Amid Continuing Construction Chaos Cherry Creek Searches For Its Shopping Soul

by Mark Smiley | Jan 24, 2020 | Main Articles

District Ponders Beverly Hills Hip Vs. NY Village Vibes; Dumpsters On Street Plus Sardine Can Size Micro Apartments

by Glen Richardson

In 2018 Cherry Creek North projected completion of nine out of 10 of its building projects, but as the new decade begins the flurry of construction shows no sign of slowing. The neighborhood has slapped on so much development in the past half-dozen years many residents and small business owners are wishing for a moratorium to absorb the growth.

The pace of development-driven change has been head-spinning, adding millions of square feet of apartment and commercial space while upending shopping and crushing the streetscape, parking and vibe of the district.

In addition to lack of planning for and management of projects, construction workers and developers have total control of the streets with little or no concern for shoppers or retail owners. Equally disturbing, the district still hasn’t decided on a direction to take to make the district an attractive destination.

Beverly Hills Look

At the Cherry Creek North Business Improvement District’s December board meeting, BID officials once again contemplated trying to become Beverly Hills. It was the third time the board has listened to Emzy Veazy III tell them how to copy Beverly Hills and retake lost marketing share and become a world class destination. He also attended and addressed BID in 2006 and 2017.

Beverly Hills, of course, is known as one of the most fashionable places to shop. In the heart of it all sits Rodeo Drive — one of the most famous streets on the globe. It has more than 100 world-renowned stores and hotels along its three blocks.

BID board member Terri Garbarini — owner of a Cherry Creek women’s shop for more than 20 years — has pushed for the Beverly Hills image. She once told the Denver Business Journal, “Cherry Creek has become Beverly Hills without pretentiousness — and business wants in.” She originally had a shoe store in Larimer Square, then relocated to Cherry Creek and reopened as a dress shop on 3rd Ave. In 2013 Garbarini paid $5 million for the building at 239 N. Detroit St. and moved into the larger space.

Or New York Style

Meanwhile Matt Joblon — CEO of BMC Investments and another BID Board Member — has been transforming the district into something much more like New York’s Greenwich Village. His projects have added New York style hotels and eateries to Cherry Creek. Joblon’s $30 million makeover of the Inn at Cherry Creek underway on Clayton St. is being designed as an 18-hour-a-day nightlife hub similar to those in the Village.

Referred to as the “Village” by New Yorkers, its history is artsy and edgy. It is eminently walkable, and may have more culture per square foot than any other area of New York. Today it also features sleek new construction, upscale restaurants and dozens of gyms.

Jokingly introduced by former Neighborhood Assn. President Robert Vogel as the man who wants to change the district’s name to “Joblonville,” BMC built the Steele Creek Apartments, Halcyon Hotel, the Financial House and St. Paul Collection. Projects scheduled to start this year include a five to seven-story structure with retail on Fillmore St. and a six-story Equinox Fitness building on St. Paul

Eateries, Retail Turmoil

Not all of the BID board, however, has benefited from the district’s massive construction projects. Marshall Miranda closed his distinctive Bombay Clay Oven on Steele St. in April of last year. A Cherry Creek fixture since 1997, he blamed the closure on “several years of heavy construction that made access to the eatery difficult and parking all but impossible.” Laurel Cherry Creek, a 12-story luxury condo opened several months later.

Hedge Row — the restaurant across from Miranda’s eatery at 100 Steele St. — shuttered before Miranda called it quits. Kitchen Restaurant Group co-founder Kimbal Musk blamed parking shortages and constant lane closures for the decision. Construction was also a factor for the Thirsty Lion closure. Harmon’s Eat & Drink didn’t renew its least on East 2nd Ave. blaming rent increases. Even Wolfgang Puck couldn’t make it in Harmon’s space.

Cherry Creek’s retail has also struggled due to the unmanaged building boom and rapidly rising rents. After five years in the upscale Fillmore Place development, the Hallmark store at 2940 E. 2nd Ave. closed in January. The store’s lease ended last July but remained open through the holidays paying rent monthly. The Jonathan Adler’s store at 158 Fillmore St. in Cherry Creek also closed last year. The high-end furnishings brand was the only Adler store in the region. Other closures included Eccentricity, a women’s clothing, accessories and gift store at 290 Fillmore St. and St. Croix on East 3rd Ave.

