“Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.” — Frank Herbert
by Luke Schmaltz
In the midst of every crisis, there are those who rise to the occasion to meet the inherent challenges head-on. Today, such steadfast determination can be seen in the actions of frontline healthcare workers persevering through unprecedented circumstances.
Meanwhile, amid untold stress and confusion, there are scavenger-minded shysters who slink to the sidelines to wait for a distressed populace to reveal a new set of weaknesses upon which to prey.
A Climate Of Chaos
Fake Coronavirus test kits are being marketed to desperate consumers.
Currently, many people are preoccupied with the latest socially engineered concerns sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic. These include the health risks of becoming sick, how to prevent infection, what to do if you get sick and of course — the crippling panic that comes with the so-called impending collapse of the financial system. What makes these issues so dangerous is the deluge of misinformation and disinformation constantly spewed forth from just about every active media outlet. The ideological divide has somehow made politically motivated pundits the mouthpiece of what is largely a healthcare issue. The result is mass confusion, and the overarching revelation that the people “in charge” are incapable of agreeing on a clearly-defined set of fact-driven protocols.
The Trap Is Set
The ever-present “snake oil” has found a new online, electronic marketplace.
These circumstances have inspired a windfall of new frauds, swindles and rackets that are currently descending upon the unwitting and the confused like a swarm of electronic locusts. This pestilence is largely presenting itself through electronic channels — permeating the average victim’s technological bubble in the form of fraud-based phone calls, text messages, emails, social media posts and websites claiming to offer immediate solutions to abnormally urgent problems. Anxiety is winning over rationale, prompting desperate people to engage with offers and propositions that may seem too good to be true — because they are.
Bogus Services
People on Medicare or Medicaid, those with diabetes and individuals over 60 are particularly vulnerable to being targeted by scammers offering fake Covid-19 tests. The Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies reports that online advertisements and telephone solicitations are offering free testing — all the consumer has to do is provide personal information and health insurance details. Once divulged, the “vendor” disappears, and the scammers use the data provided to engineer identity theft and gain access to personal finances. Other predatory initiatives involve people contacting those in the above categories offering to help them with grocery shopping, retrieving prescriptions and other important errands with the stipulation that they provide their credit card information up front. The money disappears and the service is never rendered.
Bad Medicine
The IRS will only contact you by USPS mail.
Social media channels, email accounts and cell phone text messaging applications are being hijacked to deliver offers claiming to treat and cure the Coronavirus. Legitimate medical research professionals the world over have concluded that there is no definitive, 100% reliable cure and that no vaccine yet exists. Although there are treatments that have shown some promise and researchers are working to develop a way to inoculate against the virus — these efforts are still awaiting definitive results. In spite of the facts, scammers claiming to have the magic bullet that will execute fears of falling ill are bilking the easily-duped out of their money. These schemes feature snake oil in the form of tinctures, teas, essential oils, colloidal silver and other flim flam potions that will cure you of the disease and bolster your immune system.
Stimulus Check Liaisons
Many scams are targeting older folks and young people alike.
Young people and older folks alike — especially those who have been laid off from work or lost their jobs — are awaiting their share of the multi-trillion-dollar stimulus package which was recently passed by Congress. Scammers claiming to work for the IRS are contacting people via phone call, text message and email. They are offering to investigate the status of an individual’s stimulus check and to help usher the process along so the person can access the money sooner. Those who fall for the ruse are prompted to divulge their Social Security number and bank account information among other personal data which allows the scammers to steal their identities and what little money they may have in a savings account or other monetary fund.
It is very important to note that, according to www.irs.gov, “The IRS initiates most contacts through regular mail delivered by the United States Postal Service … the IRS will call or come to a home or business when a taxpayer has an overdue tax bill, to secure a delinquent tax return or a delinquent employment tax payment …” Since stimulus checks are not a tax issue, no contact by the IRS other than through the mail should ever be expected. Also, these phishing scams are prevalent across social media, and merely clicking on them from a hardwired desktop computer can allow unauthorized access to your network, your passwords and ultimately to your money.
The pandemic has hatched a new batch of scams and fraudulent schemes.
