Judy Montero

This Saturday at 9 a.m., Denver Planning will hold the first in a series of workshops to update the Elyria-Swansea neighborhood plan. It’s taking place at the Swansea Recreation Center, 2650 E. 49th Avenue.

“Historically, this is a neighborhood that probably hasn’t gotten the attention it needs,” says Evelyn Baker, who’s heading up the neighborhood plan project team for Denver Planning. “In this neighborhood we’ve got three FasTracks stations coming online. The I-70 corridor is going to experience some change — some widening or re-routing. There are challenges in terms of access to the neighborhood; it’s hard to get in and hard to get out. And that’s a big issue, because there are concerns about what amenities are available within the neighborhood, and which ones you have to leave the neighborhood in order to get to.”

Judy will be attending this workshop. It’s a big deal for a neighborhood that’s in transition and has a lot of growth potential. The event runs until 1 p.m., and child care will be available.

Hey, at least District 9’s team went down swinging. That 9th-inning shot by Jamey Carroll looked good off the bat, and I thought it was gonna tie the score. Congratulations to the Red Sox; more important, congratulations to the Rockies. They did themselves, and the city, very proud.

Dropoff stations for the municipal elections are open today. I’ll be heading downtown today on some other business, so I filled out my ballot and will be dropping it at the Tattered Cover. Here’s the full list of other dropoff sites.

The Museum of Contemporary Art / Denver unveiled its new facility in LoDo yesterday. Several thousand people came by for the opening; if you happened to be among ‘em, I’d be curious to hear your impressions of the facility. Leave a comment or send me an e-mail.

Last item for today: the second community forum re the 2008 Democratic Convention takes place tomorrow night in Five Points at the Blair-Caldwell Museum, 2401 Welton, from 6 to 7 p.m. Send an RSVP to Natalie.Colatosti@denvergov.org if you plan to attend.

Two games; two losses — but it takes four to close out the Series. Don’t give up. The Rockies are coming home this weekend for a little District 9 mojo. Here’s hoping we’re tied 2 games apiece by next Monday.

As if Colorado’s first-ever World Series games weren’t enough for you, there are a lot of other big happenings this weekend in the District and elsewhere in town:

• The long-awaited opening of the Museum of Contemporary Art / Denver’s new building takes place on Sunday at 10 a.m.; admission is free, and the museum will be open until 10 p.m. But if you can’t wait until then, you can get in a day early, on Saturday, at 9 a.m. for a tour of the facility and a public conversation with the artists who created the inaugural exhibition. It’s called “Museum as Body Electric” and features work by artists from 7 countries. Tickets are $50 and available via phone at (303) 298-7554.
• Get into costume and go trick-or-treating Saturday and Sunday at the 23d annual Boo at the Zoo. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; you’ll find all the usual zoo activities, plus 25 trick-treat stations. Perennially one of the zoo’s biggest fundraisers, it raised more than $100K last year. Tickets are $5 for kids 3 to 11, $9 for kids 12 and over (including adults).
• The 2d annual Latina Health Summit begins Saturday at 8:30 a.m. at Mi Casa Resource Center for Women, 360 Acoma St. Organized by the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights (COLOR), it includes workshops about health care, sexuality, immigration, health care, and more. Info at (303) 393-0382.
• Finally, the Children’s Museum is sponsoring its annual Monster Bash fundraiser on Sunday night from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Interactive games, a trick-or-treat street, monster art, and other non-scary fun await you. Moms and dads, fear not: The baseball game will be on . . . . .

The World Series starts tonight; what else matters? If you just can’t wait for the first pitch (which should come shortly after 6 p.m.), head down to the Children’s Museum at 4 o’clock for a World Series pep rally. Kids large and small are invited; the schedule includes Rockies-themed art activities, some group cheers, and (quoting the press release) “some special surprises.” (Don’t hold me to this, but I’m wondering what Dinger the Dinosaur has going on tonight . . . . ) Admission is free, but donations are appreciated.