Positive Shopping News

Many residents and longtime state/regional customers are concerned about the future of what has long been a neighborhood hangout for shopping, dining and entertainment. The uncertainty that comes with new construction, vacant storefronts and potential new owners makes them apprehensive.

As development triggers the departure of eateries and retail shops — particularly independent boutiques — there’s also a bit of positive news to uplift shoppers. Rather than closing Adornments, owner Helen Wicker has sold the local store to longtime manager Consuelo Diaz. Wicker has moved to Santa Fe where she owns sister store Adorn.

Diaz has managed the Cherry Creek store for 23 years, assisting the boutique’s devoted customers. “Adornments will continue the unique, stylish and artistic vision that has made the fashion store a Valley favorite,” she tells the Chronicle. The store features a continuously changing collection of clothing, jewelry and accessories. Diaz and her friendly-knowledgeable staff enjoy helping women with their individual style and finding “clothing and accessories to Adore.” Adornments is located at 2826 East 3rd Ave. Information: 303-321-7992.

Dumpsters, Micro Flats

District shop owners, however, continue to face challenges due to the uncontrolled construction. Harriet’s, a clothing boutique at 300 Fillmore, recently found a construction dumpster taking up the metered spaces in front of the shop. Owner Harriet Gibson, an unabashedly direct business woman, eventually got the dumpsters moved albeit only few spaces down the street in front of the library.

Upscale Cherry Creek North shopping faces yet another challenge: Limited land in the district is attracting another kind of development — living like fancy sardines in micro apartments. A five-story, 37-unit micro-apartment building is expected to open this spring at 135 Adams St. in Cherry Creek. Amazingly neighborhood groups couldn’t halt the Barry Hirschfeld-led development that features no parking in the already dense neighborhood.

Whether Cherry Creek chooses to imitate Greenwich Village or Beverly Hills, the district is unlikely to become an awe-inspiring destination until it becomes walkable, has parking and can attract and keep shopping boutiques, vibrant venues and restaurants that create a unique destination.

Cycle Lane Lunacy? B-Cycle Is Shutting Down

by Mark Smiley | Dec 16, 2019 | Main Articles

Public Works Scrambles To Find A Substitute; The City Is Also Ending Its Electric Scooter Program

by Glen Richardson

Despite a 2020 Denver bike lane budget of $11 million, another $4 million for bike safety plus $3 million for “high-comfort” bike lanes on 18th and 19th Streets, Denver B-Cycle is shutting down on January 30, 2020, and won’t be replaced any time soon.

The company’s exit from Denver will take 737 publicly available bikes off the street at the end of this month.

Moreover, the city is also ending its electric scooter permit program and hoping to replace it with a system where scooter and shared bike providers will compete for a city contract.

Bid Peddling

Denver Public Works is now in the process of looking for a new company to operate bike and scooter services through a competitive bidding process that isn’t expected to be completed until the middle of this year. That means months are likely to pass between the end of B-cycle availability and the debut of a new system.

Amid competition from electric scooter and bike companies, dwindling ridership and shallow revenues — the city peddled 5,280 annual bike-share passes for free to incentivize biking instead of driving —many are questioning if the B-cycle era can make a comeback.

City government has helped fund the bike-share system but did not operate it, and it will not run one in the future, according to Mike Strott, a spokesman for the Mayor’s Office. In the first six months of Denver’s sanctioned dockless transport program, six e-bike and e-scooter companies combined to average about 5,100 trips a day.

Cost Cutting

By issuing a request for proposals from private bike-share and scooter-share companies to operate in Denver, Public Works hopes the system will be less costly. The contracts will replace the permitting system that has allowed companies like Lime and Jump to operate.

The competitive bidding process “will help Denver better manage and coordinate the delivery of these commercial operations and help ensure the city partners with the most qualified operator(s) to further its mobility goals,” according to a DPW statement. A decision on who will operate the program(s) won’t be made until at least this summer, Pubic Works admits.

But even if Public Works is able to get a new company or companies by this summer, getting a new bike share system up and running could take several more months. That, many observers including bikers, worry will make the delay even more lengthy. Upshot: Such a wide gap in service is likely to push B-cycle users into buying cars. Moreover, many families used B-cycle so they would only need one car.

