Monday, June 27, 2011

Elyria Neighborhood and Stock Show


Editorial by Tom Anthony

The Denver Union Stockyards Company was incorporated in 1882 by John Clough. I know this because I live in his old office building across the street from the Stockyards in Elyria. Remnants of the stock business in Denver include the Stock Show, the Stockyards, Colorado Serum Corp, Mountain Meadows Lamb Company, and Nestle Purina, plus a few odd specialty meat companies. The packing houses have been torn down since the early ‘80’s when a huge consolidation to rural areas took place due to fattening operations, and in order to make room for junkyards. The biggest consolidation was undertaken by Charlie Monfort, who sold out to Swifts’ in the ‘90’s and bought the Colorado Rockies baseball club, among other investments. Swifts’ then sold out to JVC, S.A.

Although the agribusiness trend has been to sanitize humans from their food sources a recent reversal in terms of goats and chickens has been taking place in Denver. Actually connecting the dots between grains, poop, insects, composting, and blood is going to be a healthy and educational direction for urbanism, overall. Eggs figure in there somewhere, as well as sperm, and that’s quite enough thank you.

The final “nail in the coffin” of rural/urban sanitation has now been proposed, however, by Gaylord Hotels. This is the $900 million project which has recently seized headlines, which requires a $300 odd million dollar tax subsidy and probably the relocation of the National Western Complex from Elyria, whose historic recreation center got “transitioned” last year because the City couldn’t find $200,000 in the budget. A new RTD commuter rail station stop near Tower Road will be required as well, and probably a change in flight paths for United Airlines. Stock Show would get its wide open spaces and Elyria would get something too, we don’t know what yet. The Denver Taxpayers would have to decide where to move the buildings they constructed and lease for $1 a year to Stock Show, since the Stock Show actually owns the land under them. And with any luck we’ll get a great “infill” project such as Cyprus Development has constructed at Denargo Market.

While Denverites will have to drive an average of 50 miles round trip further to attend Stock Show and probably the Model Train Expo and other wonderful attractions, it appears Suncor Refinery has plenty of room next to Swansea to expand their gasoline production facilities. The rural/urban separation can grow to a comfortable margin, and the food production industry separate itself further from the food consumers. And the downtown hotels can start to modify their business plans to “transition” into elderly care housing, while CHFA takes over the Colorado Convention Center for “affordable housing” and probably student housing for the Auraria Campus, which will be experiencing an influx of laid-off workers re-training for careers in psychology. Since the government obviously needs its head examined.

Tom Anthony

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Dream on

Yes, it's true, I spend a lot of time thinking about dreaming.

Lessons (not) learned



In the current fuss over Mayor-elect Michael Hancock alleged patronage of an escort service known as Denver Players some years back (2004-6) we have the makings of several teachable moments:

1. Americans are uptight about all things sexual because of the repressive Christian atmosphere that prevails in this country. Pictures of some parts of the human body are considered obscene. What is the crime here? Knottingham voluntarily resigned.
2. The lie is the thing. It is said that lying about sex is normal, but it also said that the lie is worse than the underlying act.
3. Already the focus is being shifted to Hancock's "reneging" on a promise to allow complete access to phone (and bank?) records in return for postponing the story, which the Denver Post's Chuck Plunkit calls "doing the responsible thing". From this we can conclude that the Denver Post thinks its purpose is to control the news, not to report it. Also of interest is that the Denver Post, known for its relentless suing of those who use their stories, is making this video embedable (including their words "add to website or blog" and "copy code").

Snip from denverpost.com

Friday, June 10, 2011

Friday Vidie

Roger Ebert calls this the best music video ever. One continuous take. If you are interested in the mechanics of how it was made, watch it on YouTube and check out the related videos. Notice also the different categories (platinum, gold, etc) of sponsorship in the credits.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Campers Unite!

WHAT: Sleep-In for Homeless Justice

WHEN: Saturday, June 11, 2011

WHERE: Canyon and Broadway (grassy lawn along Boulder Creek west of Municipal
Building), Boulder

Gather and Potluck @ 6 pm

Speakers Circle @ 7:30 pm

Sleepers Bivouac @ 8:30 - 9 pm*

Sleep is not, should not, and must not be a crime.

Homeless Organized for More Equality (HOME) is sponsoring its second public sleep-in to protest the city ordinance forbidding sleep with shelter at night. The public is invited to join together with people who are homeless to eat , listen to stories, and sleep-in along Boulder Creek.

This protest is peaceful and nonviolent. It does not welcome drugs or alcohol and is earth friendly (leave no trace). Musical instruments, yes.

The sleep-in will break the law as it is currently written, and we do not know how the police will respond. They could write tickets and ask us to move along or may have some other response. Last year (May 2010) they did not ticket or disturb sleepers.

HOME , the ROCKY MOUNTAIN PEACE AND JUSTICE CENTER and the AMERICAN CIVIL
LIBERTIES UNION all believe firmly that this law violates the 6th and 8th Amendments to the US Constitution* and is a "cruel and unusual punishment" of people who do not have housing.

*bivouac: to rest or assemble in a certain area

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Ride the Plutonium Parkway ( or not)


Updates

Golden

• Early in 2011, Golden was offered a deal by toll road proponents that included road planning, and the "promise" of money to fund one or two projects. This deal was viewed by most people as inappropriate, and was rejected by residents. City council decided to abandon this specific proposal, and pursue a much stronger, three pronged strategy. First, the city will move forward with a lawsuit that keeps the pressure on toll road proponents, and act as a best, last resort if the city decides to sue. Second, the city will move forward with negotiations, but pursue a much more ambitious agreement. Third, Golden has made a proposal to Fish & Wildlife to purchase a 300' strip of land along the east side of Rocky Flats for a bike path, and includes improvements to Indiana/McIntyre. Golden's "Bikeway" will have much less impact on Rocky Flats, which is a primary consideration by the feds, and the city is offering the federal government $200,000 more for the land than offered by the tolling authority. The proposal also seeks to widen a major north-south arterial, Indiana St. for better traffic mobility. The federal government now needs to weigh two competing proposals. Golden's plan for a bike path is far superior to a foreign-controlled toll road that is not needed or wanted by anyone except developer interest. Elected officials should get on board with Golden's Bikeway to best serve the public's interest.

