A Giant Rino Comes To RiNo

It has been all over the news lately that a giant rhino has come to RiNo (Denver's River North neighborhood), and so I felt duty bound to take a photograph of it, as seen on the left, to post on this blog. The River North neighborhood is a hipster hotspot that used to be home to factories and warehouses. When Denver's Lower Downtown (LoDo) neighborhood became the epicenter of the city's nightlife, all the artists who had established galleries there moved up to RiNo, where they found cheaper rent amongst the industrial clutter. Then came brewpubs, and apartment buildings, and hipsters. And then more and more apartments. As well as more and more hipsters. The latest venture there is a mixed-use development called Denargo Market to be built on 17 acres along the Platte River. And the developers installed the giant rhino as the first step in letting Denverites know that this will be "a destination worth visiting." Although as far as I can tell, right now that giant rhino is the only thing sitting on those 17 acres. The public is invited to name the beast, but whatever they come up with, it will pale in comparison to Blucifer, the giant Blue Mustang statue with red eyes that sits at the entrance to Denver International Airport, and which collapsed on its creator and killed him as he worked on it. That will be hard to top.

RiNo is divided into two separate sections by railroad tracks, with one side centered along North Larimer Street and featuring a combination of 19th century commercial buildings, Victorian homes, brewpubs, bars, and brand-new apartment buildings, as well as a fair number of warehouses and factories still waiting for redevelopment. The other side is located along the Platte River and Brighton Boulevard, and features many - and I mean many - high rise apartment buildings, brewpubs, a hotel and food hall called The Source, as well as many vacant lots also waiting for development. To me it is a strange strange area, with both attractive and ugly parts to it, although in fairness, park space is being developed along the bike and foot path along the Platte River, which promises to be attractive once the trees and landscaping mature. Right now, it all seems to be a construction zone, and a pain to navigate. Any guess on how many art galleries are currently operating in that arts district? These days, if you want affordable space for art galleries, try Lakewood. It too is ugly, but unlike RiNo, it is going to stay ugly. And by the way, I took the photograph on the right of the family of geese along the Platte River just opposite that giant rhino statue. They did not seem impressed.