Washington Park Profile 1120

WashParkProfile.com

NOVEMBER 2020

Digital and print community newspaper founded in 1978.

GOING SOLAR Denver solar co-op offers opportunity to learn prior to purchase

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DELIVERING E-SMILES Denver Girl Scout organizes group to send uplifting emails to hospice nurses

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EXCEPTIONALLY DEDICATED EDUCATORS

ENSURING ALL ARE WARM THIS WINTER

Two DPS teachers nominated for Teacher of the Year

Annual Coats for Colorado drive takes place through Nov. 30

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FREE

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November 2020

Business Matters Christy Steadman | csteadman@coloradocommunitymedia.com Editor’s note: Business Matters is a monthly column featuring business news in the Life on Capitol Hill and Washington Park Profile coverage areas, which is roughly central-north and south Denver.

As businesses continue to weather the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Colorado Community Media urges you to reach out to your favorite local businesses to find out about their current operating status.

If you are a local business that would like to announce any updates to your operations, email Christy Steadman at csteadman@coloradocommunitymedia.com.

NEW OPENINGS AND REOPENINGS Junction Food & Drink A new food hall opened in early October in Denver’s University Hills neighborhood.

Junction Food & Drink at the Colorado Center is located at 2000 South Colorado Blvd. It “is a chef-driven food hall featuring inspired creations from both locally and nationally known chefs,” states the food hall’s website.

According to the website, the food hall opened with six restaurant concepts, a stall serving coffee and tea, and the Junction Bar which serves cocktails, wine and beer. The website states that four more restaurant options are coming soon.

To learn more, visit www.junctionfoodanddrink.com.

opened on Oct. 7, which is the same day that the La Colombe café inside also opened. The café is “owned and operated by Ideal Market but fully outfitted and designed in collaboration with the La Colombe team,” states a news release.

La Colombe is a coffee roaster that “provides signature classic blends and exceptional single-origin coffees to cafés, hotels, restaurants and retailers around the world. In addition, the company owns and operates 30 cafés in Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.,” states the news release. It first came to Denver in 2016.

Ideal Market got its start in Boulder, but is now owned and operated by Whole Foods Market.

At Ideal Market Denver, La Colombe offers cold brew on tap, specialty coffee drinks and traditional espresso beverages and teas.

“We are pumped to work in collaboration with the Ideal Market Denver team to rethink how we design our cafe and experience within the store,” said JP Iberti, president and co-founder of La Colombe, in a news release.

“We love to bring in elements of craftsmanship, light and texture to our spaces and this new cafe certainly reflects that.” I think that we stuck a balance between our beloved cafes, while complementing the local vibes from the Capitol Hill neighborhood.

To learn more about La Colombe, visit www.lacolombe.com.

Pampered Paws Pet Spa & Boutique A new dog grooming business located on the border of Denver’s Cheesman Park and City Park West neighborhoods had its grand opening on Oct. 2.

Pampered Paws Pet Spa & Boutique, 1900 E. Colfax Ave., was founded by Susan Martinez to provide a spot where all the area’s dogs

can be pampered.

The shop provides a full range of grooming services including bathing, nail trims, haircuts, fur de-matting and de-shedding treatments, teeth-brushing and ear cleaning, and even hair coloring with pet-friendly products. Pampered Paws also has a self-serve dog wash, and carries a variety of pet foods, accessories, treats and toys.

A portion of Pampered Paws’ proceeds go to the Mile High Canine Rescue, which is a nonprofit, volunteer-run and foster homebased organization that supports abandoned, neglected and abused dogs until they are placed in a forever home.

To learn more about Pampered Paws Pet Spa & Boutique, visit www.pamperedpawspa. com.

Wheelhouse Platt Park resident Jody Fidler had been operating a mobile gift shop called Wheelhouse Gifts for about four years when COVID-19 hit.

Fidler’s converted van would be at a variety of community events including festivals and fairs and other pop up events. However, earlier this year, Fidler realized that most — if not all — of the events she normally would attend were cancelled this year because of the pandemic.

Then, while out on a walk one day, she saw a vacant space available and decided it was an opportunity to open a brick-and-mortar shop.

“I thought Wheelhouse could add to the greatness and charm of Old South Pearl,” Fidler said.

On July 1, Fidler opened Wheelhouse Gifts at 1525 South Pearl St. in Denver’s Platt Park neighborhood.

Wheelhouse Gifts boasts being an affordable gift boutique and carries a variety of

Anastasia Fidler, daughter of store owner Jody Fidler, wears a tie dye maxi dress available at Wheelhouse Gifts in Platt Park. Jody Fidler opened the gift shop’s brick-and-mortar location this past summer after operating a mobile gift shop for about four years.

COURTESY PHOTO items. Much of the items are women’s clothing and accessories, but Wheelhouse also carries curated gifts for babies and toddlers, men’s gifts and selections for teens; as well as jewelry, novelty items, artwork, Colorado ware, custom-made decorative license plates, wall art and masks.

Not all the items are handmade, Fidler said, but the store does carry a number of items that are made by local artisans.

The concept is to have something for everybody’s wheelhouse, Fidler said.

“We like people to come in and be happy,” Fidler said, “and find the unique gift that will make their friend smile.”

To learn more about Wheelhouse Gifts, visit its Facebook page or call the shop at 720248-8477.

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Celebrating 56 Years

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Washington Park Profile 3

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November 2020

Business FROM PAGE 2

CLOSINGS Zaidy’s Deli Zaidy’s Deli, which served Jewish comfort food, recently announced on its website that it had closed indefinitely.

According to the letter addressed to “our loyal customers, friends and family,” the deli opened its location in Cherry Creek, 121 Adams St., in 1992.

“The appreciation we have for the opportunity to serve our family recipes and favorite foods while watching this city flourish right outside our window, is only surpassed by our immense gratitude for you,” the letter states.

“It’s the memories made at our restaurant, over good food with good company, that we are most proud of and that we’ll undoubtedly miss the most.”

CHANGES/OTHER Brightmarten BusinessDen reported that Brightmarten, a restaurant located at 730 South University Blvd. near Bonnie Brae, would be operating for take-out only — with some pop-up events — through the winter.

An Oct. 1 post on the restaurant’s Facebook page states the change of operations will help manage labor and food costs.

“We have come to the conclusion that we cannot operate as a normal restaurant over the winter,” the restaurant posted. “The cold will force us to bring people inside and with the size and shape of our dining room, that leaves us with very few options to create a fun, safe space indoors.”

On its website, Brightmarten states that it plans on making its restaurant space avail-

able for private dining events for lunch or dinner, pop-up events, specialty events such as a limited attendance wine dinner, and perhaps cooking-and/or-cocktail making classes.

“We have a lifeline right now and we see a path to make it through the winter. There is no blueprint for what’s ahead, but we believe by controlling our costs, doing take-out and having fun events we give ourselves a chance to be your neighborhood restaurant for years to come,” a letter on the restaurant’s website states. “We are fighters and if all goes well, we will open up in the Spring stronger … While we hunker down over the winter, we hope that you find ways to support restaurants that continue to operate as usual, as well as supporting us.”

To learn more about Brightmarten, or to order take-out, visit www.brightmarten. com/.

MILESTONES Rosy Rings Rosy Rings, a home fragrance company, celebrated the one-year anniversary of its brick-and-mortar location on Oct. 24.

Founder Shannon Cumberland started the business in her Denver home’s kitchen more than 25 years ago, selling her products online and in other retailers, including national and international department stores and boutiques. The Rosy Rings Studio, 2940 E. Sixth Ave. in Cherry Creek North, is the business’ first Rosy Rings company store that is not an independent retailer.

Popular products include diffusers, candles, botanical wax sachets and seasonal fragrance items. Rosy Rings Studio also regularly hosts candle and sachet making classes, now offered virtually or as small-group inperson at the studio.

To learn more about the company or the Rosy Rings Studio, visit www.studio.rosyrings.com.

Allie Liebgott, director of retail operations and co-owner of Rosy Rings Studio, and Shannon Cumberland, founder of Rosy Rings and co-owner of Rosy Rings Studio, stand outside the Rosy Rings Studio in Cherry Creek North. Rosy Rings was founded more than 25 years ago, and the brick-and-mortar celebrated its one-year anniversary in October.

PHOTO BY JIMENA PECK

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November 2020

Denver Restaurant Week to advocate for local eateries November event will take place across the metro area Staff report Restaurants have endured particular hardships amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and with a focus on advocacy for the restaurant industry, Visit Denver — the city’s convention and visitors bureau — has announced a fall Denver Restaurant Week to take place Nov. 13-22.

With COVID-19 precautions in place to keep the community safe, the November “program will still showcase the creative, exciting menus that diners have come to expect,” states a news release on Visit Denver’s website.

“For the past 16 years, we have been able to applaud the phenomenal growth of Denver’s culinary community with Denver Restaurant Week,” said Richard Scharf, president and CEO of Visit Denver in the news release.

“Now, it is time for the city to come together for this industry by dining out or taking out, so we have their hospitality, creativity and good food to enjoy for many years to come.”

As in years past, the fall Denver Restaurant Week will feature specially-priced menus from some of the finest restaurants across the metro area. Restaurants will choose one of three available price points — which are $25, $35 or $45 — and create a multi-course dinner at that price. The fall event, however, will feature the option for takeout and delivery from some

‘Restaurants play a vital role in Denver’s communities — they make our city unique.’

— Sonia Riggs, president and CEO of the Colorado Restaurant Association

of the restaurants, including those that offer alcohol alongside to-go and delivery orders.

“Restaurants play a vital role in Denver’s communities — they make our city unique.

And right now, they are navigating an unprecedented crisis. If they’re going to survive the winter, they need our support,” said Sonia Riggs, president and CEO of the Colorado Restaurant Association. “We ask the public to consider what they’d lose if they lost their local restaurants, and to dine out and take out — during Denver Restaurant Week and then all winter long — to ensure that doesn’t happen.”

Participating restaurants and menus were announced Oct. 26. Diners are able browse the wide variety of options on www.denver. org/denver-restaurant-week. Diners may also make reservations or plan their takeout orders by contacting the individual restaurants.

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A Warren Village resident dances in the new shoes she received through an effort

by CenturyLink’s Women Empowered Group — an employee resource group — earlier this fall. Every summer, Warren Village sends a list of shoe needs to the CenturyLink Women Empowered Group and the group, across five Denver-based CenturyLink locations, collects the shoes — donated by employees — and delivers them to Warren Village. Warren Village is a Denver-based organization located in the Cheesman Park neighborhood that focuses on “helping low-income, single-parent families make the journey from poverty to self-sufficiency,” states a news release.

This year is the 14th consecutive year the shoe donation has occurred, and 174 pairs of shoes were collected and donated.

COURTESY OF WARREN VILLAGE

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r o s t a n c o u m d e i n a S t P e D d for o w T

November 2020

Teac h e r of the Year Rachel Lamb, Gerardo Muñoz are two of seven finalists statewide

By Christy Steadman csteadman@coloradocommunitymedia.com

D

enver Public Schools teachers are dedicated to their students.

And two have stood out among all the teachers in the entire state for their exceptional work.

In early October, the Colorado Department of Education announced that DPS teachers Rachel Lamb and Gerardo Muñoz were named two of seven finalists for the 2021 Colorado Teacher of the Year recognition. The program “recognizes an exceptionally dedicated, knowledgeable and skilled K-12 classroom teacher to represent the entire profession in Colorado,” states the Colorado Department of Education’s website.

“This year has been exceptionally tough on our teachers. We can’t thank them enough for their dedication to teaching our students through all the challenges of COVID-19,” said Katy Anthes, Colorado’s education commissioner, in a news release. “These seven educators have inspired me with their exceptional dedication to supporting their students and the high quality of their professional practice. Colorado would be proud to have any one of them represent the profession for our state.”

DPS Superintendent Susana Cordova added that teachers are “stepping up in ways they never imagined.”

“I know they are doing so thinking about the students who need that familiarity, who need that connection and who depend on great teachers to help them achieve their goals,” Cordova said. “Both Gerardo and Rachel have demonstrated a commitment to our students in a way that not only embodies Denver Public Schools’ cores values, but also goes above and beyond.”

On Oct. 29, the Colorado Department of Education named Muñoz as Colorado’s 2021 Teacher of the Year. He will automatically become Colorado’s nominee for the 2021 Council of Chief State School Officers’ National Teacher of the Year competition. Out of all of the states’ nominees, four finalists will be selected, and of them, one will be named the 2021 National Teacher of the Year.

