Aurora
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns

Opinion: A city doing all it can to reduce crime needs help from state government

by Dustin Zvonek

The crime wave crashing across Colorado is a serious challenge facing communities in nearly every corner of our state. In Aurora, we put forward the Aurora Action Plan, a comprehensive set of strategies aimed at addressing the rise in crime. Our plan calls for fully staffing and fully funding our police department, a homeless camping […]

Posted inCrime and Courts, Equity, Health, Housing, News, Politics and Government, Social Services

As Aurora passes camping ban, some say enforcement money would be better spent on affordable housing

by Tatiana Flowers

The Aurora City Council passed Mayor Mike Coffman’s urban camping ban, which could take effect as soon as April 28. The unauthorized-camping ordinance passed in a 6-5 vote. The ban will prohibit camping on public property in Aurora. Supporters of the measure have said it is inhumane to allow people who are homeless to live […]

Posted inColoradans, Crime and Courts, Equity, News, Social Services

Youth violence remains a major public health crisis in Aurora. City leaders want to address it with new funding.

by Tatiana Flowers

Two shootings, at Nome Park and outside Hinkley High School in November, confirmed the suspicions of Aurora leaders who were concerned that youth violence was on the rise. A community survey cemented their concerns with data showing young people in Aurora are increasingly victims, witnesses to or perpetrators of a violent crime. Gang violence, domestic […]

Posted inColoradans, Education, News

No Colorado charter school has a union. That could change as New America School teachers rally to form one.

by Erica Breunlin

Most of Stephanie Ernst’s students at New America School in Aurora are immigrants who are still learning English, but after a rash of teacher and staff departures this school year, her students no longer have a Spanish program in which they can practice their first language. Nor do they have a school nurse. Or a […]

Posted inEducation, News

Best laid plans: Years of planning haven’t spared Aurora from angst over closing schools

by Yesenia Robles, Chalkbeat

With students leaving one side of Aurora and new students showing up on the opposite end of the city, the Aurora school district needed a new plan to rearrange classroom space. It started collecting public opinion and crafting a long-term plan five years ago. Yet now many parents are upset, and school board members are […]

Posted inBusiness, Economy, Housing, News

Colorado’s pandemic housing-assistance program now open to non-pandemic applicants

by Tamara Chuang

State and local resources have provided housing aid to many victims of the devastating Marshall fire in Boulder County. But another barely touched pot of money comes from an unlikely source: federal COVID relief funds. The Emergency Rental Assistance Program, which pays up to 15 months of rent for those experiencing pandemic income loss, has […]

Posted inCOVID, Education, Equity, Health, Housing, News, Politics and Government

The need for preschool has never been greater — and never harder — for struggling Colorado families to get

by Sentinel Colorado

By Carina Julig, The Sentinel On a cold morning in mid-November, a group of children were learning the days of the week inside a renovated bus parked in the Willow Park neighborhood of Aurora. The brightly-decorated bus is home to You Be You Early Learning’s preschool program, which began serving students in the subsidized-housing neighborhood […]