikers about drivers running red lights, garbage cans and cars being parked in the bike lanes. Speeding along the entire corridor was noted as a concern. The current speed limit on the road is 30 miles per hour; both DOTI
happening,” she said.
Wilkinson’s husband works remotely, as do her neighbors. They have two cars, so one sits in the driveway while the other remains on the street. She’s not sure where she will be able to park. Her trash, compost and recycling are all picked up in the parking lane.
Earlier this month, DOTI began circulating a survey on the two proposals for residents and business owners to weigh in on the two proposals, and the department “will move forward in implementing the community’s preference,” Kuhn said.
The corridor is under special attention because Kuhn said the street was on the city’s “high-injury network,” which are roads where “the majority of traffic fatalities and serious injuries are occurring.”
Since 2018, there have been 296 accidents in the corridor, there was one fatal crash in 2020 and seven crashes involving bicycles, two of which involved serious bodily injuries, said Kuhn, citing “DPD reports.”
However, some business owners questioned the methodology for selecting this road for improvement.
“The installation of a bike lane in 2015 between Sheridan and Federal seems to have done its job,” said Seth Rubin, who owns Rise & Shine biscuit shop on 29th. “The only two crash data points that involved bicycles, one, were not within the business corridor from Sheridan to Tennyson, but, two, also predate the bike lane.”
Rubin is referring to city data which shows two bicycle fatalities on the street, both dating back a decade.
“It would strike me that this would be an opportunity to use the resources elsewhere,” he said. Rubin, who also has Rise & Shine locations near Wash Park and in Lakewood, is an avid cyclist. And like Green and Trostel, most of his business comes from people parking outside and grabbing a bite to eat.
All the business owners stressed one thing in particular: They are not anti-bike, but are simply opposed to the removal of their parking.
proposals would reduce the limit to 25 MPH.
“DOTI distributed approximately 7,000 mailers and flyers to addresses on and surrounding the corridor ahead of this event, as well as sent an email blast to over 1,300 people. The project team met with Councilwoman Sandoval and notified stakeholders ahead of the pop-up event. 50+ members of the public showed up to the event,” the department’s website states.
One resident on the street, Alicia Wilkinson, recalls getting that first notice. She lives near Leroy’s and said a protected bike would not only eliminate parking at her home, but would impede trash collection as well.
“It feels like everyone thought we were in this discussion of what we can do to make this a safer street, to there was a plan and a project that nobody knew what was
“My degree is urban and environmental planning with a focus on transportation … I worked for an entity that focused on transportation options in the Cherry Creek area in the Colorado Boulevard corridor. So I know the importance of providing transportation options and moving the needle when it comes to how people get around in Denver,” Rubin said.
Another consideration, particularly for Rubin and Green, is how they will receive inventory from delivery trucks if a protected bike lane is implemented.
“I actually do my deliveries for the restaurant and I cannot imagine what it’s going to be like if I’m in a situation of having to park, minimum 200 feet away, and move 450 pounds of flour, 14 cases of 15 dozen eggs, gallons and gallons of milk and buttermilk and everything else that goes into this little biscuit shop,” he said.
By Allen Cowgill and Kathryn White
Plans to install a protected bike lane in place of street parking along West 29th Avenue from Sheridan Boulevard to Zuni Street hit a snag in recent weeks when Sloan’s Lake business owners raised concerns about the impact of the plan on their businesses.
The Denver Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DOTI) proposed the protected bike lane as part of a package of safety enhancements scheduled to take place later this year in conjunction with a street repaving project. Other enhancements, considered “traffic calming,” include speed bumps, signage and narrowing the roadway.
DOTI began collecting input from the community in April, as reported in Allen Cowgill’s coverage for The Denver North
Star, starting with community meetings in April and July, with 7,000 postcards sent two to three weeks before each meeting.
According to DOTI, a survey also collected input from 221 respondents on what nearby residents, businesses and people who use the corridor regularly wanted out of the project.
“You are seeing the process in real time,” said DOTI spokesperson Nancy Kuhn in response to business owner concerns. “Listening and integrating community feedback is a significant component of our planning and design process. We are constantly striving to be inclusive in our process and take into account a critical desire to both preserve access and parking, while also delivering safety
By Sandra Fish
Denver City Council President Amanda P. Sandoval has represented northwest Denver’s District 1 since 2019 and began serving as council president in July. The Denver North Star recently talked with her about her new role and responsibilities.
The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
The Denver North Star: Tell us about your new role as Denver City Council president and how that changes what you've been doing on council.
Sandoval: You're a voting member of all committees. So that's a huge change. So I went from a voting member of two committees to now five, because we have the addition of the South Platte River committee. … You preside over all of the council meetings, and that means scheduling bills, amendments, public hearings and making committee appointments.
North Star: What are your priorities as council president, and how do you expect to go about achieving those priorities?
Sandoval: Housing and homelessness … is one of our top priorities. … (We) started the formation of the South Platte River (Committee). … The South Platte River is huge. That's been an environmental (problem) since 1965. … For the first time ever, City Council has a priority looking at multi-generational families. I think that we see more family units living together as Denver's gotten more expensive to live in. And so how are we creating programs and policy that support our families?
North Star: How does all this change your role representing the Northside? Or does it?
Sandoval: That's so funny. My mom asked me that same question. … I was a council aide
for seven-and-a-half years. I've been with the city for 12 years. … I have a really solid foundation in Northwest Denver. And I have really amazing staff. And I've been able to monitor projects. … I still have office hours twice a month. … My heart's in the Northside. I’m like, Northside pride every day.
North Star: I'm sure you get a lot of input from your constituents. What stands out most about what you're hearing from folks on the Northside these days?
Sandoval: The need for affordable housing. The need for different types of housing stock, not just huge, $902-million half-duplexes that people can't afford. … We have amazing parks in Northwest Denver. Like we have Sloan's Lake, we have Berkeley, we have Rocky Mountain. … Historically, property west of the Platte River did not get as much attention in bond projects and on maintenance. And so I have been elevating that ever since I got into office.
North Star: How would you like to see your constituents get more involved with their city government? What should we be doing?
Sandoval: We have these neighborhood associations, their technical term is registered neighborhood associations. … It's really an unutilized source. … They actually do have influence on the city. … At the foundation of everything is great schools. And I know we have separate branches of government. … But if you have thriving neighborhood schools, you have a thriving neighborhood. And so how can you give back? If you have extra time and you're retired, does your local elementary school need someone to read to the kindergarteners? So giving back in that sense.
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West 38th Avenue, one of Denver’s most dangerous streets, is going to get a makeover and safer design.
In July, the Denver Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DOTI) presented three options for safety improvements on the corridor at a community meeting. All of the options involve major safety upgrades to the corridor, and DOTI presented mid-term and longer-term details and plans for each.
West 38th Avenue is considered part of Denver’s High Injury Network, a small number of streets accounting for a disproportionate number of fatal and serious injury crashes, and so the city has targeted it for safety improvements.
All three proposed designs preserve most of the current parking along the corridor.