“Muñoz is an incredible educator deserving of this honor,” Cordova said in a news release.

“His dedication to his students is representative of many outstanding educators you will find in DPS classrooms. He inspires, guides and uplifts students on a daily basis, and I am honored to serve our students alongside him.”

Get to know the nominees Rachel Lamb Being of Navajo descent, growing up, Lamb was taught the importance of passing knowledge on to the future generations, she said.

“It is an honor to my Navajo ancestors and the many innovators in my life,” Lamb said of her nomination. But she added it is her students’ tireless work that earned her the nomination. “I am merely a vessel for their voices, creativity and vision.”

Lamb, 36, has been an educator for 14 years and most of that has been spent teaching grades two-through-five. Her career began with Albuquerque Public Schools, and this school year is her third with DPS. She and her husband — who is also an educator — relocated to Colorado to broaden their educational experience, as well as that of their 7-year-old daughter. With DPS, Lamb taught at Stedman Elementary School in Denver’s North Park Hill

TEACHER SPOTLIGHT Rachel Lamb Years teaching: 14 Years with Denver Public Schools: 2 Current role: Second grade at Inspire Elementary School.

Recognitions/projects: • National Board Certified Teacher • Nearpod PioNear • National Geographic Certified Educator • Two-time TEDxABQ Education Speaker • Apple Distinguished Educator • PBS Digital Innovator • Henry Ford Teacher Innovator • ISTE Making IT Happen award recipient • Translating Tinybop app to Navajo language

LEARN MORE To learn more about the Colorado Department of Education’s annual Colorado Teacher of the Year recognition, visit https://www.cde.state. co.us/cdeawards/teacheroftheyear.

To learn more about the Council of Chief State School Officers’ National Teacher of the Year, visit https://ntoy. ccsso.org/.

Gerardo Muñoz Years teaching: 22 Years with Denver Public Schools: 22 Current role: Middle-andhigh school social studies at the Denver Center for International Studies at Baker.

Recognitions/projects: • EduColor and the #WeBuildEDU project • National Education Association’s Racial and Social Justice Conference • CHOOSE • University of Colorado’s Teachers of Color and Allies Summit • Too Dope Teachers and a Mic podcast (Muñoz and Kevin Adams) • Currently authoring a book about being an educational disrupter, which includes exploring systemic oppression, inequality in education and how to ensure all students have an opportunity to succeed

Years that Denver Public Schools teachers became the Colorado Department of Education’s Teacher of the Year 2021 — Gerardo Muñoz, Denver Center for International Studies at Baker 2019 — Meg Cypress, Bradley International School 2010 — Justin Darnell, BryantWebster K-8

1982 — Hugh Avis, Manual High School

1971 — James Fluckey, West High School

1980 — Richard Nelson, East High School (National Finalist)

1968 — Margaret Jacoby, Pitts Elementary School

1976 — Ted Tsumura, George Washington High School (National Finalist)

1967 — Margaret Smith, Denver East High School

THE SEVEN FINALISTS FOR THE 2021 COLORADO TEACHER OF THE YEAR ARE: Anna Conrad: English language arts and AVID teacher at Harrison High School in Colorado Springs, Harrison School District Two.

School, Mesa County Valley 51.

Lisa Crabtree: Social studies teacher at Fruita Monument High

Joe Hites: Health and leadership teacher at Vista Ridge High

Holly Haverkorn: Drama and technical theatre teacher at Mitchell High School, Colorado Springs School District 11.

neighborhood for the 2018-2019 school year, and she taught at McMeen Elementary School in the Washington Virginia Vale neighborhood last year. This is her first year teaching at Inspire Elementary, 5677 N Galena St., in Denver’s Central Park neighborhood. Lamb teaches second grade there.

In her teaching, Lamb incorporates realworld applications, technology, design thinking and project-based subjects.

“Students learn a lot more when they are active participants,” Lamb said. “When we (challenge) them with something they find difficult, they always are able to meet or exceed expectations.”

Lamb also strives to ensure that education in general evolves with the students.

“Every student has a different background,” Lamb said. “There’s so many different ways students can demonstrate their knowledge through the use of technology and their individual voices.”

Gerardo Muñoz Muñoz, 44, grew up in the east side of Denver “where community, culture and strength were modeled daily,” he said. “I was raised by people

School in Colorado Springs, School District 49.

teacher at Inspire Elementary School, Denver Public Schools.

Tricia Kearns: Science and health teacher at Webber Middle School in Fort Collins, Poudre School District.

Gerardo Muñoz: Middleand-High school social studies teacher at the Denver Center for International Studies, Denver Public Schools.

Rachel Lamb: Second-grade

who cared deeply about making the world a better place for youth.”

His mother is a retired teacher, and his father was a soccer coach, but Muñoz had other career ideas — he was considering a career in journalism or perhaps acting.

But at age 22, he got his first teaching job as a long-term substitute teacher, and fell in love with teaching that first day.

“It’s the energy and curiosity that the young people walk into the classroom with,” Muñoz said. “If I have accomplished anything as a teacher, I have done so because I am a part of a community that inspires, motivates and shows solidarity.”

Muñoz spent eight years teaching at the Contemporary Learning Academy — a DPS school now located in the Capitol Hill neighborhood — before he came to the Denver Center for International Studies at Baker, 574 Sixth Ave. He teaches social studies to seventh graders and to students in grades 10 through 12, and in the 14 years Muñoz has been at DCIS, he helped build the school’s soccer program and start the school’s debate team.

“The big picture,” Muñoz said, “is seeing young people move from educational depen-

dency to a state of freedom. It’s not just about grades and test scores because it’s also about their ability to dream and turn their talents into something they want to do long term.”

Muñoz’s wife is an early childhood educator, and they have a 15-year-old daughter.

When Muñoz was a teen, he witnessed many of his childhood friends drop out of high school, he said. That helps him realize today how important it is for all students to have some basis in education that they can relate to, and an adult that will advocate for them. Both within the school and outside of his role with DPS, Muñoz is involved with a number of programs, initiatives, campaigns and organizations that promote equity and antiracism.

Muñoz is a “champion for people of color and social justice issues,” said Marisa Vasquez, principal at DCIS Baker.

She added that Muñoz empowers his students.

“His enthusiasm for social justice sets the tone for our students as well as our staff,” Vasquez said. “He puts the students who are marginalized at the center. He brings it (equity in education) back to the students who need it the most.”

Washington Park Profile 7

November 2020

‘That bright spot makes a real difference’ Girl Scouts send uplifting emails to hospice nurses to brighten their day

By Christy Steadman csteadman@coloradocommunitymedia.com

H

ospice nurses have such an important job.

That is why Denver Girl Scout Rebecca Gruen-Wener wanted to make hospice nurses the focal point of her Silver Award project.

“I really love knowing that I’m helping nurses,” she said, “because their whole job is to help others. This is our chance to help them.”

Hospice nurses are health-care professionals who care for people who are near the end of their life cycle.

The purpose of Gruen-Wener’s Silver Award project, called the Support Pal Program, is to uplift hospice nurses’ spirits.

Gruen-Wener is working with about 15 Girl Scouts from eight different troops to send a weekly email with an uplifting message to the nurses working at Brookdale Hospice Denver.

The Support Pal emails can include a comic or cartoon, joke or riddle, phrase of encouragement — just about “anything to make the nurses smile,” Gruen-Wener said.

Unlike a pen pal program, the nurses are not required to return an email. The emails have a sole purpose of brightening the nurses’ day, without adding more stress to their already-busy day, Gruen-Wener said.

The job of a hospice nurse is rewarding — being able to connect with a person during an intimate time in that person’s life, said Kevin Samelson, one of two clinical services managers at Brookdale. He and Abby Shaw oversee the nursing program.

But it is stressful, Samelson added. Especially now with the virus, a patient’s hospice nurse may be the only person he or she sees in-person. Receiving the emails is such an uplifting, pleasant experience for the nurses, Samelson said.

“It’s something that takes you away from the stress. It (the email) is a completely stress-free moment in the day,” Samelson said.

“Everybody needs a bright spot in their day.

That bright spot makes a real difference.”

Something else that Samelson added is so valuable about the emails is the spontaneity of them.

“We don’t know when it’s going to come,” he said. “It just arrives. It’s a surprise, but it’s always a pleasant surprise.”

Gruen-Wener began her project by asking the hospice nurses what their biggest challenges are currently, during COVID-19.

They told her a big one was the lack of their patients’ support system. Because of the strict no visitor rules, hospice patients don’t have access to visitors such as music therapists, and friends and loved ones. Another was, simply, not being able to exchange the basic human interaction of a smile because of the need to use personal protection equipment (PPE).

“The hospice nurse now bears the full responsibility for in-person support of the isolated hospice patient,” Gruen-Wener said.

“The Support Pals’ emails help the nurses deal

Meet Rebecca Gruen-Wener Rebecca Gruen-Wener, 14, is a recent recipient of the Girl Scout Silver Award.

The Silver Award is the highest achievement for middle school-aged Girl Scouts, and is the penultimate achievement for girls in their entire Girl Scouts career. It is a progression for girls to earn their Gold Award — the highest achievement — in high school.

To earn a Silver Award, a Girl Scout must complete a project that addresses a need in their community.

“It encourages girls to not only start looking at the issues in the world around them,” said Kaitie LoDolce, manager of Highest Awards for Girl Scouts of Colorado, “but also take action to make an impact.”

LoDolce added that often, earning a Silver Award is the first time that girls “start to truly believe they can make a real difference in the world.”

Girls are expected to advocate for their Silver Award project and reach out to

subject matter experts in their community.

For some girls, it’s the first time they get real-world experience with skills such as drafting professional emails or speaking with professional adults on the phone, LoDolce said.

“These practical skills are huge for middle school girls and set them up for success in high school and beyond,” she added.

Gruen-Wener has been a Girl Scout since she was in kindergarten. She is part of Troop 1737, which is based in Denver’s Lowry neighborhood.

While completing her Silver Award project, Gruen-Wener enjoyed learning more about hospice, and being able to organize a team. She added that she also improved her communication skills.

“Girl Scouts really highlights that giving back to the community is important,” Gruen-Wener said. “The Silver Award was a really great way for me to do something for the community that has a lasting impact.”

with their stress and make their week better.

It is a one-way support system for these heronurses at this difficult time.”

To implement this, Gruen-Wener networked with the other Girl Scout troops — four of which are based in Denver, two in Aurora and one in Arvada — and assigned a hospice nurse to each participating Girl Scout.

Launching the entire project was done remotely, Gruen-Wener said, adding that she has never met any of the other Girl Scout Support Pals in person. However, GruenWener is hoping to have a get-together with them once COVID is no longer a concern and it is safe to do so.

Nurses also responded that another big challenge was protecting themselves from catching the virus and keeping their PPE organized. Brookdale Hospice Denver’s physical location is in Greenwood Village, but the nurses also do home visits which requires travel throughout the Denver-metro area and Boulder, and Brookdale also has a location in Colorado Springs.

To solve the problem of the PPE organization, particularly for the nurses doing home visits, Gruen-Wener designed and made a personalized box that the nurses can keep in the trunk of their car. The box has dividers so that one side serves as a place where the nurses can keep their clean and sanitized PPE, and the other side is for personal items such as a cell phone and keys.

Gruen-Wener’s mother, Liss Gruen, was one of the inspirations behind the project. She works fulltime as a geriatrician doctor, and part time as a medical director for Brookdale.

“She works really hard,” Gruen-Wener said.

“She is a great role model.”

At nearly 70 years of age, Samelson said something else that’s fun about receiving the Support Pal email is that they come from youth/teens.

“It exposes us to a younger approach to life,” Samelson said. But moreover, Samelson added, “I’m heartened to see there are young people out there who have such a concern for

Denver Girl Scout Rebecca Gruen-Wener, 14, is a recent recipient of the Silver Award. To earn the Silver Award, GruenWener implemented the Support Pal Program, for which hospice nurses receive an uplifting email from area Girl Scouts on an ongoing, weekly basis. COURTESY PHOTO

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8 Washington Park Profile

November 2020

Denver invests in affordable housing Development in Cap Hill breaks ground, another celebrates grand opening in Baker

By Christy Steadman csteadman@coloradocommunitymedia.com

Affordable housing has marked two milestones in Denver, one in the Capitol Hill neighborhood and another in the Baker neighborhood: Capitol Square Apartments Denver’s Department of Housing Stability broke ground on Oct. 1 on a project that will provide 103 new income-restricted apartments in Capitol Hill.