What You Can Do
You can guard your personal information with hypervigilance and if you choose to engage with a company for any services, use caution and do some research to make sure they are legitimate. Better yet, you can choose to trust only those you know such as coworkers, relatives and neighbors when it comes to asking for help with day-to-day tasks. Meanwhile, you can also stay updated on newly-emerging scams by visiting www.StopFraudColorado.gov and help others by reporting any scams you encounter to the above department’s hotline at 1-800-222-4444 and to the Denver District Attorney Consumer Fraud Hotline at 720-913-9179. In short, there are currently no at-home tests and when there is a definite cure and a proven vaccine, they will be unavoidable headline news items and not secret elixirs from the online flim flam man. Plus, anyone you don’t know who is offering to assist you, is most likely aiming to do so by only helping you part with your money.
Tax Revenue To Drop $180 Million, Double ’09 Recession; Joblon Fears Cherry Creek’s BMC Eatery Ventures May Not Survive
by Glen Richardson
Construction that’s been a-boomin’ in Denver-Cherry Creek since 2013, fueled by a strong job market and a booming tech industry, is about to go bust. That’s the conclusion of an online panel discussion dissecting the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on the metro economy.
From Boom To Bust: This DenverInfill photo of Block 162 in the heart of Denver’s Central Business District symbolizes city’s building boom. Projects such as this one on 15th St. between California and Welton are expected to be completed.
Hosted by BusinessDen — the Mile High City’s online homepage — a foursome of developers speaking at Assembly III made it clear that we’ve just seen a very abrupt end to the boom cycle.
Furthermore, the panel isn’t expecting a quick turnaround of the boom that stretched the boundaries of downtown and put a record number of cranes in the air. BMC Investments’ Matt Joblon, who has invested heavily in Cherry Creek, was blunt about what’s ahead: “I think we’re going pretty deep into a recession and I think it’s going to be drawn out, unfortunately,” Joblon cautioned. His reasoning: “You can’t put a global economy into a coma for two months and just turn it back on and expect things to go back to normal,” he asserted. “If you’re expecting that, you’re going to get punched in the face, really hard.”
Projects currently being built will obviously get finished, according to the panel, but after that it’s from full throttle to sudden stop. “When I can go out and buy a distressed asset at half the price I can build it new, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what’s going to happen,” Rhys Duggan, president-CEO of Revesco Properties, explicitly explained.
City Crunch
The nationwide financial crisis created by the pandemic and policymakers is doubly grim for Denver. In terms of vulnerability, the City is ranked the nation’s third worst, just behind Detroit. Denver is one of the cities that relies heavily on sales taxes, meaning the closure of restaurants and retail outlets will create an immediate reduction in city revenue. The city’s financial staff expects city tax collections to shrink by an estimated $180 million. The shortfall equates to a 12% drop in tax revenue — roughly double the hit caused by the 2009 recession.
Apartments Anxious: Broe’s Country Club Towers is symbolic of Denver’s apartment buildup. One of the country’s top three apartment builders, Denver could face a disaster as recession historically hits apartments hard.
The fact is Denver’s stay-at-home mandate has cramped consumer spending, crippled restaurants and shops, canceled the city’s tourism industry, and essentially vacated DIA. As a result, tax collections from local and online retail stores, restaurants, bars, marijuana dispensaries, hotel stays, car rentals and jet fuel taxes are quickly drying up.
Another big worry is the city’s massive buildup of new apartments. Denver has been among the top three apartment builders in the country, adding more than 15,000 new units per year. History has shown that recessions hit apartments hard. People stop filling units immediately. Vacancy spikes and rent falls. This could be a disaster scenario for Denver since developers were continuing to add tens of thousands of units as 2020 was getting underway.
A New Ballgame
Finishing Up In Creek: Construction is being completed at the former Inn At Cherry Creek by developer Matt Joblon. He predicts the Clayton St. hotel-social club will be the last hotel or other new project to be built in the district anytime soon.