The first option is what DOTI called side-running bus rapid transit (BRT). This option gives RTD buses dedicated lanes, painted red, in order for them to move more quickly and not be held up in traffic. This option would convert two of the four current general-purpose lanes into bus-only lanes, while keeping the center turn lane.
West 38th Avenue has been identified as a potential corridor for BRT in other DOTI and RTD plans, with this new form of bus service coming as frequently as every five to 10 minutes. Data presented by DOTI showed that buses along the corridor today often run late because they are slowed down in traffic. With the metro area continuing to grow, this option allows more people to move down West 38th Avenue.
According to the National Association of City Transportation Officials, general-purpose car lanes can move about 600-1,600 people per hour, whereas dedicated BRT lanes can move 4,000-8,000 people per hour. Dedicated lanes would be open to emergency vehicles, allowing them to also move more quickly up and down the corridor.
In addition to dedicated bus lanes, option one includes upgrades to bus shelters, widened sidewalks, additional landscaping and green infrastructure, as well as safety treatments at intersections to make crossings easier for pedestrians.
The second option is a lane reduction. This choice is similar to what can be seen on West 38th Avenue in Wheat Ridge between Depew Street and Upham Street. West 38th Avenue would be reduced to one lane in each direction, with turn lanes down the middle. This safety treatment, sometimes known
Continued from Page 5
improvements along the corridor.”
Research on the subject of bike lanes, including studies from Portland State University, indicate that bike lane projects typically have a neutral, if not positive, impact on businesses. For example, in Salt Lake City, replacing parking with a bike lane on a street was followed by an 8.8% increase in retail sales the following year. In Seattle, after a protected bike lane went in, food service employment on the street went up by 30%. Several studies from around the world have shown that business owners in cities often overestimate the percentage of customers who arrive by car.
DOTI reported that 68% of respondents to its survey live or own a business within two blocks of West 29th Avenue, or travel the street daily. Survey respondents indicated “slowing vehicle speed” as a top priority, with the addition of a protected bike lane coming in second. Safer street crossings at
as a “road diet,” has been shown to reduce crashes anywhere from 19 to 47%, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. This option allows for significantly more greenery, green infrastructure and landscaping along the corridor. Option two also includes safety improvements including widened sidewalks and narrowed street crossings, making it easier and safer for pedestrians to cross the street.
The third option is a hybrid of the first and second, which DOTI called “transit + a lane reduction.” This potential design involves a lane reduction along the entire corridor, plus limited sections of the road where buses will have a dedicated lane to bypass the sections of the road where they typically get stuck in traffic.
For example, RTD buses might have a dedicated bus lane for a block or two as they approach Federal Boulevard, then resume using shared lanes on remaining sections of the road. This option also incorporates additional greenery, green infrastructure, landscaping and pedestrian safety improvements like shortened intersection crossings.
In the July meeting, DOTI also reviewed options that had been evaluated, but were ultimately not among those presented to the public. These included a protected bike lane and center-running BRT.
West 38th Avenue was not considered wide enough for protected bike lanes while also furthering the project’s primary goals of improving transit and pedestrian safety. Instead, DOTI will continue to focus on adding bike-friendly supports on parallel streets and improving safety for people on bikes crossing West 38th Avenue.
Center-running BRT was not considered because its required width would prevent widening of sidewalks and limit opportunities to add green infrastructure. In addition, center-running BRT would require RTD to purchase specialized buses, increasing operating costs for transit.
During public comment, some attendees wanted to see more medians included in the design, both to accommodate landscaping along the corridor and to provide safer and more comfortable crossings of the street when walking.
Learn more at the @DenverDOTI YouTube channel, where recordings of community meetings are available in English and Spanish.
Allen Cowgill is the City Council District 1 appointee to the DOTI Advisory Board, where he serves as the board co-chair. Cowgill also serves on the West 38th Avenue Stakeholder Group.
stop lights also ranked high. Lowest in priority was preserving on-street parking and loading, with 67% of respondents showing interest in removing parking in order to add a protected bike lane.
Kuhn said that DOTI plans to finalize the design over the course of the next few weeks and will communicate with the public as it moves forward.
“We do anticipate paving West 29th Avenue from Sheridan to Clay Street before the end of the year, weather permitting,” Kuhn continued, “with implementation of the safety improvements to follow."
The current project is funded to add safety improvements on West 29th Avenue from Sheridan Boulevard to Zuni Street. Based on community feedback, DOTI is now considering options to make West 29th Avenue between Zuni Street and Central Street safer in 2025.
Allen Cowgill is the City Council District 1 appointee to the DOTI Advisory Board, where he serves as the board co-chair.
By Tracy Ross, Colorado Sun
At least 2,000 carp and crappies died when near-100-degree temperatures created a toxic algae bloom that “sucked” life-giving oxygen from the lake.
Denver Parks and Recreation is saying a fish die-off that occurred July 27-28 and left at least 2,000 putrefying carp and crappies floating on the surface of Sloan’s Lake has subsided.
Toxic algae blooms caused by consecutive near 100-degree days in Denver spread over certain sections of the lake and “sucked oxygen” out of it that fish need to survive, Parks and Recreation spokesperson Stephanie Figeuroa said in an email.
Water temperatures in the lake reached a high of at least 80 degrees the July 27-28 weekend, Figueroa said. On Monday, July 29, it registered 79.9 degrees, she said. Cold water from the Sloan’s Lake Park irrigation system was pumped into the lake in an attempt to cool the water, stop the algae bloom and save the fish. The die-off continued until Tuesday, when Figueroa said the department added “increased flows from the Rocky Mountain Ditch” that dropped the temp by another 0.2 degrees. By then, Figueroa said the dying stopped.
She added the sight of so many fish floating lifeless on the water “can be alarming,” but that last weekend’s die-off was “nothing new” in water bodies in urban settings.
TOXIC BLOOMS IN RECENT HISTORY
A similar die-off occurred in 2020, when extremely low water levels coupled with hot weather caused thousands of fish to die in Sloan’s Lake, which averages 2.5- to 3-feet deep across and 5 feet deep in places, Figueroa said.
The Sloan’s Lake Park Foundation keeps close tabs on the lake, as a citizen-founded organization that wants to ensure “the environmental health, sustainability and beauty of one of Denver’s top urban natural assets.”
It says the lake is suffering “like many lakes in Colorado” from shallow, stagnant water “and a century of human development causing tons of runoff from parking lots, roads, etc. flowing into the lake in the form of sediment.”
Twenty-three storm drains and the Rocky Mountain Ditch funnel this polluted water into the lake. The foundation says the majority of existing sedimentation was caused by rapid urbanization within the South Platte Watershed prior to the Federal Clean Water Act of 1972, and that the impact has lessened with “much of the watershed fully developed and urbanized.”
But Kurt Weaver, the foundation’s spokesperson, said “if you drive around the neighborhoods in the greater Sloan’s Lake area, you
still see lots of construction dirt that flows directly and unfiltered into Sloan’s Lake. That coupled with increasing temperatures has an inevitable outcome, and that is the deterioration of the lake.”