To be called the Capitol Square Apartments, the development is located on the corner of 13th Avenue and Sherman Street, which is about one block away from the Colorado Capitol. The project totals 120,405 square feet and the building will be six stories tall. It will house 73 one-bedroom units and 30 two-bedroom units, a fitness room for tenants, a landscaped outdoor terrace and parking for 68 vehicles.

Capitol Square Apartments is being developed by Mile High Development and Brinshore Development.

“It is a deep honor to mark this moment in time,” said George Thorn, president and founder of Mile High Development, in a news release. “Our team has been dedicated to making this project a reality, and this event represents new beginnings for more than 100 new neighbors. This building will rise up just steps away from Colorado’s lawmakers, setting a powerful example of the importance of high-quality affordable housing.”

All the apartments in the development will be income restricted, available exclusively for households earning between 30% and 80% of the area median income, which is up to $54,950 for a single-person household, according to a news release.

The project is expected to cost $33.9 million. The City and County of Denver provided $1,545,000 in financing for it from the Affordable Housing Fund.

Other public finance funds came from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs.

Colorado Housing & Finance Authority is issuing the bonds for the project.

The Colorado State Land Board has entered into a long-term lease with the developers, and lease proceeds will support the board’s mission to raise funds for

The Governor’s Residence Preservation Fund’s 2020 commemorative ornament honors the passing of the 19th Amendment.

education and the K-12 BEST program.

The BEST program provides competitive grants for new school construction and renovation projects for existing schools, according to the Colorado Department of Education’s website.

Construction on the Capitol Square Apartments began in October, and it is expected to open to tenants in July 2022.

“We’re proud to utilize Denver’s Affordable Housing Fund to help create 103 new, affordable homes for hard-working residents,” said Denver Mayor Michael Hancock. “Projects like Capitol Square help ensure that Denver remains affordable and accessible for future generations.”

Atlantis Apartments A new income-restricted housing development called the Atlantis Apartments celebrated its grand opening with Denver’s Department of Housing Stability on Sept.

29.

The Atlantis Apartments, 201 S. Cherokee St. in Denver’s Baker neighborhood, boasts 60 apartments primarily for individuals with disabilities.

The building is four stories tall and has 36 one-bedroom units and 24 twobedroom units, a community conference room, technology/media centers, common-area laundry facilities on each floor and a workshop/mud room for repairing wheelchairs and bicycles. Additional features include enhanced accessibility features such as sensory elements and wayfinding cues in common areas.

All the apartments are income restricted, available only for households that earn no more than 60% of the area median income, which is up to $42,000 for a single-person household, according to a news release.

The project cost $18.1 million, and the City and County of Denver provided $800,000 in financing for it. The project also received other public finance funds from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, and low-income housing tax credits through the Colorado Housing & Finance Authority, a news release states.

Atlantis Apartments’ first residents moved in in September.

“We’re proud to invest not only in affordable housing, but in much-needed homes for people living with physical or cognitive disabling conditions,” said Britta Fisher, executive director of Denver’s Department of Housing Stability, in a news release. “These apartments will make a lasting difference for decades to come and add to the great progress made by the Atlantis Community Foundation in housing individuals.”

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Governor’s Residence Preservation Fund’s ornament now available Staff report The Governor’s Residence Preservation Fund’s 2020 commemorative ornament is now available.

This year’s ornament honors the passing of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the constitutional right to vote. The U.S. Congress voted in favor of this amendment in 1919, and it was ratified in Colorado on Dec. 15, 1920.

Proceeds benefit the Governor’s Residence Preservation Fund, which is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization established in 2008 to ensure the ongoing preservation and use of the Governor’s Residence at the Boettcher Mansion. The mansion is located in Denver’s Capitol Hill neighborhood at 400 E. Eighth Ave. The mansion was built in 1908 as a family dwelling. The Boettcher Foundation gave the property to the State of Colorado in 1959.

Since, it has served as the Colorado governor’s official residence, as well as offering public tours and various education, civic learning and cultural programs.

Colorado has been home to women leaders well before the passage of the 19th Amendment. In the 1870s, Colorado became one of the first states to enact women’s suffrage via popular referendum, and Colorado women

HOW TO ORDER The 2020 Governor’s Residence Preservation Fund’s commemorative ornament can be ordered online at http://www.coloradoshome.org/gift-shop. Cost is $35 plus shipping. The entire 12-ornament collection is available for $420. were granted the right to vote in 1893. Still, women’s suffrage addressed gender discrimination, but did not end other forms of disenfranchisement for women of color.

The 2020 commemorative ornament is the 12th in a collectable series that features a new design each year. “All ornaments are made in the USA of the finest quality brass, screenprinted in exquisite colors and hand finished in sparkling 24-karat gold. They are packaged in a gift box with a hot-stamp of the image of the ornament created by Beacon Designs,” states a news release.

“We invite people to order ornaments now as gifts for family and friends, and we appreciate the support of the Governor’s Residence Preservation Fund,” said Coco Criste, executive director of the Governor’s Residence Preservation Fund, “especially during a year like 2020 when our normal fundraising events were halted due to COVID-19.”

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Washington Park Profile 9

November 2020

A winter coat to every Coloradan who needs one Coats for Colorado drive takes place through Nov. 30

By Christy Steadman

csteadman@coloradocommunitymedia.com

D

ependable Cleaners is again hosting its annual Coats for Colorado campaign to get coats to those who are in need.

“The need is great. We’ve got the ability to provide, and so we will,” said Kasina Swartz, the Coats for Colorado coordinator and store manager for the Dependable Cleaners at 1701 South Broadway.

“It’s carrying on someone else’s legacy of kindness.”

Coats for Colorado got its start by the late Warren Toltz in the early 1980s. Since then, it has become an annual success, serving nearly 150 local nonprofits, schools and not-for-profit organizations. Last year, about 30,000 coats were collected and distributed to Coloradans in need.

New and gently-used coats may be dropped off at any Dependable Cleaners metro-wide through Nov. 30. Special precautions are being taken this year because of COVID-19, so all coats should be dropped off in a bag to allow time for quarantine. Additionally, Dependable Cleaners’ cleaning process ensures sanitation of each donated coat.

Dependable Cleaners does not have staff to make repairs, so coats must be in condition. For example, there should be no rips or holes and the zippers should work. Coats are cleaned at the location they are dropped off at, then they are delivered to Swartz’s store location for sorting, such as being divided into children’s or adult sizes.

This year, there is a specific need for children’s coats — the loss of jobs because of the pandemic may make it especially difficult for parents who are out-of-work to get their children a winter coat, said Janay Ingram, district manager for Dependable Cleaners.

“The great thing about this year’s drive is that people who are donating coats are truly doing it for the betterment of their community,” Ingram said. “We’ll make sure that every kid, every person in the state of Colorado who needs a winter coat, gets one.”

Kasina Swartz, the Coats for Colorado coordinator and store manager for the Dependable Cleaners at 1701 South Broadway, stands among bags of donated coats on Oct. 23. Gently-used coats can be dropped off at any Dependable Cleaners location across the metro area through Nov. 30. Coats are cleaned at the location they’re dropped off at, and then Dependable Cleaners staff delivers them to the 1701 South Broadway store — the main Denver location which is on the border of the Platt Park and Overland neighborhoods — to be sorted and eventually given to area nonprofits for distribution to those in need.

PHOTOS BY CHRISTY STEADMAN

Elmer Magno, who works at the Dependable Cleaners at 3525 S. Monaco Pkwy in Denver’s Hampden South neighborhood, delivers cleaned, donated coats to the main Denver Dependable Cleaners for the Coats for Colorado drive. The coats that Magno brought on Oct. 23 will be sorted by size, then dropped off to area nonprofits.

LEARN MORE To learn more about the Coats for Colorado drive, including a list of Dependable Cleaners where coats can be dropped off, visit https://coatsforcolorado.org.

Janay Ingram, district manager for Dependable Cleaners, organizes some donated coats at the 998 Lincoln St. location in Denver’s Capitol Hill neighborhood on Oct. 23. The coats that Ingram is sorting have been cleaned onsite, and she is getting them ready to be delivered to Dependable Cleaners’ main Denver location where they will be sorted by size and eventually distributed to area nonprofits for the Coats for Colorado drive.

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Kim Padilla, who works at the Dependable Cleaners at 101 Adams St. in Cherry Creek, helps out with sorting coats for the Coats for Colorado drive at the main Denver location on South Broadway on Oct. 23. Donated coats are cleaned at the store they’re dropped off at, then they are brought to the main location for sorting before they are given to area nonprofits to distribute to those in need.

ColoradoCommunityMedia.com 303-566-4100

10 Washington Park Profile

November 2020

LOCAL

VOICES

The year we stayed in on Election Night

A

FROM THE EDITOR

Christy Steadman

t the time of writing this, Election Day is just around the corner. But by the time you read this, results will already be known.

Aside from journalists who cover breaking news for a daily, and not counting television because I’ve never been in that industry, Election Night is probably the busiest night of the year for a reporter. It’s stressful, but also exhilarating in a way.

First of all, it’s all hands on deck. But I request a latestart day as it usually ends up being a late night.

I’ll start the workday with creating lists — a list with all the races I’m covering, an updated list with the cell phone numbers for every candidate in those races, a list with all the watch parties I’m hoping to attend (more on that later), a list of contacts for any ballot measures I’m covering, etc.

Once that’s finished, I’ll start prewriting. In my opinion — I may be alone with this thought because it truly is a big help in the long run — the worst part is the prewriting. It’s not so bad with ballot measures, as by Election Day, a journalist has been learning about these for months. But as for candidates, unless a person is running for the seat unopposed, you never know what’s going to happen.

Then comes the best part of the night — the pizza party. I’m not sure if every newsroom partakes in this, but for us here at Colorado Community Media, it has

become tradition. We try to have our prewriting finished by about 5:30 or 5:45 p.m. so that when the pizza arrives at about 6 or 6:15 p.m., we have a bit of time to enjoy the food and chitchat with each other about anything not related to elections. This, as they say, is the calm before the storm.

By about 6:45 p.m., we’re putting our reporters’ hats on again. We’re making sure we’re properly connected to the internet, and that we’re logged into our web system for updating results online. We’re selecting the races we’re covering on the Secretary of State’s website and making sure we’ve tabbed any webpage we might possibly need easy access to. We make sure we know how to get in touch with the clerk and recorder. We check the batteries and memory cards in our cameras, and that we have a reporter’s notebook and a backup pen in case one runs out of ink.

Then we wait.

It honestly can seem like hours between the time we’ve finished checking that our journalist’s tool are in order and the time the first results come in. But as soon as they do, we plug those first numbers into our prewritten stories, send them to our editor who will post them on our respective communities’ websites and then we’re off to the watch parties.

Watch parties are always fun. Sometimes the candidates invite you to stay and hang out — and eat more

food — but in my experience, even though the results are streaming in some manner at the watch party (thus eliminating the need to stay glued to your computer), it has always been impossible to stay at a single watch party for longer than the time necessary to take a few photos and gather a couple of quotes. Not that I don’t appreciate the invite, it’s just that there’s so many places to be in such a short amount of time.

Eventually, you make your way back to the office and hunker down for the next few hours as more ballots are counted. Our newsroom periodically updates our web stories as the results trickle in, but this is the time that most of the reporters’ efforts are focused on writing the stories that will eventually go in print and editing the photos that will accompany them. That’s to say if the race is not too close.

This year is going to be different, however. One reason is that I am now an editor, rather than a reporter.

Secondly, Life on Capitol Hill and Washington Park Profile are monthlies, versus my previous role with a weekly. Lastly, COVID-19.

We’ll still have our newsroom pizza party, and we’ll still take on the responsibility of publishing election results as they come in. But making a new memory at watch party this year just isn’t going to happen. I guess that’s OK — us journalists will remember this year as the year we stayed in on Election Night.

The times are a’changing once again Considering a career transition? Denver’s Rocketman Realtor has some advice GUEST COLUMN

Paul Kashmann

I

n a time long past and a land far, far away, a troubadour once penned the famous line, “the times they are a’changing.” Several decades later, that same gent looked around at the state of the union and offered up a revised tome, “times have changed.”

It is sometimes difficult to tell the chicken from the egg, because as I survey the landscape in 2020, I find us in both places at once - times have certainly changed, but the times, they are a’changing once again.

If you’ve called Denver home for more than a few years, you have seen clearly the shifts that have taken place. They began slowly in the 1980s and 1990s, but as the 21st Century dawned, the faint winds of change turned into a raging storm. Tens of thousands of new neighbors streamed into our neighborhoods and took root in single-family homes and multiunit buildings of style and mass, unlike what have historically populated the Denver skyline.