Dated System

Denver’s B-cycle bikes and docking stations needed to be replaced. Many dated to when the system was launched in 2010, according to Mike Pletsch, executive director of Denver Bike Sharing, the nonprofit that runs B-cycle. But the organization doesn’t have the money to replace the equipment or renew its contract with Trek, the bicycle manufacturer that developed the system.

“The continued aging of the system and the cost to work with B-cycle is too high for us,” he said. “The funding is just not there to do it.”

The organization’s 2018 budget totaled $1 million, according to its annual report. The city provided it with $800,000 in 2019, and about half of that was dedicated to a program that handed out the 5,280 free passes.

Falling Ridership

B-cycle ridership has been falling steadily since its peak in 2014. The system’s riders took 377,000 trips that year compared with 305,000 in 2018, a 19 percent decline, according to the annual report. The decrease in riders corresponds roughly with the rise of ride-hail services like Uber and Lyft, and the arrival of dockless scooters and bikes last year.

But Denver’s bike share system has never had the high number of stations needed to reach high ridership levels, like those in Paris, New York, or Mexico City. According to the National Association of City Transportation Officials, successful systems provide 28 stations per square mile. Denver B-Cycle had about a half-dozen per square mile.

“We’ve got 89 stations currently and there certainly needs to be more,” says Pletsch. Those docking stations are spread out over seven neighborhoods and host the system’s 716 bikes.

CDOT’S VISION FOR FUTURE: Lexus Lanes For The Affluent; Endless Traffic For Everyone Else

by Charles Bonniwell | Dec 16, 2019 | Main Articles

Part III Of A III Part Series

by Charles C. Bonniwell

The future for the average motorist in Colorado is going to be bleak according to insiders at the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) which is the state agency in charge of the transportation needs of the people of Colorado. In a 99-page study provided in December by CDOT to the Colorado Legislature, the department claimed to need $14 million to $84 million annually in increased fees with Executive Director Shoshana Lew stating in a cover letter that the state’s “transportation funding is insufficient and outdated.”

The requested fees increase would in fact be of little help to the embattled state agency which has little desire or funding to save the failing roads system in Colorado. Although seldom starkly expressed, Lew’s plan is to make driving in Colorado so painful that many average Coloradans will abandon their cars in favor of a public transit alternative. She understands the inconvenience and unpleasantness of Colorado’s public transportation system and that the state’s most affluent residents will likely want to retain the convenience of their own automobiles. Under the radar CDOT is creating a two tier system — revenue or “Lexus” lanes for those who can afford it and massive traffic congestion for the general public.

Four major projects in and around Denver demonstrate this new approach:

•           $1.3 billion 10 mile Central I-70 Project in Denver;

•           $500 million I-25 North Expansion Project north of Denver;

•           $350 million 18 mile I-25 GAP Project south of Denver; and

•           $226 million 12.5-mile C-470 Project southwest of Denver.

Many motorists are outraged when they learn that billions of dollars in expenditures and massive construction inconveniences will not provide a single additional lane of road for the average motorist. CDOT effectively has slammed shut state firms from the ability to bid on the projects so almost all projects are done by massive out-of-state conglomerates at inflated prices. The following four massive projects reveal what is in store for the people of the state.

C-470 Project

The 12.5 miles between Wadsworth and I-25 in Douglas County is one of the busiest stretches of roads in Colorado with over 100,000 cars traveling it every day. The $226 million spent is solely for Lexus lanes while the general public will be forced to use the same two lanes east and west. CDOT did not have the funds, and did not want to ask the public for the borrowing as required by the Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR). It therefore set up an enterprise fund titled The High Performance Transportation Enterprise (HPTE) which issued $161.7 million in revenue bonds and borrowed $106.9 million in loans from federal sources. The revenue from the Lexus lanes will go to pay back the loans, but even after the payoff, decades in the future, they are not expected to ever open the lanes to nonpaying drivers.

CDOT expects by 2030 the car usage will jump to 140,000 cars daily making travel ever more highly congested and allowing CDOT to charge ever increasing premium prices for their Lexus lanes.

The contract to build the 12.5 miles of road was not low bid (LB) but awarded on a design build (DB) concept to a joint venture of Flatiron Construction (a subsidiary of the massive German conglomerate HOCHTIEF) and AECOM, a large engineering firm out of Los Angeles. It is one of the few large projects in Colorado not awarded to the virtual duopoly of Kraemer North America LLC (a subsidiary of the Japanese construction giant Obayashi Corporation),  and Kiewit Corporation, a Fortune 500 construction firm based in Omaha, Nebraska.