A survey conducted by the Colorado Restaurant Assn. indicated that if eateries weren’t able to open until mid-May, 11% would close permanently. If not opened until the end of May, upwards of 20% might close permanently. Joblon is even less optimistic, predicting that 30% of restaurateurs and retailers will not open again. “That’s going to create massive retail vacancy and unemployment right there,” he told the panel. Joblon adds that as things start to open again, Cherry Creek’s high-end restaurants — including those BMC has invested in — might not be able to survive.
The Valley’s hotel industry is expected to fare even worse. Currently building a new hotel in RiNo that’s scheduled for opening next spring, panel member Andrew Feinstein — managing partner of Exdo Properties — had this to say about the hotel outlook: “The good news is we are on time, and the bad news is that we are on time,” he declared. “It’s going to be a whole new ballgame delivering a hotel with a restaurant and bar in May 2021, but I’m glad it’s May of 2021 and not May of 2020.”
Later Is Better: Panelist Andrew Feinstein of Exdo Properties is glad this new hotel on Walnut St. won’t open until May of 2021. Exdo is developing the yet to be named Sage Hospitality Hotel along with Walnut Development partners.
Joblon’s BMC Investments is currently building a hotel and social club on Clayton St. in Cherry Creek, but isn’t expecting additional hotels or other new projects to be built in the district. Thus plans for a hotel at the shuttered Bombay Clay Oven site on Cherry Creek’s Steele St. is unlikely. A pair of developers paid $2 million for the site but a San Francisco firm set to lease the project pulled construction plans when the pandemic hit.
Also in question is the redevelopment of the east side of Clayton St. across from Joblon’s hotel. Broe Real Estate planned to begin a makeover of the eastside of the street this spring. Transformation plans included demolishing two existing structures and replacing them with an eight-story building. Another seven-story building was to be built at an existing parking garage site.
Hotels Hemorrhaging
Virus Closes Palace: Denver’s legendary-ritzy Brown Palace hotel that opened in 1892 hadn’t closed until hit by the pandemic. Most hotels have been forced to close including downtown’s Four Seasons and Grand Hyatt.
Denver’s hotel and hospitality sector has been among the Valley’s hardest hit by the pandemics. Owners and investors are reeling, as occupancy dropped to zero and most shut down. Closures included the legendary-ritzy Brown Palace that opened in 1892, and hadn’t closed until now. The city-state’s largest hotel, the Gaylord Rockies Resort also closed, its $80 million, 317-room expansion postponed to stave off money losses. Downtown’s Four Seasons and Grand Hyatt also closed as did the JW Marriott and Halcyon in Cherry Creek. Occupancy isn’t likely to come back until at least the fourth quarter of 2020.
The metro Denver market contains 44,437 rooms across 318 hotels. Another 1,263 keys were delivered during the last 12 months, the largest increase in hotel rooms in Denver’s history. Hoteliers must now grapple with finding a GPS to get them back on the road safely as they begin to accelerate. Unlike in previous years, high speeds could spell disaster unless they make smooth, sensible decisions.
The road ahead will also be challenging for city-state car dealers as Colorado’s first quarter car registrations through March 2020 declined 22.1%. Moreover, Colorado Automobile Dealers Assn. President Tim Jackson is predicting up to a 60% decline, or more, over the next couple of quarters as the impact of the virus impacts travel and the economy.
One of the most animated races this primary season is House District 6 in East and Central Denver. Three candidates are vying for the nomination and the Democratic primary is set for June 30, 2020. Steven Woodrow currently holds the seat he was appointed to by the vacancy committee and has since February 4, 2020. His current term ends on January 13, 2021, and he is running for re-election.
The vacancy for the House seat occurred when the previous representative, Chris Hansen, received an appointment on January 16, 2020, to fill the unexpired term of Senator Lois Court, who resigned due to health problems. Woodrow won 45 of the 71 votes from the vacancy committee beating out six other candidates.
Now, Woodrow must win the vote of the registered voters in District 6 and many are calling this the race to watch. It appears the election may be close with three candidates vying for the nomination. The challengers to Woodrow are Dan Himelspach and Steven Paletz who are engaging in active campaigns.
