Tuesday, March 20, 2007
A Call to Action!
Sometimes, you just have to say "Enough is enough!"
Back in 2006, I caught the mainstream media's attention with my June 8 blog about the disgraceful condition of the Fontius Building at the corner of 16th and Welton on Block 162. Several article were written about the topic, including this excellent editorial piece by respected Denver real estate consultant Don Hunt: A Vision for Downtown.
After several months of planning, the Downtown Denver Partnership, in cooperation with the City of Denver, has recently formed the Revitalizing the Core Task Force. The Task Force consists of 16 prominent Downtown Denver business and government leaders, with a mission of dealing with vacant and run-down properties and addressing safety and security perceptions on the 16th Street Mall. At the top on their list... Block 162.
Here are a couple of articles on this topic: First, for a bit of background on this issue of vacant and poorly-maintained properties in the core part of Downtown, here's a recent article by Paula Moore of the Denver Business Journal, 16th Street Mall Seeks to Fill Gaps Before '08 Convention. Regarding the creation of the Task Force, here's an excellent article from March 15 by Janet Forgrieve of the Rocky Mountain News, In Search of Revitalization.
The Task Force has been organized specifically to make things happen. This isn't a group of people getting together to sit around and chat about the issues. Each month they will identify a specific goal to be accomplished before the next month's meeting. In their first month, the Task Force identified an increase in police presence on the Mall as an appropriate first step. The result: a recent commitment by the City to immediately assign several additional police officers to full-time beats along the 16th Street Mall.
For the first time, there is now an organized, determined group of influential people empowered by the City of Denver and the Downtown Denver Partnership to specifically devise and implement an action agenda relating to vacant properties, undeveloped parcels, poorly-maintained storefronts, deteriorating streetscapes, and Mall safety issues. After speaking with several people associated in some manner with the Task Force, I can tell you they mean business.
The city government and Downtown business interests are now aligned and committed to solving issues like the disgraceful conditions of Block 162, and all that's missing is the grassroots public component. Denver citizens (i.e. YOU) must also speak their minds about these issues. That's where DenverInfill comes in. I've done it before and I will continue in the future to do my part via this blog and my website to help promote a grassroots public campaign to demand change regarding the quality of our Downtown environment. I'm asking each of you: please join me in helping with this effort.
For now, the Downtown Denver Partnership has asked everyone who cares about our Downtown to please write a letter to the newspaper editor voicing your support for taking action to improve Downtown's built environment. Here's a press release about this request from the Partnership: Letters to the Editor.
In the near future, I'll be blogging and adding content to the main DenverInfill website about this issue. And to kick things off, I think I'll start with a certain building located at 16th and Welton...
Back in 2006, I caught the mainstream media's attention with my June 8 blog about the disgraceful condition of the Fontius Building at the corner of 16th and Welton on Block 162. Several article were written about the topic, including this excellent editorial piece by respected Denver real estate consultant Don Hunt: A Vision for Downtown.
After several months of planning, the Downtown Denver Partnership, in cooperation with the City of Denver, has recently formed the Revitalizing the Core Task Force. The Task Force consists of 16 prominent Downtown Denver business and government leaders, with a mission of dealing with vacant and run-down properties and addressing safety and security perceptions on the 16th Street Mall. At the top on their list... Block 162.
Here are a couple of articles on this topic: First, for a bit of background on this issue of vacant and poorly-maintained properties in the core part of Downtown, here's a recent article by Paula Moore of the Denver Business Journal, 16th Street Mall Seeks to Fill Gaps Before '08 Convention. Regarding the creation of the Task Force, here's an excellent article from March 15 by Janet Forgrieve of the Rocky Mountain News, In Search of Revitalization.
The Task Force has been organized specifically to make things happen. This isn't a group of people getting together to sit around and chat about the issues. Each month they will identify a specific goal to be accomplished before the next month's meeting. In their first month, the Task Force identified an increase in police presence on the Mall as an appropriate first step. The result: a recent commitment by the City to immediately assign several additional police officers to full-time beats along the 16th Street Mall.
For the first time, there is now an organized, determined group of influential people empowered by the City of Denver and the Downtown Denver Partnership to specifically devise and implement an action agenda relating to vacant properties, undeveloped parcels, poorly-maintained storefronts, deteriorating streetscapes, and Mall safety issues. After speaking with several people associated in some manner with the Task Force, I can tell you they mean business.
The city government and Downtown business interests are now aligned and committed to solving issues like the disgraceful conditions of Block 162, and all that's missing is the grassroots public component. Denver citizens (i.e. YOU) must also speak their minds about these issues. That's where DenverInfill comes in. I've done it before and I will continue in the future to do my part via this blog and my website to help promote a grassroots public campaign to demand change regarding the quality of our Downtown environment. I'm asking each of you: please join me in helping with this effort.
For now, the Downtown Denver Partnership has asked everyone who cares about our Downtown to please write a letter to the newspaper editor voicing your support for taking action to improve Downtown's built environment. Here's a press release about this request from the Partnership: Letters to the Editor.
In the near future, I'll be blogging and adding content to the main DenverInfill website about this issue. And to kick things off, I think I'll start with a certain building located at 16th and Welton...
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fantastic...i'll put a letter together. i love the concept of a team solving ONE problem per month...rather than meeting in committees for a year, and developing yet another report.
