DENVER | Main Development Thread #7

[Denver]

Originally Posted by Arapahoe

interesting, I did find another render floating in the interwebs.. Does this look like the paint you saw? Seems like more than paint though.

It does not. WhatI saw was them repainting the silver siding a turquoise blue but not changing the window line at all. Hope I am wrong but for a homeless housing project I find it hard to believe they will reskin the building.

[Denver]

Originally Posted by Denver

It does not. What I saw was them repainting the silver siding a turquoise blue but not changing the window line at all. Hope I am wrong but for a homeless housing project I find it hard to believe they will reskin the building.

I found a new rendering. Get ready for the new ugliest buildings in Denver!!!!

[Arapahoe]

Originally Posted by Denver

I found a new rendering. Get ready for the new ugliest buildings in Denver!!!!

OMFG -- I walked over there to look, its even WAY uglier than your render. They are indeed just painting the current facade a sickly greenish-blue like a hospital scrub.

I was dumbfounded how bad it looks...like who would pick that color?

Guess the interior rebuild of the building cost more than expected and the facade was axed from the budget.

[Denver]

I do not think this has been discussed.

New apartment at Buchtel Blvd & S Pennsylvania. 42 units. Targeting 2022 completion. Being developed by Confluent Development

[Arapahoe]

Golub / Rockefeller demolition permit for the Greyhound station has been issued!!!

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by SirLucasTheGreat

The federal infrastructure bill passed. Maybe now we will get the Front Range Passenger Rail and the rest of FasTracks

Politically, it's a bit anti-climatic since it came about two months too late to help Virginia; but we can send our political condolences to Cirrus.

With respect to RTD

Nathaniel Minor/CPR reports from RTD:

A spokeswoman for the state’s largest transit agency, the Denver metro’s Regional Transportation District, said it’s not yet clear just how much of a bump RTD will see. But the agency is “thrilled” by the bill’s passage, she said.

“Expected funding increases are eligible for capital operating expenses and will greatly assist RTD in reducing the substantial maintenance backlog by providing funding assistance for fleet and operating equipment replacement,” RTD spokeswoman Laurie Huff wrote in an email.

There will also be some competitive grant money available.

RTD could also seek competitive grants to fund projects like the long-planned bus rapid transit line on East Colfax Avenue, Huff said.

$66 billion for passenger and freight rail

Slate has the splits:

The deal includes $22 billion in “grants” for Amtrak, another $24 billion specifically for the Northeast Corridor, and another $20 billion for intercity service, safety grants, and grade crossing improvements.

The takeaway from Axios:

Amtrak CEO Bill Flynn told "Axios on HBO" the $66 billion coming to rail through the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill will be "absolutely transformational" and "more funding than we've had in our 50 years of history combined."

And props to President "Amtrak Joe" Biden:

Details: About half of the money targeted for Amtrak would go to expanding intercity passenger rail across the U.S. — targeting places where there are now few or no routes.

• "Phoenix to Tucson is a great example," Flynn said. "Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Cincinnati. Los Angeles to Las Vegas."
• As for a dream stop that doesn't currently exist: "I think Nashville would be a great place to stop. I mean, how many country-western songs involve trains?"

Note: Tucson to Phoenix is a no-brainer as it's a much easier lift than many proposals meaning easier to do and not expensive.

[TakeFive]

I was curious what you were referring to but had an idea.

Originally Posted by RyanD

Same! I was commuting 40 hours a month from downtown to the tech center. WFH has saved my sanity, until Union Station started doing whatever it's doing right now. I feel like I have more of my life back, especially during dark season starting next week and I don't have to commute in the dark anymore which is the best.

https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/lo...to-cleanup-neighborhood-amid-crime-spike

DENVER — People living in and around the Union Station area are worried they are losing their neighborhood to rampant crime and they are trying to take it back.

The bright lights of downtown Denver are being drowned out by blue and red ones around Union Station.

I'd be frustrated as Hell, too.

"It’s not what we signed up for," said Billy Kurz. Kurz is a longtime Denver resident. He and his wife moved out of the suburbs and into a Lower Downtown condo three years ago. "I moved into the LoDo area to be closer to where all the action is," he said.

The action he’s seeing now isn’t what he was hoping for. "There's pretty rampant drug use, 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 down here. You have to really pick your spots where you are going to be," said Kurz.

I don't think anyone wants to look at naked meth heads whether male or female.

Whether liberal or conservative makes no difference but I'm ready for a "much tougher on crime" approach.

"Since there are less people working, there are more people doing bad things, and unfortunately they’re not facing consequences for their actions," explains Kurz.

