by Mark Smiley | Jun 28, 2018 | Main Articles
Huge Tax Hike Crushing Dreams Of Small Business Owners
by Glen Richardson
Art Activist: Paula Colette Conley, Owner and Director of Arts at Denver on Old South Gaylord, is looking for the easiest expenses to cut so she can stay in business.
Socked with huge tax hikes this summer, uncertainty is swirling among neighborhood business owners, many concerned they may not be able to afford their increased tax bill plus rising rents. Additionally, community advocates worry the hikes will increasingly destabilize many of the Valley’s established neighborhoods.
The median projected commercial property value increase in Denver is 20% as the residential property tax rate has been reduced under the Gallagher amendment to 7.2% for the property tax years 2017 and 2018. Commercial property taxes, unlike those for most residential properties, are passed on to tenants. When commercial buildings are sold for big profits as in Denver, property taxes increase. Plus a substantial bump in the value of one property can raise the cost of business for a company occupying another building — even if it’s across town.
The bottom line: while the average commercial property value shot up 20%, many individual property assessments plus increased rents are doubling, tripling, or quadrupling. That’s encouraging many business owners to unload properties, adding to the already ferocious upward price spiral.
Growing Tax Gap
Taxes on commercial spaces are from four to 10 times higher than residential. In Cherry Creek, for example, the owner of a $2.5 milli
Crafting Change: Dramatic property tax increase is among reasons Show of Hands Gallery is moving after 18 years in its current location, Owners Katie Friedland and Mandy Moscatelli firmly believe keeping gallery in Cherry Creek is vital to their success and are relocating later this month.
on home pays about $3,500 in taxes. The tax bill for a small one-story commercial building in the district is more than $33,000. That’s an enormous difference.
Most Denver leases stipulate that the landlord will pay the taxes and then bill the tenants for the expense. Usually the monthly rent bill includes base rent plus an estimated amount for taxes. Once the landlord receives the tax bill for the previous year, they reconcile it and either refund or collect the difference between the estimate and actual taxes due. In recent years, values and taxes have been going up so fast that there are never refunds, but only more taxes due.
Colorado properties are reassessed every odd year based on the prior two years sales. The last couple of years have seen huge appreciation gains throughout the Valley. Those gains are now flowing through as the latest assessed values. These increases are massive for a small business already facing the challenge of rent, red tape, parking and online competition.
Impact On Gaylord
On Old South Gaylord — the second ol
Cost Composition: Arts at Denver — ranked second among 93 Denver galleries — has seen cost of retail space increase 48% this year; 22% due to property tax increase plus a 26% jump in the rent.
dest shopping district in Denver — retail on the street is being replaced with home desig
Cozy Craft: Show of Hands will display one-of-a-kind art, unique gifts and handmade art in a smaller store beginning mid-July. Craft shop is relocating to mixed-use retail space between 2nd and 3rd Ave. at 250 Columbine St.
n, financial services and other monetarily productive businesses. Moreover, spaces along the street are turning over far more frequently.
Arts at Denver — ranked second among 93 art galleries in Denver last year — is one of the street’s most popular retail shops. The gallery exhibits only original paintings, specializing in representational work in impressionist, traditional and contemporary styles. Art lovers will find landscape, still life, animals and figurative works. Most of the permanent gallery artists are established painters with strong show, award and collector biographies.
Paula Colette Conley, Owner and Director of the Gallery, tells the Chronicle rent for her space has increased 48%; 22% of that increase is from the property tax plus a 26% jump in rent. Since she moved into the space nine years ago her rent has increased 105%. To cut costs and stay in business she is looking for the easiest expenses to cut.
Bulldozing Building: The new owner of this Old South Gaylord bike shop wants to bulldoze the building and build a two-story corporate headquarters for financial firm in this favorite Wash Park neighborhood.
“I ended my window washing service plus a few others like trash service. I’ve also eliminated or decreased some of my favored customer discounts. Plus, I also decreased my only employee’s hours a bit.” She notes, however, that Ray Lucero and his son Daniel who have been taking care of her windows since she opened are still cleaning them as a thank you for having employed them for so many years. “They are great guys she says,” and recommends them for anyone needing a window washing service.
Business Takeover?
Just as the historic district lures shoppers, the casual neighborhood where employees can take walks, find parking, have coffee and lunch is attracting businesses. That lure already has one Cherry Creek-based financial firm seeking to put down roots on Old South Gaylord’s historic street.
The new owner of a former bike shop along Old South Gaylord — near the corner of Gaylord and Tennessee — wants to bulldoze the historic building and build a new two-story structure. Martorello Holdings LLC paid $1.4 million for the lot that bike shop owner Brian Isakson paid $400,000 for in 1999.