• The Villages at Mountain Ridge Homeowners Association, a 296 home community in Golden, developed its own position statement on the toll road Click Here to read their official position. The statement was given to the City of Golden and “raises the bar” to ensure Golden and this community are protected. Other HOAs are encouraged to develop their own position to protect property values.

• Boulder has decided to accept the deal ( “ bribe” ) offered by Jefferson County Commissioners to not oppose the toll road, and accept $4M to buy open land at Rocky Flats to be used as a wildlife corridor. While we appreciate more open land, Boulder’s decision is quite disappointing and calls into question their wisdom. However, the Town of Superior remains strongly active in opposing the toll road.

Rocky Flats

• Toll road proponents plan to construct a portion of the road on the east side of Rocky Flats, regardless of possibility that small particles of Plutonium exist on the top soil. These particles could spread in the wind and become a health threat if a road is built on this land.

• This past April, 2011, CINQ in partner ed with Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center to hold a meeting at Standley Lake Library in Arvada to bring awareness to the most impacted residents. Speakers included LeRoy Moore, Harvey Nichols, Rep. Wes McKinley, Rep. Gwyn Green and Jim Smith . Over 100 people attended the meeting in Arvada and dozens of email addresses and signatures were collected on a petition to Fish and Wildlife asking the government to conduct testing at Rocky Flats. Sadly, not one representative from the City of Arvada attended the meeting. CINQ is planning more meetings throughout Jefferson County this year.

• SIGN THE PETITION demanding that U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service not make land available for the a right-of-way for the proposed Jefferson toll road until it has done an Environmental Impact Statement including proper testing to determine impacts on the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge, and impacts on residents. Go to www.GoTheBetterWay.org and click the petition on the top left.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Forward this web site to your neighbors and friends
Sign the Petition to Fish and Wildlife demanding testing at Rocky Flats. www.GoTheBetterWay.org
Write your city council and tell them to protect our community
Golden - citycouncil@cityofgolden.net
Arvada - bfrie@arvada.org; bdyer@arvada.org; dallard@arvada.org; rzenzinger@arvada.org; mmcgoff@arvada.org; cooksj@attglobal.net; mwilliams@arvada.org
Make a donation to CINQ. Donate on-line on the home page at www.gothebetterway.org or mail a check to: CINQ, P.O. Box 715, Golden, CO 80402-0715

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Real Dirt

Denver Mayor Candidate Michael Hancock recently complained about opponent Romer's dirty tricks. Now, true or not, we have some real dirt. Will it have an effect? How about an after-effect if he wins? MSM seems strictly hands-off on this one.

Friday, June 3, 2011

Oh yeah! FRIDAY!

Brutal Police

Editorial by Phil Goodstein

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The city recently settled a suit for $795,000 for a vicious police beating of a citizen. On the heels of this, authorities ruled that members of the sheriff's department conducted business as normal when they beat to death a badly troubled inmate who wanted to fetch his shoes. These are recurring episodes where the city has forked over millions of dollars in recent years to victims of law enforcement brutality. Yet not one police officer or sheriff's deputy has faced criminal charges for assault. This not only reflects the thoroughly limpid role of district attorneys Bill Ritter and Mitch Morrissey, but also reveals the essential function of police brutality.

As much as to "serve and protect," the police are guards of the status quo. Reverting to the polices of Mayor William H. McNichols, under Wellington Webb, city hall made it clear that officers had virtual immunity in beating and intimidating those of the wrong class or color who appeared to threaten the status quo. (The finest achievement of Federico Pena was to weed out the brutality-as-usual old-line officers of the police department even while he surrounded himself with body guards, a sign of his fear of those who had put him in office. He simultaneously began a campaign to treat citizens as suspects, subject to intimidating searches, when they came to the City and County Building.)

Recently, Webb celebrated the vicious United States bombing attack on the people of Libya. Such military terror, he argued, actually protects everyday Libyans against that country's vicious dictator. The irony of launching a war and killing civilians in the name of saving them through "humanitarian" intervention is far beyond Webb and others who have loyally lined up behind the wars of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. The former mayor's acceptance of such military adventurism is simply an extension of his police policies: official state violence as a means of telling everyday people to watch their step and not question or challenge the corporate/Washington line.

Police violence is not the product of a few out-of-control officers. It reflects the values and priorities of those with power. While Webb, who once called for an outside civilian review board of the police, Hickenlooper, feeling a bit guilty about police violence, created a police monitor. The post is indicative of the man: it is largely powerless, but shows an official concern about the continuation of the McNichols-Webb Police policies.

Amidst this, there has been the continued silence of the district attorney's office. Far from being an independent force assuring that justice is the community's primary goal, it is a close partner with the police. As such, it is virtually incapable of dealing with crimes committed by Denver's finest. Meanwhile, given the way the bulk of the population has been successfully subdued by police violence. lifeless politicians, and the propaganda system, the personal injury lawyers taking on the city over official violence stand out as the guardians of community integrity, a sign of the depths to which Denver has descended.

The Naysayers next meet on Saturday, June 4, Enzo's Pizza, 3424 Colfax (between Cook and Madison) 5:30 PM

Thursday, June 2, 2011