High home prices, lack of supply sever metro residents from communities

summer, he felt like he’d won the lottery. After more than a decade of chasing the cheapest rent across the metro area, the Littleton bartender nally has a house to call his own.

middle-income people live where they work. But as cities and towns contend with historically high home costs and a lack of supply, residents like Laney have struggled to live in their communities.

VOLUME 157 | ISSUE 7

Golden could move summertime downtown events in future years

City Council labels 2023 dates ‘sacrosanct’

BY CORINNE WESTEMAN CWESTEMAN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Downtown Golden is being “loved to death” in the summertime, and city o cials are wondering whether some events would be better o changing their locations or dates in 2024.

Nothing is set in stone; this is only the rst step of a long discussion process, they emphasized.

After hundreds of public comments at its Jan. 24 meeting, City Council concluded that the 2023 dates for downtown events in July and August are “sacrosanct.” Discussion mainly focused on Bu alo Bill Days, the Golden Farmers Market, ARTSWEEK GOLDEN, the Fourth of July celebration and the Golden Fine Arts Festival.

Event organizers said they’ve been planning their 2023 events since the day their 2022 events ended, and January would be too late to change expectations for their vendors, artists, volunteers and attendees.

City sta con rmed Jan. 25 that Golden’s moving forward on event permit applications for the summer, working with organizers to keep the usual dates and locations for 2023.

BY ROBERT TANN COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA

When Chris Laney moved into his new three-bedroom home last

“I almost feel guilty that I have it,” said Laney, 49.

Laney is one of a handful of residents who have secured housing through a subsidized program aimed at helping lower- and

INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 14 | CALENDAR: PAGE 13 | SPORTS: PAGE 30

“I’ve always felt like I was just passing through instead of living somewhere, putting down roots,” said Laney. He has worked

SEE PRICES, P16

However, as downtown Golden sees more summertime tourist trafc, the councilors believed moving these events to other locations or dates in 2024 could bene t every-

SEE EVENTS, P2