staging.rockymountainvoice.com

Menu

Westword

In Wellington 2.0, some Englewood residents can’t believe their water bills
No Comments
Local, Westword

In Wellington 2.0, some Englewood residents can’t believe their water bills

By Catie Cheshire | Westword When Austin Lunn-Rhue received a new water meter through the City of Englewood last summer, he thought his usual bill of around $110 per month would go down. Much to his surprise, when he opened his bill in September, it totaled $322. Lunn-Rhue isn't alone. This fall, Englewood residents received water bills that didn’t add up, with soaring charges and nonsensical usage graphs showing triple the previously measured water usage for many customers. After Westword compiled six different water bills from Englewood residents, a pattern emerged: water usage graphs at the top of each bill showed zero use for anyone in July, August or September, but then a skyrocketing bar for October. READ THE FULL STORY AT WESTWORD
Read More
Yes, Colorado State Patrol really does give tickets based on aircraft speed monitoring
No Comments
State, Westword

Yes, Colorado State Patrol really does give tickets based on aircraft speed monitoring

By Catie Cheshire | Westword Though most people have seen “speed monitored by aircraft” signs dotting highways across Colorado, few know that the Colorado State Patrol actually issues hundreds of tickets each year based on aircraft speed monitoring. The Colorado State Patrol Aircraft Unit uses four state-owned aircraft to monitor speeds from above, then works with officers on the ground to dole out tickets based on measurements from the sky. Any Colorado government agency can call upon the CSP aircraft at any time for “transportation for state business and traffic enforcement operations,” according to the CSP website. Services include transporting people and cargo and helping observe or take photos and video during law enforcement missions. READ THE FULL STORY AT WEST...
Read More
Englewood has a building vacancy problem some on City Council say is ‘tax haven’
No Comments
Local, Westword

Englewood has a building vacancy problem some on City Council say is ‘tax haven’

By Catie Cheshire | Westword Englewood residents have noticed a trend of vacant commercial properties, leading to more emergency calls and fewer storefronts. But city leaders still aren’t sure how to tackle the problem after Englewood City Council came away lukewarm on a vacant-property registry. “One of the reasons why I wanted this brought forward is because over the years, I've heard that some people have chosen to use our city as a tax haven, where it is cheaper for them to leave the building unoccupied as a tax write-off than it is for them to actually profit from having the building occupied,” councilman Steven Ward said during a November 4 council study session on the topic. READ THE FULL STORY AT WESTWORD
Read More
Denver spent $138M in two years to rent, lease hotels for homeless and illegals
No Comments
Local, Westword

Denver spent $138M in two years to rent, lease hotels for homeless and illegals

By Bennito L. Kelty | Westword Since Mayor Mike Johnston took office in July 2023, his administration has spent millions using hotels to address homelessness and an influx of migrants. The city bought hotels and warehouses for housing the homeless before Johnston took office, but his administration opened the coffers even more, relying largely on leftover federal COVID relief dollars. These multimillion-dollar leases and purchases include two hotels bought this year worth a combined $64 million. The hotels were used mostly for Johnston's effort to house 1,000 people before the end of 2023, and are now used to house people in his next phase of combating homelessness, known as All In Mile High.  READ THE FULL STORY AT WESTWORD
Read More
Metzger: The hellish process of renewing a vehicle registration in Colorado
No Comments
Commentary, State, Westword

Metzger: The hellish process of renewing a vehicle registration in Colorado

By Hannah Metzger, Commentary | Westword It took me a month of phone calls and collecting paperwork, $230 of fines and fees, and four hours of sitting at the Denver Motor Vehicle office to renew my car's registration. For the last two years, I was one of those drivers you see publicly shamed on social media for rolling through town with outrageously expired license plates. My registration expired in July of 2022, making it 27 months out of date when I finally completed the arduous renewal process last Friday, October 4. I bought the car from my mother five years ago, but until last week, it was still registered under her name and address. So all of the registration reminders never reached me. As a downtown resident who rarely drives, I did not notice the registratio...
Read More
Colorado attorney general files lawsuit against RealPage for allegedly driving up rent prices
No Comments
State, Westword

