Wake-Up Call: Parking meter monitors

As Denver struggles to close its budget gap, ideas are flying. In his monthly e-mail to constituents, Doug Linkhart, an at-large member of Denver City Council, offers this: “How can a bunch of quarters help fill our $120 million budget gap? By doing what Chicago recently did, and letting someone…

Verily, we ask: What would Jesus do?

Dear Mexican: My family hasn’t been long in this country, came here because of lousy treatment by other Europeans, and didn’t live close enough to the southern U.S. border to have exposure to Mexico or Mexicans. So anyone looking down on Mexicans can be mysterious to many of us who…

Wake-Up Call: Good riddance to First Data

First Data has flown the coop. The financial firm that moved its corporate offices to Greenwood Village in 2001 is now moving those offices back to Atlanta. First Data certainly made its mark while it was headquartered here. With its then-subsidiary Western Union doing a booming business in sending money…

A taste of restaurant history before LoDo Bites

We just heard that tonight’s LoDo Bites is sold out — bad news for procrastinators, great news for the LoDo District, which is putting on the event. It also says a lot about how far this part of town has come from the days when the Wazee Supper Club was…

Wake-Up Call: A very civil insurrection

At a round of town-hall meetings on health care that kick off today, first-term congresswoman Betsy Markey will hand out copies (abridged) of a George Washington favorite, “Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation,” originally a 110-item list of Jesuit guidelines for civil behavior. Great idea, but…

Wake-Up Call: Civic Center’s past, present, future

Past, present and future all meet in Civic Center, the park at the heart of the city. To get a real feel for the park now, head to Civic Center Eats, the weekly marketplace that runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Tuesday in the summer. But stick around,…

Wake-Up Call: The joys of journalism

I’m at Northwestern for a writing conference that the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies hosts at the Medill J-school, which is also home to the Academy for Alternative Journalism, a summer program for budding journalists that AAN sponsors. Jared Jacang Maher, a Westword staff writer, is a veteran of this program,…

Coffee break at the Beauvallon

Life is lonely in the Beauvallon, where every restaurant and eatery has closed up shop — except for Aviano Coffee at 955 Lincoln Street. Nine75 is gone, Mr. Coco’s is gone, Aqua is gone. (Brandon’s, which closed at the end of June, has a sign up advertising its reopening on…

Wake-Up Call: Chamber plot

On Friday, Kelly Brough, Mayor John Hickenlooper’s chief of staff, was named the next head of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce — the winner in a horse race with Tom Clark, the chamber’s eco-devo head. On Saturday, I ran into Brough at a concert in Civic Center and asked…

Wake-Up Call: Republican candidates on parade

Politicians were out in force at the Arapahoe County Republicans fundraising roast of former congressman Tom Tancredo on Saturday. John Suthers, the only GOP member currently elected to a statewide office. Mike Coffman, who moved from a statewide office to fill Tancredo’s seat in the Sixth Congressional district. U.S. Senate…

Is it time for a real restaurant in Civic Center Park?

Do you think the old Carnegie Library, now known as the McNichols Building (144 West Colfax Avenue), would make a great restaurant? If so; you’re not alone; that’s one of the concepts that’s come up frequently for the circa 1909 building, which now houses city offices, as assorted committees and…

Wake-Up Call: Tanks for the memories, Tancredo

You don’t need to work too hard to roast Tom Tancredo: The man roasts himself. Google the name of the former Sixth District congressman and your computer starts smoking, then spits out story after story, quote after quote, that prove truth is indeed stranger than fiction. A few of Tancredo’s…

Wake-Up Call: Help me roast Tom Tancredo

I am listening to Tom Tancredo filling in for Peter Boyles on KHOW radio, marveling at how the former congressman is maintaining a one-man monologue that, in the past five minutes, has touched on illegal immigration, healthcare, how Republicans need a speaker as slick as Barack Obama, illegal imigration, Harleys,…

Wake-Up Call: Last August was hot!

Yesterday, I got an e-mail from the Republication National Convention host committee, asking me to fill out a survey that would help ensure “that future visitors to Minneapolis Saint Paul have the best possible experience in our cities. A key component to continuing our efforts to become a destination of…

Who will dominate on August 12 — the U.S. or Mexico?

Dear Mexican: Why does El Tri act like pendejos every time the U.S. men’s national soccer team kicks its ass? They won’t even shake hands or exchange jerseys after the game, and they always act like the U.S. got lucky with the win, even though the Americans have destroyed Mexico…

Steve Horner fights for his right to be wrong.

We need a resource, we need an advocate,” pleaded one man. “I don’t need another white lady taking down my info,” pleaded one woman. At two Denver forums hosted by the Colorado Division of Civil Rights last week, the sad stories and angry accusations spilled well beyond the allotted time…

Wake-Up Call: Civil rights, better late than never

“You all wasted our time,” proclaimed community activist Alvertis Simmons at a public forum held July 27 by the Colorado Division of Civil Rights. “This was not a waste of your time,” replied Rico Munn, the cool-headed director of the Department of Regulatory Affairs, which includes the Division of Civil…

Women’s Bean Project celebrates twenty years

For twenty years, Women’s Bean Project has been helping women get back on their feet — and the good work it’s done over that time amounts to much more than a hill of beans. The Project got its start back in 1989, when Jossy Eyre was volunteering at a Denver…

Chile today, hot tomorrow

Every year, a friend and I make jalapeno jelly that we give to other friends (what they do with it, we have no idea), and we thought we’d perfected our formula. But this recipe for Rocky Mountain Jalapeno Jelly, created by Jason Morse, chef at Valley Country Club in Aurora…