Bridge 33 Hosts Fun, Festive "Boo-mar" Event for Belmar Residents

Bridge 33, the new owners of the Belmar commercial district, put on a private "Boo-mar" Halloween event last Thursday in the Belmar Plaza for local residents. Their goal was to solicit community input about the future of the commercial district. (This is probably a good place to note that Bridge 33 only owns the main commercial district in Belmar, and not the private residential areas or rental apartments within the borders of the larger Belmar development).

Since completing their purchase, Bridge 33 has been quite active in the community, attending community business forums. This latest event, however, was an attempt to reach out to the broader community. To that end, "Boo-mar" featured a costume contest, free craft beers and ciders from local taprooms, and music by local band Guerrilla Fanfare.

Jack Hechinger, Bridge 33's VP of Acquisitions, was there, along with Philip Knott, who is Belmar's new General Manager, and Alberta Davidson, Belmar's new Director of Marketing. Together, they spent the evening listening and answering questions, while residents quaffed beers from Locust Cider and 6 and 40 Brewery. 

It was also a chance to imagine a future where the Belmar Plaza-- arguably the heart of the entire New Urbanist development-- is a bustling, fun place to mix, mingle and relax every night, not just on nights when there are special events. I asked Philip Knott what it would take to make this happen. "It's a chicken and egg problem," he told me. "Take the idea of more restaurants and bars here on the plaza. These kinds of places bring in more foot traffic, but restaurateurs don't want to sign leases until the foot traffic is already there. That's what I mean by a chicken and egg problem." Bridge 33's answer in other markets, he said, has been to create bustle with fun, interesting pop-up spaces that bring people in and showcase the area's potential. "Belmar happened too soon for the west side of Denver," Jack Hechinger told me, but that he feels the thinking and the demographics have caught up. "We're excited to be here.

I'm excited too, as someone who believes in urban spaces and walkable neighborhoods enough to make my home in one. And in the next few weeks I'm going to start posting my top 5 ideas for how Bridge 33 should move forward with revitalizing Belmar as the pandemic begins to recede. 

Rebekah Stewart for Lakewood City Council Ward 3

Earlier this week I posted about the upcoming school board election, which is shaping up as a choice between loud, strident craziness and quiet, competent leadership.

Well, the Lakewood City Council races are another place to weigh in on the kind of leadership you prefer. Because, yes, there have been some strange city council stories in the news over the last few years involving boyfriends with knives and candidates sharing "news" written by fictional characters. There have also been stories circulating on Facebook that describe potential conflicts of interest among council members. It's all so weird that I really don't know what to make of it.

What I do know is that folks who live in Ward 3 and want quiet, competent leadership have an outstanding candidate for city council in Rebekah Stewart. 

Rebekah is active member of both the South Lakewood Business Association and Alameda Connects, and has been endorsed by Congressman Ed Perlmutter, State Senator Brittany Pettersen, Jeffco Commissioner Andy Kerr, the Sierra Club and the West Metro Fire Fighters Local 1309. 

Want to learn more about Rebekah and her qualifications? Check out her web page here.

Cider Days 2021

There might not have been a Festival Italiano this year in Belmar, but Cider Days is a go for 2021. As always, it's being held at the Lakewood Heritage Center in Belmar Park, but new for this year, the hard cider tasting has been split off from the main event.

Why? Well, the hard cider tasting has grown substantially, to the point where there wasn't really enough room to have both the tasting and the main Cider Days events at the same time.

Somewhat to my surprise, the hard cider tasting was this weekend (Sept. 25th), and the main Cider Days event is next weekend (Oct. 2-3). That means if you weren't in attendance last night, well, you've already missed the tasting event for this year.

Fortunately, I was able to get last minute tickets, and wow, the tasting event was a blast! Fourteen different cider producers were in attendance, most with 4-5 different ciders available to taste. The event was crowded (maybe too crowded, given the ongoing pandemic), with live music and food trucks in addition to the beverages. 

 My own first exposure to hard cider came while attending the University of Wales, where hard cider is a long-standing part of the local culture, consumed by coal miners and university students alike. Welsh ciders are crisp and dry with strong apple notes, but American ciders can be dry or sweet, and many incorporate citrus or other fruit flavors in addition to the standard apple. 

Personally, many of these American ciders are too sweet for my palette, but I there were plenty at this year's Cider Days tasting that I did like, including my personal best of show, Snow Capped Cider's Dabinett Reserve. It's a dry, crisp, apple-ly cider that reminds me of a really good Welsh cider. It's also apparently hard to get, as it's not listed for sale on their web site.

Snow Capped also had a Sour Cherry that was outstandingly tart and dry, but my favorite non-traditional cider of the show was the Talbott's Cider Company's Rafter IPC. Made in Palisade Colorado, this cider has  a hint of hops to round out the cider's dry apple body. It was highly quaffable, and is definitely on my list to track down. In fact, Mile High Wine and Spirits right here in Downtown Lakewood supposedly carries Talbott's, so the next time I'm in, I'm going to see if they have the Rafter IPC.