The project has been in constant delays and CDOT sent a letter of default to Flatiron/AECOM who in turn indicated the failures have been due to CDOT’s gross incompetence and the agency’s ongoing effort to try to blame everyone else for its internal problems. The latest delayed opening projection is in June of 2021.

I-25 Gap Project

If you are traveling south on I-25 after completing the 12.5 miles of C-470 you will need to take your wallet out quickly enough to travel the 18 miles from Monument to Castle Rock in more Lexus lanes. That stretch of road is two lanes each way and CDOT says it is so dangerous that two State Patrol officers have recently died in accidents using the road. Of course, it is not really clear why it would be any less dangerous to the average motorist who doesn’t get to use the one additional Lexus lane each way other than some minor road shoulder expansion on existing lanes. The Gap Project will cost $350 million with the state providing $250 million, $65 million from the federal government, $35 million from local governments including El Paso and Douglas counties. Westword has been chronicling the traffic nightmares imposed on the average motorist in articles titled “Traffic Nightmare Closures Come to I-25.” Few are aware the only beneficiary of the money and the traffic are to be the affluent who are willing to pay the fees for the Lexus lanes and political outrage will occur when the public does find out.

This project was awarded by CDOT to Kraemer not on a competitive bid process but by Construction Management/General Contractor method (CMGC) by which over 80 percent of such projects are awarded to either Kraemer or Kiewit. This project is also haunted by numerous delays and is now not expected to be finished until 2022. As with all CDOT projects CDOT blames the contractor and the contractor blames CDOT.

I-25 North Express Lanes Mead To Fort Collins

If you head north instead of south on I-25 after leaving C-470 you cannot escape the Lexus lanes. The Mead to Fort Collins project was originally for 13.5 miles for $250 million and awarded to Kraemer. Later when an additional $250 to $300 million of funding was located another 4.5 miles was added. Without even pretending to look for competitive bids CDOT simply gave it to their friends at Kraemer, based on a so-called “change order.”

Central I-70 Project

The most controversial and costly of all of the recent CDOT projects is the 10 mile stretch of I-70 from Chambers Road to I-25 which comes in at a whopping $1.3 billion dollars. For that money, in the end all you get is a Lexus lane going each way. The road, instead of going over the neighborhoods of Elyria and Swansea with a viaduct, goes down to the neighborhoods and then back up with a viaduct above the road with a park on it. Why this incredibly expensive alternative was chosen is not totally clear but it is blamed on the Brighton viaduct being obsolete. It certainly was not to help the residents of those neighborhoods who adamantly opposed it. Because the project essentially creates a ditch which would be subject to floods, various parts of parks in central Denver (City Park and Park Hill) were commandeered to act as flood water detention ponds to the outrage of those residents surrounding those parks. It is assumed that the friends of Mayor Hancock will greatly benefit financially from grounding the roadway and the land has been dubbed the “Mayor’s Corridor of Opportunity.”

As a design build project, it was awarded to a joint venture Kiewit and the French global investment group Meridiam Partners. What is somewhat unique about the relationship is that it was set up as a public/ private partnership or P3 which means the joint venture will pay the costs of the project while getting the revenue from the Lexus lanes for at least 30 years. It has been said about P3s that, generally speaking, the public gets the losses while the private entities get the profits.

As with all CDOT’s major projects the Central I-70 project is years behind. CDOT blames the contractors while the contractors blames CDOT. It is not clear why CDOT can never do a major project on time regardless of who the contractor is.

The Future Of Transportation In Colorado And CDOT

It is clear that CDOT under Shoshana Lew is generally not interested in building roads for the citizens of Colorado and where CDOT does build roads they are only for the affluent who can afford the Lexus lanes which will become ever more costly. By using CMGTC and DB methods and not competitive low bids CDOT set a duopoly for Kraemer and Kiewit which charges 30 percent more for every project. In addition, CDOT pays a quarter billion dollars to consultants every year to perform the tasks that CDOT once performed but is now unwilling to do. Major projects in turn are almost never performed on time with massive inconvenience to the motoring public.

As highlighted in our Editorial on page 3, the disgraceful state of affairs has not gone unnoticed. CDOT and Lew are increasingly coming under investigation, including by the U.S. Department of Justice, for their practices which may violate various federal statutes. But unless and until the citizens of Colorado become cognizant and angered about what is happening to their transportation system, no long-term solution will be possible.