Kurz and Greenly partly blame recognizance bonds which allow the person arrested to get out of jail without exchanging money. Kurz says they are working with the district attorney's office in hopes of getting more convictions out of offenders.

I'm all for rounding up these miscreants and sending to them to 'internment camps' near La Junta. Seriously, these clowns need big time intervention. How many $millions does Denver spend on Narcan?

Narcan demand outweighs supply as homeless overdose deaths skyrocket
Nov 7, 2021 by: Rob Low - KDVR

DENVER (KDVR) — The City of Denver told FOX31 drug use is one of the biggest reasons why homeless sweeps are necessary. Last year, the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment collected more than 4,400 needles from homeless encampments.

But the most telling statistics about drugs and homelessness come from the Denver morgue.

“We’re in the worst overdose crisis we’ve ever seen in the United States, Colorado, and in Denver,” said Lisa Raville, executive director of the Harm Reduction Action Center. HRAC is Colorado’s largest public health agency that works specifically with people who inject drugs.

Whatever it is 'they' think should be working IS NOT WORKING.

[bulldurhamer]

https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/09/motion...l-robotaxi-service-in-las-vegas-in-2023/

Lyft and Motional, the Aptiv-Hyundai joint venture aimed at commercializing autonomous driving technology, have announced plans to launch their first fully driverless ride-hail service in Las Vegas in 2023. The news follows multiple years of collaboration, both between the two companies and within the City of Sin.

By the second half of next year, Motional and Lyft aim to be transporting public passengers, who will be able to book rides through the Lyft app, in Motional’s electric Hyundai IONIQ 5-based robotaxis before scaling up to a full commercial launch where Lyft is allowed to charge for rides in 2023.

everybody here keeps ignoring reality, i guess because they don't teach it in your backyard urbanism 101 classes aimed at pushing antiquated expensive technology on us.


i'll say it as much as it needs to be said. go take your gazillion dollar train proposals and shove them where the sun don't shine.

clean efficient convenient cars should be able to handle all of our needs, probably more quickly and certainly cheeper than all of your ridiculous train ideas.

trains are 19th century technology that we've already abandoned once because they 🞵🞵🞵🞵.

[bulldurhamer]

Originally Posted by Curtis Park

First, wow!
Second, I've noticed the exact opposite. Crossing Walnut, Larimer, Lawrence, Curtis, and California are easy and traffic moves slower on the two-ways. More four-way stops might be better, just like they have in Cherry Creek. But I'm no expert.
And who are you referring to when you say "you guys"?

there are very few stops on walnut. it was the raceway out of town.

now the planners have made it a main route both ways without adding a way to cross. stop signs at every block are desperately needed here.

i'm not really sure what you've noticed, because you've obviously not been here. nobody alive would say this is better for the pedestrian who actually has to play frogger to get across.

[Arapahoe]

Originally Posted by bulldurhamer

there are very few stops on walnut. it was the raceway out of town.

now the planners have made it a main route both ways without adding a way to cross. stop signs at every block are desperately needed here.

i'm not really sure what you've noticed, because you've obviously not been here. nobody alive would say this is better for the pedestrian who actually has to play frogger to get across.

agreed! One-way Curtis Street is like a drag racing strip from CBD to Broadway. Curtis is targeted for conversion to 2-way in the Arapahoe Square plan and I can't wait.

While it can appear easier to cross a one-way when you are on the side of the intersection where traffic opposite you can't turn into your cross-walk because of the direction on the one-way, the very next intersection opposing traffic is moving fast & crossing into your cross-walk and sometimes very difficult to see.

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by bulldurhamer

there are very few stops on walnut. it was the raceway out of town.

now the planners have made it a main route both ways without adding a way to cross. stop signs at every block are desperately needed here.

i'm not really sure what you've noticed, because you've obviously not been here. nobody alive would say this is better for the pedestrian who actually has to play frogger to get across.

I believe it's a Darwinian sorting tool as urbanism is actually a backdoor eugenics program.

[Arapahoe]

Originally Posted by Arapahoe

Golub / Rockefeller demolition permit for the Greyhound station has been issued!!!

well that escalated quickly. demolition of Greyhound has commenced!

[SirLucasTheGreat]

One River North renderings:

[bobg]

Originally Posted by bulldurhamer

https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/09/motion...l-robotaxi-service-in-las-vegas-in-2023/



everybody here keeps ignoring reality, i guess because they don't teach it in your backyard urbanism 101 classes aimed at pushing antiquated expensive technology on us.


i'll say it as much as it needs to be said. go take your gazillion dollar train proposals and shove them where the sun don't shine.

clean efficient convenient cars should be able to handle all of our needs, probably more quickly and certainly cheeper than all of your ridiculous train ideas.

trains are 19th century technology that we've already abandoned once because they 🞵🞵🞵🞵.

