The Gentrification Conundrum

I got to know West 23rd Avenue here in Denver while biking from my condo in South Central Denver to Sloan's Lake, on the city's west side. After biking around that lake and starting home, I would head down West 23rd past many Victorian homes and what were once corner grocery stores. One of those former groceries is now Briar Common Brewery and Eatery, located in the Jefferson Park neighborhood. The Sloan's Lake area east and north of the lake itself has always been a desirable location, but Jefferson Park, not so much. Federal Boulevard is the main business street for the area, and many of the businesses and homes in the neighborhoods along the length of Federal are Hispanic or Latino. During the 1990s, due to the affordability of Jefferson Park and its proximity to downtown Denver, not to mention being close to both Sloan's Lake and the very desirable Highlands neighborhood, "Jeff Park" began to experience a renaissance. These days, it is filled with pricey apartment buildings, as well as homes from the 1890s, 1910s, 1920s, 1940s, and 1950s. And I suspect it is now anything but affordable. Gentrification has taken a firm grip on the area. And so, biking past the corner of 23rd and Federal on my way toward downtown, I am always happy to see two traditional Mexican businesses on the corner - Taqueria Mi Pueblo, seen on the right in the photograph on the left, and Pinateria La Fiesta, across the street from it.

I especially like the outside of Pinateria La Fiesta, which sells flowers and pinatas. I saw an old photo of this building on the web, and it was painted white and a bit run down but now is painted red and decorated with many festive drawings, as seen in the photograph on the right. I assumed that it now attracts its Latino customers from further south, where most if not all of the businesses are Hispanic, but then I looked up Jefferson Park on the internet and saw that it was still 44% Hispanic or Latino, which hopefully means that the gentrification process did not drive all of the long-term residents out of the neighborhood. I remember working with a woman at the Tattered Cover Bookstore here in Denver who lived in the home she grew up in in the Lower Highlands (LoDo) neighborhood, which today is hipster central. She is still there, but remembers the good old days when parking was easy to find, there were no crowds of hipsters walking around night and day, and the property taxes were a fraction of what they are today. But, as I said, she is still there. Hopefully that is the case for many of those residents who have lived in Jefferson Park all their lives.

Police Action In RiNo

I was driving on a street that borders the Platte River in Denver's River North (RiNo) neighborhood the other day and happened onto a police action of some sort. I drove past, found that the street I was on dead ended, and went back the way I came, which is when I took the photograph above. I don't think I have ever witnessed police with guns drawn and pointed at someone before. The photograph was taken through the front windshield of my car, and so is pretty low quality, but you can get the drift of what is happening. The man on the right appears to be homeless, and I am not sure what the threat was that made the police draw their weapons. One of the officers did turn the gun away after I took the photo, so hopefully the confrontation started to deescalate from there, although the other officer was still holding what I assume was a stun gun, but am not sure. I did not stick around to find out. But it does make you realize that incidents like this are happening a lot more often these days. This area, before it was lined with expensive apartment buildings, was popular with the homeless, who would build makeshift shacks along the river. Those structures are gone now, but I imagine the homeless still hang out there, many either mentally ill or with drug or alcohol problems, which creates problems for everyone else, which I suspect was the root cause of the incident that I saw. With so few state-operated psychiatric hospitals these days, which years ago used to treat these people, they now have nowhere else to go but the streets. A problem that definitely needs to be fixed.

A Return To The Past In Idaho Springs

The other day I was driving down Colorado Boulevard in Idaho Springs, a former mining town about 40 minutes west of Denver, and took the photograph on the left of a house located at 804 Colorado Boulevard. It was built in 1891 in the Queen Anne style and back in 2006 the owners filed for and were granted the house's designation as a Historic Preservation Site. I have no idea how long they have actually been restoring the place, but I have to say that I have never seen this house not undergoing repairs. It seemed like they worked on that gazebo-style entry porch for months and months, and now it looks like they are beginning to repaint the outside. And have they been working on the inside of the house since 2006? Lord knows. All I have to say is that owning a 135-year-old home has its downsides, the biggest one being that you can never stop working on it.

The owner of this home also seems to like restoring old cars, two of which can be seen in the photograph on the right. If I removed the color from that photo, you would not be able to tell it wasn't taken in the early 20th Century. Perhaps that is the goal - turning that particular corner of Idaho Springs back to a simpler time, allowing you to sit by the fire, the house lit by gas lamps, and look out the window and see a scene straight out of the 1920s. Get rid of the televisions and computers and smart phones and you are back in the past. No war in Iran, no mass deportations, no attempt to establish an authoritarian dynasty throughout the country. And by the way, Calvin Coolidge was the president back in the 1920s, who, I might add, restored public confidence in the White House after the many scandals of the Harding administration. Now that is something to think about.

