The What's Not Here Anymore Tour

When visiting a new city, it's sometimes fun to visit the most impressive, unique sights. In Denver, you might take in various landmarks such as the state capitol, for example, or the Museum of Nature and Science. Coors Field could be of interest, and you might even swing by the Denver Mint, though it's not much to look at from the outside.

I have an alternative tour. I call it the What's Not Here Anymore tour. After 25 years of living in the Mile High City, I know more about what a location in the city used to be than what it is now.

Though I didn't move here until I was 27, I grew up in Denver's orbit of influence. Denver was where we went to the airport. Denver was where all the TV stations came from. Denver was culture and theatre and shopping. Denver was fancy restaurants like the Spaghetti Factory where we ate whenever we came to town.  Hey, it seemed fancy at the time. Casa Bonita was also a regular stop - yes, I know the food is not that good, but for a kid just discovering his sexuality, those cliff divers were amazing to watch.

The malls in and around Denver were exotic because before 1980, my hometown didn't have one. There was nothing like that first sip of Orange Julius or an ICEE at Cinderella City.

The first traffic jam I remember was in Denver. My father drove the RV as my friend John and I watched from the overhang above the cab. We had to turn the radio off so Dad could concentrate while all those crazy freeway drivers tried to get around us. Naturally, the doors were locked because we were in the big city.

The first time I ever saw a gay couple making out, my family was driving through Cheesman Park on the way to my brother's apartment on High Street. My  parents pretended not to notice. Slack-jawed, I silently vowed I would return to explore this fascinating phenomenon and by golly, I eventually did.

When I moved to Denver, May D&F was the region's primary department store. The downtown location was an interesting paraboloid shape where the gigantic Sheraton now stands.

When I moved to Denver, Denver International Airport was still a massive construction site. Though the old crowded Stapleton Airport hasn't existed for two decades, I miss it. Oh sure, it was unnerving to land on parallel runways, two planes' wings nearly touching as they simultaneously approached the ground. But it only took 10 minutes to get from the end of Concourse E to my apartment on Columbine street. And I continue to be embarrassed by that circus tent that passes for the DIA roof.

It pains me now to see the wasteful demolition at the old University Hospital site, though we are promised new opportunities for housing and retail in the future, I'm starting to wonder if I'll live long enough to see it.

Try as I might, I can't exist totally in the past. I do appreciate the Denver of now.

• The blossoming of Lower Downtown (LODO) over the past two decades has really enlivened the city. 
• I love those whimsical dancing sculptures at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. 
• The Tattered Cover continues to shine as a literary beacon, even though it's moved around a bit and opened multiple locations. 
• Our Civic Center is second to none when it comes to gigantic holiday light displays. 
• The light rail system and Union Station redevelopment illustrate that people here have enough vision to invest in a bright future.

When all is said and done, however, nothing caps off the day like a visit to the Spaghetti Factory. It hasn't changed.

After Hong Kong, Denver Seems Kind of Small

Ever since my extensive four day trip to Hong Kong in November, Denver is looking rather small.

Our highrises are shorter. Our light rail trains, though plenty cool, are not subways. We don't have those space-efficient double decker busses.

I guess it's all a matter of perspective.

The mile high city seems positively huge when you're driving inbound on I-25 after visiting Wyoming, for example.

Hong Kong, much bigger than Denver, is actually quite small compared to other Chinese cities that most of us have never heard of.

These considerations are important if your self-worth is tied up with where you live. And mine is.

Denver is the biggest city and the urban hub for a huge geographical portion of the United States.

Because I believe Denver to be superior to most other places, I believe myself to be superior also, simply by virtue of my being  smart enough to live here.

I have it on good authority that others feel the same way about where they live. New Yorkers exemplify this more than most. They believe absolutely and without a shadow of a doubt that they live in the greatest city in the world, and all others are inferior.

I enjoy the occasional opportunity to voice my opinion to these folks that the greatest, most vibrant city in the world is --- London. Hey, I like Denver, but I'm not stupid.

Denver: 20 Years, 20 Changes

I was recently asked if I'd be willing to relocate to Chicago in a year or two. I surprised myself by not saying no. I arrived in Colorado two decades ago hoping to settle down - plant some roots if you will. Well, like airports, convention centers, Frontier Airlines, and sport/concert venues, my roots have gone deep, been dug up, replanted, and dug up again. Nothing stays the same long in this town. Why should I? Here's a sampling of the changes I've seen since 1989:

1. May D&F department stores - GONE
2. Cinderella City, once the ultimate in malls, THE place to go see Santa - GONE
3. Convenient local airport - GONE - replaced by a more modern, state-of-the-art version way out on the plains (no pun intended). One of the world's most sophisticated airports, the circus tent-like roof tears under heavy snow.
4. Elitches amusement park - GONE - I'm talking about the real Elitches, the one that was in northeast Denver forever; the one where my grandparents married in 1910.
5. Celebrity Fun Center - GONE - a Home Depot has replaced the billiards, games, and indoor pool with a slide - a great place to dump the kids on a cold day.
6. The old Tattered Cover bookstore- GONE - but now there are three new Tattered Covers.
7. Light Rail Transit - the opposite of gone.
8. Union Station - still here, but that was a close one ...
9. The Art Museum used to look like a prison. Now it looks like – I don't know what it looks like – a boat that fell over or something.
10. LODO is transformed and trendy - LOwer DOwntown used to be a vast and vacant warehouse district. It's now home to Coors Field and lots of popular breweries, lofts, galleries, and trendy hangout type places.
11. Cherry Creek Mall - here, again (there was an old one in the mid 20th century that featured a Sears instead of Saks Fifth Avenue).
12. The Mousetrap - rebuilt; doesn't look as much like a mousetrap as it used to; now more often called the intersection of I-25 and I-70.
13. Architecture is more interesting now: for example, the renovated Denver Public Library (main branch).
14. Frontier out - Continental out (mostly) - Western Pacific in then out - Frontier back in - Southwest in - Frontier probably about to be out again.
15. The Denver Country Club has had its first African American member - Former Mayor Wellington Webb, only because the mayor automatically becomes a member.
16. Television: Channels 7, 9, and 4 are all affiliated with different networks now. Channel 2, once known as Channel 2, is now "The Duce."
17. Toll roads. TOLL ROADS for crying out loud!!
18. TABOR*
19. The fall and rise and fall again of the Republican party, and right-wing extremism - not that those two are necessarily linked.
20. And finally, the biggest change to hit Denver in the past 20 years: I'm here now!

* Tax Payer Bill of Rights - a tragic over-reaction to wasteful government spending which actually harms education, law enforcement, transportation, and other publicly funded necessities.


So I didn't say no, but I have to think about my price.

What would it take to move me to Chicago? Perhaps that's the subject for another blogcast.