CDOT Now Dominated By Two Out-Of-State Companies And Scores Of Consultant Firms

by Charles Bonniwell | Nov 22, 2019 | Main Articles

Part II Of A Now III Part Series

by Charles C. Bonniwell

After the publication of our initial segment in November, “CDOT IN TOTAL DISARRAY,” the Chronicle has been inundated with additional information from present and former CDOT employees as well as other interested parties. As a result, what was originally envisioned as a two-part series has now been expanded to a three-part series, with the final installment coming in our January 2020 edition.

Coloradans are increasingly spending hours stuck in traffic, some of which is unnecessary, insiders tell the Chronicle. Former and current employees of the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), as well as in-state contractors, assert that the state agency formed in 1917 to direct the transportation needs of the state “no longer builds roads” but simply now makes schedules that are seldom accurate. The primary goal at CDOT has become avoiding blame or liability for the botched schedules and/or designs resulting in massive additional costs for CDOT projects and long delays in road projects being completed. The schedules have been weaponized by CDOT to use against contractors when projects are delayed or run over budget, even where the primary blame should fall on CDOT.

CDOT once revered for competence and non-partisanship has become a political football whose overall mission is increasingly unclear and muddled. Governor Jared Polis, upon coming into office, replaced highly respected and seemingly well qualified Michael Lewis (who had been appointed by then Governor Hickenlooper) with 35-year-old history major Shoshana Lew. She is the daughter of Jack Lew, the former Chief of Staff of President Obama and later his Secretary of the Treasury. Ms. Lew was reportedly hired by Governor Polis as a personal favor to former First Lady Michelle Obama. In interviews with media, including Colorado Public Radio, she has strikingly avoided discussing roads and instead emphasizing bike lanes, buses, light rail and multi-modal transportation. Her failure to respond to and, in some cases, even understand questions from callers on “The Mandy Connell Show” on 850 KOA Radio, caused her to be banned from the show which has a tradition of featuring the head of CDOT to discuss transportation issues in Colorado. CDOT employees indicate that she so dislikes traffic in the Denver area that she has an employee chauffeur her around town, a luxury few Coloradans can afford.

With transportation dollars relatively scarce in Colorado and the state legislature unlikely to increase any funding any time in the foreseeable future, making funding as cost efficient as possible would logically be of paramount importance to CDOT, but the opposite appears to be the case. In 2013 the legislature did away with the requirement that all public projects in excess of $50,000 had to be “awarded by competitive bid.” In its place it provided for the “best value” model in which bids come in as either (1) Design Build (DB); or (2) Construction Management/General Contractor (CMGC). Insiders view the “best value” as totally subjective and little more than a new form of manipulating the system so that two large out-of-state construction firms could be awarded 81% of all major construction projects distributed by CDOT in the last seven years.

The two firms are Kraemer North America, LLC, a subsidiary of the massive Japanese construction firm Obayashi Corporation and Kiewit Corporation, a Fortune 500 construction company based in Omaha, Nebraska. In-state contractors indicate that Timothy Maloney of Kraemer North America was extraordinarily effective in shepherding through CDOT and the state legislature the change in awarding contracts under the comically false title “Keep Jobs in Colorado Act.” Prior to its enactment the majority of CDOT projects went to in-state firms. Set below are the $3.7 billion in major projects awarded over the last seven years by CDOT:

To apply to be awarded a DB or CMGC costs firms tens of thousands of dollars. Insiders indicate that CDOT encourages firms to apply in order to make the process look above board. But the in-state contractors are then rejected on the basis that they have never done a large DB or CMGC project. It is becoming increasingly difficult to con in state firms to submit bids which they cannot win with the massive project almost inevitably going to Kraemer or Kiewit or other international firms like Flatiron Construction, a subsidiary of the massive German conglomerate HOCHTIEF.

In turn, Kiewit and Kraemer don’t even want to have to prepare bids in the semi sham process as they are costly and time consuming, so they have come up with a new method by using the so-called “change order” scheme. Ordinarily a “change order” is a change in an existing project that is different from what was originally contemplated, but words can be manipulated to mean whatever someone wants.