For those who either don’t care for baseball, or who really really care for public transit, the FasTracks Gold Line team is holding a public workshop tonight at 6 p.m. at the Highlands Masonic Center, 3550 Federal Boulevard. Tonight’s presentation will cover the preliminary results of the Gold Line impact analysis, as well as updated design and engineering information. There will be plenty of time for Q+A and one-on-one interaction with project team members.

 Finally, here’s a reminder that the first of four meetings on the 2008 Democratic National Convention takes place tonight at the Inn at Cherry Creek (233 Clayton) beginning at 6 p.m. Katherine Archuleta of the Mayor’s office will preside.

Tomorrow night the city sponsors the first in a series of community forums about the 2008 Democratic National Convention, which takes place in about 10 months right here in District 9. Subjects for discussion at Wednesday night’s gathering include

• the convention’s impact on neighborhoods
• ideas for “greening” the convention
• business involvement
• convention-related events that will be open to the public

Katherine Archuleta, a senior policy advisor to the mayor, will host tomorrow night’s discussion. It runs from 6 to 7 p.m. at the Inn at Cherry Creek, 233 Clayton Street. If you can’t make that event, mark your calendar for one of the subsequent events:

• October 30 at the Blair-Caldwell Research Library in Five Points
• November 7 at Rocky Mountain PBS in the Golden Triangle
• November 14 at the REI flagship store on Platte Street

To RSVP for any of these four events, write to Natalie.Colatosti@denvergov.org. There’s more information at www.denvergov.org/dnc2008.

Until very recently — like, today — Judy looked favorably on the Boston Red Sox. That’s mainly because her beloved brother-in-law lives in Boston and is an award-winning photojournalist for the Boston Globe. Judy still adores Dominic, but family loyalty only goes so far when the World Series comes to one’s council district. As of today, the Red Sox are the enemy. Being a superstitious fan, Judy has no bold predictions to make nor any proclamation that might upset the zeitgeist.

MOCA update: When the Museum of Contemporary Art / Denver scheduled its grand opening for October 28, it probably never crossed anyone’s mind that Game 4 of the World Series would be taking place on the very same day, just a few blocks away.  But random chance is a healthy part of the artistic process . . . . . Mary Voelz Chandler gave her opinion about the new building in Saturday’s Rocky Mountain News.

Also in the weekend Rocky, there began a multi-part series about FasTracks’ West Corridor, which will cross through District 9’s La Alma-Lincoln and Valverde neighborhood. Part 1 ran in Saturday’s paper; part 2 is in today’s editions.

Recommendations for a new, tougher graffiti-enforcement ordinance were presented Tuesday to the Public Works Committee. The recommendations came out of the citywide Graffiti Task Force, which — as many of you know (but many don’t) — Judy spent 9 months co-chairingl. The Task Force brought together cops, neighbors, business owners, and elected officials in a search for fair, effective methods to hold graffiti-ists accountable, and to support property owners victimized by this stuff. The Tuesday unveiling at the Public Works committee was just the first step; we’ll keep you apprised.

Speaking of oft-misunderstood artwork: Celeste of the Riverfront Park blog got a sneak peek recently at the Museum of Contemporary Art’s soon-to-open new building. In addition to reviewing the interior, Celeste addresses some of the neighborhood impacts, including parking and the troublesome 15th/Delgany intersection. (Latest word on the latter: There probably will be a stoplight at the intersection, but it’ll probably take about a year to process the request . . . . .) The museum opens to the public at the end of this month, but over 2,000 schoolkids will get a pre-opening tour next Tuesday and Wednesday, courtesy of the Riverfront Park Community Foundation, Mayor Hick, and DPS super Michael Bennett. 

To nobody’s surprise, the RTD Board approved diesel trains for the North Metro and Northwest commuter-rail corridors. Ironically, the board’s very next decision was to require the agency to acquire a certain number of hybrid busses, in the interests of — get this — air quality. “We need to show leadership on this issue,” one of the Board members said.

Too bad that leadership wasn’t exercised on the EMU/DMU question. Judy disagrees strongly with the Board’s decision, but it’s done — District 9 will have to live with it, and the job moving forward is to make the best of it. That job will be eased considerably by John Tayer’s “Responsible Rail” amendment, which obliges RTD to pursue noise-abatement measures and to purchase diesel trains that have low emissions ratings, and can be adapted for cleaner fuels that might be developed in the future. Those are constructive proposals, and they probably wouldn’t have been added to the resolution without the concerns voiced so loudly by the EMU advocates.