Permalink Posted by 
: 3/23/2007 09:24:00 AM
: 3/23/2007 09:24:00 AM
Here is an email I just sent out... trying to do my part to get people writing in and talking!
All,
I don't know if you all share the same enthusiasm as I do about the future of Downtown Denver... But Just in case I thought I'd give you an option to voice YOUR opinion! Here is a link to a popular blog on the infill projects Downtown http://www.denverinfill.com, take a second to check it out! The blog topic today I think was pretty interesting... http://www.denverinfill.com/blog/index.html. It talks about the development needed on the depleted lots on the 16th Street Mall, namely the Fontius Building.
If you take a few minutes to read through today's blog you'll see a link to contact information for you to voice your opinion, concerns, comments, ideas... I encourage you all to do so! There are so many great steps being taken to make downtown a more vibrant and wonderful place to visit and live! Help this change HAPPEN and continue to happen, by demonstrating your interest. In case you care less about reading through the blog, I've attached the contact information on this email...
If you find this all interesting you can cruise through the Denverinfill site and find all the latest development projects happening downtown, and all those that are planned! There are quite a few new projects both in the core of the city and the surrounding (ie, highlands, capital hill). Many of those street level, ugly, parking lots that plague downtown have been sold - and in there place buildings are set to rise! 14th Street by the convention center is a great example of this, where a couple new hotels and lofts have been completed, are being constructed, or are planned to begin in the coming months...
A few things I would like to see downtown? A grocery store (Whole Foods..?), and some major retailers! ..Foleys, Maceys, Target (?), you name it... something to make going downtown to shop more of a draw - opposed to only finding "I Love Colorado Stores" down there. I think a grocery store is key to the growth and vibrants of the city, and work IS being done to make that happen, but slowly. Another thing I hope for in the near future is the advancement of plans to better incorporate Auraria Campus with downtown... including talks of building a land-bridge across Speer!
Some other sites worth looking at if you're interested in what's in the works for Denver:
http://www.downtowndenverplan.org/
http://www.denverunionstation.org/whats_new/
http://www.greenprintdenver.org/
All,
I don't know if you all share the same enthusiasm as I do about the future of Downtown Denver... But Just in case I thought I'd give you an option to voice YOUR opinion! Here is a link to a popular blog on the infill projects Downtown http://www.denverinfill.com, take a second to check it out! The blog topic today I think was pretty interesting... http://www.denverinfill.com/blog/index.html. It talks about the development needed on the depleted lots on the 16th Street Mall, namely the Fontius Building.
If you take a few minutes to read through today's blog you'll see a link to contact information for you to voice your opinion, concerns, comments, ideas... I encourage you all to do so! There are so many great steps being taken to make downtown a more vibrant and wonderful place to visit and live! Help this change HAPPEN and continue to happen, by demonstrating your interest. In case you care less about reading through the blog, I've attached the contact information on this email...
If you find this all interesting you can cruise through the Denverinfill site and find all the latest development projects happening downtown, and all those that are planned! There are quite a few new projects both in the core of the city and the surrounding (ie, highlands, capital hill). Many of those street level, ugly, parking lots that plague downtown have been sold - and in there place buildings are set to rise! 14th Street by the convention center is a great example of this, where a couple new hotels and lofts have been completed, are being constructed, or are planned to begin in the coming months...
A few things I would like to see downtown? A grocery store (Whole Foods..?), and some major retailers! ..Foleys, Maceys, Target (?), you name it... something to make going downtown to shop more of a draw - opposed to only finding "I Love Colorado Stores" down there. I think a grocery store is key to the growth and vibrants of the city, and work IS being done to make that happen, but slowly. Another thing I hope for in the near future is the advancement of plans to better incorporate Auraria Campus with downtown... including talks of building a land-bridge across Speer!
Some other sites worth looking at if you're interested in what's in the works for Denver:
http://www.downtowndenverplan.org/
http://www.denverunionstation.org/whats_new/
http://www.greenprintdenver.org/
Permalink Posted by : 3/23/2007 10:59:00 AM
: 3/23/2007 10:59:00 AM
it's time EMINENT DOMAIN is used to take over the Fontius building!
Permalink Posted by : 3/23/2007 02:24:00 PM
: 3/23/2007 02:24:00 PM
Exactly who owns this building and why are they refusing to take action? By publishing the names of the owners perhaps that will add some pressure. Isn't there anything legally the City can do to make it more difficult for the owners to keep this property the way it is? For example, no building on the mall may have peeling paint visible? Can the City condem it? What is the inside like? Asbestos? Rats, unsafe utilities?
Permalink Posted by : 3/25/2007 05:38:00 AM
: 3/25/2007 05:38:00 AM
Well, some people may have seen my recent comments about this very issue in a letter to the editor in the Rocky. Certain individuals referred to Denver as a cesspool (among other niceties), and when I responded with why and how Denver has become a far better city in a period of just a decade, I was derided with insipidly stupid comments.
Hmm, would anyone here (or on SSP) have anything to do with that? :)
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Hmm, would anyone here (or on SSP) have anything to do with that? :)
Permalink Posted by : 3/27/2007 01:03:00 PM
: 3/27/2007 01:03:00 PM Links to this post:
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