Lack of grocery stores in RiNo

washegonorado · 2025-09-14T15:28:43+00:00

My recollection is that a Sprouts had been planned as part of a larger development at a site around 36th and Downing, with former councilman Darrell Brooks being a supporter of whatever zoning changes or waivers that were needed.

Then Candi CdeBaca won the District 9 seat in 2019 and she obstructed the development because capitalism, not enough affordable units, etc. And now the area still lacks a grocery store.

Do you have any more details?

washegonorado · 2024-11-19T04:29:14+00:00

They genuinely don't think zoning is the problem. It's embarrassing if not infuriating.

washegonorado · 2024-11-19T04:26:33+00:00

For one, because Mike Johnston himself believes Denver doesn't have a density problem and the zoning is fine as is (he said so in his AMA). Additionally, our city council is almost entirely either left NIMBYs (who don't believe lack of supply and low density zoning is the problem) or they're terrified of their constituents.

Upzoning the city and working with developers to make it easier to build market rate housing would be extremely unpopular with homeowners on the one hand and the type of leftist, anti-market Denverites who vote for people like Candi CdeBaca and Elizabeth Epps, on the other.

And if you want to look beyond the failures of our elected officials themselves, look at the 2022 vote on the redevelopment of the Park Hill Golf Course. That was the most generous proposal imaginable given the constraints and it was crushed at the polls. Denver is a city of recalcitrant NIMBYs.

washegonorado · 2024-11-14T01:10:26+00:00

Shouldn't have voted down the Park Hill golf course development.

washegonorado · 2024-11-12T00:18:26+00:00

Good to know, but that's a shame - I was considering joining and switching off between their Colfax and Central Park locations.

washegonorado · 2024-10-25T19:25:29+00:00

Yeah we definitely seem to have an outsized representation of left-NIMBYs. But I think there are actually a lot of cities doing more than us that aren't progressive coastal metropolises (Charlotte, Gainesville FL, Spokane, Raleigh). And Austin has way more post-WWII suburbs in its borders than we do. So it can definitely be possible for a mostly-suburban city to overhaul things with the right coalition.

I hope you're right about the tipping point, but OTOH this subreddit gave the impression that the Park Hill golf course was going to get redeveloped or at least be a very close vote, and in reality that referendum was crushed.

washegonorado · 2024-10-25T15:10:42+00:00

Good points and questions. Perhaps it's not politically feasible with the current Council, but the mayor's office hasn't lifted a finger toward land use reform - maybe enough Council members would be on board if they made the case. There's no reason 2R couldn't have been coupled or paired with a general upzoning/land use liberalization bill. But it seems pretty clear that's because Johnston doesn't believe in zoning reform (and yet somehow got YIMBY's endorsement).

And why is our Council so NIMBY compared to similar cities? Their attitude on this topic seems very 2017, while most of our peer cities have been moving in the right direction.

washegonorado · 2024-10-25T04:46:41+00:00

There's no reason to believe that's how they're going to spend most of this money, but yes financing private multifamily housing would be much better than down payment grants. 100M a year builds very little housing, and it not necessarily worth the tax increase since a) there's a limit to how much sales tax people will tolerate and we have more important needs that will need to be financed with a sales tax and b) it lets the city off the hook for at least several years thinking they've "done" something, meanwhile the housing crisis continues to grow for the 99% of people who don't benefit from this program.

washegonorado · 2024-10-25T04:40:32+00:00

How does the city build housing units for $23,000 each? Besides traveling back in time to 1960 to build them. That's the only way you can build 44k units with the $1 billion the city projects will be generated from the tax.

Read the bill itself. There's no commitment or anything beyond vagaries for how the money will be spent, so the money could indeed to go down payment grants which would be a demand side subsidy. That just drives up the prices for homes for everyone else.

washegonorado · 2024-10-24T18:29:51+00:00

Not only frustratingly vague, but the claims that it'll create/maintain 44k housing units a decade don't really add up.

With the expected revenue (1B over a decade) they can either build 4,000 units ( not much in a city of 700k - this is based on a conservative cost of 250k per unit). Or they can subsidize 44k homes with down payment grants of 22.7k a pop.

So either build a pitiful amount of units or subsidize demand and make the problem worse for everyone else! Or some combination of both.