That’s the “win” that can come out of this battle, to go along with the “wins” on the East and Gold lines (where EMUs were approved). We didn’t get everything we wanted, but the Tayer amendment is clear evidence that our concerns were taken seriously. Given the hard economic realities facing FasTracks, it would have required a very gutsy call by the RTD Board to approve EMUs on all four lines. Judy knew all along it was an uphill fight. But it was a fight she couldn’t walk away from, given the impact these commuter-rail lines and the maintenance facility will have on District 9. She kept the heat on and used every tactic at her disposal. This vote didn’t go our way, but the overall battle definitely did. RTD’s original plan called for diesel locomotive-hauled trains on all four lines; thanks to the efforts of District 9, we ended up with a much greener plan, with 2 electric lines and two diesel multiple-unit lines.

Judy especially thanks to Kim Kucera, who has devoted boatloads of time and effort into this issue over the past 12+ months. Thanks also to everybody who wrote the mayor, the RTD Board, and other officials to express your views on this issue. We got the best possible deal for District 9; we’ll make the best of it moving forward.

District 9’s baseball team is brilliant. The Rockies have energized the whole city in a manner that not even the most dedicated Councilperson could do. That doesn’t bother Judy one bit; she’s as wound up about the team as anyone. The Monteros live in the Central Platte Valley, a ways out beyond the left-field fence of Coors Field; after Torrealba hit the game-breaking homer last night, Judy and her daughter Hope thought they might find the ball on the back patio. Game 4 is tonight at 8 p.m., with rookie pitchers Franklin Morales and Micah Owings squaring off.

Let’s hope they clinch the pennant tonight, because that’ll free everybody up to attend tomorrow night’s RTD Board Meeting. It’s your final chance to weigh in on the EMU/DMU question. A large turnout and a heavy slate of speakers supporting EMUs will surely make an impression. It might not change the outcome — the Board Members will have made up their minds before the gavel falls — but they need to be accountable for their decision, whatever it turns out to be. The meeting’s tomorrow evening at 5:30 p.m. at RTD headquarters, 1600 Blake Street; speaker sign-up takes place on-site, right before the meeting. You only get 3 minutes to speak, so be prepared and keep it brief. If you need talking points, see the September 18, September 27, October 8, and October 12 posts of this blog.

Thanks to everybody who attended the District 9 Leadership Breakfast on Saturday. Representatives from all but one of the district’s neighborhoods attended, along with officers from 3 Denver Police districts. I’ll have a summary of those proceedings later this week; in the meantime, here are a few pictures. Self-government ain’t as sexy as the National League Championship Series, but it’s pretty darn important anyway. Click on the thumbnail for a full-size image.

As you may have seen yesterday, Mayor Hickenlooper joined the mayors of Lakewood and Fort Collins in endorsing a CO2 reduction plan. It’s the latest in a long line of policies the mayor has supported in the name of better air quality. In a press release about the CO2 reduction plan, the mayor said: “[W]e have reached a pivotal moment of opportunity to make smart choices on energy use to grow our economy, foster environmental health, and leave a legacy of genuine sustainability for future generations.” He might as well have been speaking about the EMU/DMU issue, which comes to a vote next Tuesday. Choosing DMUs would not constitute (to quote the mayor) “a smart choice on energy,” nor “a legacy of genuine sustainability for future generations.”

It’s another reason we’d like the mayor to restate his support for EMUs on the FasTrack commuter-rail lines. Please write or e-mail the mayor (contact info in this post) to remind him that we need his support on this issue.

Another item: In the next few days, you should be receiving in the mail your ballots for the November 6, 2007, elections. You can mail the ballots back in or drop them off at designated sites beginning October 29. There’s only one dropoff location in District 9 — the Tattered Cover in LoDo (16th and Wynkoop Streets). Here’s a complete list of dropoff locations and times.