The City of Denver needs your help on a couple of projects. To wit:

• The Mayor is looking for help in naming the two main buildings of the new Justice Center. There’s a Detention Center and a Courthouse. The buildings must be named for “outstanding persons who have been influential in the cultural, political, economic, or social life of the community.” I guess that rules out Timothy McVeigh . . . . . Each nomination must be accompanied by 100 signatures and a statement of why the person nominated is worthy of having his/her name attached to the building. To get a nomination form contact Anthony Aragon at (720) 913-8462. Proposals are due December 10; mail them to Anthony Aragon, Director of Community Relations, Agency for Human Rights and Community Relations, 201 W. Colfax Ave., Department 1102, Denver CO 80202.
• The city is testing out some new high-tech parking meters downtown, and your feedback about them is desired. These babies are wireless and solar powered; they accept credit and debit cards (Visa/MC only) in addition to plain old nickels, dimes, and quarters. But most important, the meters send real-time messages to the user via a digital screen. If it’s a street-sweeping day the screen might read, “No Parking Today; Street Sweeping,” thus saving you a ticket. Or if it’s a holiday, the screen might tell you: “Do not pay; free parking today.” The ”smart meters” went into service just a few days ago, and after 6 months they’ll be evaluated for possible use throughout the city. That’s where you come in: You can take a survey at www.DenverMeter.com to describe your experience (good or bad) with one of these meters. Street parking has never been so exciting . . . .

Judy will host her annual Christmas party one month from today, on December 18 2008. That’s a Thursday. Festivities get underway at 4 p.m.; there will be a free dinner, pinatas, a performance by the Mariachi Juvenil, and a visit from the Santa Cop. Judy also will be collecting canned food for the Bienvenidos Food Bank.

The party will be held at the District 1 police station, 1311 W. 46th Ave. Make plans to be there.

The crime stats say it’s getting safer all the time: for the second consecutive year, crime is down significantly in LoDo.

For the first 10 months of 2008, violent crime is down 19.1 percent over the same 10 months in 2007, and overall crime is down 14.9 percent. This follows last year’s healthy 6 percent drop in overall crime in LoDo. The two-year decrease (i.e., since 2006) is nearly 17 percent.

Judy has helped bring these improvements about, joining her Council colleagues on legislation to beef up the Denver police force and co-chairing the Graffiti Task Force, among other steps. But that doesn’t mean the situation is perfect. There’s always room for improvement — and Judy is taking proactive measures to achieve it. After a high-profile incident last month outside a LoDo bar, Judy convened a citizen task force to look at ways to make the neighborhood even safer.

The task force will meet this Thursday, November 20, from 10 a.m. to 12 noon on the second floor of the Webb Building, in room 206. All members of the public are welcome. The task force includes

• LoDo residents
• restaurant and bar owners
• parking lot and garage owners
• Denver Police Department officials
• officials from Excise and License

Next Tuesday, Judy and Mayor Hickenlooper will be at the foot of the Highlands Pedestrian Bridge on Platte Street to dedicate “National Velvet,” a sculpture by Denver artist John McEnroe. The ceremony gets underway at 4 p.m. and will be followed by a reception at Plus Gallery, 1490 Delgany. Both the dedication ceremony and the reception are free and open to the public. If you’re tied up that evening, you can catch McEnroe’s lecture the following evening (Wednesday, November 19) at The Other Side Arts, 1644 Platte Street. McEnroe (no relation to the tennis player) is one of the city’s most successful artists, with work on exhibit at the Denver Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art / Denver, the Lab of Art + Ideas, and the Gallery of Contemporary Art at CU-Colorado Springs.

Public art-wise, it’s another feather in District 9’s cap. Hope you can join Judy in celebrating this event next week.

Community Planning and Development is hard at work on a draft Station Area Plan for the 10th and Osage FasTracks station. The plan ought to be ready sometime around the first of the new year, give or take; when it comes out, there will be a public-comment period before the document becomes final.

This particular Station Area Plan is unique in that it was drawn up concurrently with a neighborhood plan for the surrounding Lincoln / La Alma neighborhood. This made for some very nice synergy — the two intiatives worked together to achieve objectives that neither initiative could have achieved on its own. The two documents call for a strengthening of the pedestrian intrastructure between 10th / Osage and the Santa Fe Corridor, including signage, street construction / upgrades, new sidewalks, etc. The plan also calls for some new high-density mixed-use construction on DHA-owned land just east of the station.

The plan reflects loads of community input, and Judy’s office has had representatives at all the meetings along the way. When the draft documents are released, head here for an update.

The Sun Valley Coalition will meet tonight from 6 to 8 p.m. to discuss the Decatur light-rail station, which will lie on the West Corridor adjacent to Rude Rec Center. The meeting will be held at Decatur Place, 1155 Decatur Street, in the Decatur Room.

Sun Valleyans have a number of concerns about safety, stemming from the proposed station’s location in Lakewood Gulch. Their concerns include:

1. The current location lies in a floodplain.
2. Pedestrian access is hindered because of the area’s steep slope.
3. Its proximity to Rude Rec makes it a natural gathering point for youth, which might pose problems.
4. The station’s location is not visible from the surrounding neighborhood, which will make it difficult to police.

Many residents in Sun Valley would rather have the station moved out of the gulch and located on flat ground closer to the stadium. Come to tonight’s meeting to find out what can be done about this. There will be free food and child care available; call Laurie at (720) 690-1134 if you have questions.

If you were planning to attend this week’s public workshop re the new location of RTD’s bus maintenance facility, never mind: The meeting, originally scheduled for Wednesday, November 12, has been postponed. As soon as the new date is released, we’ll post it here.