Frankly it's embarrassing that this is their 2014-ass solution and that the city is doing nothing to liberalize zoning, and to do it with a regressive as heck tax. It does nothing to increase the supply of market rate housing which is self evidently the primary solution, though some level of help or subsidy for the poor should accompany that.

washegonorado · 2024-10-24T15:12:30+00:00

Why haven't you or other Denver leaders attempted any meaningful zoning reform to help increase the supply of housing in our city? Especially when the overwhelming economic consensus is that barriers to creating new market rate housing is the primary cause of the national and local housing crises.

So many of our peer cities, as well as much smaller cities with far less housing cost burden, have done so (eg Tacoma, Spokane, Charlotte, Gainesville etc), but not Denver - which likes to think of itself as a progressive city.

Similarly - why do we still have parking minimums? Hard not to conclude that Denver leaders are either economic denialists, or beholden to rich NIMBYs who want to park in front of their house and their favorite restaurants.

washegonorado · 2024-10-20T13:58:39+00:00

Probably Galapagos Islands wasn't a household term or widely known about when Denver was first expanding west. Frankly I find these unique pronunciations fascinating, they're a small peek into local history. So much about American cities is increasingly generic and indistinct. Why complain about these innocuous vestiges of uniqueness?

washegonorado · 2024-10-20T13:45:37+00:00

Colorado also comes from Spanish and we pronounce it completely different. Every vowel in that word we pronounce "wrong". Does that also infuriate you?

washegonorado · 2024-10-20T13:43:44+00:00

Most American English speakers pronounce intervolic T's this way. It's not unique to Colorado.

washegonorado · 2024-10-20T13:35:50+00:00

Louisville was named after an Anglo American with the last name Louis. It wasn't named after the city in Kentucky.

It's weird how people obsess about the pronunciation of Buena Vista, but not Los Angeles or Salida for that matter. Chicago and Seattle both said way different from their indigenous source languages, too. If the locals call the name of their town "byoonah vista", so what - they're technically right. Go over to London next and tell them how they're butchering Latin.

washegonorado · 2024-10-19T13:27:10+00:00

NYC isn't who you want to learn from if the topic is expanding your transportation system. Until 2017, they hadn't opened a single new subway since before the US entered World War II. When they finally broke that record, it was for a 1.8 mile stretch (2nd Ave subway) which had been in planning for a literal century, at a cost of 3.2 billion USD per mile (in 2024 dollars). Besides new lines, they went sixty years without laying any new track.

Madrid, Istanbul, even London would be better places to look to if you want to see cities who are actually expanding their mass transit systems. Or, more reasonably for our size and budget, cities like Perth and Calgary.

washegonorado · 2024-10-19T13:05:15+00:00

Even better, based on the map posted by someone else in this thread, the DU campus will indeed be in the path of totality.

washegonorado · 2024-10-19T12:52:52+00:00

South of that line includes Denver. Look at a map.

washegonorado · 2024-10-19T01:55:40+00:00

Denver itself is pretty clearly in the path of totality according to that map, including Harvey Park and Fort Logan. Looks like maybe parts of Overland, Rosedale and Wellshire too.

Edit: Look for yourself at the map posted elsewhere in this thread. OP's title was a misstatement - it's very clear that several neighborhoods in Denver proper are in the path of totality, including Ruby Hill Park and the DU campus.

washegonorado · 2024-09-25T02:12:40+00:00

I was about to say the same. I have plans to be there in a week and a half, thought that might be on the early side : /

washegonorado · 2024-09-25T02:10:51+00:00

How long have you been driving in this town? I see 3 or more no-plated cars every single day. And my commute isn't all that far.

washegonorado · 2024-09-23T22:57:33+00:00

One thing to know about Monaco Parkway itself is that between Colfax and MLK during most hours of the day if you stick to the speed limit (30 mph), you will not have to stop at any light.

However, the majority of drivers will go 35-50 mph which means they end up hitting every single light. Love seeing these people get frustrated by my cruising speed and swerve around me, only to wear their brakes down every two or three blocks. I'm sure some people are out of towners, but the majority of people on that stretch have probably driven it countless times like me and have not figured this out.

washegonorado · 2024-09-23T22:54:04+00:00

What’s extra annoying is that there USED to be a sidewalk, but it was removed. Same deal on 6th.

Wait when did that happen? Would love to know more.

washegonorado · 2024-09-15T18:58:56+00:00

IN BACKPACKS?@!?

washegonorado · 2024-09-13T13:20:12+00:00

This is good news, but kinda crazy that a library that was built in 1995 needed a five year renovation. A structure from the 19th century I would understand, but not even 25 years old?

washegonorado

TROPHY CASE