Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods (CHUN) has played a vital role in shaping neighborhoods by providing a unified voice to the City of Denver and Colorado state governments since 1969. Those who are not familiar with this organization need look no further than the trees that are planted along 13th and 14th Avenue. CHUN was instrumental IN having those planted.
Board Members: The Board of Delegates for Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods, Inc. is a group of 39 members representing 10 registered neighborhood organizations in Denver.
To commemorate 50 years in the community, CHUN will host a
fundraising event at Denver Botanic Gardens to celebrate its half century. The
50th Anniversary Celebration and Wine Tasting is open to the public and its
members and residents of the Capitol Hill community on Wednesday, September 18,
2019, 5:30-9 p.m.
In addition to an evening with Denver leaders and
neighborhood advocates, the event will feature a wine tasting, light hors
d’oeuvres from local restaurants, and a silent auction, showcasing goods and
services from local businesses. CHUN is seeking help from local businesses to
sponsor the event WITH silent auction donations, underwriting support, and
other in-kind goods or services.
Fifty years ago, CHUN was founded to take on the most
pressing issues facing Denver and its neighborhoods. Since then, the organization
has evolved into one of the Mile High City’s largest registered neighborhood
organizations (RNO) dedicated to strengthening and elevating the voices of
residents and neighbors.
The Board is comprised of members of 10 different RNOs,
including Congress Park, Cherry Creek North, Country Club, Cheesman Park and
Uptown. The boundaries of CHUN are 22nd Avenue to 1st Avenue, and Colorado
Blvd. to Broadway.
“I’ve served on a lot of boards,” said Bruce Caughey, CHUN
Board Member. “There is more commitment to this board than almost any board
I’ve ever been on in terms of participation and expressing opinions. It’s
really a great opportunity if you want to get involved in your neighborhood and
make a difference. That’s what CHUN represents.”
This board is rolling up its sleeves to come up with a plan
for the Tears-McFarlane House, a 120-year-old mansion that was gifted to CHUN
by the City of Denver a few years ago. The building requires some restoration
and ongoing upkeep,” said Travis Leiker, President, Board of Delegates for
Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods, Inc. “We tapped the experts in this work to
help us revitalize this property. We’ve done focus groups, surveys on the park,
and engaged the community to help us reconceptualize and visualize what can be
done with this space. We just released the results of that research which
indicates that most people want this to remain a community gathering space but
with additional amenities. The next phase of this will be how we revamp this
property to both fuel CHUN’s operations as a community group, but also activate
portions of the property for the betterment of the community.”
Renovation Plans: The Tears-McFarlane House is a historic house located at 12th and Williams in Denver, that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 11, 1976. It was gifted to CHUN a few years ago and now is embarking on a revitalization project that will require approximately $2 million to complete.
CHUN advocates for smart zoning and land use, innovative
transportation systems, the protection of historic landmarks, promoting
community safety and championing city beautification. As Denver moves further
into the 21st century, this organization is committed to being collaborative
and solution oriented, by building strong relationships with community
stakeholders and serving as a go-to resource for Denver citizens.
Membership to CHUN is $75/year per household, $180/year per business, and $30/year for individuals. For a list of benefits, visit www.chundenver.org/membership. For more information on the 50th Anniversary event visit www.chundenver.org/chun50.
The sweltering months of 2019 were bumper-to-bumper trouble
for U.S. Highway 36 commuters.
Questions Raised: Residents began to ask how long it would take to fix and who was going to pay for it?
If you are one of the 107,000 motorists or public
transportation customers who traverse this corridor daily, here’s hoping your
vehicle has air conditioning, your playlist is extensive, and your boss knows
you’re going to be late.
A considerable crack in the surface layer appeared July 12,
2019, prompting Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) crews to close the
eastbound lanes at Church Ranch Blvd. The decision was indeed prudent, as the
fissure soon gave way to a gap that eventually ruptured into a ditch-like
sinkhole in the road.
