Judy Montero

Judy and Council colleagues Carla Madison (8th District) and Jeanne Robb (10th) will host a public discussion tonight about so-called Good Neighbor agreements — voluntary arrangements designed to prevent friction between bars and the surrounding neighborhoods. All three Council members belong to a special task force that is looking for ways to put more teeth into Good Neighbor deals and to give neighbors (and the city) greater leverage in enforcing the provisions.

The meeting will take place at the Coors Field Clubhouse, on 20th Street directly across from Wazee (look for the signs). Also attending will be Awilda Marquez, Denver’s director of excise and license; Commander Dilley of DPD District 6; and Donna Starr-Gimeno of the Nuisance Abatement division. The meeting gets underway at 6 p.m.

Make a little time to stop by the Globeville Pool / Argo Park (Logan St. at East 47th Ave.) between now and Friday to check out The New Worlds of the Globeville Pool, a public art work-in-progress Keith White and his team, Your Name in Graffiti (YNIG). Judy and the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs (DOCA) are hosting the sneak preview of this ambitious work, a series of aerosol murals for the Globeville Pool site. 

You’ll have a chance to meet YNIG team members Keith White “Wiser,” “Lemon,” “Kanz,” and “Dread” and see them apply their distinctive techniques to the project. These aerosol murals will cover both the interior and exterior walls of the pool building.  Exterior walls will depict a stone wall with Aztec sculptures and motifs wrapping around the building.  Murals inside the pool area will depict whimsical ocean scenes.

YNIG was founded in 2006 to create an understanding and appreciation of graffiti/aerosol art techniques. The crew paints personalized graffiti items on commission.  They enjoy educating the public about urban art while providing young artists a positive outlet to express their talents and develop as professional artists.  YNIG developed a weekly graffiti art program for the Globeville neighborhood and worked with kids of all ages during 2007/2008, instructing them how to understand, execute and appreciate urban art.  The YNIG team is excited to be the first team of aerosol artists commissioned by the City of Denver for a public art project and considers it an honor to have their artwork featured in the Globeville community.

For more information on the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs’ Public Art Program, please call 720-865-4313 or visit www.denvergov.org/publicart.

Here are a couple of items I found over at the Riverfront Park blog (hat tip to ya, Celeste). First off, the February issue of Sunset Magazine had a short n sweet featurette about the LoHi neighborhood — picture of the Pedestrian Bridge and everything. Its bylined by Lori Midson, the former foodie at 5280 magazine. Forest Room 5, Vita, Sushi Sasha, and the Paris Wine Bar all get nods.

Second item: I highly recommend Denvergence, a video blog with a lot of LoDo / CPV footage. The proprietor, Charles Carpenter, moved here recently from the Pacific Northwest and is discovering our city with fresh eyes. He’ll help you do the same. Here’s some lovely footage of Commons Park at dusk; a paean to My Brother’s Bar; and (my favorite) a montage of the faded commercial signage painted onto the red-brick walls of LoDo buildings. Some of these things run a tad long, but they’re all set to (well-chosen) music and each sets a nice tone. Guy’s got some talent.

DPD continues to go high-tech. Last year they installed 8 automated surveillance cameras to help catch graffiti vandals (a pilot program recommended by the Graffiti Task Force). This year they’ll roll out Photo Red Light, another pilot program that uses cameras to catch and ticket drivers who whiz through red lights. This is a more serious problem than you think: Nationwide, nearly 1,000 people a year are killed by red-light runners, and more than 150,000 are injured. I’ll repeat that — 150,000 injuries.

The Photo Red Light program will debut at four intersections in Denver. Two of them (8th and Speer, 6th and Kalamath) lie within District 9, and a third (6th and Lincoln) is just outside the District 9 boundary. The cameras are expected to be in place and operating by about June 1.

Judy strongly supports the program.

Ollin, El Centro Su Teatro’s original production about the conquest of Mexico, has gotten rave reviews from both the Post and the Rocky. If you haven’t seen it, you’ve got three more weekends — the show runs Thurs. through Sun. from now until March 29th. Tickets cost $18 ($15 seniors) and are available at (303) 296-0219.

This will be one of Su Teatro’s last productions in its current Elyria location (4725 High St.). Judy helped the organization get funding for a new building on Santa Fe Drive, where it will be moving before too long.

* * * * * * * *

A couple of weeks ago (Feb. 26), RTD hosted a meeting to gather public feedback re the siting of a commuter rail facility. An agreement was reached last year on a site northeast of downtown, but that was a casualty of the failed negotiations between RTD and the Union Pacific. So we’re back to the drawing board. Judy’s office forwarded a copy of the minutes from February 26 meeting; the gist of Judy’s position (as stated at the meeting is this:

The maintenance facility is going to impact a lot of development in River North, including the river district that is being discussed by the city and developers. The maintenance facility has to be integrated into those plans, no matter where it’s located, and the environmental impacts have to be discussed openly. The process has to be transparent. We want what’s clean and good for the neighborhood. We hope the maintenance facility becomes part of the neighborhood.

