by Valley Gadfly | Apr 27, 2018 | Valley Gadfly
Sunlight is a natural resource we’ll run out of one day. Plan to make use of it this month. It’s May after all. Think of each unit of time as all in a day’s play. In fact, you’re as welcome as the flowers in May. Shakespeare called it “the merry month of May.” Fennel Hudson put it this way: “May, more than any other month, wants us to feel alive.”
As the Book of Songs suggests: “Sweet May hath come to love us, flowers, trees, their blossoms don; and through the blue heavens above us, the very clouds move on.”
Here are our warm and sunny choices for shopping, dining and entertainment so your garden grows and you can breeze through each day like it’s a picnic in the park:
3 Race to the Bar Car on Colorado Blvd. for the annual fundraiser Talk Derby to Me party on May 5, noon to 7 p.m. Sway to the music of live bands, city’s top hat contest, plus fun games. Information: 720-524-8099.
3 Cinco De Mayo fest in Civic Center Park keeps the fun going May 5-6. See Saturday parade plus low rider car show. Information 303-534-8342.
3 Keep May fun with free lessons at the Wash Park Lawn Bowling Club May 12, 10 a.m. Information: washingtonparklawnbowlingclub.com.
3 Hear St. Martin’s Chamber Choir sing Howell’s Requiem at Saint John’s Episcopal Cathedral May 18, 7:30 p.m. Information: 303-298-1970.
3 Make your home tidy and trim with upholstery, drapery, cushions and pillows from Boris’s Upholstery. Enjoy great discounts on home décor fabrics in extensive selection of styles. Information: 303-751-2921.
3 Show mom she’s cherished with Mother’s Day specials May 13 at the Monaco Inn Restaurant. Information: 303-320-1104. Or take her to brunch at Salvage Restaurant, 10 a.m-2 p.m. Information: 303-751-2113.
3 Take the kids to the Children’s Book Fest for activities and reading at the Tattered Cover on Colfax, May 19, 1-3 p.m. Information: 303-322-7727.
3 Hurry, French artist Edgar Degas’ A Passion For Perfection is on display at the Denver Art Museum through May 20. Information: 303-892-1505
3 Don’t miss this year’s Denver Ukefest presented by Swallow Hill Music. Weekend kicks off May 10 at Brews on Broadway. On May 11, festival moves to Swallow Hill highlighted by uke supernova Taimane and two-time Grammy winners Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer. Saturday May 12 has a full day of workshops and community events. Evening concert features Craig Chee, Sarah Maisel and Gerald Ross. Information: 303-777-1003.
May’s calling and it’s not on your phone, it’s outside. Get out of the house early to dig in your garden, explore the parks, eat locally and stargaze the night away. There are soulful bistros, hidden wine bars and wonderful patisseries to find. Discover the thrill of professional rugby. Squeeze in a little golf or spa time to take away winter’s stress.
Plan a picnic in the park with the kids. At weekend gatherings, weeknight dinners and on restaurant patios we gather to eat, drink, socialize and bask in beautiful views.
“April is the cruelest month,” T.S. Eliot famously wrote. But then for Camelot Lerner and Loewe declared May is here: “It’s mad, it’s gay, a libelous display. Everyone makes divine mistakes, the lusty month of May. Whence this fragrance wafting through the air, tra, la la la la.” To whence I ask: Why I’m only wishing to go a-fishing?
— Glen Richardson
The Valley Gadfly can be reached at newspaper@glendalecherrycreek.com.
by Mark Smiley | Apr 27, 2018 | Feature Story Bottom Left
I have often said that the internet has done more to divide and enrage us as a society than most people probably anticipated when Al Gore created it. The power of social media can be great when we get constant feeds of kittens playing with giant balls of twine, but usually it’s just people screaming about guns, Trump, the police and how cruise ships are filled with dangerous viruses. Honestly can anyone tell me that we are truly better off with the internet than we were before it? We are a bunch of whining, celebrity-obsessed, political junkies who use this little handheld device to try to convert those who have opinions different than our own, and we wield this power with extreme prejudice.
BUT, and this is a big BUT, there are a few AWESOME things that have emerged from the internet cesspool. In my opinion the very best thing the internet and our cell phones have given us are ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft. These apps have allowed so many people access to fast, reliable, cheap transportation that didn’t previously exist in cities like Denver, Des Moines or Detroit.
Sure, if you live in Manhattan or Chicago there are taxis everywhere (if they are willing to pick you up), but in most cities the wait for a taxi can be too long and the prices too arbitrary. Uber/Lyft have an ingenious product that allows us to quickly get a ride, allows us to know who the driver is before the car arrives (and how other passengers have rated the driver), and even lets us know the price before we order the ride.
Plus it allows people who need full or part-time work an opportunity to make some money on a schedule that works for them. Unlike taxi drivers, Uber/Lyft drivers know who they are picking up and they can decide based on the passenger rating if they even want to pick them up. While it is not a perfect system, it has significantly reduced the amount of DUIs we have seen in our office as many people would prefer an easy, cheap ride compared to an expensive, life-changing DUI. This is technology working for us in a self-contained system that makes sense and is easy to use and understand. Hooray Uber/Lyft!