By July 15, 2019, traffic in both directions had been
diverted to two respective lanes of the westbound corridor — resulting in a
bottleneck effect in an already heavily congested zone. This allowed some
traffic flow, however sluggish, so that CDOT crews could access the area,
analyze the damage and embark on a massive repair project.
Meanwhile, the event sparked several issues, as area
residents, CDOT personnel and daily commuters began to ponder the obvious. How
long would it be before the damage was fixed, why had a new stretch of road
caved in like the top of a half-baked cake, and perhaps most importantly, where
would the money come from to pay for the reconstruction?
A Dubious Timeline
Lateral and aerial photos revealed a multi-dimensional
calamity, as the horizontal depression in the road was countered by a vertical
eruption of retaining wall concrete slabs, debris-ridden soil and mangled
rebar. On July 15, 2019, CDOT chief engineer Josh Laipply was quoted by several
news outlets including Colorado Public Radio (CPR) as stating that it would be
“weeks” before the highway would be returned to an operational condition.
Several days later, that statement was amended by CDOT Executive Director
Shoshana Lew, who offered that it would be “a matter of months” for the repair
to be completed.
Meanwhile CDOT Communications Director Matt Inzeo via phone
interview declined to comment on a projected timeline. He pivoted instead and
offered that the retaining wall-supported embankment upon which the highway was
built sits next to a “wetlands area that used to be a lake.”
A Sinking Feeling
Crack In The Surface: A considerable crack in the surface layer appeared July 12, 2019, prompting Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) crews to close the eastbound lanes at Church Ranch Blvd.
The aforementioned information, perhaps inadvertently,
placed a certain gravity on a statement issued by CDOT spokesperson Tamara
Rollison, who explained “It appears water has gotten underneath the section
that’s collapsing. It looks like it’s unraveling.”
At this point in the story, the term “collapsing soils” was
introduced as a possible culprit. A blog published by CPR offered a statement
from professor of construction engineering management at CU Boulder, Cristina
Torres-Machi. It states: “[Torres-Machi] said it looks like a nearly textbook
example of what she called ‘slope failure,’ essentially a landslide … She
said it’s likely because of collapsing soils.”
Just in case (like most folks) you are not a geology major,
collapsing soils are comprised of dry, low-density particles which can
withstand significant impact without losing volume. Once water is introduced,
however, the particles break apart, densify and undergo a significant reduction
in volume. Oftentimes this results in the sudden appearance of a sinkhole.
In early August, a phone interview with Colorado Geological
Survey Senior Engineering Geologist Jonathan White revealed contrary
information that seemed to muddy the waters. Professor White explained that the
embankment supporting the highway was comprised of “highly saturated, already
wet soils” and the sinkhole was “most likely caused by a lateral landslide” and
“was not the result of the presence of collapsing soils.” Professor White
explained further that the wetlands adjacent to the highway were inherently
responsible for the preliminary presence of moisture in the soil beneath the
highway. He finished by stating that sudden influx of more water did not cause
a collapsing soil situation and the disaster was more likely attributable to
“an engineering issue.”
Who’s Going To Pay For This?
If Professor White is indeed correct, then upon whose
shoulders gets foisted the blame? If it is neither the cause of collapsing
soils or the effects of plain ol’ gravity, then by default, human error takes
the spotlight. Regardless, the road must be repaired. A massive reconstruction
project was launched as soon as engineers determined the debris and soil had
ceased to shift and collapse.
This section of highway was completed just over five years
ago in a joint venture between Granite Construction of California and Ames
Construction of Aurora. By all estimations, it should most certainly not be
crumbling, yet until engineering failure on the behalf of the contractors is found
to be the cause, other monies have been allocated to pay for the
reconstruction.