The LLC is registered to Raphael Martorello, managing partner at LotusGroup Advisors, a Cherry Creek financial firm. According to a Lotus web post, “We are in the midst of building a new HQ in the heart of Denver’s favorite neighborhood. There will be an open floor plan, energy efficient construction, many spaces for collaboration, and improved parking over Cherry Creek. We plan to open our new doors in Q2/2019.”
Crunch In Creek
In the Cherry Creek North shopping district, Show of Hands Gallery is downsizing and relocating this month after 18 years in its current location. Why? Because they can no longer afford the space they are in.
“After six years of endless construction, a down sales market, and a dramatic increase in property taxes, which gets passed onto us, we can no longer afford to remain in the space we are in,” owners Katie Friedland and Mandy Moscatelli announced on their website.
Like most locally owned businesses, Show of Hands isn’t just a store; it’s a fun place where shoppers can find that unique gift or card for someone special. The products are not mass-produced, shipped from overseas, or the same item you see in every other store. Instead, items sold are made by Valley artists as well as craftsmen from across the USA. Mid-July the store is moving from the 6,384-sq.-ft. space at 210 Clayton St. to a cozy but much smaller 1300-sq.-ft. location at 250 Columbine, Suite 145.
Concerns Bubbling Up
Changing Landscape: Property tax boost is altering Valley neighborhoods. Along Old South Gaylord — the second oldest shopping district in Denver — spaces are turning over frequently and retail is being replaced by financially productive businesses.
In localities such as Congress Park, Capitol Hill, Cherry Creek, the Golden Triangle, Wash Park and so many more, concerns are bubbling up. Shoppers in these popular areas prize their walkability. They enjoy having easy access to a variety of restaurants, services and shops, especially those that are unique and locally owned. Many if not most of these smaller ventures likely cannot survive faced with higher and higher property tax rates plus rising rents.
When property taxes go up, homeowners can find other homeowners willing to fight for relief. Big businesses, too, can flex their muscles. But small businesses are often left behind, mainly because they are, well, small.
Neighborhood advocates offer this word of warning: “This tax increase will affect all property owners and their tenants and drastically alter neighborhoods where many owners are unable to absorb the huge increase in cost. This will lead to large transitions of neighborhoods throughout the metro area.”
by Mark Smiley | Jun 24, 2018 | Editorials
Plato
In the 4th century BC, Plato wrote the highly influential treatise The Republic. Plato was no fan of democracy — either direct democracy where every eligible citizen would have the opportunity to vote on legislation or representative democracy where eligible citizens would vote on representatives who would in turn vote on legislation. He postulated that the best system would involve rule by “philosopher kings.”
He envisioned that a special class of people be given a specific education, available to few, which would include men and women as philosopher kings and queens. Out of this collective elite only the most virtuous and capable would become rulers. They would live simply and rule benevolently for the common good.
While his treatise has been widely read and praised for over two millennium no one has actually sought to institute rule by “philosopher kings,” at least until now. Here in Colorado we have begun to adopt a form of rule by philosopher kings that would have thrilled Plato.
Federal District Court judges in many ways resemble Plato’s ideal. They have a very specialized education (law) that is available to only a few. They live simply as federal court judges presently make only $169,300 annually. Like kings they are appointed for a life tenure. Among this class of philosophers (i.e. lawyers) federal district court judges are chosen by the President of the United States with the advice and consent of the US Senate for their purported knowledge and virtuousness.
In Colorado we have seven regular philosopher kings (with one present vacancy) and five senior philosopher kings. They are almost evenly divided among Democrats and Republicans and include both men and women as desired by Plato.
To placate the Colorado masses, we have both pretend direct and pretend representative democracy but that is largely window dressing. Any time the masses do something egregiously stupid any of our philosopher kings can change it for the good of all of us.
Back in 2006 the Colorado hoi polloi in their atavistic ignorance and bigotry voted to have “their” state constitution define marriage as union of a “man” and a “woman.” Luckily philosopher king Judge Raymond P. Moore struck down that ridiculous bit of direct democracy as his legal wisdom was recognized as being correct in the U.S. Supreme Court decision of Obergefell v. Hodges.
Do not think that a dutiful philosopher king like Raymond Moore bothers himself with simply hotly contested issues. Recently in the case of Holland v. Williams he went after another bit of voter approved idiocy concerning campaign state finance reforms. In his wit and wisdom Moore decided he didn’t like the fact that private attorney generals (everyday citizens) could just bring claims against candidates or their campaigns without the claims being vetted by someone so he struck that provision down as unconstitutional.
It was the perfect case for a modern philosopher king where the plaintiff, Tammy Holland, and the defendant, Secretary of State Wayne Williams, both adamantly disliked the campaign finance laws in Colorado and so neither argued for it. Moore refused other parties who do support the campaign finance laws from entering into the case. What is so cool about the case is that since both plaintiff and defendant don’t like the law neither will appeal Moore’s decision to the Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit so that Moore’s ruling can’t and will not be reviewed by anyone.