You know what is another 19th century technology we once abandoned because we thought it sucked at the time?

Electric cars. Which started around 1895 and were mostly abandoned by the end of WW1.

Maybe instead of throwing the baby out with the bathwater everytime the next PT Barnum (or Lyle Lanley) comes along selling some "new" form of transit we stick to finding the best proven solutions for the issues we have at hand.

At some point some useful mass transit application could come out of the whims of Elon Musk. But so far we have vehicular tunnels combined with electric vehicles driven manually at top speeds of 40 mph. Nothing about that is revolutionary.

[TakeFive]

There's always a catch

Originally Posted by bulldurhamer

clean efficient convenient cars should be able to handle all of our needs, probably more quickly and certainly cheeper than all of your ridiculous train ideas.

trains are 19th century technology that we've already abandoned once because they 🞵🞵🞵🞵.

I recall reading when the infrastructure bill was passed out of the Senate that not all of the $66 billion for passenger and freight rail is funded. Btw, the target date for completion is 2035 so they're obviously expecting it to take some time.

By deduction, we can figure that Amtrak Joe's $24 billion specifically for the Northeast Corridor is funded. Given that the bones are in place, they have the density and good ridership already this makes total sense.

Logic suggests that the $20 billion for (existing) intercity service, safety grants, and grade crossing improvements is also funded. I'd guess many existing pieces are being held together with bailing wire so this also makes sense.

That leaves $22 billion in “grants” for Amtrak, presumably for new and expanded service UNFUNDED. Who knows if the needed funding for expansion ever materializes? It's always fun to speculate though.

Fairly interesting

Originally Posted by bulldurhamer

https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/09/motion...l-robotaxi-service-in-las-vegas-in-2023/

In Las Vegas there's tons of rideshare business along the strip so I'll assume their coverage will be the strip and within the nearby neighborhoods.

I could see autonomous rideshare being rolled out and focusing on urban areas. That also makes a certain amount of sense.

It will, however be a looong time before autonomous rideshare is available over larger, suburban areas.

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by Denver

I do not think this has been discussed.

New apartment at Buchtel Blvd & S Pennsylvania. 42 units. Targeting 2022 completion. Being developed by Confluent Development

Thanks for the update; you're getting pretty good at this. I remember reading about Confluence buying the site a year ago but there's wasn't any info for what would be built.
Next step is to include the source of your images and/or story.

Originally Posted by Arapahoe

well that escalated quickly. demolition of Greyhound has commenced!

I have to admit that whatever you're using to take those shots is definitely better than my Kodak Brownie camera.

[Sam Hill]

Originally Posted by SirLucasTheGreat

One River North renderings:

Long ago, before the apocalypse, there was once a sprawling metropolis here, where millions humans lived. All of these years later, some of the buildings that were once part of a vast, thriving cityscape, still stand, defiantly. But in an ironic twist, these relics have been taken over by nature, and are now part of a vast wilderness.

[Arapahoe]

Originally Posted by TakeFive

I have to admit that whatever you're using to take those shots is definitely better than my Kodak Brownie camera.

that construction guy in the middle saw me taking the pic and is posing making the shaka. I didn't notice this until I zoomed in after the fact.

[coolmandan03]

Originally Posted by bobg

You know what is another 19th century technology we once abandoned because we thought it sucked at the time?

Electric cars.

But they really sucked at the time. Electric was limited to 80 miles on a charge at 15mph for a $1,700 car. A Model T was $500 and with a easy refuel process and twice the speed - not to mention that in 1920 electricity still wasn't common place. Once the electric starter was incorporated with an ICE, there was absolutely no way that electric was going forward.

[Curtis Park]

Originally Posted by bulldurhamer

there are very few stops on walnut. it was the raceway out of town.

.

It WAS the raceway when it was one-way. I've found traffic to be slower since the two-way with parking on both sides.

Originally Posted by bulldurhamer

stop signs at every block are desperately needed here.
.

Totally agree.

Originally Posted by bulldurhamer

i'm not really sure what you've noticed, because you've obviously not been here. nobody alive would say this is better for the pedestrian who actually has to play frogger to get across.

It's been at least 15 hours since I've been over there so I'm curious what has changed since then. I walk across Larimer, Lawrence, and Walnut each day, at least once, with my dog. There is a lot of traffic, but it's much better than when it was one-way. And I'm alive.