With Colorado’s massive influx of marijuana-based tax
revenue, it is clear the $20.4 million repair and reimbursement estimate should
be easy to meet by this revenue stream alone. After all, in 2019 alone, total
tax revenue is projected by the Colorado Department of Revenue to be somewhere
around the $30 million mark. Some experts believe it stands to reason that
coffers swelling with monetary influx that was virtually nonexistent when that
section of the road was built should rightly be tapped to remedy its untimely
demise. Yet, when pressed for information on where the “contingency funds”
allocated by the State Transportation Commission were being siphoned from,
representatives of CDOT, Colorado Department of Revenue and Colorado Department
of the Treasury declined to elaborate. A representative of the latter (who
refused to be named) offered only the tersely toned retort “… well, first of
all, treasury is not revenue.” Whatever that is supposed to mean, it sounds
about as solid as collapsing soil.
The line between the City of Denver and its lobbying
community got much thinner after Roger Sherman, a managing partner at CRL
Associates, was appointed to the Citizen Oversight Board (COB) by a 9-3 vote by
City Council.
Lobbyist: Roger Sherman, Managing Partner of CRL Associates, was recently appointed to the Citizen Oversight Board.
Denverite first reported that Sherman, who worked behind the
scenes on the sale of the Park Hill Golf Club and the NO on 300 campaign, was
Council’s first choice for the appointment.
“We have 700,000 people who live in Denver, and another
300,000 people come to Denver every business day — totaling one million
people,” newly elected District 10 Councilman Chris Hinds told the Glendale
Cherry Creek Chronicle in an emailed statement. “It is difficult to believe
that the “one in a million” choice from City Council is the managing partner of
the largest lobbying firm for the city.”
Councilman Chris Hinds opposed the appointment
Members of COB are first nominated by the Mayor and then
confirmed by City Council. Sherman’s appointment came just two days after Mayor
Michael Hancock won re-election.
According to records from the Denver Elections Division, CRL
made generous campaign contributions during the 2019 municipal elections. In
total, CRL contributed nearly $4,000 to Mayor Michael Hancock’s re-election
campaign, while doling out contributions to City Council candidates as well.
Sherman personally donated $250 to District 2 representative
Kevin Flynn, and the firm’s Chief Strategy Officer Kim Kucera donated the same
amount to Albus Brooks’ campaign against Candi CdeBaca in District 9.
Councilwoman Robin Kniech received $2,000 from CRL’s founding partner Maria
Garcia Berry in December 2018 and received the same amount again in February
2019 from the firm itself.
During the City Council meeting, Kniech underscored Sherman’s
qualification, experience, and “strong voice” for police accountability as her
reasons for supporting his nomination.
“[Sherman] not only has experience working with COB, but
also has a track record of coming to City Council and advocating for stronger
oversight of the police department,” Kniech said. “So, for those who have said
they’re afraid this appointment might be too favorable to the Mayor’s Office,
there is simply no evidence of that.”
COB assesses the effectiveness of the Monitor’s Office and
has the authority to appoint people to the Office of the Independent Monitor,
which oversees the police department. Even so, COB neither advises the mayor’s
office nor oversees any functions of the police department. It is simply a
screening body, according to Kniech.
Three of the newly elected Council members voted against the
appointment, including Hinds, CdeBaca, and Amanda Sawyer (District 5).
CdeBaca attempted to have Sherman’s appointment delayed
until August 5 in order to allow time for a public hearing. Other members were
less concerned with hearing public comments, citing an adopted resolution from
earlier in 2019 introduced by Councilmembers Kniech, Paul Lopez, and Paul
Kashmann, which “strengthened the purview of COB”, according to Kashmann. The
resolution increased the number of board members from seven to nine.
Opposed: Newly elected Denver City Council members Candi CdeBaca, left, and Chris Hinds were critical of the appointment of Roger Sherman to the Citizen Oversight Board. CdeBaca attempted to delay the appointment to allow for a public hearing. The City Council rejected that idea and voted 9-3 to appoint Sherman.
“I don’t think this is an issue or question of
qualifications,” CdeBaca said. “I think this is an issue of consolidated power.
Sherman is a well-known member of CRL and has recently led the opposition to
[Initiative] 300, where there have been numerous police violations. Now, we’re
selecting someone to nominate people and oversee that entity.”
