RTD selects 41st and Fox for the Goldline station

by Elisa Cohen

GLOBEVILLE – RTD has selected 41st and Fox for the Goldline station in North Denver. Residents of Sunnyside will be able to walk across a vastly improved pedestrian bridge to access the station, and bicyclists will join them by taking an elevator up to the top of the bridge and another elevator back down. A number of factors narrowed the selection to the east side of the tracks. Read more

I.O.U.S.A. – A nation in debt

Why are neither presidential candidates talking about the national debt? Why aren’t we being asked to pay for war bonds to fund our endless wars in the mideast? How did our national debt soar into the $9 trillion plus mark? Concerned citizens should go to this movie and demand answers from their politicians. We should also look into our own behavior. $2.1 million here, $2.1 million there, it starts to add up to real money. What kind of pork do we like in our own neighborhoods, in our own schools? What are we willing to live without? Read more

Donna Lucero: The art of community service

by Elisa Cohen |

Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth. It is the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time. – Shirley Chisolm

NORTH DENVER –Emails from Donna Lucero get opened quickly at the Tribune. In addition to a request for help for hungry people or struggling students, she always takes the time to add a few kind words, a few words of praise or encouragement. And she has been consistent in this approach during at least the past 11 years that I have been in charge of opening email. When an email or letter comes in from her, it gets opened first. Her humanness, her understanding that other human beings need to feel appreciated, apparently guides much of her work organizing good works in the community. When her recent announcement came to the Tribune inbox sharing with us that she would be retiring from running the Ellen Torres Bienvendos Food Bank at 32nd and Wyandot, we wondered “what is next for Ms. Lucero?” Not surprisingly, we found that more service lay ahead – to her own grandchildren and to all of the children of North Denver. Read more

DATA: Social Promotion on Trial

by Elisa Cohen |

A local charter school may turn around its discipline issues; it may address the academic rigor questions; it may live up to its name offering the arts and technology; but will it become the community’s school? That is the question Denver Arts and Technology Academy (DATA). Principal Ray Griffin is now asking as he faces a student shortfall he attributes to the negative publicity the school garnered during last year’s threatened shut down. Read more

Tennyson Street: A taxing situation

by Elisa Cohen |

BERKELEY – The citizens of Denver approved a bond in 2007 for improvements including along Tennyson St. Whether or not the property owners along the business portion of Tennyson Street from 38th to 44th Avenue in North Denver agree to maintain the improvements will determine if $2,100,000 comes to Northwest Denver in the way of street improvements, sidewalks, lighting, trees, benches, and other streetscape enhancements. A group of Tennyson Street property owners are working to create a Local Maintenance District (LMD) while other property owners along the street are fighting against it. The proponents believe it will create a more vital shopping district. The opponents say the money would be better spent addressing parking. Read more

Barack Obama brings huge crowds to North Denver’s Invesco Field

by Elisa Cohen |

Over 80,000 people stomped their feet, waived flags, and cheered until hoarse in North Denver’s Invesco Field as Barack Obama accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for president of the United States of America. Invesco Field and the Democratic National Convention Committee planners held their heads high with pride because most of the convention activities went off smoothly including this extraordinary event held on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s historic “I have a dream,” speech. Read more