Denver Direct: February 2014
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
This Just In – City Releases Documents HHNP is a PARK
| http://friendsofdenverparks.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/2014-0225_friends_reply_cert-final.pdf
Dear Friends, Attached is our reply brief in the Colorado Supreme Court in support of our Petition for Writ of Certiorari. When you read the brief (it’s only 11 pages double spaced and written in plain English), you will see that the city turned over a treasure trove of documents in discovery on February 6. The documents show that HHNP always was considered a designated park – when the Charter was amended in 1955, when it was amended in 1983, when it was amended in 1996, and especially when the city adopted the new zoning code in 2010. In other words, I am brimming with optimism that we will prove our case and get justice. To all of you who have worked tirelessly to locate witnesses, donate money for court costs, and help us and encourage us in so many ways, I am truly grateful. Warm regards, John Case |
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Audit: Colorado agencies sitting on $25.6 million beyond legal limits - The Denver Post
Read more here
[Ed. And while you are at it, cut those outrageous application fees, please.]
Sunday, February 23, 2014
DENVER TO GAMBLE ON 4/20 - NO POT SMOKING IN PARK TO BE ENFORCED
Is Chris Nevitt the only City Councilperson with any common sense?
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| Oh yeah, lets do this again on 4/20 (Denver police clear Civic Center Park during Occupy) |
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Marijuana much?
http://www.wherestheweed.at/ | http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=66170414&trk=tab_pro
Friday, February 21, 2014
Conceptual master plan of the proposed development at 9th & Colorado Blvd
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| The arrival on 9th Avenue with the repurposed Research Bridge and new development along 9th |
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| Illustrates the proposed neighborhood park located north of 9th between Albion and Ash. |
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| The third rendering is the proposed retail plaza environment located between 8th – 9th and Albion – Ash. The parking for this mixed use retail area is a single level below grade, using the voids left from demolition of the basements under the School of Medicine complex. |
Representatives from Continuum Partners will present their plan at the Colorado Boulevard Health Care District meeting on March 6th. Time and Place will be announced later.
Please join us at City Loop Stakeholder/Focus Group meetings!
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The City has scheduled two meetings at Bogey’s on the Park (26th & York) from 6:00-8:30pm and will provide a Taco bar.
Wednesday, February 26th
Wednesday, March 12th
As far as we know, Parks & Rec may have invited as many as 100 representatives to participate: 42 Registered Neighborhood Organizations (RNOs) were asked to submit 2 reps each, and an unknown number of schools were asked to submit two reps each from their Parent Teacher groups (PTSOs).
As we understand P&R's rules about such meetings, only the people invited are allowed to speak, but anyone from the public is allowed to attend. For those who aren’t an invited group representative, we suggest you wear a hat to show you're a silenced observer. We’ve also heard that the City intends to stay after the official event is over to give everyone who wasn’t invited a chance to speak.
We've documented what we know as best we can, based on communications we've pieced together from the City.
The following neighborhood organizations (RNOs) have approved Resolutions regarding City Loop: Greater Park Hill, South City Park, and Whittier. Other RNOs representing neighborhood residents are carefully considering City Loop and thoughtfully choosing members to represent them at the City's Stakeholder/Focus group meetings, including North City Park, City Park West, and Cole.
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Denver Police to Confront Pot Celebration Lawbreakers on 4/20
Mercy Killers tour
Coming Colorado March 1st to the 14th:
Michael Milligan in "Mercy Killers"
Developer for 9th and Colorado Blvd. Announced
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Feb. 20, 2014) The University of Colorado Board of Regents today approved the sale of CU’s former Health Sciences Center at 9th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard in Denver to Continuum Partners, a Denver-based developer, for $30 million.
Continuum’s proposal for the 25.918-acre campus encompasses a broad range of residential, office and retail spaces with an emphasis on small and local businesses. Continuum’s plans envision a vibrant, walkable mixed-use neighborhood that creates a memorable place, including a true “town center” with amenities including parks, plazas, and underground parking.