CdeBaca cited a recent Colorado Public Radio article that
details the close relationship between Denver’s Big 3 lobbying firms and the
city government. In total, the Big 3 have done over $1 billion in city work in
Hancock’s previous two terms as mayor and have acted as a revolving door
linking the Mayor’s office and the lobbying community.
“With the contacts that Mr. Sherman has, I am doubtful that
he would be nominating or screening the appropriate people for this role,”
CdeBaca said. “We should be nominating people with direct connections to the
community who demanded this role and this board.”
For the last eight-plus years the Denver City Council served
no earthly purpose whatsoever. Thirteen individual council members drew six
figure salaries, had gold plated health insurance and pension plans, along with
expensive office space and assistants, but did absolutely nothing in return
other than rubber stamp everything that a figure head Mayor and the high
density developers who controlled him, put before them.
Councilmember Candi CdeBaca: New Sheriff In Town
Citizens by the scores appeared before the City Council to
beg them for relief from the depravations of the merciless business cartels
such as the CEO driven and Orwellian named “Colorado Concern” and the rapacious
“Downtown Denver Partnership” but to no avail. The City Council even decided,
with the Mayor’s support, to essentially legalize (subject to state approval)
heroin sales to all, including children, under the rubric of caring “safe
injection sites.”
On the night of the second City Council meeting since the
2019 Spring municipal election there was nothing on the agenda which would
cause the Mayor and his staff to expect anything but the normal supine behavior
from the City Council that they had so long enjoyed. But on that night,
however, newly-elected City Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca arose to object to
utterly mundane contracts to two outside contractors who run halfway houses for
approximately 500 convicts in the city. The money for the contracts was not
even from Denver, but rather the State. CdeBaca objected to the contracts on
the grounds that the contracts were with companies whose parent entities
provided detention facilities for ICE, and the fact that she did not like
for-profit companies making money off doing services which are normally
performed by government.
She stated she did not expect support from a single other
councilperson. To the shock of one and all, a majority of the Council supported
her, and the contracts were canceled. The cancellations shook the political
insider world of Denver. If a run-of-the-mill, non-controversial contract could
be cancelled at the whim of a single councilperson, how safe are the literally
hundreds of workie-workie contracts of the Mayor’s friends and city lobbyists?
Is anybody’s piece of the municipal corporate gravy train safe?
After that meeting came the equally shocking proposal by
Council President Jolon Clark of a $43 million carbon tax on businesses to
fund, inter alia, a city climate change office. Clark and his six Council
co-sponsors are a majority on the 13-person Council. The Mayor and his lackies
at the bought-off Denver Post, howled. How dare Clark act as if the City
Council was a democratically elected legislative body. Notwithstanding the
protestations, the Finance and Governance Committee approved passing on the
proposals to the full Council by a 4 to 3 margin with CdeBaca, Hines, Gilmore
and Clark voting in favor and holdovers, Ortega, Kniech and Black voting
against.
As a practical matter we don’t support either the
cancellations of the halfway house contracts or the carbon tax on businesses,
the latter of which has to be approved by the voters even if passed at the
Council level. But far more important to us than the actual merits of these
actions is the fact that a majority of the City Council are no longer willing
to act as a doormat for a corrupt Mayor and his backers. We are hoping that the
new majority will also oppose the rape of Park Hill Golf Course by Westside
Investments, LLC., and the destruction of the Elyria and Swansea neighborhoods
by the ill-conceived and unbelievably corrupt I-70 expansion, along with
hundreds of other projects designed to destroy what was once a truly beautiful
city and its neighborhoods.
Is it possible that representative democracy is returning to
the Mile-High City at long last? We certainly hope so.
The latest Cirque du Solei show to come to Denver is Corteo,
written and directed by Daniele Finzi Pasca. Corteo, which has been seen by
eight million people around the world, tells the story of a clown picturing his
own funeral, which takes place at a carnival and is witnessed by angels.
Corteo, which means “cortege” in Italian, is a joyous procession, a festive
parade imagined by a clown.