However, the influx of paid drivers on the roads has not been without the drawbacks. While our law firm has seen a decrease in DUIs (That’s a Good Thing!) we have seen an increase in automobile accidents that occur where our clients are either passengers in an Uber/Lyft, have been hit by an Uber/Lyft driver, or are Uber/Lyft drivers themselves and have suffered injuries.
So, the question we are often asked is: “Can I file a claim against Uber/Lyft for these injuries?” And the answer is absolutely YES. In fact, Uber/Lyft acts just like any other business. These are massive companies with significant liability insurance policies in case you have suffered a bad injury (as a passenger or while driving your own car). In addition, and this is critical, you can still use your own medical payment coverage on your auto policy to help defray the costs of medical expenses while the case is resolving.
Further, in catastrophic injury claims your own underinsured/uninsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage can also work in conjunction with Uber/Lyft’s coverage to maximize your recovery. As I’ve stated many times before, when discussing automobile insurance, the best investment you can make for yourself and family is to purchase as much UM/UIM coverage as possible through your own auto policy. Trust me. I’m not an insurance broker, I don’t make a penny if you buy more insurance, but I have seen the effects of what happens when insurance brokers don’t do their jobs correctly. Remember: Purchase the maximum medical payment coverage and maximum UM/UIM coverage available.
If you are an Uber/Lyft driver you might need help too. We have represented many of you who were injured by another careless driver and you have the right to recover for your injuries. Be aware that your own personal automobile policy may NOT offer you the same medical payment or UM/UIM benefits if you were driving your car for Uber/Lyft at the time of the accident.
Automobile insurance carriers are getting smarter (and cheaper) and they don’t want to act as your worker’s compensation in the event of a workplace accident. It’s important you understand your coverages in the event you are involved in a catastrophic accident. The worst time to find out you have bad insurance coverage is after the accident has already occurred. And don’t think for a second that Uber/Lyft will pay you work comp benefits if injured, this is usually an add-on you need to have purchased through the company.
So, to the thousands of you using Uber/ Lyft in the Denver metro area I say good job! Way to be responsible. The other drivers who are busy tweeting obscenities, smoking weed or taking selfies never think about how their bad decisions could ruin another person’s life. For all the bad the internet has given us it’s nice to have a few products out there that make a real difference in our lives. But if you are involved in an accident in any fashion with an Uber/ Lyft driver (or a taxi cab for that matter) you have options and we would be happy to help you! Now you can resume your normal internet surfing.
Danny is a managing partner of Foster, Graham, Milstein & Calisher (FGMC). His practice focuses on personal injury. The law firm of FGMC, located in Cherry Creek, is a full service law firm focusing on: criminal defense, personal injury, real estate, litigation, liquor licensing, construction law, tax/estate planning, bankruptcy and zoning. This article does not create an attorney-client relationship and is for informational use only (what do you expect from an attorney!)
Danny Foster, Esq.
by Mark Smiley | Apr 27, 2018 | Editorials
The most recent scandals of Mayor Michael Hancock involving his sexual harassment of Police Detective Leslie Branch-Wise and the payoffs to hide his actions with taxpayer funds, have raised the uncomfortable question of exactly what function does the 13-member City Council actually serve?
The City Council costs Denver taxpayers millions every year. The individual Council members annually make $91,197 with City Council President bringing in $102,197. They recently gave themselves a 10.3% raise to be phased in. In addition, they have a plethora of generous government perks and benefits. Each has his or her own paid assistant as well as a generous allowance for an office. But that is just the tip of the iceberg with an entire staff for the City Council as a whole, travel benefits and the list goes on and on.
What do we the citizens get for all that money? It appears to be virtually nothing. The City Council simply rubber-stamps almost every high-density development brought before them from the Community Planning and Development Department, notwithstanding the pleas and howls of residents from across the city.
Yes, we have a so-called “strong mayor” form of government in Denver but it is not technically yet a dictatorship, although a majority of the City Council seem to treat it as such. While claiming that the City Charter gives them little power, the Council a few years back gave up its role in overseeing the parks and open space in the City and County of Denver. As a result, the Mayor has destroyed or monetized park after park from City Park to Hentzell Park to Overland Park and on and on.
In theory, under the City Charter the City Council appropriates all money to run the city, passes or changes laws and investigates wrong doing by various city officials. In fact, it performs none of those functions. The mayor prepares the budget and doles out small favors to individual council members in return for passing the budget and then rubberstamps all expenditures thereafter. No meaningful legislation has been passed for years other than changing the zoning laws to make them ever friendlier to high density developers.
The joke of the investigative powers of the City Council were on full display regarding Detective Leslie Branch-Wise. Councilman Rafael Espinoza wrote a confidential letter demanding an investigation into the sexual harassment by the mayor, which was leaked to the press. The City Council first declined to investigate saying they didn’t want to re-victimize Ms. Wise-Branch. When Branch-Wise in fact demanded that they investigate and have open hearings they then stated that the City Attorney, who is controlled by the mayor, told them they can’t. Well that was easy.