Low Flow, But Still A Go On Golden's Clear Creek

Clear Creek in Golden, Colorado is the Denver area hotspot for tubers, and despite lower flow due to a dry winter that resulted in record-low snowpack, the crowds are still coming, especially on the weekends, as seen in the photograph above. In fact, driving down Washington Avenue, Golden's main drag, the other day, it seemed like every other person was walking around with a tube, no doubt having just rented it from Adventure West, which operates a river tube rental stand. The co-owner of that store, Beth Battilla, believes that the lower flow makes the tubing experience more comfortable, as opposed to previous years, when high, fast flowing water can make for a pretty intense adventure. However, Adventure West is not renting tubes in Littleton this year due to low water levels on the South Platte River making tubing difficult. In Boulder, Boulder Creek is also much lower, resulting in a significant drop in the number of tubers there, too. Which means they are probably all coming to Clear Creek. No wonder there are so many traffic jams on that body of water this summer. Time to hire a water cop to keep things moving. I'd apply for the job myself, but it might involve getting wet.

Watching The World Cup Final With Mark

I watched the World Cup Final, which was played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey yesterday afternoon, with my friend Mark. The game pitted Spain against defending champion Argentina, with Spain dominating the game from the start, although neither team was able to score a goal during regulation play. It wasn't until thirty-nine seconds into the second half of overtime that Ferran Torres kicked an 8-yard shot into Argentina's net, giving Spain a 1-0 victory. Mark was cheering for Spain in this match, but his favorite team was England, which lost to Argentina 2-1 in the semifinals. However, France and England played a very exciting game for the bronze metal this past Saturday, which England won 6-4. That game was actually far more exciting than the final, which seemed to me to drag on a bit too long. But that is just my personal opinion. And yes, that is indeed Mark in the photograph above celebrating the victory with the Spanish team through the magic of Photoshop.

The Tennyson Street Fair

Yesterday afternoon I spent an hour or so at the Tennyson Street Fair, which takes place in Denver's Berkeley neighborhood. This area has become extremely popular over the years, so much so that the northern part of Tennyson Street is a canyon of apartment buildings, prompting residents to take action to save the rest of the old-fashioned business district, which is where the fair took place. The festival took up 4 blocks of Tennyson, and featured over 200 local artisans and merchants, with an entire side street filled with food trucks. And I must say, it was very well attended. The most popular spot seemed to be Berkeley Untapped. Its shaded patio was packed with people and was standing room only, which makes sense, since it was 95 degrees with very little shelter from the sun out there.

The Tennyson Street Festival also featured musical acts. Mojomama, "known for a sonic blend of blues, funk, soul, and rock" according to the festival's website, was playing while as I was there, and a crowd had gathered under the trees in the park across the street to listen to them, as seen in the photograph on the right. This group was pretty good, too, I might add. Just beyond the point where the street fair ended, at the corner of 44th and Tennyson, I checked out Parisi, a well-known Italian restaurant here in Denver that has been in business for 27 years. They had a fire several months ago and have been closed ever since. I looked to see if there was a date to reopen, but the sign in the window only said that it was closed until further notice.  That restaurant and the nearby Oriental Theater, which opened in 1927 as a movie theater and is now a music venue, are the two most iconic businesses in the neighborhood. Hopefully Parisi will be back in business soon.

The 49th Annual Pearl Street Arts Fest

I took in the 49th Annual Pearl Street Arts Fest yesterday afternoon, which takes place each year on the Pearl Street Mall in downtown Boulder, Colorado. This festival began as the Downtown Boulder Art Fair in 1978, the first community event held on that mall, which was dedicated back on August 6th, 1977. This year there are over 100 artists from 22 states displaying sculptures, watercolors, oils, photography, mixed media, as well as a variety of other mediums. I really enjoyed walking around looking at the art, especially the photography. I very much liked the wildlife photography of both Matthew Ross (https://www.mrossphotography.com/) and Spenser Yowell (https://www.truvirtuephotography.com/), as well as the landscapes by Becky Batch (https://beckybatchphotography.com/). It is definitely worth checking out their booths.

The best part of this art fest is looking at all the art the while walking down the Pearl Street Mall. It is landscaped so beautifully, and the combination of the art and the landscaping really adds to the ambiance, as seen in the photograph on the right. Plus, as you might have suspected, Boulder is ground zero for peoplewatching. Such an incredible mixture - hippies, hipsters, college students, seniors, families, you name it. And plenty of restaurant and bar patios on the mall to sit and have a drink and watch it all from your table. 

And it is especially fun to stroll the mall on a Friday or Saturday night during the summer. There are magicians, jugglers, musicians, such as the guitar player in front of the Boulder Bookstore in the photograph on the left, and all manner of other kinds of buskers, too. Many people have dinner on the mall and then spend the rest of the evening going from one act to another. And during the Christmas season, the mall is elaborately decorated along its entire length. In any case, the Pearl Street Arts Fest continues today from 10:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. and Sunday from 10:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. If you are in the area - within 400 miles, give or take - you should definitely take it in.