Los Carboncitos fires up flavors

by Elisa Cohen |

HIGHLAND – A flaming yellow orange building with fires painted on the windows screams “Try Us” with its exuberant color scheme and signage. And so we did. Many times, with the repeated excellent experience leading us to believe this is one of North Denver’s better traditional Mexican tacquerias. While I hate to admit it, Ruth Tobias a writer for the Boston Globe alerted me to the possibilities of tacqueria delight on 38th Avenue. While visiting my sister outside of Boston, I read about all of the fun things to do in Denver during the DNC. She raved about the huarache, the foot long corn tortilla pizza-like dish, available at Los Carboncitos. Back in Denver, we stopped by to see if the rave was warranted and found ourselves in agreement with Ms. Tobias. Read more

Germinal Stage’s Tiny Alice

by Craig Williamson |

While some theatres try to cover varied and diverse material, others focus on a particular niche, cultivate an audience, and develop a deeper understanding of a certain type of theatre. Germinal Stage Denver is in the latter group, focusing on recent and contemporary intellectually challenging plays. The latest offering from Germinal is Edward Albee’s Tiny Alice, a mixture of the real and the surreal, with absurdist elements tossed in. The language is brilliant and cruel, the action intense, and the direction and acting strong, creating a fascinating but challenging evening of theatre. Read more

How to: Mail in ballot from Senator Ken Gordon

You Can Vote Naked! (but not on Election Day)

Governor Ritter and Metro Denver County Clerks and Commissioners this week urged people to vote early or by mail. They did this because the expected high turnout coupled with the long ballot may lead to long lines on election day. Since we all feel that voting is important and since most people don’t like waiting in long lines, voters can avoid this by either requesting a mailed ballot by clicking here, or by voting early at an early voting location. Click here for information about how to vote early in your county. I commend Governor Ritter and the local government officials. I support their efforts to encourage people to vote early.

There is, as always, another side.

Top Ten Reasons to Wait Until Election Day to Vote

10. Maybe I’ll run into that nice guy Dan, who I stood next to for three hours when I tried to vote in 2006.
9. My babysitter said she needs more hours or she is going to quit.

8. I like to experience different kinds of weather, such as, snow and sleet while waiting in line. It reminds me of Valley Forge.

7. I like to be at the mercy of electronic technology glitches. It makes me feel like I am in Las Vegas.

6. I can be on television when the camera crew comes by to show how long the lines still are for the 10:00 PM news.

5. This campaign season hasn’t been long enough, so anything to make it last.

4. Standing in line gives me an opportunity to count the number of bricks on the south side of the fire station.

3. If I multiply the number by four, I have a pretty good idea how many bricks are on all four sides, and I only needed to count one side.

2. If the computers go down and the line stops moving, maybe a volunteer will buy me pizza.

1. If I have to wait for hours to vote, maybe I could be the last person in the nation to vote and cast the deciding ballot.

The above is, of course, humor and if you feel that voting at a polling place on election day is the only way to really have the experience, please do that. If, however, you are able and willing to vote early, it may save you some time. Voting by mail can allow you to sit at your dining room table with the Blue Book and any other materials you may want to use, and you will reduce the lines for other people that choose to vote on election day.

Here is a link to the Blue Book (the state’s summary of state-wide ballot issues) that is available on line now and will be delivered to your home soon.

Hope you are well. Please feel free to forward this email to others or republish it in full or in part. As always do not hesitate to write back with comments or questions.

Sincerely,

Ken Gordon
Colorado Senate
Majority Leader

Senator Ken Gordon, District 35-Denver

Political Clarification

On Obama, McCain, and Palin from an email:

I’m a little confused.

Let me see if I have this straight… (I hope I’m not offending
anyone)

If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you’re ‘exotic,
different.’

Grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, you’re a quintessential
American story.

If your name is Barack you’re a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.

But if you name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you’re a maverick.

Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.

Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you’re well
grounded.

If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the
first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter
registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as
a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator
representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the
state Senate’s Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the
United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while
sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and
Public Works and Veteran’s Affairs committees, you don’t have any real
leadership experience.

If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city
council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with fewer than 7,000 people,
20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then
you’re qualified to become the country’s second highest ranking
executive (and according to the actuarial tables, you have a greater
than 30% chance of succeeding the president during your first term).

If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2
beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you’re not a real
Christian.

If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your
disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you’re a
Christian.

If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the
proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.

If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no
other option in sex education in your state’s school system while your
un-wed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you’re very responsible.

If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a
prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city
community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family’s values
don’t represent America’s.

If your husband is nicknamed ‘First Dude’, with at least one DWI
conviction and no college education, who didn’t register to vote until
age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of
Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

OK, much clearer now! Whew!!! Boy…I was worried there for a minute.

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

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

Next Page »