Forty-two percent of the registered voters in the district that covers East and Central Denver are registered Democrats while 17 percent are registered Republicans. It is deemed likely that whoever wins the primary later this month will win the seat in the state House.
Himelspach is challenging Woodrow based on the flawed vacancy committee process. “Colorado has the highest number of bureaucrats appointed through the vacancy process than any other state in the country,” said Himelspach. “Although many people who were part of the vacancy committee are supporting our campaign, the process is not reflective of a strong democracy. That’s why I did not participate in the vacancy committee.” Himelspach has been endorsed by District 5 Denver City Councilmember, Amanda Sawyer as well as former City Councilmembers Ed Thomas and Cathy Donohue among others.
Dan Himelspach
Steven Paletz has a similar view as to why the vacancy committee is not a true representation. “The vacancy committee is not representative of the values of the voters of the district and does not include the voices of unaffiliated leaning democrats that make up a significant portion of the primary electorate in HD6,” said Paletz. “The vacancy committee was also not an issue focused vote, but what some committee members described as a ‘popularity contest.’” Paletz’s endorsements include State Senator Robert Rodriguez and State Representatives Kerry Tipper and Cathy Kipp among others.
Although Paletz recognizes that the vacancy committee does not represent the values of the voters, he sees this election as an extension of what he started last year. “I don’t see this campaign as a challenge to Mr. Woodrow,” said Paletz. “Rather, it is a continuation of the campaign that I announced in October of 2019, as I was the first person to formally declare candidacy in the Democratic primary for HD6. I believe HD6 voters deserve the opportunity to have a voice in who will represent them in the state legislature and should have the opportunity to choose a candidate that shares their values.”
Dan Himelspach also jumped into this race early collecting signatures to be on the ballot the first day they became available. “Our campaign has been focused on listening to the concerns of our neighbors and making our state government work for, ‘We the People’ again,” said Himelspach. “The fact that we were the first campaign in all of Colorado to collect the necessary signatures and be placed on the ballot by the Colorado Secretary of State — all without excepting a dime from Corporate PACs, is a testament to the grassroots support our campaign has.”
Himelspach, who has lived in Denver for four decades has a clear sense of what he would do if elected. “When elected, I am going to focus on fighting for our teachers and students by supporting strong public schools, protecting our environment, and supporting our LGBTQ neighbors and protecting a women’s right to choose,” said Himelspach. “Right now, our state is faced with tough decisions on how to properly open and support our small businesses and protect our workers and families — not just economically, but also in relation to our public health and safety. As someone who runs a small family-owned business with my daughter [selling innovative products to brain researchers all over the world] and who is a dispute resolution professional — mediating over 7,000 disputes, I am most qualified to navigate us through this pandemic.”
Steven Paletz
Paletz also outlines what he would do focusing on mental health and economic recovery. “If elected, I will lead with empathy on addressing our state’s mental health crisis, including addressing the highest increase of teen suicide in the nation and the nation’s highest teen depression rate,” said Paletz. “Having worked in both the business community and all three branches of government, I will also be a leader on our state’s economic recovery from COVID-19. This includes securing support for Colorado’s workers and small business communities throughout this recovery. Lastly, I will protect public education and look for creative ways to ensure our teacher shave the resources they need to effectively lead in a post COVID-19 classroom.”
Steven Woodrow
Steven Woodrow was contacted for comment but did not respond. His website states: “As State Representative, I advocate for social, racial, environmental and economic justice down at the Capitol. Standing up against predatory lenders, unfair credit practices, privacy violators and other powerful interests (including the NRA!) I have a detailed understanding of law and policy, the proven experience of how to make our case most effectively, and unwavering resolve. I’m simply not afraid to compete in the marketplace of ideas in the face of well-funded opposition.”
Woodrow, who is attempting to win re-election, lives in Wash Park with his wife and two sons. Woodrow has served for the past several years as Co-Captain of House District 6B for the Denver Democratic Party.
Although Storm Gloor is known around Glendale as a city councilman who enjoys running and spending time with his family, he is also an Associate Professor for the University of Colorado, Denver’s College of Arts & Media and a devoted music fan. He was involved in the music industry for 14 years and, more recently, has been conducting research and developing courses based on Music Cities topics. Unbeknownst to Gloor, Dr. Gigi Johnson, from UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music, was conducting similar research of her own.