The best thing about being a ph
Judge Moore
ilosopher king like Moore is you can be as lazy as you want to be at times. Moore was too special to say how you vet the campaign finance complaints, just somebody should do it.
Secretary of State Wayne Williams is widely viewed as an establishment Republican hack who protects at any cost other establishment Republicans like Bob Beauprez and Walker Stapleton. He has now declared that he will simply do all the vetting of any complaints himself. Obviously, the voters of Colorado did not want politicians like Williams being the gatekeeper, but who cares what the voters want. The philosopher king can’t be bothered to decide and in in his absence the politically avarice Williams fills the void.
Other Colorado federal judge philosopher kings have also been active in their benevolent rule. In order to be placed on the primary ballot in Colorado, Colorado statutes provide one of the ways to obtain a sufficient number of signatures is to have petition gatherers who are Colorado residents. Six-term Republican Congressman Doug Lamborn could not be bothered with getting Colorado residents for petition gatherers and he was in danger of not making the ballot. First, he went to state court and lost all the way up, including the Colorado Supreme Court.
Luckily Federal District Court Ju
Judge Brimmer
dge Phillip Brimmer somehow decided that having Colorado residents collect signatures was a stupid idea that he didn’t like so voilá, he declared it unconstitutional and the Republican Congressman was back on the ballot.
Federal District Court Judge William J. Martinez recently decided he didn’t like parts of Amendment 41 which made it harder to change the state constitution by voters. He simply found significant portions of the constitution amendment to be unconstitutional.
These are but a few of many wonderful decisions by Colorado’s federal district court judges that make it clear dem
Judge Martinez
ocracy is largely a thing of the past here in Colorado.
Mark Twain sagaciously declared: “If voting made any difference they wouldn’t let us do it.” We here in Colorado can vote and approve directly or through the legislative process anything we want, but it really doesn’t matter. We have evolved into a form of Plato’s ideal of rule by philosopher kings. Hopefully our experiment will continually be improved upon and we can dispense with the cost and annoyance of the pretend direct and representative democracy. We can then just directly petition our philosopher king federal district court judges to direct all aspects of our lives. It has taken almost 2,500 years to recognize that we need to live under the rule of philosopher kings as outlined by Plato but we here in Colorado have finally gotten it right and it will only get better and better over time.
by Peter Boyles | Jun 22, 2018 | Blasting with Boyles
Conspicuous by his absence, our Governor John Hickenlooper, like Dorothy in Kansas, leaves Colorado and magically appears in Turin, Italy. He, along with 130 other invitees, attended the 2018 Bilderberg Meeting.
It goes without saying how unique this gathering is and how significant it is that our Governor had been invited. Dean Singleton, Denver’s answer to Charles Foster Kane, has long told me, “Peter, John Hickenlooper is running for the President of the United States.”
Now we have long beaten up Denver’s hard-charging corporate mainstream media. Here, wrestling fans, is another glaring example. The governor literally disappears and wasn’t even hiking the Appalachian Trail or visiting relatives in Argentina. He was tapped, as they say, to appear in a super secret meeting of the corporate crown heads, movers and shakers, financiers and overall fat cats who created the E-U, the Euro, and apparently helped pick Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, gave a run to Hillary Clinton, and as far back as we know, both of the Bushes, Jimmy Carter and almost every American president into the middle part of the ’50s with the exception of Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump who were never invited to the meeting.
Our evidence is a true journalist ambush video of John Hickenlooper in the Turin airport behaving like a cat in the sandbox (see photo). He continues to say he has no comment and he has no comment and furthermore no comment. This is because when you agree to go to the Bilderberg Conference there’s a set of rules you agree to and they are called the Charthouse Rules. If you agree to go you agree not to talk — ever. My personal opinion is he’s been sheep-dipped, he’s knelt and kissed the ring. He appears in the beauty pageant without having to wear a bathing suit. He is the only obscure U.S. governor, remember Bill Clinton, to attend this year’s super secret conference.
The Bilderberg Conference was formed in 1954. They met in the Netherlands in the Bilderberg Hotel. The meeting was initially called for by evil Prince Bernard and David Rockefeller. Every note, every scrap of paper, who attended, all those notes were burned. They have followed that procedure ever since. Tight security, no one gets in and no one gets out.
So what did our very own John Boy agree to? Apparently the number one issue the Bilderbergs dealt with is the rise of populism in Europe. As you know the Hungarians, Italians, Slovakians, British, Austrians, and Germans have had enough of being overrun by illegal immigrants, control of their economies and being told they are not any nationality or ethnicity but rather they are all simply Europeans. Sound familiar? Hickenlooper is, of course, open borders advocate, citizen of the world and all around good guy, and friends with Norm of Arabia.