Take a gander at the entire meeting-minutes document at maintenance-facility-meeting-notes_22708.pdf.

A week from today (March 18), Judy and Council colleagues Rick Garcia (District 1) and Paul Lopez (District 3) will co-host an informational forum about home ownership and foreclosure. The lending crisis is affecting millions of people nationwide, and Denver is no exception. But there are steps you can take to protect your investment and limit your risk, and there’s help available if you’re already at risk of foreclosure. The Denver Office of Economic Development and the Federal Housing Authority are also co-hosting this forum, which will take place at Invesco Field beginning at 6:30 p.m. Information available at (720) 913-1530.

* * * * * * * * *

You’d best act by this Friday, March 14, if you plan to apply for a permit or license to use downtown-area city facilities in the two weeks leading up to the Democratic National Convention (August 15-31). A special permitting / licensing process is necessary because there’s already a heightened demand for those facilities during the convention, as well as an increased security burden. If you’re seeking a permit for an event, special-event liquor license, peddler’s permit, or such like, you’re encouraged to submit your request by the end of the week. The City website has a special permits page that lists the facilities requiring a special permit; the types of permits affected; the rules governing acceptance / denial of permit requests; and just about everything else you could possibly want to know.

Judy and council aide Teresa St. Peter attended last Thursday’s brainstorming session for the Union Station Plaza, hosted by CU-Denver’s College of Architecture and Planning. At least two District 9 neighbors (David Griggs and Bert Melcher) also took part in the event, which featured interactive workshops focused on plaza design, management, and atmosphere — the look and feel of the place. The session was part of a public-space study being conducted by CU-D students, who will submit a proposal for the final plaza design. According to Professor Jeremy Nemeth, the 16 students involved in the project have already put in several hundred hours of research. Keep tabs on their progress, findings, and final proposal at the project website.

The Union Station workshop wrapped up just in time for Judy and Teresa to catch the presentation of RTD’s draft EIS for the Gold Line corridor. The PowerPoint, handouts, and display boards from the presentation are available for download right here. As you’re probably aware, stalled negotiations between RTD and the Union Pacific Railroad have forced the Gold Line team to evaluate alternative alignments for certain segments of the line. Within District 9, the affected portion lies just northwest of downtown, between Union Station and Pecos Street — roughly where Highland, Globeville, and Sunnyside converge. The Gold Line team followed up with a work session on Friday; I’ll try to find out what shook out of that meeting and let you know ASAP.

Two opening receptions will coincide with this month’s Art Walk:

• Sliding Door Gallery (554 Santa Fe Dr.) debuts Christopher Darwin Wanner’s 1000 Monk Heads Meditating. Described as a meditation on meditation, it features a flotilla of tiny ceramic busts. Reception from 6 to 10 p.m. Sliding Door also opens two photography exhibits for the Denver Month of Photography,: “Current Works on the Front Range” and “Front Range Community College Student Photography Exhibit.”
• Habitat Gallery (828 Santa Fe Dr.) unveils R-E-S-P-E-C-T: A Community Celebration of Women’s History Month. This group show features the work of more than 15 artists in varying media. Tonight’s opening reception is a benefit fundraiser for the Vail Valley Women’s Fund; it lasts from 5:30 to 9 p.m.
• Artists on Santa Fe (747 Santa Fe Dr.) has new work from Tracey Russell: Flux and Fauna, a set of new abstract expressionist paintings based on plant life.

Tonight’s forecast calls for clear skies and chilly temps (~30 degrees F). Bundle up and come on out for the Art Walk.

From now until March 17, Parks and Rec is soliciting public comment on the Swansea Park Master Plan draft. The draft already reflects input gathered at the Master Plan workshop six weeks ago; you can view a copy of the plan here. Submit your comments to Jill Wuertz at jill.wuertz@denvergov.org. When submitting comments, please make reference to specific pages in the draft plan (by page number) for ease of comprehension. You can also submit comments at the Swansea Rec Center; hard copies of the draft master plan are available at Swansea Park Rec Center, Cross Community Coalition, or the Valdez Perry Library.

While we’re on the subject, registration for Parks+Rec’s summer camps opens next Monday, March 10. Here’s a complete list of all the available camps — dates, times, locations, fees, and so forth.

Students from the UC-Denver College of Architecture and Planning will be leading an interactive session tomorrow night (Thursday, 3/6) to brainstorm ideas for the Union Station Plaza. The event starts at 6:00 p.m. and runs till 8:30 in the Grande Ballroom of the Oxford Hotel (17th and Wazee). RSVP to morganr DOT landers AT gmail.com. Some of these ideas may be incorporated into the Plaza Concept Plan, which is in the process of being updated. The most recent version of the visioning document I could find online is here — but it’s nearly 3 years old. If anybody knows of a more recent version, please post a comment.