While the rush of people and businesses into Denver created an economic boom that was the envy of many “less-fortunate” cities around the country, the influx simultaneously spawned a raft of less-desirable changes, including dangerously overwhelmed roadways, inflated housing costs that have made living in Denver increasingly the privilege of none but the well-to-do and architectural shifts that have muddled the

historic character of many inner-city neighborhoods.

Denver is engaged in a number of initiatives designed to make some sense of what has taken place and to better shape our path forward.

For decades, our Planning Department created only one small area (neighborhood) plan per year — at best. These critical documents serve as a guide for local implementation of Denver’s Comprehensive Plan and Blueprint Denver, our primary land use and transportation document. With 78 statistical neighborhoods, it would take nearly a century to plan the entire city, which makes no sense as most plans have dubious value after 20 years. No more than 20% of our city has had current small-area plans at any given time. In 2017, our Department of Community Planning and Development (CPD) created the Neighborhood Planning Initiative (NPI), reconfiguring our 78 neighborhoods into 14 sub-groups to facilitate planning the entire city in 10-14 years, with updates of those plans being made on a regular basis thereafter. While the initial group of NPI efforts have taken longer than anticipated, the pace of planning still far exceeds past attempts.

The Near Southeast Area Plan, including the eastern-most reaches of District 6, will kick off SEE KASHMANN, P11

LETTER TO THE EDITOR Change is constant and unsettling.

Our friends and neighbors experiencing homelessness or staring at the brink of homelessness know this all too well. Maybe you, too, are a missed paycheck away from finding your housing in peril. The booming real estate market is tearing through neighborhoods — raising rents and pushing out longtime neighbors in the name of gentrification. The threat

of housing insecurity is real. Updated zoning regulation is a viable solution.

The Delores Project operates a small shelter for women and transgender folks experiencing homelessness. Our facility is part of an integrated site featuring a shelter, supportive housing and affordable, workforce housing. With 60 beds, our staff works closely with our shelter guests, supporting them through

A publication of

Mailing Address: 750 W. Hampden Ave., Suite 225 Englewood, CO 80110 Phone: 303-566-4100 To subscribe call 303-566-4100 or visit www.washparkprofile.com/subscribe

case management and rehousing services. Our shelter guests engage with the community just as any good neighbor would. Recently, guests and residents have helped a lost dog find a home, helped neighbors jumpstart cars with dead batteries and provided impromptu childcare.

Group living changes under the

C

areer transitions are equal parts scary and exhilarating. And if transformation is truly what you desire, then there are few reasons not to take a chance. Life is too short not to do what you love.

How do I know? Well, I went through a significant career transition. After spending over a GUEST decade of working for NASA as an electrical enCOLUMN gineer, I received my real estate license. Making the radical move from rocket scientist to a real estate professional wasn’t an easy transition.

There’s no doubt that guiding astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) to repair their equipment in space is a far cry from guiding home buyers and sellers on their real estate journeys. What helped me the most was figuring out how to apply the lessons learned in my first career to my blooming real estate career.

I credit these lessons learned with my current Juan Munoz success and I hope they can bring you success in your next career transition.

“Trust, But Verify” “Trust, but verify” is NASA’s unofficial slogan. I hear it repeated by everyone from leaders to administrative staff throughout the organization, and for good reason. When everyone is operating with this principle in mind, you don’t just have a team, you have an A-team.

Trust is the mark of true collaboration.

Whether the project is launching a rocket to the ISS or finding the career of your dreams, this principle ensures that the checks and balances needed for success are in place.

When considering this principle in relation to a career transition, it reminds us to take time to discover what we want and how to get

SEE LETTER, P11

SEE REALTOR, P11 Columnists & Guest Commentaries

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Deadline 5 p.m. on the 20th of each month for the following month’s paper.

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Columnist opinions are not necessarily those of the Profile.

We welcome letters to the editor. Please include your full name, address and the best number to reach you by telephone.

Washington Park Profile 11

November 2020

Houseplant care 101

H

ere at the Denver Botanic Gardens, we have a large collection of tropical plants that live in the Boettcher Memorial Tropical Conservatory and in our plant collections greenhouses. Much of this collection is also what could suitably be considered houseplants.

Many people choose to decorate their home with houseplants as it can be beneficial in many ways other than visually appealing. Some other benefits of including plants in your home are they can improve mood, reduce fatigue, lower stress and increase oxygen and humidity in the air.

When choosing plants for your living space, it’s important to first pay attention to the conditions in your home. The main things to think about are sun exposure, which changes quite drastically over the course of the year; average temperature of the living space; amount of space you can dedicate to your plants; and what pets might be exposed to the plants. Because of the vast array of houseplants available, it is best to grow what will do well in your conditions.

Here are a few general groups of plants recommended for different conditions.

Kashmann FROM PAGE 10

in early 2021. For information on NPI, visit denvergov.org/neighborhoodplanning.

Simultaneously, CPD is spearheading a trio of housing-related studies that will inform the NPI process. The Group Living Advisory Committee has proposed increasing the number of unrelated individuals that may reside in single-family homes as well as expanding locations where community corrections’ halfway houses and larger homeless shelters may be sited. (Visit denvergov.org/groupliving).

The Affordable Housing Incentives study is looking at ways to stimulate the construction of affordable housing for a broad spectrum of income levels (visit denvergov.org/affordabilityincentive) and the Residential Infill Project will kick off after the first of the year looking at whether to incorporate options such as duplexes, triplexes and the like into neighborhoods that have traditionally welcomed only single-family homes. In addition, discussions continue city-wide on what role Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) can play in expanding housing opportunity in Denver.

For those communities concerned that fast-paced changes will blot out the historic character of their neighborhoods, Conservation Overlay Districts hold promise. Considered “preservation-lite,” conservation overlays allow communities to determine what elements are critical to preserving the feel and curb appeal of their streetscape, while allowing for renovation and expansion of existing properties without the restrictions of historic designation. The Krisana Park area of Virginia Village took advantage of this tool in 2016 for a group of some 175 mid-century homes, preserving the characteristic long-slung roof lines and pushing expansion toward the back of the property.

For many years, cries for city traffic engineers to slow increasing traffic were often met with “we need to keep traffic moving.” There is clear evidence that as traffic deaths rise on city streets, in spite of the efforts of Denver’s Vision Zero initiative, the attitude is changing. We’ve begun experimenting with traffic control tools

Letter FROM PAGE 10

new proposal open the door for agencies like The Delores Project to establish similar small shelters throughout Denver. Our service model offers higher case manager to guest ratios, leading to greater stability and success in future housing.

Nobody wants to see our unhoused neighbors struggle on the streets. Keeping our public

Eight hours of direct light is considered full sun. Plants that will be happy with six or more hours of sun include cacti and succulents, croton, dracena, palms, cycads, hibiscus or strelitzia. Some plants that do well in medium light — three to six hours of sun — are orchids, pilea, gesneriads, African violet and begonia. Plants that will do well in low light are spathiphyllum, ferns, diffenbachia, ivy, philodendron, calathea and anthurium.

Now for some general care tips for successfully growing houseplants. In general, don’t overwater. This, in my opinion, is the most important and the hardest thing I ever learned how to do. Roots breathe oxygen and if soil is constantly saturated, roots will rot and the plant will die. Obviously, some plants need more water than others, but a good general schedule for most is saturated for a day or so, two-to-three days of medium dryness and a day or two on the drier side. It’s OK for plants to begin to wilt so long as they don’t get crispy.

GUEST COLUMN Scott Preusser

SEE PLANTS, P12

like roundabouts that other cities have used successfully for decades, and speed tables and raised crosswalks are finally on the drawing board. I was able to get $200,000 into the 2020 budget for a study to look at speed limits on city streets, with an initial focus on possible reduction of neighborhood street limits from 25 mph to 20 mph. The Department of Transportation and Infrastructure is moving forward with plans to complete construction of 125 miles of bike lanes across our city in the next few years and we are moving forward albeit far too slowly - with efforts to create a pedestrian infrastructure that moves people safely through our neighborhoods.

Perhaps the most disheartening change to our city is the increase in residents experiencing homelessness that have been driven to our sidewalks, our parks and along our rivers and creeks to find shelter. Much of this problem has to do with the dismantling of our national mental health system decades ago, a lack of substance abuse treatment beds and a growing gap between rich and poor that has 500,000 people living on our streets nationwide. Over time, funds from the Caring For Denver sales tax passed by voters in 2017 will help rebuild our local mental health and addiction treatment resources. That said, we simply have not been aggressive enough in building both transitional housing for those needing a leg up to get back to an independent lifestyle and permanent supportive housing for those in need of more long-term services. We need to pick up the pace of that effort. In the short term we are restructuring our overnight shelter system to be open 24 hours a day, as well as increasing options for underserved populations — LGBTQ individuals, couples and families, pet owners, etc. We continue the difficult task of trying to site small-scale tiny home villages and managed campsites to provide dignified alternatives to the pop-up camps that do not serve our community well.

Change is difficult, but stagnation is deadly.

Please let your voice be heard on what you want your city to look like, be like and stand for in the coming years.

Paul Kashmann represents District 6 on Denver City Council. He can be reached at paul.kashmann@denvergov.org. spaces open, clean and safe for everybody is vital. It is time to stand together and take real steps to change things in Denver. Speak with your neighbors in Washington Park, and call your city council member, Paul Kashmann, and encourage him to approve the revised group living regulations. We must share the burden of lifting up people who need help across the city, in Washington Park and beyond. Together we can meet everyone’s basic needs.

Robin Wood-Mason, director of development and communications for The Delores Project

Realtor FROM PAGE 10

it. As you do your research, trust your gut, but verify what you’re feeling. For example, you may find that you still enjoy your current career, but would welcome more flexibility in your schedule. Or, you may come to the conclusion that what you need is a different position in a different field altogether.

If you’re ready to take the plunge, learn as much as possible about your new potential career. Research qualifications, salaries and the marketplace. Then talk to people in your desired profession to get a more realistic picture of what your new career would be like.

Get up-to-speed If, like me, you have been in your current career for many years without having done much job searching, realize the ways in which the process has changed. Like a rocket gearing up to break free of the Earth’s gravitational pull, you’ve got to get up-to-speed on the latest trends in your target profession.

Getting my real estate license meant making a considerable investment in education.

Yes, I had to take all the usual real estate classes, but I also had to educate myself about how to become a successful and profitable independent contractor. Think about how to bridge the gaps in your personal knowledge base to set yourself up for success.

Networking has always been and always will be a critical part of building a successful career as a real estate professional. The same is true of every other career. Do yourself a

favor: if you don’t yet have a LinkedIn profile or your current one could use some updating, pay attention to this critical business tool. Also, it’s important to build in some time each day for online networking.

Plan for the unexpected From the outside, it seems obvious how to prepare for a space flight mission: test for the mission conditions, create a plan, then operate according to the plan. But the thing about space flight missions is that each one is unique and so it’s impossible to plan for everything.

Likewise, each career transition is unique and so it’s impossible to plan for everything.

The best you can do is hedge your bets: • Take your time and avoid rash decisions.

• Don’t be afraid to keep one foot in one career as you feel your way into a different career.

• Involve your family and those closest to you in your decision.

• Gather as much information and talk to as many people with the right experiences as you can.

• Do as much as you can to prepare before you take the leap.

• Remind yourself that you can’t anticipate every challenge you’ll encounter.

• Don’t burn any bridges.

While there are no guarantees in life, keeping the above strategies in mind will maximize your chances of finding success. Best of luck with your career transformation!

Juan Munoz is a rocket scientist-turned-real estate agent with HomeSmart Realty Group. To learn more, visit www.homesindenvernow.com.

“How You Can Put An End To Back Pain Even If It’s Been Years Of Misery… All From The Comfort Of Your Living Room”

By Leading CO Back Pain Doctor of Physical Therapy, Brooke Olsen Denver - If I were to get bad back pain again, here’s what I would do differently…

First, I wouldn’t wait and hope it just goes away. That only made it worse. I wouldn’t just try to stretch it or get adjustments on it.

I definitely wouldn’t get an injection (very dangerous long term). So what would I do?

Hi, my name is Dr. Brooke Olsen, DPT. I’m a national back pain expert.

I’ve made a career for myself helping hundreds of active adults end their back pain naturally. But this wasn’t always the case. Early on, I had a large bulging disc that caused shooting pain down my leg on and off for 5 long years starting when I was only 18 years old.