Weaver credits the parks and recreation department for doing all they can to keep Sloan’s Lake as healthy as possible, but says, “they are fighting a losing battle. The lake’s demise is imminent if we do not act to dredge it back to a healthy depth and improve the water flow,” evidence of which was on display recently.
DON’T DRINK OILY, TURQUOISE WATERS (DUH?)
Toxic algae blooms are common in lakes and reservoirs across Colorado, and the physiological effects from exposure to them can range from mild to deadly. Shireen Banjeri, a clinical toxicologist and director of the Rocky Mountain Poison Center, said these vary based on how long someone submerges in bloom-infected water or how much of it they accidentally drink.
“If they just jumped in the lake and then they felt some itchiness on their skin and got out, we would consider that a minor exposure,” she said. “If they swam for a couple hours, they could have more prolonged effects, but I would still expect that to go away within 24 hours.”
AVOIDING BLOOMS IS ON YOU
Figueroa said her department didn’t prohibit access to the park or the lake, and likely wouldn’t, “just because some folks can’t follow certain guidelines or suggestions.”
The city of Denver employs rangers who patrol daily from 3 a.m. until 10:30 p.m., by foot, bicycle and motorized vehicles, the 20,000 acres of city and mountain parkland, around 250 individual urban parks and about 850 miles of paved and off-street bike trails.
“So if a ranger is [at Sloan’s Lake] and they see someone swimming, they’ll tell them you should not swim in the water and, probably, get out,” Figueroa added. “Then they’ll point them to the signs about the health effects that could happen.”
On July 31, Figueroa said 99.9% of the dead fish had been removed from Sloan’s Lake and disposed of. But Weaver countered her, saying, “if you walk the lake, there are still 400 just floating there, and that’s after they took out bags and bags of them.”
Figueroa said she hadn’t visited the lake personally but that her “team is certain there are no more dead fish.”
This story was printed through a news sharing agreement with The Colorado Sun, a journalist-owned nonprofit based in Denver that covers the state.
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By Chancy J. Gatlin-Anderson
t 15 years old, Mario Rodriguez found himself at a house party hosted by prolific American hip-hop and breaking group Rock Steady Crew. Local artist Hen-G was DJing the event.
Rodriguez was fascinated by DJ Hen-G, completely enamored by the emotion he evoked with his music and his elaborate electronic setup. Noticing Rodriguez’s interest, Hen-G encouraged him to try the turntables, leaving them overnight to use.
Rodriguez didn’t sleep that night and then spent all day DJing until Hen-G returned. It was at that moment in 1993 that Mario Rodriguez knew that honing his skills at the turntable was his life’s calling.
Since 1993, Rodriguez, now known as DJ Chonz, has worked to cultivate his passion for DJing.
At 17 years old, Rodriguez became well known within Denver’s hip-hop scene after winning a local radio DJ competition. He sub-
sequently competed and won several regional and national competitions, paving the way for him to share the stage with mega stars like Dr. Dre, Eminem, The Roots and Snoop Dogg. He later hosted shows for KS107.5 (KQKS-FM), a popular Denver Top 40 radio station.
In 2018, along with DJ Staxx, DJ Chonz founded the Denver DJ School, an organization that empowers and teaches youth and adults the art of DJing. Since its inception, Denver DJ School has taught over 5,000 students interested in DJing and podcasting.
The school currently has eight instructors specializing in DJing, scratching, music production and podcasting. They teach 20 to 25 weekly classes at their North Denver location, with its teachers also providing lessons to more than 200 students at Lake Middle School during the school year.
“I always thought a DJ school was a great idea, especially for DJs like me who want to stay connected to the scene without constantly be-
ing in clubs,” DJ Chonz said. “As an instructor, sharing my passion for music with aspiring DJs is incredibly rewarding. It's just as fulfilling as being in a nightclub.
“The Denver DJ School is an outlet for my students who do not have an outlet to express themselves,” DJ Chonz continued. “Additionally, I wanted to challenge myself and prove that I could build something after many setbacks.”
The school’s student population varies wildly, drawing in people from all backgrounds, ages and walks of life.
“Our students come from diverse age groups and backgrounds, ranging from 8 to 62 years old. They are doctors, lawyers, professional athletes, reality TV show stars and professional DJs, all who want to level up with our master classes,” explained DJ Chonz. “We are also fortunate to have programs like MySpark that allows DPS middle school students to experience DJing who do not have the funds to attend our
school or buy equipment from us.”
Student Mia Reyes, a 16-year old sophomore who attends Denver North High School, has been taking classes since she was in sixth grade with both DJ Chonz and DJ Nes. Since a very young age, Reyes has been exposed to all types of music. Her father is a musician, inspiring Reyes with his musical talents. It was her father who encouraged her to take DJing classes.
“The Denver DJ School is special to me because it’s given me so many cool opportunities as a DJ to put myself out there in the world. It’s an incredible organization to be a part of,” Reyes said. “The best part of being a DJ is bringing people together with music. Seeing people’s faces light up when they hear a certain song motivates me to keep going.”
To both DJ Chonz and Reyes, the school is ultimately a place for bringing artists together and building a diverse and thriving community.
“We are building a sense of community through the art of music. Our school welcomes you regardless of your preferred genre – hip-hop, EDM, funk or soul,” DJ Chonz said. “Growing up, I spent time at a hip-hop shop called Casa Del Funk, where I absorbed music and culture. I want our students and customers to experience that same sense of belonging and inspiration when they come to the Denver DJ School.
“We are always here to support you, even after you complete the Denver DJ School program,” DJ Chonz added. “We often give our recent graduates DJing opportunities to get paid for what they learned, thus recouping their investment. We also book established DJs working in the industry with our clients, such as the Ameristar Casino, Thompson Denver Hotel, Elitch Gardens and more.”
Learn more about DJ Chonz and the Denver DJ School at djchonz.com and denverdjschool.com.
By Jacqui Somen
As you drive throughout Denver, you may notice some stunning art pieces displayed outside residences and in public spaces. Not just garden gnomes and wind chimes, but large-scale pieces created by reputable artists. What does it take for these pieces to come to life?
It turns out that most of the metro area's public art installations are highly intentional, part of a phenomenon often guided by developers to transform public spaces into areas of vibrant community activity, something they call "placemaking."
Placemaking is about more than just beautifying a neighborhood. A 2018 study funded by Americans for the Arts Public Art Network Council, "Why Public Art Matters," detailed benefits such as activating imagination, encouraging learning, engaging social interaction and acting "as a catalyst for community generation or regeneration.” Studies also point to public art's ability to increase property values.
The benefits of public art are so compelling that some local governments now require it in large-scale developments, considering art a cultural amenity that contributes to communities and economies. For example, according to the website for the new development Aurora Highlands, more than 20 art installations will be placed in the area's Hogan Park, with several sculptures and murals already installed.