Regarding the over $300 million project to build express lanes on I-25 from State Highway 402 to Fort Collins rather than having to go through a bidding process, Kraemer got CDOT to simply declare that it was going to do a “change order” to the $250 million project for express lanes from State Highway 66 to State Highway 402. Little did it seem to matter that the so-called “change order” was larger than the entire original project and a wholly different section of I-25.

Cost Of Consultants

The massive costs of CDOT projects is in large part due to the so-called “best value” method of bidding rather than “lowest bidder,” but it is significantly exacerbated by the utter dependence on outside consultant firms largely staffed with former CDOT employees who have retired with PERA pensions at relatively young ages. CDOT no longer has the in-house capacity to perform many of the everyday functions that it once did 20 years ago. Determining which outside consultants to utilize is once again on a subjective basis and a consultant without a significant number of former CDOT employees has little chance of being awarded a contract. Moreover, CDOT employees have no incentive to look after the taxpayers when dealing with former work colleagues. Furthermore, many of those now in CDOT plan to join a consultant once they are eligible to retire under PERA and hope for similar lenient treatment when they are on the outside.

In May 2019 the Colorado State Auditor did a Performance Audit of CDOT and found that problems with 80 of the 84 CDOT agreements with consultants including “unapproved consultant labor rates, contracts without proper approvals and contract terms that did not comply with state requirements.”

While it was generally known that outside consultants significantly added to the cost of CDOT projects the full extent of the problem was not previously quantifiable. The chart below is based on very recent internal CDOT calculations and if anything underestimates the problem in which consultant fees have averaged over the last four years $226,500,000 per annum adding 32.5% to the cost of CDOT projects.

Specific Projects

Next month the Chronicle will examine three particular projects which are:

•           The $1.3 billion 10-mile Central 70 Project;

•           The $226 million 12.5-mile C-470 Project;

•           The $500 million I-25 North Expansion Lanes.

The delays, the cost overruns, the crony bidding and other problems on these projects help identify the major concerns with today’s dysfunctional Colorado Department of Transportation.

Diagnosing Denver’s Volatile Late-Night LoDo District

by Regan Bervar | Nov 22, 2019 | Main Articles

by Luke Schmaltz

The spring and summer months of 2019 were a troubling time for Denver’s LoDo district, as incidents of late-night violence rendered multiple stabbings and shootings resulting in several fatalities. Such details are troubling in any district, yet the fact that this area is home to an array of high-end restaurants, luxury hotels, high-priced boutiques and high-class clothiers makes the juxtaposing crime rate an anomaly indeed.

Several socioeconomic dynamics intersect in this grid, creating what could be called a perfect storm for senseless violence occurring on an escalating scale.

This area is home to the 16th Street Mall — a retail mecca for shopaholics, tourists and sightseers with expendable income. The fact that, on any given day, thousands of people on foot navigate the marketplace in search of keepsakes, tech necessities, high-end accessories and urban adventure is irresistible to buskers, scam artists and spare changers. The majority of the latter live on the streets, and according to nation alhomeless.org, “a high percentage of homeless people struggle with substance abuse [which] can cause homelessness, but it often arises after people lose their housing.”

A clearer understanding of the problems in the area can be gained by considering the types of people drawn to it beyond those living downtown at very high rental rates. The focus here is on homeless people, tourists, drug dealers and nightlife party people and how their overlapping motivations may be the root cause of late-night violence.

Behold The Stampede

According to Longwoods International — a data compilation firm providing statistics to Visit Denver Convention and Visitors Bureau — 31 million people visited the Mile-High City in 2018, resulting in tourism revenue of $6.5 billion. The firm also lists the 16th Street Mall first among the top shopping and entertainment destinations for visitors from New York, L.A., Chicago, Houston, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Kansas City and Phoenix. According to a high number of negative reviews on tripadvisor.com, many visitors firmly attest to the fact that an astonishing homeless presence defines the area, complete with aggressive panhandlers, overflowing needle disposal bins and the occasional fatality from drug overdose. The old adage of “If it didn’t work, they wouldn’t do it” applies here, meaning that panhandlers needing to support their addiction can do so by panhandling tourists for money.

Summon The Dealers

Addictions thrive on the availability of the substance in question, be it crack, meth, fentanyl, heroin, prescription drugs, etc. A large concentration of people dealing with the stress of living without a residence, without family, without treatment for mental illness and any number of other terrible conditions equates to a ripe market for any enterprising drug dealer. According to part of a statement issued by the National Drug Intelligence Center, “Gangs are the primary distributors of drugs on the streets of the United States.” As there are over 110 known street gangs in Denver, the LoDo district is undoubtedly targeted by more than one organization, which gives rise to the violence inherent in territorial disputes.