The closing on the sale of the property is scheduled to occur by December 2014. Continuum anticipates beginning work on the project immediately following closing and estimates that the overall project will take approximately five years to complete.
CU moved its health sciences education programs to the 9th and Colorado location in 1924. The university has been marketing that property since 2006 as it relocated the health sciences campus to the former Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in Aurora, now the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.
“This property has had a wonderful past and now is headed toward a wonderful future,” said Lilly Marks, vice president for health affairs for the University of Colorado and executive vice chancellor of the Anschutz campus. “It served Denver and Colorado well as a health sciences center. Now it can start anew as a vibrant part of Denver.”
CU sold 6.74 acres of the old campus to Lionstone Group in June 2013. The buildings on that lot are being demolished to make way for residential development.
The announcement today follows months of collaboration between the university, Denver officials and City Council members to find the best use for the prime acreage on Denver’s east side.A review committee of representatives from CU, the City & County of Denver and the Denver Urban Renewal Authority (DURA) was formed to recommend a developer to the Board of Regents that could close on the sale and embrace the needs of the university, the surrounding neighborhoods and the City of Denver. Continuum has redeveloped several complex mixed-use sites including Denver Union Station and Belmar in Lakewood.
The regents’ vote today was 9-0. The final sale is contingent upon City approval of tax-increment financing.
Denver City Council President Mary Beth Susman, whose council district incorporates part of the 9th and Colorado site, stated, “It is exciting to see this project moving forward again, and we look forward to working with the developer in sharing the plan with the community and hearing their feedback.” Councilwomen Jeanne Robb, whose district also includes the site, added, “We are pleased with our preliminary understanding of the Continuum plan because it addresses many of the aspirations of the neighbors and city plans.”
“From the start, we wanted a project that the neighbors, the city and Continuum would be proud of,” said Continuum CEO and founder Mark Falcone. “Our company is dedicated to creating sustainable urban spaces that have character and enduring value, and we feel that this project embodies those ideals.”
“The city is grateful for the public input that has been garnered around this development," Mayor Michael Hancock said. "We look forward to further collaboration to ensure this is a project we can all be proud of and will serve the neighborhoods well, now and into the future.”
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Why the TPP is Dangerous: Digital Privacy & Rights Under Attack
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| Dave Felice |
Dave Felice, in addition to being a Featured Contributor at Denver Direct, is a customer service technician in information technology, and a member of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 7777 in Denver.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Today's Twitter Storm to save American jobs
Monday, February 17, 2014
"Gessler loves an audience"
Via email:
The Pirates and their clever plot to steal our Park in a court of law on May 19, 2014.
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Current 1-70 expansion (the cut and cover)
From: Jude Aiello
Sent: Sunday, February 16, 2014 12:10 AM
To: crisanta.duran.house@state.co.us
Subject: follow up to your town hall mtg
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Manual High School: A Symbol of Corporate Education Reform
by Ed Augden, Retired DPS Teacher and community activist
In the autumn of 1968, I was transferred from Cole Junior High School to Manual High School where my teaching career began in Denver Public Schools (DPS). Approximately sixty percent of the students at Manual were African American, approximately twenty percent Hispanic and the remainder Asians and Anglos. James Ward, first African American principal of a high school in Colorado, used a collaborative, democratic governance model in which input was sought from the faculty and community. In that hospitable environment, many students succeeded and graduated from high school prepared for college or the working world.
Contrast that hospitable environment at Manual then with the current hostile and fearful environment fostered both by Michael Bennet and now by current superintendent Tom Boasberg, at Manual and throughout the district. And, the method of governance is authoritarian being falsely characterized as “choice” and inclusive of widespread parent support.
While James Ward was Manual’s principal, Denver Public Schools were ordered in 1974 by U.S. District Judge William Doyle to desegregate. To prepare for an influx of Anglo students from the George Washington High School attendance area, Ward facilitated the organization of students, parents, teachers and interested community members into committees to plan for the integration of Manual. While other schools, including GW, encountered difficulties with the integration process, Manual smoothly transitioned from a segregated to an integrated school succeeding academically and socially until the court order ended in 1995.