Even if the fellows all got together for a game of Texas Hold ’Em it would be worth mentioning in The Denver Post or by sport coat boy on Channel 9. Chuck and Julie, and I, did it on the award-winning 710 KNUS, and a little mention by Joey Bunch in Colorado Politics. I don’t know folks, as I say oftentimes, “maybe it’s just me.” But that slippery little dickens and his new missus, by the way, is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations. He says in the video he paid for his own trip. What do you want to bet?
So let’s see what happens next. Can you close your eyes, put your hands over your ears, take a deep breath, and say President John Hickenlooper? Gee, I wonder who would be the Secretary of State? Jared Polis if things go to hell in the fall?
It’s clear to see, Colorado we have arrived. Keep an eye on the skies.
— Peter Boyles
by Mark Smiley | May 25, 2018 | Glendale City News
by John Arthur
Writer for and on behalf of the City of Glendale
GLENDALE, CO – MAY 21: Saint Marys vs Lindenwood during the USA Rugby College 7’s National Championships at Infinity Park on May 21, 2017 in Glendale, Colorado. (Photo by Seth McConnell)
GLENDALE, CO – JUNE 3: Life West vs Raleigh at Infinity Park on June 3, 2017 in Glendale, Colorado. (Photo by Seth McConnell)
Tournament play has long been a staple at Infinity Park, the Glendale venue hosting some of the largest and most prestigious competitions in the country. Known as RugbyTown USA, Glendale has been a hotbed of national rugby activity for more than a decade. Starting in mid-May, tournaments returned again to the nation’s first rugby-specific stadium, kicking off with the USA Rugby Collegiate 7s National Championships. June 2-3 will see the USA Rugby Club National Championship competition, and August 24-26 Infinity Park’s signature annual event will again be in Glendale: RugbyTown 7s.
An increasingly popular rugby discipline, participation in Sevens play skyrocketed following the 2009 announcement of its return to the 2016 Olympic Games. A variant of rugby union play, Rugby Sevens is a faster-paced version of the sport, with smaller teams and considerably shorter game duration. Instead of the usual 15-player teams playing 40-minute halves, Rugby Sevens features seven players to a team and seven minute halves. The abbreviated game play places an emphasis on conditioning and endurance, and means that an entire tournament can be played over the course of a weekend.
In mid-May, Infinity Park hosted the USA Rugby Collegiate Sevens National Championships for the second year running. Founded in 2011, the tournament has consistently drawn the nation’s best young talent, producing competition at the highest level. 2018 saw the return of reigning Division I Men’s and Women’s sides from Lindenwood University, traveling from St. Louis, Missouri, to compete. Friday, May 18, through Sunday, May 20, 2018, more than 40 teams from colleges across the nation
GLENDALE, CO – AUGUST 27: Ramblin Jesters vs Fiji (Savu Water) during RugbyTown 7’s at Infinity Park on August 27, 2017 in Glendale, Colorado. (Photo by Seth McConnell)
gathered to vie for National titles in Men’s and Women’s Division I and II play. With teams from Arkansas to Arizona, California to North Carolina, it was truly a national gathering.
June 2-3 will see the next round of tournament action at Infinity Park, as the 2018 USA Rugby Emirates Airline Club National Championships come to town. Featuring club finals for Women’s Division I and II, as well as for Men’s Division I, II, and III teams, the tournament will decide the top amateur rugby talent in the United States. The USA Rugby Club structure divides the nation into two conferences: East and West. Within each conference are four distinct competitive regions (Pacific North, Pacific South, Frontier, and Red River in the West, and Atlantic North, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and Southern in the East). The winners of each region advances to the semifinals, which took place May 19-20. The winners of those matches move on to compete at Infinity Park in June.
Every year, summer rugby in Glendale concludes with a bang: Infinity Park’s signature annual event, the RugbyTown 7s (RT7s) Tournament. Attracting scores of teams from every corner of the globe, as well as representative teams from every branch of the U.S. Military, RT7s provides Glendale spectators a taste of rugby’s universal appeal and expansive international presence. Last year’s tournament attracted thousands over three days of play, and with the emergence of professional rugby in 2018 stoking the U.S. fan base, promises to be larger still this August. Alongside the fast-paced competition, attendees will get to enjoy Glendale’s Bruises and Brews Beer Festival, a recent tradition that pairs Colorado’s craft brewers and distillers with the sport of rugby.
Augmenting the already exciting professional debut of the Glendale Raptors, tournaments at Infinity Park offer rugby fans another outlet for exploring the sport — enjoying top-tier play at the collegiate, club, and international level. In addition to the tournaments scheduled this year, fans can look forward to the Major League Rugby semi-finals, a double-header that will take place at Infinity Park on June 30. Long the epicenter of rugby in the United States, Glendale’s professional, club, and tournament play means that in 2018, more than ever before, the city is truly RugbyTown USA.