This issue is critically important for District 9, as all five of the potential locations for this facility lie within the District. They’re labeled on the map below:

1. Sunnyside: Southwest corner of I-25 and I-70
2. Chaffee Park: North side of W. 48th Avenue and Fox Street (North of I-70)
3. Globeville: E. 51st Avenue west of Washington Street
4. 51st East - Northeast corner of E. 51st Avenue and Emerson Street
5. 54th - Southeast corner of E. 54th Avenue and Washington Street

The existing Bus Maintenance Facility, located north of 31st Street between the South Platte River and I-25, will become the site of the new FasTracks Commuter Rail Maintenance Facility (CRMF), which Judy’s office worked tirelessly to find a good location for. It was supposed to occupy the Union Pacific’s Trailer on Flatcar (TOFC) Intermodal Facility at 40th Street/40th Avenue, but UP’s sale price proved to be too high. When a deal could not be worked out, RTD decided to locate the CRMF at the site of the current bus maintenance facility, thereby creating a need for a new bus maintenance location.

Judy feels strongly that the bus maintenance facility should be located in an area that 

1. won’t negatively impact an existing neighborhood, and
2. won’t impede transit-oriented development (TOD) efforts related to FasTracks rail stations in District 9

At the new facility, RTD will conduct light maintenance (e.g. cleaning, fueling, and minor repairs) on 300 buses of every type in RTD’s fleet, including the hybrid 16th Street Mall shuttle. RTD anticipates beginning construction of the new facility in summer/fall 2009, with an opening in late 2010.

The blog will be looking at RTD / FasTracks issues all week; check back in for more updates.

Next Monday, Council will make any necessary final adjustments to the mayor’s proposed budget for 2009, and then hold a final vote to approve / disapprove. Over the last week, the blog has looked at the overall budget process and the impact of the financial crisis, as well as the departmental budgets for Public Works and Community Planning and Development.

Today we conclude with the budget for Denver Parks and Recreation (DPR), a key agency for District 9. The proposed 2009 budget for Parks and Rec is broken down at 53% for parks, 41% for recreation, and 6% for administration. DPR is cutting expenses by eliminating some jobs, reorganizing staff, and lowering water costs via conservation (a benefit of the new irrigation systems being installed).

In 2009 DPR plans to add a grant specialist who can help the City leverage more funding, improve road median maintenance, and enhance our natural areas equipment. The DPR capital improvements budget will be slightly higher this year than last and will go for improvements at regional, community, neighborhood and mountain parks. It will also be used for natural areas, trails, parkways, streetscapes, facilities and infrastructure.

As for District 9, Councilwoman Montero has requested, and is monitoring, the following specific line items. Nearly all of these projects that District residents have asked Judy’s office to promote. Many will be implemented over the next few years. They include:

• Basic Recreation Center improvements (such as HVAC and roofing) at various Rec centers in District 9, including Atzlan, Ashland, 20th Street Center, and La Familia
• Swimming pool rehab at 20th Street Center
• Zuni Park master plan
• Dailey Park master plan
• South Platte River plan completion
• Burlington/Berkeley Park improvements
• Restroom rehab at Chaffee Park
• Completion of Argo Park playground
• Swansea Park irrigation improvements
• La Alma Lincoln outdoor pool
• La Alma Lincoln irrigation improvements
• Rude Rec Center restroom rehab

Congratulations to the winners in last night’s elections —- and to all of you who voted. The turnout in District 9 was extremely high; way to go, ev’ybody.

Today’s look at the budget focuses on Community Planning and Development (CPD), which won a number of national awards over the last year. The CPD recently completed the majority of the second phase of a Zoning Code update, and it focused on a program to streamline the permitting, inspection and review processes.

In 2009, CPD will save approximately $425K by not filling job vacancies. A number of programs highlighted in the 2009 CPD budget will have a direct impact in District 9, including:

• Promoting transit-oriented development in Denver in accordance with the Strategic Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Plan.
• Developing a strategic parking plan.
• Updating the Comprehensive Plan and Blueprint Denver.
• Protecting Denver’s historic sites through strategic historic preservation planning.
• Continuing strategic corridor planning efforts through the Living Streets Plan.
• Completing Phase IV of the Zoning Code Update.
• Improving internal technology processes, and expanding the use of electronic permitting.

In District 9, Judy has requested, and is monitoring, the following specific line items that you asked for. They include:

• Station Area Planning for 38th & Inca, 40th & 40th, 10th & Osage, and the Decatur Westline station
• 47th & York pedestrian crossing design
• Elyria Swansea neighborhood plan
• Veldez Perry library improvements design
• Byers library improvement design
• Central Street and 15th Street bridge improvements (as soon as CDOT funding becomes available)
• Denver Union Station planning
• Lodo parking study
• 16th Street Mall Revitalization

Nearly 2 million Coloradans voted early this year — more than half the electorate. I was among the early voters: I voted by mail. It’s the first time I have ever missed going to the polls on Election Day, and I only did because I’m out of town (in Cincinnati); believe it or not, I’d rather be standing in line today. To me, voting is and always has been a community act —- I like showing up in person, along with my neighbors, and being counted. I’m not knocking anybody who voted by mail or at one of the early-voting centers — those innovations have made it easier to vote, which means more votes get cast (which can only be good). So I support the changes; I’m just old-fashioned. Showing up to vote — even if I have to stand in line — makes me feel more like I’m participating in the democracy. It makes me feel more engaged.

Am I the only one who feels this way? Or does anybody else prefer to vote in person on Election Day, as opposed to voting early?