I had so much pain when trying put on my shoes or simply go for a walk around the park. I tried what felt like literally everything to help and it just wouldn’t go away. You can imagine the frustration and hopelessness that set in. I asked my colleagues for help, but most of what they tried didn’t change it for long or it did nothing for me.

When it got really bad and I still had to work, I took Advil, and sometimes wish I had something stronger. (I hate pills by the way, so that’s really saying

something).

Desperate for a return to my normal life, I set out on a journey. I traveled the country, in search of learning from the best and brightest. I took many courses, and eventually found a mentor who had some answers. I learned that in order to fix back pain permanently and naturally, which is the holy grail, it’s really not that hard.

The secret is fixing the root cause, which is the thing that’s causing your back to hurt in the first place. Most treatment options just focus on relieving the pain where it hurts, without ever questioning why it hurts and what other areas could be affecting it.

So if I ever got bad back pain again, I would immediately start fixing the root cause of my pain, rather than waste time on temporary band-aid fixes.

If you are wondering how you find what your root cause is with your back pain, and how you can fix it once you find it… you can join me on a free back pain webinar training that will show just that. There is no cost to attend, and you can watch from the comfort of your living room. Just go online to this link

www.ThePhysioRevolution .com/WPPreader and I’ll see you on the webinar! We only have room for 50 people before we have to take down the replay, so don’t wait and miss it!

12 Washington Park Profile

November 2020

‘All those voices are valued’

Autumn Thomas reflects on being a Black artist by bending wood in her sculptures

By Christy Steadman csteadman@coloradocommunitymedia.com

W

hen Congress Park resident Autumn Thomas was in kindergarten, she got interviewed about one of her school projects by television news anchor Reynelda Muse, who is a Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame inductee and known for being the first woman and first African-American to anchor a newscast in Colorado.

“I don’t remember, ever, not being an artist,” Thomas said of her first memory of being interviewed because of her art.

Today, Thomas, 42, is an interdisciplinary artist currently focusing on wood sculptures.

In the past year, she has created Thomas about 10 original sculptures, she said.

“It’s been amazing,” Thomas said, adding she particularly enjoys creating public art.

Thomas works a full-time job as an account manager, and also spends time mentoring youths who are up-and-coming artists themselves.

“It’s fascinating to hear young people talk,” Thomas said. “It allowed the inner child in me to come out and just enjoy the making.”

Describing herself as a “maker,” Thomas was a recent artist-in-residency at PlatteForum, which is a Denver-based, nonprofit arts, youth

This piece by Denver artist Autumn Thomas was part of PlatteForum’s To Muse the Labyrinth exhibition. The exhibit is available for viewing through Nov. 8.

COURTESY PHOTO development and artist-in-residence program.

During her residency, Thomas worked with PlatteForum’s ArtLab high school interns for six weekend workshops to teach them the skill of 3D printing. In that role, Thomas encouraged the youths that it’s OK to be both vulnerable and strong, she said.

Being vulnerable “is challenging but also rewarding,” Thomas said, adding that when artists are vulnerable, their work is more relatable to people.

Thomas’ work, along with that of the interns, was featured in PlatteForum’s exhibition, To

Muse the Labyrinth, which will be available for viewing through Nov. 8 for Denver Arts Week.

“To Muse the Labyrinth is an exploration of what it means for me to be a Black artist, lost between worlds of anger, resolve and conjecture,” Thomas said in a news release. “During this residency (at PlatteForum), I will create a labyrinth — a safe space in which to be vulnerable, free from judgment and awashed in absolution.”

Thomas was raised in Denver and attended East High School. She relocated to Chicago to earn her undergraduate in visual communication, then attended graduate school in Philadelphia and earned a master’s of fine art in printmaking and book art. She did a fellowship in New Jersey before returning to Denver — where her family resides — about three years ago.

Thomas’ “sculptures feature minimal design, subverting traditional imagery of Black art” and addresses “concepts of systemic oppres-

sion in an unexpected form,” states a news release.

Reflecting “the endurance required by marginalized communities to endure intersecting forms of bias in their everyday lives,” states a news release, Thomas creates curves in the wood by placing hundreds of cuts in it, which allows the wood to bend and arch.

Physically doing the work is cathartic to Thomas, she said. Wood is not supposed to bend, but making it do so is like chipping away structure — or, what institutionally is supposed to be, Thomas said.

“There can be beautiful change if we chip away from institutional structure,” she said.

Thomas is a firm believer that no Black artist’s abstract work should be discounted.

Whether the work is speaking to its audience in a quiet and soft voice, or whether it’s rage, “everything along that spectrum is valuable,” Thomas said. “All of those voices are valued.”

Plants

less frequent and extensive the outbreaks will be. I like to remove dead leaves and examine the entire plant for bugs on a regular basis.

Although plants can often be overlooked in the home, they do need attention and care. You will get out of them what you put into them. If at first, you are not successful, keep trying! I’ve certainly killed my share of plants and will kill more in the future.

FROM PAGE 11

For potting and placing your plants, be sure not to overpot them too much, i.e. gradually move them into the next appropriate size. Also be sure to rotate plants that receive light from only one side. From time to time, your plants may also get bugs on them. It happens to everyone, and the closer you pay attention to your plants, the

Scott Preusser is a conservatory horticulturist at the Denver Botanic Gardens

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Washington Park Profile 13

November 2020

All the flavors to entice kids.

All the nicotine to keep them hooked.

E-cigarette makers and vape shops are enticing kids with flavors like cotton candy, gummy bear and bubble gum. And nationally, over 5 million kids are using these flavored e-cigarettes.

Vape shops and tobacco companies say their products aren’t ending up in kids’ hands, but that’s just not true. Many retailers still sell to minors, and many of them in Denver even illegally sold products during the COVID-19 shutdown violating emergency orders.

Let’s stop pretending vape shops and the industry care about public health or the health of our children. It’s time to stop the sale of flavored tobacco products to protect our kids.

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14 Washington Park Profile

November 2020

Finding the beauty in the holidays as a single parent New book aims to provide insight and hope during a challenging time of year

By Clarke Reader Special to Colorado Community Media

Colorado native Deanna Johnson knows the challenges of single-parenthood during the holiday season very well - she’s been a single parent for almost 30 years, with two adult daughters and four grandchildren.

But she also knows the beauty the time of year offers for those who are open to it.

Now Johnson is sharing that knowledge in her new book, “A Single Parent’s Guide to Enjoying the Holidays,” published by Dorrance Publishing Co., Inc. The book is designed to be a self-help guide to help single parents approach and enjoy the holiday season.

“As an African American woman, it is easy to think of myself as a statistic or listen to others describe what may or should be my circumstances,” Johnson said. “I believe in the power of positive thinking, and the focus on domestic happiness and health were my best tools.”

Colorado Community Media spoke with Johnson about her inspiration, the writing process and what she hopes readers take from the book.

How long have you been writing?

I have been writing professionally for more than 20 years, but my best training was acquired at the kitchen table as a child, under the instruction of my father.

My experience as an author of information and publications about minor-

MORE INFORMATION “A Single Parent’s Guide to Enjoying the Holidays” can be purchased at Barnes & Noble, Amazon and www.bookstore.dorrancepublishing.com. ity populations and health disparities is extensive. As a professional grant manager, I discovered that `painting the picture’ of what low-socioeconomic individuals experience and describing the needs was critical. When reports, real stories and statistics are available, it is easier to obtain funding and support for low-socioeconomic and minority groups.

What inspired you to write this book?

I have noticed that single parents are socially marketed as fragile people, always needing help and in situations that are unimaginable to others. Society makes it sound like the single-parent home is the least favorable domestic structure. As it is challenging to raise children alone, it is best to ignore the negative stigmas. I want single parents to design the structure and circumstance of their households, and no matter what the immediate circumstance is, reject ideas that can bring them down.

My goal is to encourage all single parents to seek positivity, and as awkward as it seems, put themselves first, as hard as it may be.

What was the writing process like?

I wrote the book content over the course of two years. I was cautious in approaching a publisher. As a new author, I needed to be well organized before selecting a publishing company. I made sure that my content and plans for the book were ready and well-organized before I proposed the manuscript to Dorrance.

Discover

Colorado native Deanna Johnson is the author of “A Single Parent’s Guide to Enjoying the Holidays.”

COURTESY PHOTO I searched for a publishing company that would embrace my message of positivity and effort to improve the lives of single parents. The Dorrance Publishing Company not only comprehended the message I was trying to communicate, they helped me frame it for the single parent population.

personal outlook on the holiday responsibility, and providing allowances for yourself to seek happiness, make a big difference. The single parent has unadulterated time to take part in each day, be intentional in the mission to secure personal and domestic wellness, and a chance to enhance the New Year with hopefulness.

From your experiences, what makes being a single parent during the holidays beautiful?

As difficult as it is, there is beauty that other families don’t get to experience in the same capacity. As a single parent, I could appreciate the time and little things so much more and discovered that my children did, too.

I have discovered that changing your

What do you hope readers come away with?

I am hoping that readers are single parents and those that love and support them. I want to inspire single parents to take steps during the months of November through January to make the holiday an enjoyable time, and address a difficult season head-on with organization, power and positivity.

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16 Washington Park Profile

November 2020

Health insurance rates in Colorado hold steady

By John Ingold The Colorado Sun

Amid a historic public health crisis, something curious has happened with health insurance prices: Nothing.

When state officials this month unveiled the approved rates for next year’s health insurance plans, they announced the smallest change in years. Average prices for plans in the individual market — where people shop for insurance if they don’t get coverage through an employer — are set to decline by 1.4%. Average prices in the small-group market — where small employers buy plans for their workers — are set to rise by 3.8%.

Given that prices in both of these markets were increasing annually by double-digit percentages not long ago, the non-news of next year’s rates comes as welcome news for consumers. But it also raises a question. Why hasn’t the coronavirus pandemic — and all the costly medical care that can go along with it — led to higher insurance prices?

The answer can be found in dozens of pages of regulatory filings that insurance companies submitted to the state when seeking approval for next year’s rates. The upshot is that health insurers seem to be as unsure as the rest of us about what next year will look like.

Some companies project a modest increase in the amount of medical care they will have to cover due to coronavirus — on the order of 1% or so. Others think people will continue to avoid seeking treatment for nonurgent conditions, resulting in lower expenses. And some companies openly say they don’t know and don’t

want to guess.

“It kind of nets out once you look at the savings that came from this year and you try to forecast that forward,” said Michael Conway, Colorado’s insurance commissioner.

Nationwide trend What’s happening with health insurance prices in Colorado matches what’s happening nationwide. When the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health-research organization, looked at filings across the country, it found an average 1.1% increase in prices for individual market plans next year. Digging deeper, the organization found that COVID-19 had an average 0% impact on next year’s prices.

“The term `uncertainty’ came up a lot,” said Nisha Kurani, a senior policy analyst at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Part of that uncertainty is trying to figure out how much medical care unrelated to coronavirus people are going to need next year. When the pandemic hit this spring, hospital and doctor’s office visits for elective and non-urgent medical care plummeted.

Even people potentially experiencing heart attacks stopped showing up at hospitals — possibly leading to an increase in cardiac arrests at home.

Michael Kleinrock, a research director at the health care analytics company IQVIA, said hospital patient volume nationwide has rebounded after steep drops earlier this year.

Overall for the year, the system is seeing about 20% less utilization than expected pre-pandemic. Patient volume is close to normal but not enough to make up for all those missed visits

earlier in the year.

“The system appears to be learning how to walk and chew gum, learning how to manage COVID in this environment and still deliver necessary health care for other people. Which is positive,” he said. “But there’s still that lingering issue of the where-did-theygo people.”

Colorado hospitals have also seen a rebound in patient visits, but not enough to make up for earlier losses.

Julie Lonborg, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Hospital Association, said inpatient discharges are down 12% for the year and emergency room visits are down around 25%.

Hospitals expect that lower volume to persist through the end of the year and much of next year, far longer than what the hospital association thought when the pandemic first hit the state.

“We all thought at the time, `Oh gosh, surely by October life will be a little back toward normal,’” she said. “I think we all recognize now that that is not the case and will continue not to be the case for some time.”

The certainty of `uncertainty’ But there are also other factors that make it complicated to project how coronavirus will impact medical costs next year. How much will the virus spread? Will there be a safe and effective vaccine and when will it be ready? Will new treatments be approved and how much will they cost? Will the election mean a change in the White House and a different approach to fighting the virus? Will pandemic-related job losses cause more people to buy coverage in the individual market — or drop coverage altogether?

