DENVER | Main Development Thread #7

[Sam Hill]

Why are people constantly referring to this messages board, or forum, as a blog? I post regularly on several forums and have never seen any of them referred to as blogs.

Also, takefive, your latest comments are impossible to follow. I mean, even more than usual. At first you make a comment about a community of urbanists bashing a suburb for being too urban - which I automatically assumed was sarcasm but I just wasn’t getting the joke. And now you’re obfuscating by talking around in circles and forging a false narrative that these past few pages of discussion were something other than what they were.

Man, you seem like a really amiable guy and somehow you manage to always stay positive and see the good in everyone here - even if they’ve insulted you in the past - and you never resort to hurling insults of your own, so my instinct is to root for you and hope you’ll come around and stop cluttering this place up, but lately you’ve been really letting me down.

My advice to you would be to stick more to those stylistic, quasi-journalistic development updates with the whimsical editorializing and whatnot. I actually read and enjoy those - even if I don’t always agree with the editorializing.

Stop with the devil’s advocate nonsense. You say something you know damn well an urbanist community will disagree with, or come to the defense of an instigator who said something he/she knows damn well an urbanist community will disagree with, then proceed to clutter up this “blog” with meandering, obfuscating retorts to every criticism of your posts and next thing I know I’m scrolling through pages of nonsense.

Now I’m not asking you to refrain from expressing any opinion of yours that might be unpopular here; I’m just asking you to have better awareness as to how that might turn into pages of tedious debate that most of us have no interest in scrolling through, and have more awareness of when you might be making that debate more tedious.

[Sam Hill]

Originally Posted by coolmandan03

Who's waxing their car on a snow day?

He lives in Arizona.

[gopokes21]

IT'S A BUFFALO PRESERVE just saying

[TakeFive]

This has gotten totally hilarious and ridiculous

I make what is intended to be an empathetic comment with no thought that it would somehow be controversial.

Then The Dirt jumps my case by saying:

Originally Posted by The Dirt

Yeah, that's not at all why people here hate Aurora and you know it.

which leaves me no clue what he's thinking or why.

Originally Posted by Sam Hill

Why are people constantly referring to this messages board, or forum, as a blog? I post regularly on several forums and have never seen any of them referred to as blogs.

It's all the same thing; google the definition of forum; there's no difference. But in the future, if I remember, I'd be happy to say forum instead of blog.

Originally Posted by Sam Hill

At first you make a comment about a community of urbanists bashing a suburb for being too urban - which I automatically assumed was sarcasm...

Actually, it wasn't about 'urbanism' per se but I can appreciate how newer 'forumers' might be confused. I was mostly poking fun at past comments directed at Aurora for reasons... I've diligently tried to explain. It may be that you weren't around when this happened so you have no clue what I'm referring to. Hint: what was it about Aurora that was different from any other suburb?

I appreciate/respect your additional comments.

Why don't we just move on from what wasn't intended to be controversial in the first place.

Originally Posted by coolmandan03

Who's waxing their car on a snow day?

That's funny... ofc it's perfect 'waxing' weather down here with highs in the low 80's.

Oddly, I sometimes get a heads up from seeing a Denver forecast that (at this time of year) likely means more comfortable temps down here.

[coolmandan03]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

That's funny... ofc it's perfect 'waxing' weather down here with highs in the low 80's.

Oddly, I sometimes get a heads up from seeing a Denver forecast that (at this time of year) likely means more comfortable temps down here.

You living in Arizona explains so much about the disconnect in your post...

[seventwentyone]

I am more disappointed that our fearless mods have not made the NEWEST Denver thread yet, since we are at 10,000.

#recallcirrus

#Denver8isgreat

[The Dirt]

seventwentyone, did your original account get banned or something?

[seventwentyone]

Nah. Password manager fucked up and the reset password feature on this here blog forum didn’t send me a recovery password.

...until it sent it to me over an hour later.

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by coolmandan03

You living in Arizona explains so much about the disconnect in your post...

You ever eat at the Gold Hill Inn?

I was just thinking about how my deepest knowledge and familiarity was of Boulder, Denver and Arapahoe counties.

Are you familiar with HPTE's pending purchase of the Burnham Yard rail property?

Originally Posted by seventwentyone

Nah. Password manager fucked up and the reset password feature on this here blog forum didn’t send me a recovery password.

...until it sent it to me over an hour later.

Noticed the same thing.

It's been awhile but you usually pop in from time to time. I hope things are going well.

[Interzen]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

Are you familiar with HPTE's pending purchase of the Burnham Yard rail property?

What are you referring to and who is HPTE?

Did you see this Denver Post Article today:
All aboard: State to help CDOT secure critical railroad land in central Denver
'Burnham Yard could serve as a hub for new rail line for Amtrak along Front Range; remaining land to be developed for residential, commercial purposes'

[The Dirt]

God, I can't believe we're talking about expanding I-25 through central Denver in... <checks watch>... 2021.

[bunt_q]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

Are you familiar with HPTE's pending purchase of the Burnham Yard rail property?