Hail The Party People

As the downtown foot traffic shifts from shoppers looking for a good deal to young people looking for a good time, one can reasonably postulate that the drug commerce adjusts in tandem to a more lucrative yet discreet clientele. According to the opinions of local business owners and their employees, territorial tensions may escalate as the night marches on. Mike Villano, former owner of Chances Bar and Grill and longtime contributor to the LoDo workforce, attests that “The violence is definitely gang related. Gangsters are capitalists and weekend nights in LoDo are a concentration of their target market.” The presence of alcohol and the general eruptive nature of crowd mentality makes it easy to see why altercations between rivals are inevitable. Meanwhile, a manager at an area establishment who preferred to comment anonymously states that “ … with people blasting (discharging weapons), one can only assume that some sort of gang affiliation is involved.” The longtime LoDo worker continues with a cautionary piece of advice for bar-hoppers, “Pay attention to your surroundings and know when to vacate the area in a hurry.”

The reality of the situation is that people in LoDo are carrying guns around, pulling them out in the middle of the night, and shooting strangers. If you’re going shopping downtown you can keep the panhandlers at bay with stony veneer or a pocket full of spare change, and if you’re going out for drinks afterward, keeping the danger at bay can be very difficult.

Comrade Brewing Wins Big At The 2019 Great American Beer Festival

by Mark Smiley | Oct 28, 2019 | Main Articles

35 Colorado Breweries Take Home Medals With Plenty Of Other Breweries Around The Country Impressing

by Richard Colaizzi and Mark Smiley

Great American Beer Festival (GABF) celebrated its 33rd year the weekend of October 5, 2019. The Colorado Convention Center once again served as the venue sprawling 584,000 square feet of space for over 800 breweries to pour over 4,000 different types of beers.

Comrade Brewing, located at 7667 E. Iliff Ave. in Denver, was named 2019 Small Brewing Company of the Year and Small Brewing Company Brewer of the Year by the Brewers Association at the awards ceremony held on Saturday, October 5, after receiving gold medals for two of its India Pale Ales, Superpower IPA and More Dodge Less Ram. These are the fourth and fifth medals the brewery has won since opening in 2014.

“We still can’t believe what happened at the Great American Beer Festival,” said David Lin, Founder of Comrade Brewing Co. “We always try to make the best beer we can and this year the judges thought so too. We’re incredibly proud of the brewing team Marks Lanham and Rio Urioste. It’s an honor to win small brewing company of the year and we’ll continue to do our best here in southeast Denver.”

The Small Brewing Company of the Year category is one of the most competitive as most breweries in the country brew between 1,000 and 14,999 barrels of beer per year. This is quite the achievement for a brewery which has a simple philosophy. “We make beer we like to drink and whatever is left over, we sell,” said Marks Lanham, Brewmaster for Comrade Brewing Co.

Superpower IPA was awarded a gold medal in the American-Style Strong Pale Ale category, which had 131 entries. Superpower IPA is an American IPA with loads of Pacific Northwest hops that lend huge pine and grapefruit hop aroma and citrus flavors. Its bitterness is balanced with a crisp, light malt character and is available year-round at the Comrade Brewing tasting room.

More Dodge Less Ram, a triple-dry hopped sister of Superpower IPA, took gold in the second most-entered category, American-Style India Pale Ale, which had 342 entries. More Dodge Less Ram was the first beer that Comrade brewed after a Dodge Ram plowed into the brewery three years ago.

“I told David on August 25 we were going to win this year,” said Lanham. “It’s been a challenging year for both of us. David got married and had a child. I had less fortunate things happen to me. When these things happen, it drives me to do better.”

A total of 322 judges from 18 countries do blind tastes to evaluate the beers in defined style categories. This year, 2,295 breweries from around the country, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands submitted entries. There were 9,497 entries overall.

“This year’s GABF competition was the largest and most competitive to date,” said Chris Swersey, competition manager, Great American Beer Festival. “The beers and talent were as impressive as ever, and we congratulate this year’s winners for their achievements in brewing.”