Since 1995, Manual has been changed numerous times by various administrations including dividing it into three separate schools. None of the changes have been good for the school. Yet, the turnaround strategy, characteristic of corporate education reform, employed at Manual resulted in more hardship for students and parents with little or no increase in student achievement and declining enrollment. Reform has hurt the Manual community as well as other neighborhoods.
When Manual was closed in 2006, the community was taken unaware. Superintendent Michael Bennet apparently decided alone to close the school. There was immediate opposition from Manual community members. Tension, suspicion and resistance replaced collaboration and cooperation in the Manual community. A negative sentiment still persists among students, parents, teachers and community members. The district board of education and administration apparently remain indifferent to those concerns because no serious effort has been made by DPS to create a network of collaboration and cooperation from the bottom up instead of the familiar authoritarian top down approach favored by corporate education reformers.
Similar turnaround efforts have been made elsewhere in DPS with similar results. The North High community endured a “redesign” in 2007 following a period of slow but steady growth. The principal was reassigned and faculty was required to reapply for their positions. With a new principal and staff, North lost students, the dropout rate increased and student achievement declined. What happened at Manual happened at North.
Corporate education reform occurs in so-called “failing schools” such as Manual and North, schools that have high concentrations of impoverished students and special needs students. The issue of poverty is not, and has not been addressed. Instead, teachers’ unions and others who question or oppose “reform” are scapegoated and stereotyped.
Community inclusion and input may not be goals of the current school board majority corporate education reform faction. If those goals are to be realized, the community must provide the organization, passion and commitment. This district is, in my view, at a crossroads. It will be dedicated to the many, governed democratically and dedicated to the common good or dedicated to the privileged and the lucky with an authoritarian power structure as is the current status quo. It’s our choice.
Thursday, February 13, 2014
CITIZENS GROUP LOBBYING - WITH BREAKFAST AND TRAINING
Show RTD We Support Affordable Transit!
Monthly RTD passes start at $80 and go up from there. Many working class folks who rely on public transit to get to work can't afford that. Colorado JWJ member organization, 9to5, is launching a campaign to have RTD create an income-based transit pass, and they've already gotten quite the reaction from RTD. We'll be joining them at the next RTD meeting on Tuesday February 18th at 5 PM at 1600 Blake Street -- will you join us there and WEAR RED to show your support?
Economic Justice Lobby Day
Next week on February 19th, JWJ will be collaborating with 9to5 Colorado, Colorado Progressive Coalition, El Centro Humanitario, and FRESC: Good Jobs Strong Communities on an Economic Justice Lobby Day. There's a long list of bills that need support -- from major pushes on the bills to stop wage theft and protect the rights of homeowners in manufactured housing to child care affordability and equal pay for adjunct professors at community colleges. We'll start with breakfast at 8 AM at St Paul Lutheran -- 1600 Grant Street. There will be an overview of the bills, materials, and training on how to lobby legislators provided. We'll then go to the Capitol to lobby, return to the church at noon and each lunch. We'll be done at 1 PM. This is a great opportunity to show legislators that working people's issues are important, so come join us!
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CDOT states its case for private partner on U.S. 36
BREAKING NEWS - TONIGHT'S (2/13) HWY 36 PRIVATIZATION MEETING PLACE CHANGED
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
APOLOGY TO COMMENTERS...
who didn't see their comments show up. I just found a stash of 24 comments that were clogged up. All are now published. Sorry. Ed.
State Senator Matt Jones weighs in on US 36 and highway privatization - meetings tonight and tomorrow night
via email
Dear Mr. Trumbule,
I strongly support transparency and think a 60 day review period should be granted, so the public and legislators can be informed and have an opportunity to comment on the agreement. This is especially true since the contract is said to have been signed this last summer and the final closing documents are said to be soon signed.
State Senator Matt Jones
Louisville, CO 80027
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