The colorful muraled walls and activated alleyways of RiNo must be noted in a conversation about public art and community in Denver. The neighborhood's revitalization seemingly hinged entirely on giant, colorful murals. Unfortunately, this type of development doesn't come without its downsides. Growth spurred by investment can drive up prices, often displacing long-standing businesses and marginalized communities. Perhaps in response to these concerns, many developers now turn to local artists to help keep communities involved as the neighborhood evolves.
Babe Walls, an organization founded by local artist Alexandrea Pangburn, coordinated a mural festival in collaboration with property owners Christina and Mike Eisenstein in which 12 buildings across a community in Westminster were painted.
Mural festivals, an international phenomenon in which artists flock to a neighborhood
On Aug. 1 the city announced that the city and county of Denver’s minimum wage will increase from $18.29/hour to $18.81/hour beginning on Jan. 1, 2025. The hourly wage for tipped food and beverage workers who earn more than $3.02/hour in tips will increase to $15.79. Denver City Council passed a minimum wage ordinance in 2019 that requires the wage
be adjusted annually to keep up with costs of living. The annual adjustment is based on data from the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), which for 2025 indicated a 52-cent increase. The wage ordinance is enforced by the Denver Labor Division of the Office of Denver Auditor Timothy M. O’Brien, CPA. Learn more at DenverWages.org.
and paint murals over a few days, "help bring a sense of vibrancy and life to a particular area, whether that is a couple square blocks or over the course of an entire city,” Pangburn said.
“The festival scenario is where there can be a sense of greater community because you're not only involving the artists, but also the community and the installations and creating more hype and business around the event," Pangburn added.
Public art projects also benefit artists. Pangburn started Babe Walls as a way to highlight local, female, and nonbinary artists who weren't getting as many opportunities as their male counterparts.
Public art proposals face so much rejection that an entire exhibit dedicated to the topic, I Regret to Inform You…Rejected Public Art, is currently on display in Arvada.
And according to "Why Public Art Matters," public art also "brings artists and their creative vision into the civic decision-making process," allowing artists to participate in decision-making during city planning.
Sometimes individual residents display public art on their private property. David Thomson, a vice president of private client services at Kairoi Residential, has worked with local artists on a variety of development projects, including The Edison in RiNo.
Thomson brought an original piece, “INhabit,” to the front yard of his University Park home. The sculpture, by Joshua Wiener, features three large stones, signifying Thomson and his two sons, created from materials pulled from Boulder Canyon. What began as an art installation went on to become a memorial for Thomson's son, who died in a car crash in 2020, not far from where the stones had been pulled.
While beautiful, Thomson detailed an arduous process of obtaining permits and protecting the sculptures from theft. There were also significant costs associated with commissioning a large art piece from an accomplished artist. These aspects likely make installation art at this level prohibitive for most people.
Regardless of who pays for it, the benefits of public art can be far-reaching. When created in collaboration with the community, public art can enhance the neighborhood experience for residents, visitors, businesses, developers and artists alike.
By Jill Carstens
Colorado native Kiah Butcher is thrilled to be taking her passions into her “hometown,” just a bike ride away, as the new programs manager for the River North Art District.
The 36-year-old Butcher has a lot to show for herself since studying film at the University of Colorado Denver. She joins the district after seven years at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, where she organized exhibitions and cultivated community engagement.
Alye Sharp, executive director of programs and partnerships for the district, commented in a press release that Butcher’s experience in the Colorado arts community will prove a valuable addition as the organization dials in its strategic plan, which includes more local engagement and curating flagship exhibitions.
What does Butcher have in mind for this position, just a little over a month in?
“An area is only as strong as its community,” she said. “These first weeks I have prioritized walking the neighborhood and talking face to face with business owners and residents to develop those important relationships you need to create relevant programming. Social media and email only get you so far.”
Butcher added that she sees herself as a civil servant and believes that her new role providing accessibility to the arts begins by listening with intention and openness.
“I want to enhance the unity between the businesses, residents and the art,” she said, citing the summer art markets in the RiNo Art Park as a great example of inclusiveness and affordability.
“RiNo demonstrates creativity in so many ways, not only through art, but through the food, music, unique businesses and even the people,” Butcher said.
Butcher, a video artist and filmmaker, has
exhibited work at Lane Meyer Projects, Bell Projects, the Dairy Arts Center and BRDG Project. When asked how being an artist herself informs this position, Butcher shared that she has experienced the struggles of working in a genre that is less definable in typical art circles.
“My particular form of filmmaking has been considered rare. There is not one definition to what I do,” she said. Butcher described her works as “theater film,” straddling the boundary between film and fine art.
“Film festivals didn’t know how to categorize me, and that minimized my exhibition opportunities,” she added.
Butcher said she keeps that challenging experience in mind as she develops programming to embrace art and artists that are harder to define, and programs to make the district a place for everyone.
Living nearby, Butcher is aware of how much the area has changed in recent years.
“We can encourage mindfulness and diversity of programming while taking into consideration the area’s history and looking forward at the same time,” she said. “I hope to develop a strong, sustainable program honoring both the historic and the new.”
While growth has helped to expand the arts in RiNo, the pace has been rapid. RiNo Art District has become a destination for many out-oftowners, yet development has displaced some original residents.
“By developing partnerships with all of these entities, residents, businesses and artists,” she said, “we will continue to solidify a strong program.”
Butcher pointed to the art district's No Vacancy project as an example of the type of programming she hopes to provide. According to its Instagram account, No Vacancy – in its third year – offers artist residencies that utilize empty warehouses slated for demolition. It supports
artists by providing them with funding and temporary physical space where they can create and show their work.
“The murals in RiNo are not only a great source of engagement and discussion, but also provide established jumping off points for even more and different types of public art,” Butcher said. “The murals can be a catalyst for new related projects, encouraging that ‘foot traffic’ that is desired from the district’s strategic plan.”
Learn more at rinoartdistrict.org.
RIGHT: RiNo Art District’s new programs manager, Kiah Butcher, has taken her first few weeks on the job to walk the neighborhood and get to know residents and businesses.
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– Annie H.
By Rebecca Wells
To see how you did on Back to School in North Denver, turn to Page 15. Rebecca Wells is a rising junior at Occidental
It’s another hot, sunny, blue-sky day in Denver. The air is still and looks clear! Despite the beautiful day, you may feel irritation in your throat or a tightness in your chest while out walking the dog, at the park, riding your bike, or on an afternoon run. Your asthma may also be acting up.
This is likely the impact of ground-level ozone: the Front Range’s most pressing air quality problem each summer. We can’t see or smell it, but this pollutant accumulates the most on hot and sunny blue-sky days, reaching its highest levels in the afternoons and evenings.
While ozone serves an important purpose high up in the atmosphere — protecting us from the sun’s ultraviolet radiation — at ground level, high concentrations of ozone are unhealthy. Ozone makes it difficult to breathe, increases our susceptibility to respiratory infections, and exacerbates respiratory ailments such as asthma.