Storm Gloor
“Five years ago I developed the first (from what I’ve been told) Music Cities course offered in higher education and Gigi developed Music Cities curricula more recently,” Gloor explains. “I led a Music Cities research project with my students for the city of Arvada and with Cheyenne, Wyoming. She led at least one with Los Angeles and has done some amazing things.”
Gloor and Johnson initially met at a Music Biz conference, became friends, and then realized that they were both doing related research at their respective schools.
“Our collaboration began with this project starting late last year,” says Gloor. “Gigi is awesome and when she suggested that we work together I jumped at the opportunity.”
When the two professors combined their efforts, they investigated 71 cities that had commissioned studies and analyzed each city’s music ecosystem. Their extensive research was accepted for presentation at this year’s South By Southwest — an annual gathering of film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences in Austin — where they were slated to discuss connecting ideas between groups of organizations. As Gloor and Johnson planned their conference and strategized topics to cover, they realized that people and organizations all over the world were doing similar work. So they introduced those people to one another and put them on panels together. And then COVID-19 changed the world and everything was canceled.
Amplify Music Emerges
In an effort to ensure that their message was still heard, Gloor and Johnson organized a virtual gathering of stakeholders in the music economy who would focus on how communities and their ecosystems would endure the world shifting and discuss the short- and long-term effects on the music industry. The virtual gathering — now known as Amplify Music 2020 — became a 25-hour session that took place on April 23 and 24 with a new mission: bring together diverse music leaders and creators to learn and share from local artists, venues, creative communities, and support networks to address the challenges of COVID-19.
Featuring over 100 speakers and 11 central themes, the virtual event centered on the immediate future of music and how to prepare for the industry’s “new normal.”
“I think the most significant outcome is that we brought so many folks together so quickly to collaborate, share, and put the information out there to educate and provide a resource for anyone in need,” Gloor explains. “Hopefully we’ve contributed to getting through this as best we can.”
Major themes Gloor and Johnson highlighted were resilience, community, and recovery. Because the music business has historically been forced to repeatedly adapt due to disruptions caused by ever-changing technology, Gloor feels that the industry will survive the current disruption as well.
“Commercial radio did not stop people from going to see live music, home taping did not kill music, and post-Napster music consumers pay for music despite the prediction that they never would again,” he says. “In every case the industry was resilient, albeit with forced changes to the economic models. And it will be again. Music is too important to so many of us.”
Gloor continues, “That being said, all of those previous disruptions have generally been due to changing technology. We’re messing with a human virus now. Science, health and medicine, psychology, sociology, and even politics are now involved. The business will recover, though it will be painful. And the solutions, over at least the next 18 months, will now have to be sought through those lenses as well.”
What’s Next
While this unprecedented crisis is affecting most industries across the world, Gloor is confident in the resilience of the music business but acknowledges that the landscape will be different. That insight is why the conference’s format transformed from various sessions over the course of a month to 25 consecutive hours of discussion.
“There’s no doubt this has been catastrophic for the industry, particularly the live music industry,” Gloor says. “It’s tragic irony because that’s the sector that was perhaps thriving the most. For many artists it had become their main source of revenue, since sales of recordings had diminished so much and streaming has generated only a fraction of what recordings did. By the same token, live music venues were thriving. Attendance records were broken, shows were selling out more often, jobs were being created, and new venues were opening or upgrading. And then COVID.”
Though looking ahead is difficult, as the music business has already experienced significant blows with live music cancelations and venues closing indefinitely, Gloor is already seeing industry people coming up with ways to make do.
He adds, “Many folks, on both the business side and the artist side, are quickly getting creative just to stay afloat and are definitely working together. That was clear from the conversations during the conference.”
For more information on Amplify Music, and to see video recordings of all the sessions, visit www.amplifymusic.org.
Glendale City Councilman Storm Gloor is also an Associate Professor at UCD’s College of Arts & Media.