Colorado attorney general files lawsuit against RealPage for allegedly driving up rent prices

By CATIE CHESHIRE | Westword Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser has joined attorneys general from seven other states in suing software company RealPafe for an alleged illegal price-fixing scheme that has pushed rent prices up across the country. RealPage sells software to landlords, who in turn share sensitive data such as rent invoices, lease terms and vacancies. Then RealPage puts the data into an algorithm that delivers price recommendations to those same landlords. But instead of competing against each other to provide the best services or best price, landlords work together through RealPage to set rents as high as they can, according to the lawsuit. “A significant number of landlords then effectively agree to outsource their pricing function to RealPage with auto acce...
Read More
Second attempt at proposal to give marijuana users concealed-carry gun rights fails to make ballot
No Comments
State, Westword

Second attempt at proposal to give marijuana users concealed-carry gun rights fails to make ballot

By Thomas Mitchell | Westword A proposed initiative that would have given concealed-carry rights to marijuana users won't appear on the November ballot, according to the Colorado Secretary of State's Office. Organizers for the campaign had until August 5 to turn in the 124,238 signatures needed for the initiative to qualify for the election. Although three other campaigns submitted signatures right before the deadline, Initiative 147: Criteria for Obtaining Concealed Handgun Permit wasn't one of them. The initiative, pushed by Colorado-based Guns for Everyone, would have removed marijuana from the "unlawful use" category on concealed handgun permit applications. Guns for Everyone attempted a similar ballot push in 2016 but failed to gather enough signatures tha...
Read More
Video gone viral is of a beaver, not a bear, in downtown Denver
No Comments
Local, Westword

Video gone viral is of a beaver, not a bear, in downtown Denver

By Hannah Metzger | Westword Don't believe everything you see on social media. A viral video claiming that a bear was spotted in downtown Denver has accumulated millions of views and thousands of comments discussing wildlife danger in the city. But the animal in the video was actually a beaver, says Miles Ifie, the man who recorded and posted the clip online. "I knew it was a beaver when I posted," Ifie admits. "I did not think it was a bear." READ THE FULL STORY AT WESTWORD
Read More
Reckless e-scooter operators targeted by Denver Councilman, but police have only issued 9 citations since 2018
No Comments
Local, Westword

Reckless e-scooter operators targeted by Denver Councilman, but police have only issued 9 citations since 2018

By Hannah Metzger | Westword Did you know it is illegal to ride a standing electric scooter on the sidewalk in Denver? What about riding with multiple people on one scooter? Riding while intoxicated? These prohibited behaviors can be observed daily in downtown Denver, but there are little to no repercussions for unlawful scooter riders. Denver police have issued only nine citations for improper scooter usage since they hit the city in 2018, compared to over 18.3 million e-scooter trips in the city in that time frame, according to a review of Denver County Court records for citations involving scooter-adjacent violations. (Only nine reports identified the offending vehicle as an e-scooter, but another 52 reports did not specify whether the vehicle was a scooter, bicycle o...
Read More
Purina facility smells so bad that it’s getting sued, investigated by the state
No Comments
Local, Westword

Purina facility smells so bad that it’s getting sued, investigated by the state

By Catie Cheshire | Westword The stinky Purina factory in northeast Denver next to Interstate 70 is well known around the city. Now a class-action lawsuit has been lodged in the U.S. District Court of Colorado alleging that noxious fumes from the pet food plant are so bad that people who live nearby should be compensated for their loss of property value and quality of life. The lawsuit is aiming for class certification with Robert Fields and Lorena Ortiz, two Denver residents who live within a mile of the facility at 4555 York Street, as the representatives who filed it on May 28. The complaint names Nestle Purina Petcare as the defendant, claiming that poor maintenance on Purina’s behalf has led to the horrifying smells. “A properly designed, operated, and maintained pe...
Read More