High ozone levels affect all of us. Even if you are healthy, ozone can impact the cells in your lungs during and after exposure, like sunburn, and repeated exposure over time can lead to reduced lung function. The people at higher risk of exposure or more
sensitive to this air pollution include the elderly, those with respiratory conditions, outdoor workers, outdoor athletes, and especially children, whose lungs are still developing.
Where does this air pollution come from? Ground-level ozone is not directly emitted from any source. It forms in the air when two chemicals, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), react in the sunshine and heat of summer days. These chemicals are called ozone precursors, and they are released into the air from emissions made by our gas-powered vehicles, gaspowered lawn equipment, and oil and gas production across the Front Range.
Both colorless and odorless, ozone is different than wildfire smoke, tiny particulate matter called PM2.5 or PM10, and the visible Denver “brown cloud” of years past. However, ozone can combine with other air quality issues, and is sometimes referred to as “smog.”
W hile air quality in the region has greatly improved in the past half century, ozone remains a pressing issue to our health and environment. But as our gas-powered vehicles and gas-powered lawn equipment contribute
to its formation, we all have the power to reduce ground-level ozone in the Front Range each summer!
First, sign up for ozone alerts. Visit SimpleStepsBetterAir.org to sign up for emails or text “BetterAirCO” to 21000 to receive air quality alerts on your phone. When the Colorado Department of Health and Environment (CDPHE) forecasts a high ozone day, the Regional Air Quality Council (RAQC) will send you a timely text or email to let you know.
On high ozone days, protect your health by avoiding outdoor exercise or heavy exertion between noon and 8 p.m. Still want to get outside? Plan ahead and spend time outside in the morning, or later in the evening, when ozone levels will be lower.
Second, reduce your emissions! Take some Simple Steps for Better Air: Skip two car trips per week by carpooling, combining errands, or taking the bus or the light rail to get where you need to go. Don’t forget: youth ride for free on RTD! For shorter distances, leave the car at home and walk, ride a scooter, or your bike or e-bike.
Fuel up your car after 5 p.m. to avoid releasing emissions during the heat of the day.
Skip idling your car: instead, roll down the windows and turn off the engine while waiting in parking lots or lines. Consider a low- or zero-emissions vehicle, like an electric vehicle (EV), when it’s time to purchase a new vehicle.
Mow the lawn after 5 p.m. if you still use gas-powered equipment. Even better, upgrade your old gas lawn mower, trimmer, or leaf blower to a new electric one with a 30% state discount at participating retailers this year!
And if your job can be done remotely, work from home at least one day a week and eliminate your commute altogether.
Taking these timely, simple steps in the summer improves our Front Range air quality, our health, and our ability to enjoy the outdoors! Visit SimpleStepsBetterAir.org for more information about how to reduce your ozone impact this summer and help your community breathe easier.
As we go through our lives in the Northside, we do not always take time to look at the buildings around us.
But have you ever wondered why there are certain types of houses on your block? Have you tried to figure out how old they might be? This month we will look at how the neighborhoods developed and at the styles of some of our Northside homes.
Cities are a bit like onions. They are made up of a core area surrounded by layers of neighborhoods. As the years passed, newer arrivals and the children of older residents needed housing and the infrastructure that went with it. As each new area evolved, class and ethnicity contributed to things like the evolution of architectural styles.
Changes in transportation also affected neighborhoods, which was a topic explored in this column back in June 2023.
North Denver and Highland are two of Denver’s oldest neighborhoods. They started out as walking suburbs, close enough to jobs that people walked, drove carriages and buggies, and later rode on streetcars. In North Denver, immigrant and working-class residents rented until they could afford the materials to build a home. The houses were small, one and two stories, and made of frame or brick. Some of those still exist in the eastern
part of North Denver. Most of the buildings were simple classic cottage.
Wealthier North Denver and Highland residents lived in brick or stone houses, and often they hired architects and builders who gave them the latest styles. Since the heyday of Highland and nearby districts was from about 1870 to 1900, the styles were quite diverse and included Queen Anne, Italianate and Foursquare structures. An excellent example of Queen Anne is the Lumber Baron at West
By Teague von Bohlen
It all began when Regis University English professor and poet Alyse Knorr went on a trip to the Great Sand Dunes with her wife and kids.
“We kept seeing these billboards for the Wolf Sanctuary,” recalled Knorr. “All they said was WOLF TOURS in big block letters. We started this running joke between us that it was the wolves leading the tour.”
But it wouldn’t be until later, when Knorr was enjoying an artist residency at Homestead National Monument in Nebraska, that the idea became fodder for her writing.
“Out there, there’s so much land, and such an interesting and fraught relationship between animals and humans,” said Knorr. “I started writing these poems about these wolves giving tours of their land. I was having so much fun with it, I just kept going, and came up with a whole book.”
The result is Knorr’s new collection of poetry, “Wolf Tours,” debuting this September from Fulcrum Books. It’s described as “eco-poetry” and “a surreal novel-in-verse,” but like all inventive works, it's tough to describe briefly— admirably so.
Knorr, who was raised in a small town north of Atlanta, said she grew up with a good sense of the natural world just because of the era.
“Now, where I grew up is all suburbs,” she remembered, “but then, it was sort of on the edge of everything. I had a wood in back of my house. We had a creek. I was allowed to go out and explore. It’s not like that way anymore. You can get [Child Protective Services] called on you if you let your kids out like we used to be.”
Knorr, her wife and their kids live in the Regis neighborhood, just shy of the Denver city limits on the north side of I-70. She said the neighborhood is exactly what they were look-
37th Avenue and Bryant Street. Built in 1890 by the Scottish lumber dealer John Mouat, the house has the classic Queen Anne elements of a turret and a wide front porch.
Foursquares were modified Italianate houses. Near West 32nd Avenue and Alcott Street, there are four designed by Frank Edbrooke, who also designed the Brown Palace Hotel in downtown Denver. The home on the southeast corner of 32nd and Fife Court was also an Edbrooke design.
By the 1910s the newest neighborhoods included one-story, bungalow-style homes. Owners were often the children of earlier immigrants. These show up in West Highland, Highland north of West 25th Avenue, and in
Grandview, Berkeley, Sunnyside and parts of the area around Sloan’s Lake. This style, which drew from California Spanish Colonial houses and even Japanese homes, was popularized by innovative American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. In addition to the bungalows were the French Chateau style.
World War II slowed home building, with the first new homes developed after 1945. One-story, ranch-style houses began to fill in empty lots in older areas and in new subdivisions such as Chaffee Park and North Sunnyside.
The evolution continued in the late 1990s as part of the most recent gentrification. New buildings can be anything from single-family to multi-storied structures. While many are an homage to the Mid-Century Modern styles of the 1950s, they also fulfill the idea that more house on less land creates density. In some planners’ minds, this is the height of sustainability.
So, from now on, try to notice the rich architectural diversity of our Denver Northside.
Dr. Rebecca A. Hunt has been a resident of North Denver since 1993. She worked in museums and then taught museum studies and Colorado, Denver, women’s and immigration history at the University of Colorado Denver until she retired in 2020.
ing for when they moved to Denver in 2017: a good mix of people who have been here a long time and some new to the area, and only a short stroll from a coffee place, a local brewery and the campus where Knorr and her wife now work.