In the last City Council election in 2015 we strongly endorsed Wayne New, Paul Kashmann and Rafael Espinoza. Each of them overcame long odds and all of the money of lobbyists and high-density developers and pulled upset victories. Each of them has regularly voted against the worst of the high-density developments and the destruction of open space and parks.
They are, of course, a minority of three in a 13-person council. But it is not sufficient to simply be the “vote of the people” but they needed to be the “voice of the people” and in that regard they have abysmally failed. Given their mild if not meek personalities they raise not one peep about the destruction of the city and the quality of life for its citizens. There is no public opposition in the public arena by any of them to any of the worst of the worst of the mayor’s and his administration’s actions.
Of course, while we have a strong mayor form of government, Mayor Hancock is anything but a “strong mayor” and in fact he is a total “empty suit” or more accurately an “empty workout outfit.”
Perhaps we should amend the City Charter and convert the government to one run by a High Commission. One person would be designated to it by the Brownstein Law Firm, one from the lobbying firm of CRL Associates, two from the crony capitalist executives comprising Colorado Concern with the High Commission rounded out with three high density developers. That way at least when Denver citizens petition the Denver government to address their grievances they are talking to people who could actually get something done. We would finally have that “open, honest and transparent” Denver government that Mayor Hancock spouts off about ad nauseum.
In the meantime, the 13 City Council members will continue to draw their soon to be six figure salaries while doing absolutely nothing other than ignoring the voices of citizens who still bother to go to City Council meetings having not yet heard that they are talking to little more than cardboard figures placed behind a large dais in the ornate Denver City Council Chambers. The High Commission form of government comprised of the real powers to be in Denver sounds reasonable in comparison and would be a lot less expensive for all involved.
— Editorial Board
by Peter Boyles | Apr 27, 2018 | Blasting with Boyles
This just in… name that “gate.”
As everyone over the age of 40 knows, anytime there’s a scandal in America the last name of the scandal becomes “gate,” predicated on Watergate, an apartment office complex in Washington, D.C., that gets its name from one of the gates of the city of Jerusalem, the Water Gate. And after the demise of Richard Nixon, and the rise of an aggressive media, every scandal has the suffix — gate. Koreagate. Russiagate. Etc.
Do you get the picture?
So, sitting in a smoke-filled boardroom of the Glendale Cherry Creek Chronicle, I am stumped. I need you to name that gate. (We’re talking about the alleged sex and sex harassment scandal and cover-up involving Denver Mayor Michael Hancock.) If it’s good enough and you submit it to me, peterboyles@710knus.com, you can win an all expense trip to the morning show and I’ll let you read the weather. Or better yet if you don’t want to get up in the morning you can have a cup of coffee with Chuck Bonniwell and Julie Hayden during their show weekday afternoons from 1-4pm.
What do we know so far? All I’ve got are questions. Questions about the Denver media, the actions of a man I once had high regard for, Denver Chief of Police Gerry Whitman, the role the Brownstein law firm played in this entire scandal, who the players are and who the sugar is.
So just like Watergate, seemingly also Donald Trump and his porno one-night stand, it’s never the act. The Watergate scandal wasn’t really the break-in, it was the lies. In Oliver Stone’s movie on Nixon, in the end a sweaty actor said it’s always the lies.
And here we have a series of lies first told by Michael Hancock, then The Denver Post, then Channel 9 and then everyone seems to fall in lockstep.
With the exception of a handful of us media outcasts who are much like the little boy in the story the Emperor’s New Clothes, who is outside the gates pointing at the king and saying the king is in his altogether and naked as the day is born. Whereas if you are really smart and bright and black tie wearing, white wine drinking, runny cheese eating media butt boy you saw nothing wrong with the actions of Michael Hancock and other media outlets. Well guess what suckers, the chickens have come home to roost.
With other media outlets circling the porcelain convenience, The Denver Post editorializing how you can help them — hells bells. The Denver Post is supposed to help you understand these scandals — not you help them make their payroll. Somewhere William Randolph Hearst is crying.
The power brokers, the fat cats, the country club boys, members of Denver’s erstwhile press club, the winky winky buddies who go to press conventions and hear John Hickenlooper tell them how great a job they do — press people you should not be applauding him you should be investigating him. But then again let’s all help fluffy the dog find a forever home and let me tell you how much I love your Denver Broncos.
Elvis Presley is alleged to have told his mother, “There’s a storm coming,” the first time he heard himself singing on the radio. I say this with great pride. Pay attention Denver Post, Channel 9, a lot of people with microphones and laptops in front of them, to the Denver City Council members who cowardly turned a blind eye, to the Denver Police Department (huge questions behind its management) to developers and banks to bond daddies and corporate fund raisers and lobbyists and Chamber of Commerce members — believe me when I tell you this, as Elvis said to Gladys in Tupelo — “There is a storm coming!” Get ready. You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dawg.
