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.

Plans on Paper: Belmar Residence Inn and Belmar Block 6 Multifamily Residence

As 2020 draws to a close, downtown Lakewood has begun to see signs of life after a long and dreadful year. A handful of new freestanding stores will soon be opening at 100 S. Wadsworth, including a Living Water Car Wash and a Sherwin-Williams paint store. This strip of undeveloped land between Wadsworth Blvd. and The Villas residential neighborhood has seen a number of proposed development plans appear on paper over the last ten years, including townhomes, a gas station, and an In-and-Out Burger. None got past the planning stage until now.

Another project that currently exists only on paper is one to build a Residence Inn at 470 S. Teller St. This undeveloped parcel is located in the heart of Belmar and was previously under consideration for development as an office building. This is a key parcel in Belmar, and I'd be very happy to see a hotel there, as it would bring in guests who would be likely to shop and eat in downtown Lakewood. How likely is this project to actually happen? I don't know. The city of Lakewood's Planning Department was looking at it as early as last March, so it may be frozen in place until the pandemic wanes and the hotel industry figures out what travel looks like post-pandemic.

A plan was also submitted this year too develop 7221 W Virginia Pl. as a multifamily residence. The undeveloped parcel also sits in the center of Belmar, between Target and the proposed Residence Inn. For a while there was talk of developing this site as an upscale retirement home, but that plan appears to have fallen through.

I'd love to see both these parcels developed, as filling in these parking lots would complete much of the original vision of Belmar. For example, a pair of 3+ story buildings on these parcels would complete the street wall around Belmar Square, defining the park's boundaries and giving it a sort of "hidden gem" feeling that's common to parks in European cities, where you can be walking one minute in a dense urban district, only the next to come unexpectedly upon a neat and orderly oasis of green.

Again, we'll just have to see if any of this goes from a mere plan on paper to actual construction.