Indeed.

Originally Posted by Interzen

What are you referring to and who is HPTE?

Did you see this Denver Post Article today:
All aboard: State to help CDOT secure critical railroad land in central Denver
'Burnham Yard could serve as a hub for new rail line for Amtrak along Front Range; remaining land to be developed for residential, commercial purposes'

He's referring to that. HPTE is part of CDOT.

Originally Posted by The Dirt

God, I can't believe we're talking about expanding I-25 through central Denver in... <checks watch>... 2021.

Now now, this is not about expanding I-25. But there will be a whole EIS process to flesh that out. There is a bottleneck there that needs fixing. But at most, I'd expect connecting through to the existing managed lanes. Nobody is talking about replicating Houston here. (Let's get a beer, but trust me, the thinking is very 2021.)

[bunt_q]

Originally Posted by coolmandan03

You living in Arizona explains so much about the disconnect in your post...

Very important question - why is the Picard facepalm not a standard iPhone emoji by now? Is there a hack that will allow me to use this in everyday texts?

[Interzen]

Originally Posted by bunt_q

He's referring to that. HPTE is part of CDOT.

Ah, High Performance Transportation Enterprise. I missed that in my first read.

I agree the pinch point north of Alameda needs to be addressed. I assume they are still planning on rerouting the freight line through the yards and using the right of way for widening I25.

I wonder if the swing back to the existing freight corridor will be just north of 8th through Denver Water property, through the warehouse between 6th and 8th, or through the existing spur line between the All Copy bldg and the Auraria sports fields. Connecting further south would make light rail station 2 sided and possibly increase the land value there but if they want a front range rail transfer station it would make sense to keep the various rail lines together. I remember talk of adding more light rail tracks through there. Maybe they could sink the freight/FRPR tracks below grade. I always held out hope that the 8th Ave viaduct might be brought down to grade as the area is developed but that might not be feasible.

[Interzen]

Ideally they would use the addition of new light rail track to grade separate the light rail and the freight through there. Move the trains to the new track then lower the existing tracks. Pie in the sky dreams but maybe with some helicopter money as Take-5 likes to call it.

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by bunt_q

Now now, this is not about expanding I-25. But there will be a whole EIS process to flesh that out. There is a bottleneck there that needs fixing. But at most, I'd expect connecting through to the existing managed lanes. Nobody is talking about replicating Houston here. (Let's get a beer, but trust me, the thinking is very 2021.)

You don't know what your missing.

In an effort to untangle the so-called Broadway Curve mess ADOT in January signed a $615 million contract with the winning preferred JV contractor.

I-10 Broadway Curve Improvement Project: Loop 202 to I-17

Major design improvements include:

• Widening I-10 to six general purpose lanes and two HOV lanes in each direction between US 60 (Superstition Freeway) and 24th Street, and adding a fourth general purpose lane in each direction between US 60 (Superstition Freeway) and Ray Road.

It's an 11-mile project and timeline is four years with construction beginning 2nd half of this year.

Other than Flatiron I wasn't familiar with the other players.

The developer -- a joint venture of Pulice Construction, FNF Construction and Flatiron Constructors, with T.Y. Lin International as the lead designer -- was selected over two other finalists after an extensive review by ADOT, the cities of Phoenix and Tempe and the Maricopa Association of Governments. The finalists were encouraged to use innovation and develop alternative concepts to reduce project time and impacts to the traveling public and community while construction is underway.

[bunt_q]

Pulice and TY Lin - team California. Pulice is part of the same ACS/Dragados corporate family as Flatiron. I assume FNF is the local guy.

[seventwentyone]

Denver Post Crane count article

As of February, 22 tower cranes were operating at various construction sites in Denver’s core neighborhood, according to the latest Crane Index Report from construction industry consulting firm Rider Levett Bucknall, or RLB.

That’s a 22% jump over the 18 cranes RLB counted in its last bi-annual survey, conducted in August. A year ago, in the first financial quarter of 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic began to fully exert an influence on the economy and the construction industry, there were 25 tower cranes in central Denver.

[bulldurhamer]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

The train would not give Boulder an equal level of service. It would come less often and not go to the right place. It's not better than the BRT. This is why we say you just want prestige.

If that seems unfair, tell us what you really want.

Otherwise... bye.

You’re the guy from dc who looks at google maps overheads to make broad definitive claims about Denver’s appropriate level of density? Lol bye

[laniroj]

Originally Posted by bulldurhamer

You’re the guy from dc who looks at google maps overheads to make broad definitive claims about Denver’s appropriate level of density? Lol bye

The appropriate level of density is one where we can accommodate all people in affordable homes of all kinds at every spectrum. Clearly our metro communtiy is not there.

You don't know any better about what the right density is than anyone else does. You don't have to live somewhere to be interested in it's happenings. I'm glad many people take a liking to Denver, even TakeFive from his sunny Phoenix lens! After all, diversity in discussion is a good thing just like diversity in housing is a good thing!