Love your North Denver neighborhood? Shop locally

by Elisa Cohen

NORTH DENVER – If we love the color our local stores bring to our streets, we must spend some of our holiday dollars in our local stores. To sweeten the local shopping deals, Tennyson Street is holding a Jingle and Mingle to lure shoppers out into these neighborhood stores on Wednesday, December 10 and again on Saturday, December 20. Shoppers will be serenaded with Christmas carolers and children will have an opportunity to have their pictures taken with Santa. Read more

No sharing NW campuses

by Elisa Cohen

NORTH DENVER – Three North Denver schools – Skinner, Lake and North – dodged the need to share their campuses. Citing a lack of students in the neighborhood, Denver Public School administrator Brad Jupp said the decision is temporary and that DPS would continue to monitor the buildings to see if some sort of sharing or closure is in order in the future. Read more

Organics recycling goes green

by Elisa Cohen

SLOAN’S LAKE – Berilyn Branch has a new after dinner routine; she reaches into the garbage and sorts the organic trash from the plastics. Habits die hard. Since signing up to be in the city’s organic composting pilot program, Branch has to undo decades of garbage habits that include throwing everything but cans and newspapers into the trash can. With the city’s new green composting bins accepting food scraps, soiled paper such as napkins and cartons, and all yard trimmings virtually the only items that need to be thrown away as trash are plastic packaging. Read more

The sanctuary of home

by Elisa Cohen

HIGHLAND – The sanctuary of home promises respite from the storms of life. To come home, to shut the door, and to relax amongst one’s own beautiful objects is a freedom defended by all American political parties. Whether John McCain or Barack Obama takes over the helm of the country, home furnishing and interior design store Sanctuary Home promises to provide Americans of all persuasions with the objects of beauty and comfort they desire with prices to meet the budgets of Democrats, Republicans, Greens and Independents alike. Read more

Groundworks canvass Sunnyside to bring energy savings

by Elisa Cohen

SUNNYSIDE – Saving electrons is just as important as producing new ones, so says presidential candidates. Groundwork Denver, an organization whose mission is to bring about the sustained improvement of the physical environment and promote health and well-being through community-based partnerships and action, took this message to the streets of Sunnyside recently. Over 100 volunteers knocked on doors helping residents reduce energy use and prevent unwanted junk mail. Read more

NHS faithful spruce up school

by Elisa Cohen

HIGHLAND – Last year during a theatrical performance at North High School, students in the audience gasped as the curtain in auditorium tore apart as students tried to pull the curtain shut. The sound of the rip was met with groans of the students declaring that this school is “so ghetto.” The torn curtain was just one of the many pieces of failing equipment in the school’s auditorium. Muffled sound came out of impromptu laptop speakers. Lights dimly lit performers and the audience was almost always in the dark as burnt bulbs went unreplaced. Classroom overhead projectors functioned as North’s state-of-the-budget screening devices. During this past Saturday, members of the Denver Church, a new Sunday tenant of North High School set about making the auditorium more functional and at the same time sprucing up the grounds, painting the walls, and fixing the water wasting plumbing. Read more

OD9 causing vacant lot confusion

by Elisa Cohen |

JEFFERSON PARK – City Council will soon vote whether or not to add the OD-9 overlay zoning to the current R3 for a four-block area of Jefferson Park. Within the four blocks of Jefferson Park to be rezoned from R3 to R3/OD-9, single-family homes share streets and alleys with multifamily apartment complexes, warehouses and vacant lots. The new zoning will reduce the height and width of new structures. Existing building that exceed the heights and setbacks will become permitted non-conforming structures. Read more

Artists Against Convention

by Elisa Cohen |

As members of the public prepare for the upcoming Democratic Convention, some hope for increased business, some for a chance to support their candidates, some plan to make their voices heard by demonstrating. Artists at Next Gallery began their participation in the Democratic Convention early by holding a juried show in which selected artists made bold statements about freedom of speech, war, and the erosion of American civil liberties. Read more

School board should focus on solutions to problems in existing schools

by Elisa Cohen |

First published in the North Denver Tribune

On June 26, 2008 the Denver Public Schools voted to approve two new charter schools under one charter application. The Envision Schools promise to bring small, digital media rich, project-based 6th through 12th grade high schools to Northwest and Northeast Denver. With the leadership from Donnell-Kay and the backing of Piton Foundation along with community support by Padres Unidos a community organization in North Denver, the school board grappled with the idea of saying yes to another Charter school knowing that in the past some charter schools have lived up to their promises, some have fared no better or worse than surrounding schools, and some have struggled miserably. And closing a failing charter school has also proven to be extremely difficult. Despite these concerns the DPS school board voted to approve these two schools as an attempt to provide excellence to 1,400 students. After spending a year teaching at North High, this decision by the school board saddened me, as I have yet to see a board meeting in which I see solutions to the problems facing existing schools. Read more

Blueprint Denver: Stability of use or of building materials?

By Elisa Cohen |

Read it for yourself. Go to DenverGov.org download the Blueprint Denver document and learn for yourself what the plan says and doesn’t say. At the recent R2 to R1 downzoning, the document was referred to as a biblical tome outlining the way. And just like the bible and its thousands of different followers with various takes on what is written, conflicting testimony flowed in the lengthy hearing. Does stability mean of use or of the type of building material used?

Does under 10 units per acre allow for the complete build out of R2 in North Denver in the areas of stability as one resident claimed? If this is the plan for Denver, it is time more residents read the plan and came to agreement on what it says and what it doesn’t say.

What do you think it means? Read the plan and make your comments. Like a bible study group, we ask that you quote page and chapter so that we may all read the same text.

Blueprint Denver

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