Sustainable Neighborhoods Program Coming to Barnum!

Hear ye! Hear ye! The Barnum neighborhood is hereby preparing to become a certified sustainable neighborhood with support from the Denver Sustainable Neighborhoods program. You are cordially invited to attend the kickoff meeting on Wednesday, February 25th at 7:00pm at the Barnum Recreation Center. You can find more details on this awesome development for our neighborhood by clicking here.

Here's to a more sustainable Barnum and a better quality of life for all of us!

February Event Announcements

CCB Neighborhood Association Meeting: Tuesday, February 10th, 6:00pm. 360 Hooker Street, Denver, CO

Barnum Morning Walk Meetup at Barnum Park: Saturday, February 7th, 9:00am. 360 Hooker Street, Denver, CO (meet outside the pool entrance, more details on Nextdoor)

Barnum Neighbors Meetup @ Colorado Cider Company: Saturday February 21st, 3:00pm. 2650 West 2nd Avenue #10, Denver, CO 80219 (all neighbors over 21 welcome, email questions to welcometobarnum(at)gmail)

Have other announcements? Send us an email or leave us a comment!

Trader Joe's is coming...3 miles away.

Photo from 5280 Magazine

Yesterday, Trader Joe's announced that it is opening its second Denver location 3 miles from our doorsteps. It's headed for 7th and Logan. And, because it's off 6th Ave, Google Directions estimates it's but a 5-10 minute drive, even during morning rush hour.

I can't decide if I'm super happy or super bummed. Trader Joe's is crazy popular but it's still not quite close enough to call our own. In fact, it completes the circle of large grocery shops 2.5 to 3 miles in any direction from Barnum/Barnum West. We have King Soopers to the North at Sloans Lake, King Soopers to the South in Mar Lee, King Soopers and Whole Foods to the West at Belmar. Now, with Trader Joe's to the East, we've formed a perfect perimeter of not-close-enough-to-walk-to large chain grocery stores.

Oh well. At least we have all our little local grocery shops for walking trips. And at least Trader Joe's is closer to us here in Barnum than they are to the Highlands. Hey Highlands! You like apples? How you like them apples? Cause you have to drive past Barnum to buy them from Trader Joe's. Here's a link to the 5280 article about the new Trader Joe's.

Bicycling in Barnum

I just stumbled across this notice that there will be an Open House with Denver Public Works tonight at the Barnum Recreation Center! They'll be discussing making improvements to South West Denver's bicycling infrastructure. Here's a link to the pdf notice.

I sure do wish they'd schedule these meetings a little later in the evenings so that I could attend after work. Oh well. If you go and get the skinny on what's happening, help a gal out and send me some notes via email!

welcometobarnum (at) gmail.com

Bridges and Creeks

This is not the bridge being demolished. This is the bridge falling apart. Denver Post.

KNOX CT. BRIDGE: April Crumley of Concerned Citizens for Barnum announced that CDOT plans to re-open our brand new Knox Court bridge on May 9th! Huzzah!

The bridge, which was pretty sketch and rapidly deteriorating in recent years, was razed and rebuilt as part of CDOT's larger 6th Ave. Bridge Project. The project spans from Knox Ct. to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe rails just East of 25.

Our new bridge will include a bike lane, which is crazy awesome for our bicycle commuters headed downtown, as well as for everyone heading over to the Barnum North Bike Park.

Cheers, CDOT. Thanks for our shiny new bridge!

Residents have begun planning a re-opening party with a children's bike parade. Ask April of CCB for more details. Here's a link to their Facebook page.

Check out the full 6th Ave. project update page here. And, watch a video of the bridge construction here.

Oh yeah. You lookin' good girl. Work that creek. Yeah.

BARNUM/BARNUM WEST GREENBELT: Our greenbelt is looking pretty sexy this time of year. Mmmhmm. We're a thoroughly urban neighborhood though and have a few kids with too much spray paint and poor penmanship skills at their disposal. And, come June when school gets out, they'll also have too much time on their hands. Let's keep our greenbelt looking hot by reporting any shitty tagging immediately!

The City and County of Denver has a pretty dependable graffiti removal program. Snap a quick pic on your phone and send in the location for speedy removal using their online form. Click on "Report a Problem." Reporting tagging doesn't just get rid of tagging, it prevents future tagging. No one wants to waste their spray paint and time tagging a spot that's going to be erased the next day.

Have a happy Thursday, Barnum!

No More Dumpsters for Us

It's not just Denver -- Vail has dumpster divers too! Aww...

Later this year, Denver is exchanging our dumpsters in the Barnum neighborhood for individual trashcans, in an effort to increase recycling participation while decreasing illegal dumping and general alley grossness. While part of me will be sad to see the dumpsters go (the part of me that never has to remember what day "trash day" is), the rest of me is pretty excited to not have to smell my neighbors' cumulative garbage 5 feet from my backyard barbeques all summer.  Win!

Here's a link to the Denver Post article.
And, here's a link to an editorial too.

On a thoroughly unrelated note, I stumbled upon a brief article in Live Urban Real Estate that speculates about the Barnum neighborhood becoming "The Next Hot 'Hood in Denver." From the title alone, I got the best mental image of the seductive lure of our pho is wafting into the noses of realtors and the shapely accents of our architectural details catching the lecherous eye of an ambitious broker. But seriously, can we please not do the thing the Highlands did where we force out lower income residents and all the great ethnic food? Pretty please? Our neighborhood has character and diversity. Let's keep those things!

West Side Winning

Our two neighborhood microbreweries, Wit's End and Strange, both won awards this weekend at the World Beer Cup! Wit's End is an easy walk to the East of Barnum at 2nd and Bryant. Strange is slightly more of a hike to the North East of Barnum at 13th and Zuni. Congratulations to both! You certainly deserve it. And, thanks for bringing such delicious beer to the West side 'hoods.

Read more about it in the Denver Business Journal.