“We note,” the Denver Health Medical Plan wrote in a filing with the state, “that there is substantial uncertainty regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on premium rate development, including whether the pandemic will increase or decrease costs in 2021.”

Some of the information that companies provided to the state is redacted to protect business confidentiality, and it is possible that the insurers were more candid with their assessments of the pandemic in those sections. But, just like the Kaiser Family Foundation saw nationally, the word “uncertainty” keeps popping up in insurers’ public filings.

“Due to the limited information available on the pandemic,” the insurance company Oscar wrote in an actuarial memo filed with the state, “any analysis is subject to a substantially greater than usual level of uncertainty.”

Regulatory limitations There’s also one other coronavirusrelated reason that rates will stay relatively flat next year, and it involves regulatory muscle.

When insurers filed their preliminary rates earlier this summer, they asked the state to approve an average 2.2% increase for the individual market and 5.7% increase for the small group market. But the state Division of Insurance, led by Conway, knocked those rates back before final approval.

When coming up with proposed rates, insurers have to make calculated guesses on how much certain components of health care costs will increase or decrease in the coming year. For instance, insurers will

estimate how much rising prices or how much frequency of health care utilization will impact their costs.

This is called “trend” in regulatory parlance.

One reason regulators knocked next year’s proposed rates down is that the state imposed a cap on how much of an increase insurers could predict for health care utilization — setting the amount at no more than 1%. Conway said that was done because the state last year approved projected utilization increases that were way higher than what insurers have actually seen, because of the pandemic. That meant rates were likely set higher than ultimately needed last year, which could lead insurers to having to refund money to customers in the coming years.

“It just really hadn’t come to fruition, the increase we had approved last year,” Conway said. “So we didn’t think it would be appropriate to grant a typical utilization trend.”

Amanda Massey, the executive director of the Colorado Association of Health Plans, an insurance industry trade group, said the Division of Insurance also limited how other coronavirus-related costs could be factored into the 2021 rates. She said it’s important that the long-term costs of coronavirus be fully accounted for. Not doing so, she said, “could have serious consequences for health insurance premiums in the future if not accurately reflected in rates.”

S

This story is from The Colorado Sun, a journalist-owned news outlet based in Denver and covering the state. Used by permission. For more, and to support The Colorado Sun, visit coloradosun.com.

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Washington Park Profile 17

November 2020

GOING SOLAR

By Christy Steadman csteadman@coloradocommunitymedia.com

S

tacey Decker believes that people in Denver want to do what they can to help reduce negative impacts to the environment.

“Denver is a forward-thinking community,” she said. “Many people are realizing the benefits of energy independence.”

Decker is a homeowner in Denver’s Wellshire neighborhood. She has lived in her home for about five years and had an interest in converting to solar power. But the initial research she did on her own found it to be too expensive.

Then, in the summer of 2019, Decker learned of a new co-op by a nonprofit organization called Solar United Neighbors (SUN) that helps people and small businesses go solar.

She signed up right away, and in March, had 26 solar panels installed in three different spots on her home.

These panels provide the Decker family with more than enough power to meet their electric needs — including charging an electric car, Decker said.

“Since going solar, we’re saving money each month and reducing our carbon footprint,” Decker said. “It’s a real win-win.”

SUN works nationwide, and has its Colorado office based in Denver.

The organization recently launched its second co-op to specifically serve Denver’s residents and small businesses. Membership to the co-op will be open through Feb. 1.

For the co-op, SUN is partnering with the Denver Office of Climate Action, Sustainability & Resiliency; Alpine Bank; Colorado Renewable Energy Society; Vote Solar; Physicians for Social Responsibility-Colorado; New Energy Colorado; and the Northside Sustainability Alliance.

How it works is first people sign up to become a member of the co-op for free and with no obligation. Becoming a member is simply so people can learn “what going solar means to them,” said Bryce Carter, SUN’s Colorado program director. Members of last year’s co-op ranged from those who already had going solar on their minds to those looking into it for the first time, Carter said.

Once about enough people and businesses have signed up, SUN issues a Request for Proposals to local providers. SUN staff then reviews the proposals — this review process entails looking into each provider’s

Co-op offers residents, businesses an opportunity to get group pricing, education on solar installation

LEARN MORE To learn more about Solar United Neighbors, visit www. solarunitedneighbors.org/denver.

On that website, people can sign up for the next information session, which are scheduled to take place as webinars at 6 p.m. Nov. 17 and at noon on Dec. 12.

The website also includes an orientation video which was part of an online launch event and orientation on Oct. 5. The Spanishlanguage presentation took place on Oct. 8. licensing credentials and other important verifications.

SUN then provides an “apples-toapples” comparison of each proposal to the co-op members, Carter said. It is the members who select the single solar company that will complete all the installations for the co-op members. The co-op members then have the option to individually purchase a solar system and electric vehicle chargers based on the installer’s group rate.

Joining the co-op does not obligate members to purchase solar, Carter said. If, for whatever reason, a person or small business decides not to go solar, they can walk away, he added.

“We are an advocate on behalf of our members,” Carter said. “We’re there to answer all of their questions.”

SUN remains vendor-neutral while streamlining the process, providing quality control, helping to determine possible cost savings, networking among members and providing any necessary education about going solar, including information about equipment, Carter said. He added SUN is happy to work with Registered Neighborhood Organizations and other community groups to provide talks or meetings — which can be done virtually — so people can learn more about the co-op and/ or going solar.

Since SUN’s launch in Colorado in 2019, SUN has facilitated five solar co-ops throughout the state. Those five co-ops have helped about 150 families and businesses go solar — about 25 of them were members of Denver’s 2019 co-op.

Even though the cost of installing solar has gone down by about 90% in the past decade, Decker said, it is still a major investment for people.

“It feels nice to do it as a community (because) doing it as a group affects our net impact,” Decker said. “But the cost savings are what makes a lot of sense for individual homeowners.”

Stacey Decker, a resident of Denver’s Wellshire neighborhood, sits among the solar panels on her home, which were installed in March after Decker participated in Solar United Neighbors’ 2019 solar co-op.

COURTESY PHOTOS

Bryce Carter, Solar United Neighbors’ Colorado program director, had solar panels installed on his home earlier this year through Solar United Neighbors’ 2019 solar co-op.

Renewable Denver Community Solar Program Denver has a goal of to become a city that uses 100% renewable electricity by 2030.

On April 30, the Colorado Department of Local Affairs Renewable Energy Challenge grant program awarded Denver with $1,000,000 to support the city’s Renewable Denver Initiative.

Part of this initiative includes hosting low-cost community solar gardens across municipal properties such as parking lots at recreation centers, libraries and schools. “The electricity generated will be shared between the municipal facilities and low-income residents in the surrounding

areas,” states a news release.

In the near future, renters and building owners who are unable to install solar on their property can sign up for the city and county of Denver’s Renewable Denver Community Solar Program.

Beginning in 2021, this program can provide solar energy for up to 1,000 households, and incomequalified residents can save 10% or more on their monthly electric bills through this program, states a news release.

“Denver is committed to a rapid and equitable transition to a 100% renewable electricity system, focusing on local clean energy

infrastructure and expanding economic and environmental benefits to more members of our community,” said Grace Rink in a news release. Rink is the executive director of the Denver Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency. “We are excited to partner with Solar United Neighbors to promote opportunities for our residents to go solar, whether through rooftop solar installations or participation in Denver’s upcoming community solar program.”

Learn more: www.denvergov. org/content/denvergov/en/ climate-sustainability

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18 Washington Park Profile

November 2020

Making wheel change

LEFT: Lucky Bikes Re-Cyclery is one of numerous nonprofit community bike shops in the Denver area that provide low- or no-cost bikes to underprivileged youths. ABOVE: Fernando Ibarra works on a bike at Lucky Bikes Re-Cyclery. Ibarra said working at the shop has given him skills, friendships and life experience.

PHOTOS BY DAVID GILBERT

Underprivileged youths earn bikes, skills, hope

By David Gilbert dgilbert@coloradocommunitymedia.com

Fernando Ibarra couldn’t figure out how to fix his bike.

So he took it to Lucky Bikes Re-Cyclery, a nonprofit community bike shop a block from his house in west Denver.

He couldn’t afford the repair price, but the shop manager offered another option. Ibarra, then 15, could volunteer around the shop, work off the cost of the parts he needed, and learn how to do the repair himself.

“I came in every day after school and kept at it, and before long I had a great bike,” Ibarra said.

Now 20, Ibarra works as a mechanic at Lucky Bikes, and said the shop brought far more to his life than just a couple wheels under his feet — he calls his coworkers his “bike family.”

“The folks here got me into mountain bike racing,” he said as he ran new brake lines on a BMX bike. “I’ve raced in Leadville, Granby — beautiful places I wouldn’t have seen otherwise. I’m so grateful for this place.”

Lucky Bikes is one of several nonprofit bike shops in the Denver metro area, working to connect underprivileged youths with their own transportation, the skills to repair bikes themselves, and even start careers.

Bringing bikes to the masses Bicycles can be transformative for young people, said Jon Pasquini, the executive director of Lucky Bikes and its sister organization, Trips For Kids.

“There’s a sense of adventure on a bike,” Pasquini said. “As a kid, that freedom is amazing.

There’s independence, there’s health and exercise, and it’s good for the environment, too.”

the shutdown of the Golden Community A former teacher, Pasquini wrote a curCenter’s senior program. Facing an uncerriculum for Learn to Earn a Bike, a 10-hour tain future, Messa wanted to fall back on her program where youngsters learn not just how favorite pastime of biking, but her bike was in to repair a bike, but also about the physics shambles. behind biking — levers, pulleys, force — and “Since I was out of work, I didn’t want to at the end get to keep their bike, a helmet and spend a bunch of money on a new a set of tools. bike,” she said.

The shop has lots of other IF YOU GO That’s where the Golden programs, including threeOptimists Bicycle month internships The Denver area’s nonprofit community bike Recycle Program where local youth shops have a wide variety of programs came in. For can learn customer and services. Many are looking for volunyears, Messa had service skills teers and donations of bikes or money. And, of bought bikes in addition to course, they have plenty of bikes for sale, and some for her two repairs. The available free of charge to qualifying clients. children from pandemic put Lucky Bikes Re-Cyclery: 3150 W. Jewell Ave., Denver. the program, the kibosh TripsForKidsDenver.org or 720-454-9722 dropping on many of off their old the shop’s Golden Optimists: 1200 Johnson Road, Golden. GoldenOptimist.org ones as they fundraising outgrew efforts, but Project reCYCLE: 3279 S. Santa Fe Drive, Suite C, them. thankfully a Englewood. ProjectReCYCLE.org or 720-387-7904 The bike boom in sales Bikes Together: 1060 Osage St., Denver. Bikesshe picked up of refurbished Together.org or 720-403-8757 at the beginning bikes is keeping Second Chance Bicycle Shop: 4122 S. of the pandemic the shop afloat.

Parker Road, Aurora. SecondChance“kept me going,” Now, Pasquini BikeSC.wixsite.com/colorado she said. is working on a mounor 720-270-5731 Messa wasn’t alone, tain biking team for local said Carol Cameron, the kids. group’s president.

“Cycling is seen as an elitist “Bikes are the new toilet paper,” Camsport,” he said. “Lots of kids on those teams are eron said. “Bikes and parts are in super high riding $10,000 bikes. We’re going to provide demand right now.” kids with bikes on that level. We’re bringing it The pandemic kept the shop from holding to the masses.” one of its key events this year: driving refurbished bikes down to the Navajo Nation in ‘It kept me going’ For others, nonprofit community bike shops the Four Corners region. The silver lining, she said, is that more elite cyclists donated a good are an integral part of the community, and a number of high-end used bikes and parts in lifeline in tough times. the spring and summer as they upgraded.

Julie Messa of Golden found herself out of The program, among the older in the Denwork in mid-March as the pandemic forced

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Putting you first made us #1.

ver area, operates on an all-volunteer basis, selling refurbished bikes to cover the cost of tools and rent. They work with local social services agencies to donate bikes to locals experiencing homelessness.

“If someone just needs a bike but can’t afford one, we’ll donate one,” Cameron said. “We have no means testing. We get taken advantage of sometimes, but hey, we’re Optimists.”

Doing the work Connecting people with bikes can be a means to personal growth, said Jon Buck, the executive director of Project reCYCLE, a nonprofit community bike shop in Englewood.