The Path to Normal: Vaccination Rate Against Covid Reaches 74% of People Ages 12+ in Jeffco

It's been a heck of year, but things are slowly getting back to normal on the Front Range. Stores and restaurants are open again, but a lot of business didn't make it. You can see that dynamic play out in Downtown Lakewood as well, where weekend nights in recent weeks have seen big crowds in restaurants like T-Street Roadhouse and Wasabi Sushi, even as those same visitors are greeted by lots of empty store fronts. 

The way back to something close to normal is the story of vaccination rates. Jefferson County as a whole has reached a vaccination rate of 74% in people ages 12+ (i.e. in people who are eligible to be vaccinated), and 65% of county residents overall. This is lower than Boulder County's 78%/69% rate, but slightly higher than Denver (73%.63%) and Dougco (73%/63% as well). 

For me, this means outdoor events and al fresco dining are once again options for my partially vaccinated family (my daughter is still too young to have been vaccinated), and we've even started to do limited inside, non-food events as well (while wearing properly fitted n95 masks). 

Who still needs shots in Jeffco? Mostly young people under the age of 25. If you know of anyone in the demographic who is unvaccinated, let them know how easy it is to get it done.

This Year's Jeffco School Board Elections: Make Sure You Vote

School board elections are weird. They happen only in off years, they're low profile, and are officially non-partisan. That means there's no (D) or (R) next to any of the names.

While this might sound wonderfully bipartisan and nonpolitical, the truth is the candidates are most indeed Rs or Ds. The problem is that your typical voter (someone, perhaps, like you!) ends up having no idea who to vote for without going out and doing a ton of research. And even then, candidate websites are remarkable vague, choosing to focus on bland platitudes. As a result, many voters simply don't mark a candidate for school board on their ballots. 

In some recent Jeffco School Board elections, only about a quarter of eligible voters have cast their vote for a school board candidate. Unfortunately, this allows ideologically extreme candidates to slip into office, because their supporters most definitely know who to vote for and what positions they're getting from their vote. We saw this in 2015, when a group of right-wing, Trump-like ideologues took control of Jeffco, to ruinous effect.

This year the pandemic has exacerbated the situation, and anti-mask, anti-science, anti-public education candidates are running for the Jeffco school board. Folks, it's scary. 

Fortunately, a slate of quietly competent, pro-public education candidates are also running. Meet Paula Reed, Danielle Varda, and Mary Parker.

Rather than bomb-throwing and making ideological stands for clicks, these three women are interested in fixing problems and moving Jeffco forward. Their slogan ("Let's work together to build bright futures for Jeffco kids") might sound a little cheesy, but they mean it. So make sure you vote this November. There's a lot riding on it. Again.

Bridge 33 Buys Belmar Shopping District

At last, some really great news for Belmar!

Seattle-based firm Bridge 33 has bought the shopping district portion of the development, which had entered foreclosure under the management of Starwood Capitol. Starwood reportedly will maintain control of Belmar's rental apartments. 

Starwood's tenure owning Belmar was fairly disastrous, coinciding with the worst of the coronavirus pandemic (see my posts here and here). But Starwood also never really understood what Belmar was (not another mall, but Lakewood's long promised downtown). The final nail in the coffin was Starwood's inability to maintain Belmar's commercial district, which had begun to look run down even before the pnademic. 

Part of problem was that Starwood was simply too big, and Belmar was lost in their massive real estate portfolio. This will be the opposite with Bridge 33: Bought for $113 million, Belmar will be the largest, highest-profile property in their portfolio. 

Of course, the proof's in the pudding, but so far, Bridge 33's Jack Hechinger (Vice-President of Acquisitions) has been very active in the Belmar community, reading out to neighborhood and business associations. In particular, he's promised a big investment to fix up the property (including the Belmar Plaza) and get new, class A tenants into vacant storefronts.

I don't know if anyone from Bridge 33 reads this blog, but I'll be posting some of my suggestions soon for what I'd like to see happen at Belmar.

In-and-Out Burger Is a Go for Downtown Lakewood

Although I'd heard a while ago that the corner of Wadsworth and Alameda was under consideration for one of Denver area's first In-and-Out Burgers, there was a long period when nothing seemed to be happening. 

Well, things are happening now, as evidenced by the construction happening on the corner, as well as the banner hanging out front. Woot!

Now, I first heard about In-and-Out Burger in the 1980's, when high schools friends who'd moved to Colorado from California regaled me stories of the chain's burgers. I also recall a cheerleader I knew who coyly modified the In-and-Out Burger bumper sticker in her locker by carefully cutting out the "b" and the "r" in "burger." Such was the 80's.

It wasn't until the mid-90s that I actually tried an In-and-Out Burger-- and it was good! So I'm pretty happy to have one in my neighborhood to keep me out of McDonald's.

That said, the architecture is pretty standard fast-food design, the building on a small pad with lots of room around it for a drive through and parking. The building does front Wadsworth, and the drive-though looks as if it will be hidden behind the structure, which I suppose is a sort of win. But it's a lot of asphalt.

It also seems likely, at least in the short term, that downtown Lakewood's In-and-Out Burger is going to drive some horrendous traffic our way.

Time to brace ourselves for lots of people with the urge.