A cemetery for nuns. A city golf course where a generation of Black civic leaders met to network. A century-old farm. An abandoned college football stadium. An unloved wedge of an ancient stockyard. Developers and neighbors are fighting over some of the most precious unpaved spots left up and down Colorado’s Front Range, all the […]
Gates Family Foundation
Posted inBusiness, COVID, News
A mission-minded loan source that doesn’t care if you’re a startup with no experience, revenues or credit
When Valerie and Cesar Beltran decided to open Beltran’s Meat Market & Grill in Northglenn four years ago, they thought their past experience of running their own meat market in New Mexico and then a Front Range tortilla factory was enough to make them creditworthy. But as opening day approached, the couple realized they needed […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Colorado’s overlooked but mighty small businesses still have time to grab a lifeline
Working for one of Colorado’s oldest family foundations, we heard panic from our community lending partners almost immediately as the COVID-19 pandemic began forcing closures: The smallest local businesses — the ones without bankers on speed dial, many nonprofits and those owned by minorities, women, veterans, immigrants — were falling through the cracks. These businesses […]
Posted inArts, Business, COVID, Culture, News
Colorado theater companies are clinging to life and worry coronavirus will mean shows cannot go on
Live from her living room on Saturday night, Denver actor-writer-composer Laura Jo Trexler will perform her original one-woman musical, “Play On! A Musical Romp with Shakespeare’s Women,” streaming in real time through the Aurora Fox’s website and Facebook page. “We’re trying to keep our art form alive and bring live theatre to the masses by […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: The crisis facing local news in these coronavirus times is a crisis of democracy
As over 5 million Coloradans weather the COVID-19 crisis at home through mid-April, the state’s dedicated local journalists are among the short list acknowledged as essential workers in Gov. Jared Polis’ stay-in-place executive order. Each day we open our emails, scroll our social feeds, and receive potentially life-saving stories from the front lines of the […]
Posted inBusiness, Coloradans, Environment, Outdoors, Water
Old mining shacks are becoming backcountry ski huts in Colorado’s high country
ALMA — As the skiers approached a century-old mining shack in a clearing, views of the wind-ravaged slopes below London Mountain and Mosquito Peak emerged through the trees. “Anyone see anything that concerns them?” asked ski guide and avalanche educator Abe Pacharz, waiting for someone to point out recent avalanches on the flanks of the […]
Posted inArts, Business, Culture, Growth, Politics and Government
Colorado’s plan to embed arts space into historic districts may be slow to take shape. But towns are fine with that.
TRINIDAD — When Colorado launched its ambitious Space to Create program, it wanted to have nine live-work projects flourishing within eight years. Four years in, just one is under construction and it will be next summer before anyone moves in. Yet those involved couldn’t be more excited about the prospects for the four rural communities […]
Posted inColoradans, Environment, Outdoors
One-way-only mountain bike trail ups the adrenaline on Clear Creek County’s emerging trail network
FLOYD HILL — Mike Orr skids his Yeti mountain bike into the parking lot and pumps his fist. “It’s a good time to be alive,” Orr says to a group of fellow mountain bikers preparing to ride. “Mountain bike trails keep getting better. Mountain bikes, too. This is why I ride.” Orr had just bombed […]
Posted inBusiness, Coloradans, Environment, Growth, Water
Aurora spent $34 million on water from a toxic mine. It’s not as crazy as it sounds.
FAIRPLAY — Joe Harrington unfurls the map of the mine he owns, a once notorious source of toxic cadmium and zinc tainting water in the South Platte River basin. He traces his finger along a 20-mile fault line, an underground wall of clay known as the London Fault that runs through the London Mine’s maze […]