“We bought a house there and loved the area so much that when we knew we were having a second child, we moved into a larger home within eyeshot from our first one,” Knorr said with a laugh. “We were literally just walking lamps across the street.”
Knorr credited both her small section of Denver and the entire state of Colorado as inspiration for the book.
“A lot of the landscape is American Southwest,” she said. “And I’m super interested in questions of wildness versus domesticity.”
As an example, she told the story of a recent hike she took with her young kids up at Chautauqua. “Our kids are such city kids,” she said. “They just kept picking up little sticks and asking, ‘Is this nature?’ That hike lasted 20 minutes. That was all they could handle.”
“So it’s interesting to me, these questions of eco-tourism,” Knorr explained. “How those of us who live in an urban landscape, who have to consciously go out into nature. We deliberately place ourselves in these more remote, wild settings. So I was really fascinated by the idea of the wolves themselves running the tours, profiting off of that, maybe selling out their homes and their culture and the landscape. The ways we crave wildness, but only for an Instagram photo. That maybe we’re not as in touch with our animal selves as we could be.”
Alyse Knorr’s collection “Wolf Tours” will be released in September.
For more, visit alysejoy.wixsite.com/alyseknorr.
Food connects us. It is integral to our cultures, our traditions, our families, our identities.
“Cocina Libre: Immigrant Resistance Recipes” by Dr. Julia Roncoroni and Dr. Delio Figeroa documents the way sharing meals connects us to our homes and histories. Immigrants and refugees who have found a place to rest or reside in our city share their immigration stories and recipes from home in this small, impactful volume.
Stories of dangerous journeys and separations from family are told in the contributors’ words, and many of the descriptions evoke a visceral response. One woman spoke of being on a train stopped in the Mexican desert, not knowing if she or her children would be kidnapped or shot. Others told of navigating jungles filled with animals and mafia and having to pay their way out.
Experiences of detainment and revocation of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) are common, such as the mother who was separated from her 2-yearold son for using fake documents, or the false accusation of assault that left a family knowing that at any moment their father may be detained and deported. Many stories include ongoing legal cases that leave the storytellers in limbo for years, if not decades, and cost tens of thousands of dollars.
In other cases, the stories detail hope and human kindness. One woman and her son were without food while fleeing Ukraine and received their first meal in six days from a woman who didn’t know when and where her own next meal would come from. Oth-
ers tell of their advocacy efforts and successes in helping newer immigrants on the individual and legislative levels. The one thing they all have in common is the courage and tenacity to hold on to their identities and cultures as they resist oppressive and confusing laws, and unfair and uncompassionate treatment in their found home.
While the stories are engaging, it would be a disservice to not mention the recipes. This is a cookbook after all. The recipes all have a small number of ingredients and fewer than 10 steps, making them accessible to novice cooks as well as experienced chefs. The mouth-watering recipes include stuffed peppers, meat empanadas, Ethiopian beef tips, misir wat (spicy red-lentil stew) and so many more. The culinary delights bring the stories home and ground them in the kitchen.
With local ties and timely subject matter, this book is much more than recipes, it is an act of resistance.
Interested in knowing more? Mark your calendar for Saturday, Sept. 21, from 2-3 p.m. as author and associate professor at the University of Denver Dr. Julia Roncoroni and cookbook contributor and immigrant rights activist Victor Galván share “Cocina Libre: Immigrant Resistance Recipes” at the Smiley Branch Library. A sample dish will be served and copies of the book will be available for sale.
All proceeds from this book will be donated to Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC). You can also check out a copy of the book at any Denver Public Library branch.
Wendy Thomas is a librarian at the Smiley Branch Library. When not reading or recommending books, you can find her hiking with her dogs.
I’ve spent more time than usual in North Denver churches in 2024.
When three women who’ve made appearances in this column died this year, I paused my schedule of errands and tasks and welcomed time to honor and remember them.
At Highlands United Methodist Church, surrounded by people taking turns with a microphone, I recalled the pandemic-era interview I conducted with nonagenarian Elly Lindstrom in her backyard gazebo.
That day, Elly shared about how declining eyesight required her to make significant adjustments to her daily routines. Giving up her car had been hard, she admitted, yet Elly’s determined problem-solving revealed a woman who could set about researching and securing new means to the same ends.
I learned at Elly’s funeral that participating in her newly formed routines brought people into her life — a volunteer from church and a neighborhood teenager who read to her — who developed strong connections with her and learned from her, as I had.
a woman who stopped by every morning to sit and talk. Helen gently noted her friend’s dementia when it came on, cocking her head slightly and leaning forward, then jumped onto the ride for each day’s thoughtful, if increasingly circular, conversation.
If the beliefs we hold about aging are malleable, as scholar Becca Levy asserts in “Breaking the Age Code: How Your Beliefs About Aging Determine How Long & How Well You Live,” then knowing these women carved away a good chunk of negative thinking I had about aging, leaving instead what Levy describes as an age-thriving mindset.
Since saying goodbye to Elly, I’ve thought about the other two I’ve written about who also died this year. Images of them in the places I often saw them cycled through my mind. A list of qualities I associated with them scrolled alongside: curious, generous, neighborly, willing to express vulnerability, joyful, contemplative, resourceful.
Delores Ramirez, my nonagenarian neighbor, used to receive meal deliveries at her home, which I wrote about in connection to how the state funds (or doesn’t) services to support older adults. Watching Delores’ circle of care, which at times included my teenage son and his lawnmower, taught me about neighborly caregiving and care-receiving.
Ramirez enjoyed sitting on her porch, smiling and waving at people and dogs going by. She was always up for a chat. Delores didn’t hesitate to get to know her neighbors.
I wrote about the third, Helen Yeager, for my series on North Denver centenarians. I met Helen while working at the assisted-living facility where she lived.
Helen’s life, even as her body required assistance to move from wingback chair to wheelchair, was about trying new things and finding joy in her surroundings. She agreed to many of the activities I invited her to, even sing-alongs led by my excruciatingly terrible voice.
Contemplative and quiet, Helen drew from deep inner wells of compassion and curiosity, and used her ever-softening voice to forge connections and push for more complex thinking with those who sought out her time. Helen nudged visiting Catholic seminarians to face the contemporary concerns of “the elderly” they visited.
Helen’s closest friend in the building was
Levy’s research calls us to create a “portfolio of positive images of aging.” And having one improves our own chances of aging well. It’s not complicated. List four older people you admire. They could be from your own life or from the world around you — people you’ve read about, learned about from history or selected from today’s notable figures. For each, list a few qualities you admire, attributes you’d like to strengthen in yourself or see more in the world. Curious, generous, neighborly, willing to express vulnerability, joyful, contemplative, resourceful.
“The more we become aware of and absorb positive models of aging,” wrote Levy, “the more our conscious or unconscious negative age beliefs, that we have assimilated from the ageism around us, break down.”