In addition to the medal winners, there are standout and under-the-radar beers that by the end of the festival, word has spread. 2019 was no different for these exciting, and at times, adventurous beers. These reporters were successful in trying over 150 beers over the three days of GABF, and the following beers deserve attention. While it is difficult to rank them based on favorites, all of them were outstanding beers, and most of them had large lines waiting to try them before the weekend was finished.

Local favorite WeldWerks Brewing Co. from Greeley, Colorado, always has a long line. They seem to have the most unique beers year after year at the GABF. Last year’s Spaghetti Gose was the talk amongst many of the patrons. This year would be no different. WeldWerks brewed yet another masterful concoction called Taco Gose. It tastes just like you would expect it to with those ingredients — Taco Sauce Beer. When it is served with a mini taquito, it tastes even better.

“For 2019, we knew we had to up the ante so we took things a step further by partnering with the folks at Horsetooth Hot Sauce in Fort Collins to create a completely unique hot sauce, based on their venerable The Green Hot Sauce, but aged for an extended amount of time in a freshly emptied Medianoche barrel,” said Neil Fisher Co-Owner, Head Brewer of WeldWerks Brewing Co. “Immediately after the barrel was emptied, we used the hot sauce barrel to age our Taco Gose, brewed with over 600 lbs. of fire roasted tomatoes, sea salt, chili powder, paprika, oregano, onion powder, garlic powder, and cumin. The result was Hot Sauce Barrel Aged Taco Gose, and it was one of the first beers we kicked at all four sessions of GABF this year.”

WeldWerks is the most innovative brewery in this beer crazy state and it’s no wonder that they needed a GABF volunteer to manage the line for every session of this year’s event. In fact, the line was so long one evening, the fire marshal paid a visit to reroute how the line was formed.

“Fortunately, for those not as excited about our savory sours, we had nine other beers available at the fest, including four variants of Medianoche, our barrel-aged Imperial Stout,” said Fisher. “According to Untappd metrics from GABF, three of the beers we poured ranked in the top 10 out of more than 4,000 beers at the fest and all 10 of our beers ranked in the top 150. We also finished the fest as the highest rated brewery and the most checked-in brewery out of more than 800 breweries at the fest. Those stats, coupled with the two medals we brought home from the competition, make 2019’s Great American Beer Festival a tough one to top for us.”

The next group of beers were complete surprises to these reporters and deserve to be mentioned with any award-winning beer that is found at GABF. Ology Brewing Co. from Tallahassee, Florida, brought the latest in their Juice Lab series. Ology rotates fruit for this series and this version had blueberries and raspberries in the brew. If you can imagine drinking a beer smoothie infused with an incredible amount of fruit, this is the beer you would crave. It is difficult to settle on a favorite beer of the entire festival, but this one is at the top. It is a fantastic beer and another brewery added to the must visit list.

Great Notion Brewing located in Portland, Oregon, had lines growing throughout the weekend. Blueberry Muffin and Sticky Bun were crowd favorites and as you stood in line to get their beers you overheard countless festival goers marveling at these two beers. Blueberry Muffin was perfect for anyone who was hoping to remember what a homemade blueberry muffin tasted like. Sticky Bun is an 11.3% ABV monster imperial breakfast stout with melted brown sugar, toasted pecan and cinnamon. It is almost like the sticky buns were fresh out of the oven.

Another beer on the list of notes was right there with Juice Lab as a favorite — Wake and Cake brewed by Burning Barrel Brewing Co. out of Rancho Cordova, California. This beer is a desert-inspired pasty sour loaded with pineapple, coconut, passion fruit, vanilla and marshmallows. A 9% beer that had so much flavor, it made you get back in line to try it again, and again to make sure you didn’t miss one of those flavors listed above.

Last but not least, remember in the ’70s when Coors was only sold west of Texas? The Tank Brewing Co. is following in their elusive footsteps, but in reverse. Their exceptional craft beer that’s brewed in Miami, is not currently available outside of Florida, so the GABF provides a rare window of opportunity for beer lovers to sample their award-winning liquid innovations. This included La Finca Miami (World Beer Cup 2018 Gold Medal winner).

GABF never disappoints when it comes to unique beers. And the ones listed here are just the beginning. If you do your research, you can try so many different styles and types of beer. Don’t be afraid to step outside of a comfort zone. If you are, you might just miss some great beers.

Mark your calendar for 2020 as the 34th Annual Great American Beer Festival is set for September 24-26, 2020. Visit www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com for more information and for a list of all winners.