The group, which is in the process of rebranding as HopeCycle, works with local schools to donate bikes to underprivileged students who show improvements in “academics, attendance and attitude.”

“Research has shown that in material poverty, there are underdeveloped plans for the future,” Buck said. “We try to give kids a chance to believe in themselves and realize they can plan for the future and achieve it.”

Buck, a former pastor, said that while the group is non-religious, he personally finds a sense of spiritual fulfillment in his work.

“If I have to choose between talking about what Jesus said but not doing the work, and doing the work but not talking about it, I’ll choose the latter,” he said.

Buck is involved in a wider range of local efforts to boost bicycling, including sitting on the City of Littleton’s transportation board, where he advocates for more and better bike lanes around town.

Buck said bikes are bringing light to dark times.

“This is tangible, simple, and it can change lives,” Buck said. “People need hope now more than ever.”

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Washington Park Profile 19

November 2020

Virtual sports move closer to reality

CHSAA considers sanctioning esports as second pilot season starts

By Nick Puckett npuckett@coloradocommunitymedia.com

Colorado high school sports coaches and administrators have adjusted practices, games and meets to satisfy public health requirements amid the COVID-19 pandemic in hopes of returning to high school sports this fall.

While sports like cross-country were more easily able to manage social distancing and symptom regulation, team sports had more hoops to jump through — crowded buses, pep rallies, student sections are a thing of the past.

Meanwhile, schools continue to experiment with virtual learning, having mixed results.

The scramble to bring back high school sports has opened a new door for a sport without the inherent intermingling issues other sports have: esports.

The Colorado High School Activities Association is considering making esports an official high school sport. The CHSAA esports pilot program begins its second regular season Oct. 15. By season’s end, CHSAA could decide whether to make esports a sanctioned sport.

“These are kids who are not typically involved in their high school community and experience outside of the classroom,” CHSAA Spokesperson Ryan Casey said. “By and large, this is a population which is not involved currently in sports or activities, so we see this as a way to get them more involved with the community aspect of a school.”

The regular season includes eight games and four rounds of playoffs, with the championship scheduled for Dec. 11. A varsity team for “Rocket League” has three players, and a team for “League of Legends” has five. Most schools participating have at least a varsity and junior varsity team.

‘Level one’ Matt Flori moved to Colorado in 2017 to teach science at Gateway High School in Aurora. One year later, Flori heard rumblings of people organizing esports matches at the high school level.

Bouts of “League of Legends” and “Rocket League” took place in classrooms as clubs and developed a popular following. Dozens of Denver-area schools formed their own teams.

Flori stepped in to organize the first high school esports tournaments as Gateway’s first coach.

“When I was growing up, not every single student played video games,” Flori said. “It wasn’t the cool thing to do. Nowadays, every student — male or female — plays video games.”

Flori was hired at Castle View High School in Castle Rock this year, and has yet to meet his new esports team face-to-face. Coaching his players virtually is a challenge, he said, but students have been able to remain connected through playing.

“There are a lot of clubs and sports that are just not playing or meeting right now,” Flori said. “The fact we can do this at home, from the comfort of our couch, to comfort each other and talk to each other — it’s really helpful for the students to keep up with that social engagement.”

Flori said he believes competitive gaming will play a larger role at the high school level as the sport continues to gain popularity.

“The difference between esports and every other sport is in the amount of students who already do this,” Flori said. “Esports isn’t new for students. It’s new for adults, but it’s not new for students. They already play these video games, whether they’re professional or not.”

More colleges are beginning their own esports programs and several offer scholarships.

The top gamers can make a living off esports.

In 2019, esports viewership through apps like Twitch and YouTube totaled 454 million,

SHUTTERSTOCK IMAGE

according to Business Insider. The industry surpassed $1 billion, according to a 2019 report from Newzoo, a games and esports analytics group.

Breaking into the professional realm of esports can be daunting, which is where high school coaches can come into play, Flori said.

“A lot of amateur teams and collegiate teams are looking for the next big thing and next big student,” Flori said. “This will start to open up those avenues for the kids.”

‘More than a fad’ Chandler Farnsworth has been competitive his whole life.

The 17-year-old from Highlands Ranch grew up in a “golf family,” he said, and attributes his hours spent on the links to his fiery “Fortnite” play. A student at SkyView Academy, Farnsworth started gaming his freshman year. Now, as a senior, he feels can safely say he can beat anyone at his school in any video game.

“It’s a hobby for me,” Farnsworth said, “and I really wanted to do it for more than just for fun outside of school.”

Though “Fortnite” is not a CHSAA esports game title, students can still play exhibition matches with other titles during practices.

The pilot program only includes “League of Legends,” a five-on-five battle-arena game, and “Rocket League,” a two-on-two game akin to soccer, for now.

Farnsworth helped start the first esports team at SkyView this year.

“We had more interest in esports than we did golf,” Farnsworth said.

To coach the team, the school hired Chris Curtis, a former esports pro and current program director for South Suburban Parks and Recreation’s esports department. Curtis has organized tournaments across the Front Range and is an advocate for the sport.

“Everybody is starting to realize this is a bit more than a fad,” Curtis said. “Schools are learning how to incorporate this more …

You’re seeing students who wouldn’t enter in a physical sport enter this and it becomes the driving factor in increasing their grades.”

Curtis added that esports players are subject to academic requirements set by CHSAA similarly to other sports, adding a layer of

academic motivation for interested players.

Farnsworth believes esports will continue its rise in popularity and will eventually help debunk the stereotype of the isolated, antisocial gamer.

“If you’re good at the game, people will find you eventually and you will get a community around you,” Farnsworth said.

And earning that CHSAA seal of approval could be crucial to the sport’s attempt at establishing credibility. There are 17 states nationwide that have esports as a sanctioned activity.

“More often than not, there is a big spike in participation once a sport is sanctioned,” CHSAA spokesperson Ryan Casey said.

Flori and Curtis agree esports will continue to surge in popularity. Flori said some teams are working on adding a “unified” team for students with special needs.

“I think it starts at high school and leads into college,” Curtis said. “I would not be surprised if within the next five to seven years you’re seeing a handful of high schools offering esports as a competitive offering with any other sport.”

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20 Washington Park Profile

November 2020

When Wash Park swung to a Big Band beat A grand hotel once supplied the neighborhood with glamour

By Kirsten Dahl Collins Special to Colorado Community Media

The jazz was hot, the martinis were cold.

From the dance floor, fox trotting couples watched the sun set behind a sweeping 200mile vista of the Rocky Mountains.

All this was just a short walk away — if you lived in Washington Park during the 1930s, `40s and `50s.

A portal to this glamorous past is located inside a cluster of apartment towers one block north of Washington Park on South Marion Parkway. Although these tall brick buildings bristle with early 1970’s modernism, the hallways and common areas bear testimony to the elegant era of the Park Lane Hotel, which occupied the site from 1928 to 1966.

The entrance lobby is hung with framed scraps of vintage wallpaper. A framed yellowed ticket promises nightly dancing to Joe Mann’s orchestra. A black and white aerial photo from 1930 shows the old hotel flanked by its ornate grounds and 12 luxury bungalows.

General Manager Brian Mergl’s office is a museum of hotel memorabilia, including swizzle sticks; matchbooks; a monogrammed, silver-plated bowl; and an ornate room key.

Based on that key alone, the Park Lane Hotel was a pretty special place.

It also boasted a special location. In the 1920s, Smith Lake in northern Washington Park drew thousands of visitors with its sandy bathing beach, boating and winter skating.

Most Denver hotels were located downtown, but newly-arrived Chicago architect and hotel manager Paul Stein decided to take advantage of Smith Lake’s resort-like atmosphere and bought a site just one block away. The new 12-story, brick-clad high rise, in a style influenced by architect Louis Sullivan and the Chicago School, opened its doors in 1928 as “The Friendliest Hotel in the West.” The hotel provided 225 rooms and apartments, and reigned over five acres of landscaped grounds, which boasted — at various times — a swimming pool, two nine-hole golf courses, tennis courts and a 200-car garage where pampered guests and residents could park their Duesenbergs and Bugattis. The Roaring Twenties were drawing to a close, but the Park Lane was blissfully oblivious.

Although the hotel regularly hosted travelers, it mainly catered to year-round residents with its bungalows and numerous apartments.

In the 1930s, the hotel “was considered the best address in Denver and was known as `the darling of Denver’s high society,’” according to research by Judy Marks, retired director of archives at the American Institute of Architects and a current resident of the apartment towers. Today, working parents stuck at home with their kids during the pandemic can only dream of life in one of these civilized relics of the past, where every day the staff arrived to make the beds and the only meal prep required was dialing room service.

In 1935, after being treated for tuberculosis in Colorado Springs, famed Broadway composer Vincent Youmans retired to a bungalow at the Park Lane with his wife, Broadway dancer Anne Varley. In the 1920s, Youmans won acclaim for such hits as the musical comedy, “No, No, Nanette,” with its enduring song, “Tea for Two,” and his music for “Flying Down to Rio,” which was Fred Astaire’s first film with Ginger Rogers. Youmans also won acclaim — or at least notoriety — for racing around Denver in his “wide array of fancy sports cars,” according to historian Phil Goodstein, local author of The Haunts of Washington Park.

In the first half of the 20th Century, American city-dwellers flocked to residential hotels. “Hotels gave … residents an instant social position, and interaction with some of the wealthiest residents of the city,” states

A vintage photo depicts that in 1948, the grand Park Lane Hotel on South Marion Parkway acquired a glassed-in 13th floor — home to the popular nightclub, Top of the Park.

COURTESY PHOTO The Encyclopedia of Chicago, citing architect Louis Sullivan, who “lived in hotels most of his life.” In New York, Kay Thompson’s fictional heroine Eloise lived at The Plaza, while a pair of very real young actresses named Joan Crawford and Grace Kelly stayed at the more affordable Barbizon. In his history of residential hotels, Living Downtown, author Paul Groth explains, “at the most practical level, wealthy people loved hotel life because it eliminated the routine responsibilities of managing a large house.” And it wasn’t only the wealthy who appreciated hotel life. In the 1920s, Chicago sociologist Day Monroe interviewed female doctors and businesswomen “who could pursue their professional lives only because hotel life freed them from household duties.”

Clearly Wash Park’s new hotel had much to offer — except good timing. A year after it opened, the stock market crashed inaugurating the bitter years of the Great Depression.

Denver lost a third of its banks and jobs but somehow, Park Lane owner and manager Paul Stein managed to keep his hostelry going. Embracing the kind of glamorous escapism found in the Astaire-Rogers movies, he opened the hotel’s Marine Deck in 1936, which offered a rooftop garden where summertime visitors danced under the stars. Relying on views of Smith Lake to evoke the mighty ocean, the decor included lifeboats, fishing tackle and a pilot’s wheel, according to Goodstein.

Martinis were once again available at “the world’s smartest cocktail lounge,” as a brochure proclaims, since Prohibition had ended three years earlier.

In 1937, Stein pulled out all the stops — so to speak — and installed a pipe organ in the hotel lobby. At the time, mechanical marvels such as the Wurlitzer were status symbols and widely regarded as good for business. Still, the organ failed to do the trick. In the 1940s, the Park Lane ran aground financially and changed hands several times. Once again, the hotel responded by upping its glamour quotient. In 1948, the new owner, Kansas City hotel investor Benjamin F. Weinberg, added a glass-enclosed top floor including a supper club called Top of the Park. According to Marks, it was “an elegant, beautiful room overlooking a 200-mile panorama of the Rocky Mountains … All the waiters wore white gloves, the menu was Continental and … the band played romantic music.” In that era, she added, “more marriage proposals took place on the Park Lane dance floor than any other place in Denver.”

Ironically, as the hotel’s economic footing

An ornate room key testifies to the bygone elegance of the Park Lane Hotel.

PHOTO BY TIM COLLINS

steadily worsened, Top of the Park gained increasing fame. Marks cites Rocky Mountain News writer Marjorie Barrett: “`the list of stars who strutted across the Park Lane’s stages read like a who’s who of entertainment of the 1950s.’”

Such well-known comedians as Henny Youngman, Sheckey Greene and the acerbic Lenny Bruce, also known as Mr. Bruce, cracked up the crowds at Top of the Park.

Liberace and his brother George played sideby-side pianos and during Stock Show week, and singing cowboy Tex Ritter trotted out his twang. Songstresses included Rosemary Clooney’s funny and beautiful younger sister, Betty; and stunning Hollywood actress-singer Dorothy Dandridge, a Cotton Club alumnus who went on to star in two films opposite Harry Belafonte.