And the more we lean on positive models, the more capable we become of aging well ourselves. “Positive role models don’t just make us feel good,” Levy wrote, leaning on her research, “they actually help change our behavior.”
Levy’s portfolio concept is one of several tools to construct what she calls individual age liberation. If we want to go further toward breaking the age code, for ourselves and future generations, Levy goes on to describe a second set of tools, those that will get us to societal age liberation.
For today, I’m content to flip through the dozens of images in the portfolio I’ve assembled. Most of the people in it are alive and well and off on significant adventures this summer.
But I’ve been reminded by the deaths of Elly, Delores and Helen that there are many ways to live on, as they say, after our lives have ended. Becoming part of someone’s age-code-breaking portfolio is a particularly powerful one.
Editor’s note: This is Kathryn White’s last installment of The Gray Zone.
Kathryn White has lived in North Denver since the early 1990s and launched The Gray Zone in 2020. She became editor of The Denver North Star in October 2023. She’s taught fitness classes at Highland Senior Recreation Center, volunteered with the Alzheimer’s Association and has worked at a retirement community in the neighborhood.
SHORTS ///
By The Denver North Star Staff
You decided you wanted to start working out. You joined the gym, bought some new shoes and blocked out time in your calendar.
You swung your feet onto the floor, shuffled into the bathroom and thought, “Oh, yeah. It’s Tuesday. I’m supposed to head to my workout.” But you just weren’t feeling it. You thought about your goals. The commitment you made to yourself. The money the gym is costing you. And still, you just didn’t want to put on those new shoes and leave the house. What the heck? Maybe you’re just plain lazy.
No! Ditch that negative self-sabotage right this second.
Exercise avoidance has nothing to do with being lazy, and everything to do with how our brains are designed – which is to seek comfort and avoid stress. That’s right. You were designed to avoid difficult things.
A 2009 study by Dr. Amy Arnsten, a neuroscientist at Yale, revealed that stress causes chemical signals in your brain, which in turn impair the prefrontal cortex in order to reserve energy to deal with threats. This is convenient if you’re being chased by a saber-toothed tiger, but not so much if the threat is the prospect of writing an uncomfortable email or getting to the gym.
A task outside our comfort zone can produce those same stress signals and send us straight into prefrontal protection mode. But with no tiger chasing us, many of us shut down to mitigate the discomfort of those disconnected signals. An overdose of excitement can cause this same reaction.
If only there was a way to rewire this same response into something that would help us get that workout done.
Exercise avoidance, meet micro-steps and mini-goals.
Any time you achieve something, you receive a hit of dopamine. This positive chemical feedback makes you want more. The trick here is to start off easy and let the momentum build.
We don’t want to overdo it at first so that our nervous system does not perceive our new exercise habit the same way it might that saber-toothed tiger threat. That way, when the automatic prefrontal response to stress kicks in, we’ve got the habit built to circumvent it.
Step 1: List at least three achievable goals. They don’t have to be wellness related, but since that’s my jam:
• Get six to eight hours of sleep
• Walk 30 minutes a day three times this week
• Hit your protein intake goals
Step 2: Choose one to work on first and circle it. If you’re having trouble deciding, pick the one that excites you the most right now. Don’t overthink it. You’ll get to all of
your goals soon and even add some more. Step 3: List out as many micro-steps as possible toward the goal you circled. Shoot for at least 10. You can edit them later. Let’s choose “Walk 30 minutes a day.”
1. Find my favorite walking shoes
2. Track how much time I’m already walking
3. Take some laps around the office between meetings
4. Research great places to walk in my neighborhood
5. Join a walking group
6. Take a yoga class online
7. I nvite my neighbor for a walk
8. Find time in my day for 10 minutes of walking
9. Do a foot-strengthening warm-up
10. Walk up and down the steps three times Remember, you may not complete all the steps you list, and more is okay. Feel free to add and subtract, reorder and redo this list often.
Step 4: Commit to one micro-step each day.
Commit to one. If you’re still overwhelmed, that means it’s too large and you need to break it down even more. Bonus tip: Make your commitment a part of your morning routine. Write down one single micro-step each morning. Fully commit to that one micro-step and stay consistent. If you find that for some reason you aren’t able to complete the one you chose, pick another and complete it before bed.
Step 5: Achieve your goal, celebrate and repeat.
That’s all there is to it. The golden ticket to being successful is consistency. Since you’ve got your list, you don’t have to think about it. Choose a micro-step and act. After a while you will find yourself using this formula on projects and tasks of all kinds. Breaking down that to-do list (which is really just full of mini-goals, right?) into micro-steps and choosing which one you will take first.
And the best part is, you’ve used your brain's ingrained protective measure of shutting down thinking in support of action to continue to challenge yourself and grow, which is vital to living a healthy active life. When our alarm clock goes off and we feel that tiger coming at us, we won’t need to shut down to calm the stress response because we have a simple action at our fingertips to tame it.
Erika Taylor is a community wellness instigator at Taylored Fitness, the original online wellness mentoring system. Taylored Fitness believes that everyone can discover small changes in order to make themselves and their communities more vibrant, and that it is only possible to do our best work in the world if we make a daily commitment to our health. Visit facebook.com/erika.taylor.303 or email erika@tayloredfitness.com.
/// NEWS SHORTS ///
By The Denver North Star Staff
RBakefest benefits Culinary Hospitality Outreach and Wellness (CHOW), an organization that provides mental wellness resources and support to local restaurant workers. Learn more and register at rebelbreadco. com/bakefest.
ebel Bread on South Broadway in the Denver Design District invites bakers of all ages and skill levels to register to compete in its second annual Denver Bakefest. Registration opens at 8 a.m. on Aug. 15. The first 100 entries will be accepted. The competition will take place at Rebel Bread on Oct. 5. This year’s categories are brownies, fougasse, gluten-free cakes, quick breads, sandwich cookies and wholegrain savory.
egis University’s annual Move Forward 5/10K Run is set to take place Sept. 21. Onsite registration opens at 7:30 a.m. in the quad area in front of the Student Center, with the first race kicking off at 8:30 a.m. Online registration is also open for the community running and walking event that organizers said is open to serious and casual runners alike, as well
as families and well-behaved onleash dogs.
JOIN OUR SILENT AUCTION!
This year, we will be hosting an online silent auction including items such as gift certificates, Hyperice compression sleeves, and so much more! SCAN THE QR CODE
Move Forward 5/10K, which is organized by doctoral students in the university’s physical therapy program, benefits Canine Companions for Independence and the Foundation for Physical Therapy. Learn more and register at runsignup. com/Race/CO/Denver/MoveForward5K10K.
By the time these words make their way into print, we'll be in the throes of summertime. While many of us dream of lounging poolside or embarking on an epic vacation, let’s be real – many struggle to stay sane once the heat kicks in.
My heart aches for road flaggers tasked with standing on hot asphalt in 98-degree heat, and for wildfire responders risking their lives battling flames sometimes caused by careless visitors, not to mention moms juggling full-time jobs and coordinating summer childcare, some with less-than-cooperative coparents.