Bouncing Beds: Like a gaggle of young kids playing in their grandparents’ room, six artists jump on two 600-pound beds that move on rotating platforms.
The show first premiered in 2005 under the big top in
Montreal and has been since updated for arenas in March 2018, keeping the
original story intact. The show features 51 performers, including acrobats,
clowns, musicians and actors.
Cirque du Solei has been entertaining Colorado audiences
since 1997. “We always have a great responsive audience there and we love to
perform in a place where people react well and enjoy our shows and I think it
adds a lot to the show,” said Max Batista, Tour Publicist for Cirque Corteo.
The stage has a unique setup as it will be set up in the
center of the arena and audience members will be on either side with good sight
views. Set Designer Jean Rabasse has divided the Grand Chapiteau and its
rotating stage in two, with each half of the audience facing the other half, so
they see not only the performance, but also have a performer’s eye view of the
audience. There is one turntable built into the stage, which is about 41 feet
long, and the track is almost 120 feet long.
This show also features six musicians and two singers who
are on stage with the performers. Typically, musicians and singers are hidden
from the audience but in Corteo, they are part of the show. “People can see us
all during the show,” said Eve Willems who plays the accordion, guitar, and
mandolin in Corteo.
Corteo: In this Cirque du Soleil a clown imagines his own funeral as a carnival of sorts, blending the ridiculous with the tragic. The show will be performed nine times from August 15 to August 22 at Pepsi Center.
The music accompanies the show and features different styles
of music including Spanish and Irish. Willems, who submitted her video
application to become a part of the show via Facebook, enjoys being part of
Cirque. “At first for me it was to discover all the different talents and I was
amazed to see all these people doing their tricks,” said Willems. “Now that we
have started, I like traveling with all these people and make people dream and
it’s really nice to be part of it.”
The show lasts two hours and 30 minutes (with a 20-minute intermission) and is packed
with death defying feats fans have come to expect from Cirque shows.
Czar Of Cherry Creek’s Conversion Into A NY Village Plans To
Create $30 Million 18-Hour-A-Day Nightlife Hub
Cherry Creek Czar: BMC Investments CEO Matt Joblon is spending $30 million to remake and reposition the Inn at Cherry Creek.
When Peter Weber built the Inn At Cherry Creek 15 years ago,
it was the district’s boutique hotel. It opened on Clayton St. at about the
same time the JW Marriott Denver at Cherry Creek opened a block south at 150
Clayton Lane. That was when Cherry Creek North was still home to mostly
independently-owned boutique outdoor retail stores and dining destinations.
Then in 2014 the Denver City Council passed new zoning rules
for the district that reduced parking requirements, lifted restrictions on
building heights and allowed hotels in for the first time. Now most of the
independent retailers and dining destinations are gone, replaced by expensive
high-rise apartments and high-end New York retailers and restaurateurs. Three
new hotels — the Halcyon, Moxy and Jacquard — have been added. Matt Joblon —
CEO of BMC Investments and czar of the continuing massive Cherry Creek makeover
— built the Halcyon and Moxy and has a 99-year ground lease on the Inn at
Cherry Creek. The Halcyon and Moxy are both within half a mile of the Inn at
Cherry Creek. BMC has developed or is in the process of developing more than
$500 million in projects, all in Cherry Creek North.
The Inn at Cherry Creek continued to operate for a year, but
Joblon has now begun a year-long renovation or more accurately a makeover and
repositioning of the boutique site at 233 Clayton St. The existing building — a
four-story property with 37 hotel rooms, three residences and three commercial
spaces — is being gutted and 15,000-20,000-sq.-ft. of space added at an
estimated cost of $30 million. The MBC project is a collaboration with
hospitality and development industry veterans Aparium Hotel Group and
CHMWarnick.
Culture Makeover: A year-long renovation of the four-story Inn at Cherry Creek is underway on Clayton St. The hotel and three commercial spaces are being gutted and 15,000-20,000-sq.-ft. of space added at an estimated cost of $30 million.
