A Quiet Sunday Afternoon In Central City

My sister Susan and I, along with Susan's dog Blackberry, drove from Denver up to Black Hawk and Central City this past Sunday afternoon via Clear Creek Canyon, a beautiful drive which this time of year is spotted with golden aspens. Both Black Hawk and Central City are former mining towns that legalized gambling back in the 1990s. Because Black Hawk had few zoning restrictions and was the first gambling town people from the Denver metro area reached, it became a mini Las Vegas, complete with high rises. Sunday afternoon the place was packed with gamblers. Just three miles beyond, Central City, founded in 1859 and which contains many historic buildings from that period, was, in contrast, very quiet, with virtually nobody out on the streets, as seen in the photograph above.

The official web site for Central City says that it has 6 casinos, but it sure doesn't seem like they are very busy, which I think is actually a good thing. Driving through town, it very much looks like it did back in the 19th Century, while Black Hawk is, for the most part, nothing but clusters of large, modern, and very depressing casinos. Because of the lack of gamblers, Central City paid for a highway that connects it directly with Interstate 70, in the hope of attracting more visitors, but it obviously didn't work. The city has now eliminated height restrictions for new construction on vacant lots around town, but so far, I have seen no new developments. And thank God for that.

My personal advise to the city fathers is to simply go back to promoting Central City's 19th century heritage, and bring back as many restaurants, bars, and retail shops as possible. There are plenty of vacant storefronts that could be occupied by thriving businesses, especially if the city provided some financial incentives. For example, wouldn't the building in the photograph on the right make a great bookstore? Or perhaps a bar called "Geezers," catering to an older crowd that prefers a bar that does not play horrible music at a volume so loud you have to send a text to the person sitting across from you if you want to communicate. Just a thought.