No wonder so many of us breathe a sigh of relief when we see September in sight on the calendar.
Much like the sweltering hot days of summer, there are periods in life that exist to be endured but not necessarily relished.
When we find ourselves in such a season, we have three choices: 1) leave things status quo, 2) change what’s changeable, or 3) quit.
The three-choice model applies to several situations if you think about it, from working a less-than-ideal job to wondering if it’s time to ditch renting and buy a little condo.
Chances are you've been adulting for some time and you already know how to take choice three, quitting. Let's focus our attention on options one and two: leaving things the way they are or striving to make a change. How do we do this?
First off, be mindful of what therapists call “catastrophic thinking” when you're in a sucky situation. Ruminating on rude coworkers and low pay the entire workday will only drain your already low reserve of emotional energy. When you catch yourself engaging in stinking thinking, force yourself to immediately think (and verbalize out loud) a positive thought to swing the mental pendulum in the other way.
For example, if you’re a casino bus driver for the summer, stuck in I-70 traffic every
afternoon, instead of bemoaning the tourists clogging up the highway, remind yourself that you’re only in it for the summer. Say aloud, “Only six more Saturdays before I start the new semester in the fall. Can’t wait to see wacky professor so-and-so for applied arts this year. Mixed media, here I come!”
Don’t pooh-pooh the power of frequent, positive thought distraction. It’s an oft-suggested cognitive therapy technique because it works.
A shout out also goes to the “delayed gratification” therapy technique to sweeten a situation. Sure this job is tough, but only five more days until payday and you can treat yourself to a flashy manicure from Thai Nails on Federal. Offer yourself a reasonable reward for enduring the current situation. Free rewards count too: think bubble bath or a phone-free afternoon on the lawn with a book and a beer.
Then, follow through with rewarding yourself, without backing down. Don’t fall for the trap of withholding the promised treat when it’s time to pay up. “I promised to treat myself to taco Tuesday, but I really should put that cash toward my credit card.” You promised it to yourself—why would you expect others to keep their word if you’re not going to keep it on your own behalf? Life is short, have a taco.
That leaves option three: changing your situation. Any situation perceived as unpleasant can force us to seek change, even if it’s scary. Low pay in a dead-end position can be a powerful catalyst toward starting your own side gig. Driving down Tennyson to witness the patio at Vital Root packed on a Friday could be the impetus to get back out on the dating scene. Try these mind-changing techniques for yourself and get back to me with the results. Meanwhile, (try to) enjoy your summer.
Erin Olyer Rohlf is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW), professional therapist and founder of Denver Couples Clinic. Call her at 720-644-1400 or find her at www.denvercouplesclinic.com to learn more or to suggest ideas for future columns.
By Margaret Hunt
Denver North High School has long had a reputation for being a place that values athletics, equity and the local community.
So it is no surprise that the school’s newly formed booster club will support all of those values.
Modeled after successful booster clubs at schools like East and Lyons, the North Denver High School Booster Club launches with the 2024-25 school year. With founding members from the NHS Alumni Association, parents, coaches and the community, the booster club’s creation has truly been a collaborative effort.
The mission of the booster club is to “support all Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA) sanctioned athletics at NHS through advertising sales, sponsorships, Viking gear sales and various fundraisers,” according to the organization’s community introduction letter.
By The Denver North Star Staff
BRDG Project has issued a call for entries for “Seed,” which it described in a press release as “a testament to the transformative power of art, nature, and the limitless depths of beauty that emerge from the smallest beginnings.”
“We encourage artists to explore their own interpretations relating to the show title. Whether you choose to depict a literal in-
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alongside food from local vendors and a kid's village featuring a bouncy house.
This year marks the ninth annual Jamming on the Jetty put on by the Sloan's Lake Foundation, an organization working to improve the environmental health, sustainability and beauty of Sloan's Lake. Initially the event was "just some neighbors that were concerned about the lake who wanted to get together and also celebrate the neighborhood," said Kurt Weaver, an advocate for Sloan's Lake. It has since grown into one of the neighborhood's favorite events.
terpretation, or an abstract metaphor of the theme, the subject is open to your creativity,” the organization stated in the release.
The entry deadline is Aug. 23 for the juried exhibition that will take place Sept. 13 to Oct. 6. The entry fee is $35 for up to 3 submissions.
Learn more and enter at brdgproject.org/ call-for-entries.
As the event grows, so does the opportunity to increase awareness about the struggling ecosystem of the beloved neighborhood lake.
"It's about sharing information, because people don't know that there are issues with the lake," Weaver said. A recent fish die-off highlights the need for large-scale intervention to improve the lake’s ecosystem.
Efforts to support local schools and improve Sloan’s Lake may come in the form of fundraising or volunteering. Community members can also help by grabbing a cold brew and listening to some jams, knowing the proceeds benefit the community.
Learn more about the festivals at sunnysidemusicfest.org and jammingonthejetty.com.
Continued from Page 1 TO SUPPORT DENVER NORTH HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETIC TEAMS, LOOK OUT FOR THESE UPCOMING FUNDRAISERS: SEPT. 21: JEWELS OF THE HIGHLANDS HOME TOUR SEPT. 23: 1ST ANNUAL DENVER NORTH HIGH SCHOOL BOOSTER GOLF TOURNAMENT WINTER: HOLIDAY GREENS FUNDRAISER
structure and ask if they would be interested in collaborating.”
Working at Booyah Advertising has been “pretty easy” for Stewart, so far. He said he enjoys his work and his schedule — two days of four-hour shifts per week working on animated in-house announcements such as community engagement opportunities and company outings.
Instead of athletic teams raising their own money for team needs not covered by fees, funds will be pooled by the booster club and distributed to teams on a per-player basis. The
booster club will also centralize fundraising efforts for all CHSAA-sanctioned teams.
In the club’s own words, the goal is “to alleviate the fundraising burden on individual coaches, allowing them to focus more on coaching and mentoring our student-athletes.”
This new approach also aims to distribute athletic funds more equitably, giving every team the chance to thrive and grow.
The school’s coaches are supportive of the booster club and eager to unify fundraising efforts so they can focus on their student athletes.
What does this mean for student athletes, families and community members? Every student who plays on a CHSAA sports team will still have to pay a $65 fee per team. The fee covers costs of things like field time and referees. Beyond that, every family can choose how much they want to be involved in fundraising efforts. It is free to become a member of the booster club, and community members are encouraged to join.
To learn more, email denvernorthhighschoolbooster@gmail.com.
The GLOBAL Inclusive program, Stewart
and Booyah are opening doors in terms of diversity, equity and inclusion. While these community members are marking history — the chapter on inclusion is just beginning. Xavier Barrios is an undergraduate student at Loyola University Chicago majoring in political science and English. He is a writer and former editor of The Loyola Phoenix, Loyola Chicago’s student-run newspaper. Born and raised in the North Denver area, Barrios is honored to be writing for The Denver North Star for the summer. For inquiries or to stay up to date on his writings, Barrios can be found on Instagram at @barrxavi.writes.
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