Although the hotel’s finances were no better by the early `60s, Top of the Park patrons kept dancing. From 1961-1963, big band leader and TV-radio personality Lee Barron took the stage with his orchestra. Denver radio station KTLN, installed on the hotel’s first floor, broadcast the music five nights a week and began each show with “Live from the beautiful Sky Room at Top of the Park,” according to Marks.

Denver urban lore claims that musicians of a different stripe turned up at the hotel in August of 1964. At the time, the Beatles were in Colorado to play Red Rocks Amphitheater — the sixth stop on their U.S. and Canada tour.

Although they didn’t sell out at Red Rocks, the mobs of fans around their downtown hotel were overwhelming and reputedly, they fled to the Park Lane Hotel.

By 1966, Weinberg had owned the Park Lane Hotel three times, a result of multiple sales and foreclosures. His elegant swan of a lodging, a grand relic of another time, was proving too frail to survive. According to Goodstein, Weinberg sold the property to local investors Bell & Hewson, which auctioned off “furniture, fixtures and memorabilia, including sheets upon which the Beatles had once supposedly slept.” Next, the new owners invited the Denver Fire Department to set fires in the building in order to practice high-rise rescue skills. For a couple of weeks, smoke billowed from the old structure. Then the Park Lane Hotel, Wash Park’s monument to bygone glamour, breathed its last.

In 1972, Bell & Hewson finished erecting a new apartment complex on the site — the three interconnected Park Lane Towers, designed by Joseph T. Wilson Associates. The apartments were converted to condominiums in 1979, and a fourth tower just to the north, similar but under separate ownership, was completed in 1974.

Architect and University of Colorado lecturer, Ron Faleide, a resident of Wash Park, describes the style of the 20-story buildings as “New Formalism,” in the spirit of influential modernist designer Louis Kahn.

From the outset, some neighborhood residents disliked these tall, modern additions to the landscape but the apartments proved wildly popular. From the upper floors, residents enjoy the same views that wowed patrons at Top of the Park. Park Lane residents also enjoy organized social activities, including live music. No martinis and fox trots, perhaps, but a small reminder of what used to be.

Washington Park Profile 21

November 2020

Support reliable, local news Annual Voluntary Contribution

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This has been the most interesting and demanding year in the history of the Washington Park Profile. I am sure many of you feel the same about your life and career.

As I write this column for our annual voluntary pay drive, we are completing seven months of covering the impact of COVID-19 on your lives. Throughout this time, we never missed an issue. In fact, we have never been late. This is too important a story, and our team has faced it head on and kept journalism alive in the Washington Park area.

Jerry Healey Publisher

However, it has not been easy. Many of our advertisers canceled or delayed their spending with us in 2020. Add in that 60% of all advertising buys in Colorado are spent with Facebook or Google and you might be wondering how the Washington Park Profile survives. It begins with our team of people here who are dedicated to bringing the Profile to you. It is because loyal readers like you choose to voluntary pay each year. Finally, it is because you support our advertisers.

Quality journalism is not free. The trend in the newspaper industry is toward what is called “reader-driven revenue.” That means readers are paying much more of the share of the cost, through subscriptions, contributions and memberships, to offset advertising declines.

So, annually, we ask you, our readers, to contribute to support the cost of reporters, staff and printing/delivery. We have named this year’s effort Support Reliable, Local News.

When you contribute to our voluntary pay program, you are supporting our journalists and the vital work they do to keep you informed about your community: news about your children’s and neighbors’ accomplishments and endeavors, how government decisions affect you — including local election information — fun things to do in your community and metro area. The Washington Park area has a great community newspaper because of your hometown journalists.

You can contribute whatever you wish.

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Jerry Healey Publisher, Washington Park Profile

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22 Washington Park Profile

November 2020

Service Directory

CALL TO PLACE YOUR AD TODAY! 303-566-4074 Merchandise

Carpentry

Lawn/Garden Services

Painting

Jewelry

R.M. DESIGN/CONSTRUCTION Pro Master Builder, Nationally Known Craftsman. Specialist in historical preservation of older and historic homes. All Phases of Construction, Design. Structural, Woodwork, Windows, Door Restoration. No Job Too Small. Randall 303-646-3461. rmdesignconst.com.

GREENCREST LANDSCAPING Specializing in lawn removal and resodding. No job too small. Call Bill at 303-722-5923

ACCENT PAINTING

SOWILO ARTISAN JEWELRY Hand crafted designs in silver.

Custom design, silver jewelry restoration and repair. 1221 S. Pearl St. 303-548-5467. Tuesday - Saturday 12:00pm-6:00pm. sowilollc@gmail. com.

Miscellaneous Personal Garden Service. Yard & garden maintenance, preparation, cleanup (weeding, bush trimming, etc). Year-round service. Joe Marino 303-961-1495. Mornings Home Number 303-621-1121.

Service Directory Basements BASEMENT RENOVATIONS Offering Quality Workmanship on mid century homes in the Washington Park community Our company has received multiple contractor of the yerar awardss for basement remodels WBCDS since 2006 Free Estimates Call Jordon 720-979-6933 Licensed and Insured

Carpentry HOME RENOVATION EXPERTS New framing, remodel, kitchens, bathrooms, drywall repair, decks, patios, fences. Free estimates. Reasonable rates. JDB Enterprises. Call Dale, 303-748-7202.

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Drywall THE WALL REBUILDER Cracks? Holes? Ugly texture? We fix any kind of damage in any age home. Plaster (and Drywall) Repair/ Remodel www.wallrebuilder.com Laura and Dan Pino 303-698-1057 Free Estimates.

WALL & CEILING REPAIRS Skimming, patching, drywall finishing & texture, ceiling & wall repair due to water damage. Call Tom, 720530-7586.

Handyman HOME REPAIRS & REMODELING Household repairs, remodeling projects, drywall, floor & wall tile, interior trim, plumbing repairs, vinyl installation, locks, caulking, cabinets, countertops, bathroom remodels, basements, new faucets, garbage disposals, wall patching, texturing, interior painting & much more! Top quality. Reasonable rates. Call Mike at 303-587-2610.

Lawn/Garden Services PROFESSIONAL OUTDOOR SERVICES

Evergreens, shrubs & trees; planted, trimmed, removed. Aeration; sprinkler repair; Gardens; natural rock or block walls; Sod & rock installed/removed; Fence repair. Snow Removal! Lic. & Ins. Dick, 303-783-9000.

ROSS TREE COMPANY 40 years of caring for trees in the Washington Park neighborhood.

Pruning, planting, large tree removal, deep root watering, fertilizing and insect control. 303-871-9121 www.rosstree.net CLEAN-UPS/ YARD MAINTENANCE/ SNOW REMOVAL Hauling and yard clean-up. Longtime Baker neighborhood resident; 30 yrs. exp. Insured, references.

Free estimates. Call Lou R. Varlaro, 303-868-1539.

SOUTH DENVER LAWN SERVICE Mowing, Trimming, Edging, Aeration. Landscaping, Trees & Shrubs, Gutter Cleaning, Yard Clean-Up. Call Jasper, 720-296-1141 (cell), or email sdls1169@gmail.com.

Call or Text John at 720-849-3921

Plumbing Plumbing Repairs Leaking drains, water pipes, dripping faucets Replace - faucets, disposals, toilet wax rings, flapper & flow valves, dishwashers, & hot water heaters. 720-530-7586

1064 Clayton St.

GATE CITY MOVING Local home & office moving.

We’re competent, fast, and in the neighborhood. Rates: $108/hr., 2 men and moving van. Inquire about statewide moves. 306 Washington St. 303-744-8692.

The Older Home Specialist.

Service: repair & remodeling; gas logs.

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BAUER PRO-PAINTING EST. 1996 We use only the highest quality materials from prep to paint. Drywall, plaster repair, replace damaged wood. A+ rating with BBB. Insured.

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Double hung window RESTORATION includes replacing sash cords, removal of excess paint on wood and metal, plus lubrication. Also restore metal casement windows. David 720-550-2786.

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Washington Park Profile 23

November 2020

A group of students, artists and volunteers gather for a photo in Denver’s Bluebird Business Improvement District upon the recent completion of the Bluebird Haiku public art project. Camille Davis, an East High School student who spearheaded the project, is pictured in the front.

PHOTO COURTESY OF GREG DAVIS

The essence of Colfax A new public art installation along East Colfax Avenue in the Bluebird Business Improvement District was recently completed.

Called Bluebird Haiku, it is located along the sidewalk on the north side of Colfax beginning near East High School and ending near the Bluebird Theater. The art project was spearheaded by East High School student Camille Davis and her father Greg Davis, funded in part by a Denver Arts & Venues grant called P.S. You Are Here. The Bluebird

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Business Improvement District sponsored the father-and-daughter team for the grant.

Anybody in the Denver metro-wide community was permitted to submit a haiku for the project, but the submission had to describe, illustrate, characterize and/or portray the essence or history of the Bluebird District. The completed project consists of about 20 haikus accompanied by a repeating pattern of three bluebirds flying east. Learn more at https:// bluebirdhaiku.com/.

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Fedex Ground is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer (Minorities/Females/Disability/Veterans) committed to a diverse workforce.

24 Washington Park Profile

November 2020

‘We’re the people who take care of people’ Desmond Fulton becomes chief of the Denver Fire Department

By Christy Steadman csteadman@coloradocommunitymedia.com

The Denver Fire Department is more than 150 years old.

Along with that age has come some various traditions within the department, but one mainstay value has always been helping the community during an emergency.

“We have an opportunity to make a positive difference in somebody’s life every day,” said Desmond Fulton, who has been with the department for 22 years. “We’re the people who take care of people.”

The Denver Fire Department serves the City and County of Denver, Glendale, Sheridan, Englewood and the Skyline Fire District.

In early October, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock appointed Fulton as chief of the Denver Fire Department.

Fulton was sworn in on Oct. 12.

“The job of a Denver firefighter is one of the most critical public safety jobs in our city,” Hancock said in a news release. “Fulton knows this department and has served alongside men and women up and down the ranks, and he is committed to making Denver’s fire department the best, most inclusive it can be.”

Fulton was serving as deputy chief prior to his current appointment as chief, and in that role, he managed the

daily operations of the department. He also served as the Incident Plan Commander and liaison for the department’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic; the fire department’s representative on the city’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity Team; and on the mayor’s Office of Equity Reconciliation Task Force Team, which focuses on tackling the public health crisis of racism.

As chief, Fulton will lead the department’s more than 1,000 firefighter personnel and will oversee all the services the department provides. These include fire suppression, emergency medical services, technical rescue, hazardous materials response, water and highangle rescue. Fulton added that he will be placing priority on additional engagement with the community, and professional/career development opportunities within the department — calling the latter “reinvesting in our people,” Fulton said.

Fulton, 50, joined the Denver Fire Department on Sept. 16, 1998. Starting out as a firefighter technician, Fulton has spent his entire career with the Denver Fire Department. To date, he is the only active member to have run two divisions as a division chief.

Some of his accomplishments with the department through the years include creating the department’s Mentorship Program, which guarantees highly coveted positions to people of color and women; organizing the development of many new department policies, including a progressive maternity policy; developing cuttingedge hazmat awareness and training practices; helping to develop and implement new wellness initiatives and programs with a focus on physical and

behavioral wellness; and, in response to the prevalence of cancer illness and deaths in the fire service, leading the development of the nation’s first Cancer Resource Guidebook, which has proven to be instrumental in helping affected members of fire departments and their families cope with serious illness, a news release states.

Fulton is a Colorado native and currently resides in unincorporated Adams County. He is married, and has one daughter who is a senior in high school and one son who is studying business at the University of ColoradoBoulder.

While attending college in Greeley, Fulton was considering a career in law enforcement. However, he eventually got acquainted with some fire service professionals “who loved their job,” Fulton said. He ended up going on a going a ride-along, and “that was it,” Fulton said. “I just knew.”

Fulton said the Denver Fire Department team is like a family, and added he is honored “to serve alongside the men and women of this department who show up to serve every single day to protect the people of this great city.”

No matter if the emergency is putting out a fire or helping a senior who has misplaced medication, the Denver Fire Department is “here to make a difference,” Fulton said.

“Denver is a diverse city. I recognize the importance of social equity and will work to ensure our department is as diverse and inclusive as the residents and communities we serve,” Fulton said. “We take pride in recognizing everybody’s emergency is different. And we’re here for them, no matter what that emergency may be.”

Desmond Fulton was sworn in as chief of the Denver Fire Department on Oct. 12.

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