Adding Fifth Floor
The renovation is expected to include a partial fifth floor
to the four-story hotel. The new space will be rebranded but fewer than a
half-dozen rooms are expected to be added.
The Inn’s original restaurant — The Weber Grill — was
shuttered by Joblon almost immediately after signing the 99-year lease. In its
place Joblon has promised “a great new space” that will be much larger, serving
three meals a day.
Joblon also plans to expand the hotel’s retail space. To do
that he is bringing in a third party to do an “experimental type of retail that
does not currently exist in Cherry Creek.” He has often referred to this
pro-posed space as an “upscale bazaar” similar to the Denver Central Market. Or
maybe something like the Greenwich Village Abingdon Square Greenmarket.
Boutique Beauty: For 15 years relatives of Valley families along with tourists to Denver stayed in the boutique Inn at Cherry Creek that featured 37 rooms.
Getting Party Going
You may think that Cherry Creek nightlife is dead but don’t
be fooled, Joblon plans to get the party going again at the renovated space. In
fact he wants to transform the hotel and the street from an “eight-hour-a-day
to an 18-hour-a-day community.”
Nightlife Epicenter: Renovated hotel will feature cocktail bars, music and entertainment similar to Café Wha? in New York City.
That means the hotel will feature music, food and other
amenities. “We want to do a project that is focused around the cultural part of
Cherry Creek to really grow and expand that part of it … for both locals and
people coming out and visiting,” Joblon says.
The renovated hotel’s nightlife — cocktail bars, music,
entertainment and art — will be inside so the neighborhood won’t complain.
Joblon originally planned for live music on the rooftop terrace at the Halcyon
Hotel but the neighborhood association squashed the notion because of the
hotel’s proximity to condos.
Culture Epicenter
He wants the new Inn at Cherry Creek to become its own
thriving, diverse community. Meeting rooms and community areas are being
designed into the hotel’s expansion. “The core of our vision is to create a
place that becomes the cultural epicenter for this neighborhood.”
Upscale Bazaar: Rebranded hotel is introducing a new type of retail to Cherry Creek similar to the Denver Central Market.
Think New York’s Greenwich Village or as New Yorkers call it,
“The Village.” He wants the hotel and Clayton Street to become Cherry Creek’s
bohemian capital, a spot with places like Greenwich Village’s Fat Cat and Café
Wha? He dreams of the Clayton block becoming an updated and stylish version of
Greenwich’s MacDougal St., where throngs flock to enjoy drinks, live music and
meet up with friends.
He believes the hotel has incredible potential to be a
destination in and of itself and thus help the neighborhood to thrive. He aims
for the hotel to draw all types of people with all kinds of stories. “That’s
what I think is going to make this place really special. Not to mention very,
very different.”
Marriage Of Money
The 30-something Joblon grew up in the Boston area — his
family owns Brittany Global Technologies — and moved to LA to work for an
individual real estate investor. That’s where he met his future wife Alissa
Alpert, daughter of Lee Alpert who has developed more than 44,000 acres of
Denver real estate. Joblon moved here in 2010, married Alissa and met Darren Everett
who at the time was VP of Operations for the Alpert Companies. Everett is a
founding partner of BMC Investments and President of BMC’s property management
affiliate, BLDG Management.
Party Cat: New space will be an 18-hour-a-day party animal designed to be similar to Greenwich Village’s Fat Cat.
Soon after moving here — Joblon lives in Cherry Hills
Village but has offices in a Cherry Creek building he built at 2nd Ave. and
Detroit — he began building a relationship with the Inn at Cherry Creek owner
Peter Weber. He says he wanted to make sure that another party didn’t beat BMC
to the deal and create a brand that would compete with his nearby hotels.
Earlier this year, of course, BMC sold the Halcyon Hotel to Ohio-based
Rockbridge Capital for $93 million.
The rebranded Inn at Cherry Creek will still face the same
problems as the other two hotels: attracting hospitality and retail workers!
Why? Cherry Creek North’s expensive parking and relative lack of public
transportation.
