When the bell rings, nearly 1,800 students pour out of East High School like ants disturbed by a kick to their nest. Within minutes, they overwhelm East Colfax Avenue as they prowl eateries in search of that day’s lunch.
For the next hour, their impact on the strip between Steele and Race streets is undeniable.
Traffic stalls as teens dart into the road, narrowly avoiding being hit.
Noise levels soar when dozens of students occupy tables in dine-in sections.
Some store managers mutter and curse under their breath until the hour ends, while others grin when the money starts rolling in.
And when it’s time for students to return to class, they leave a trail of trash back to the steps of East High. Wax paper encrusted with American cheese. A Popeye’s chicken-strips container. Napkins. Ketchup pouches.
There is a love-hate relationship between merchants eking out a living on dicey East Colfax and East High School students.
While teens pump millions of dollars into the strip each school year, they often wear out their welcome by snarling traffic, littering and loitering. Some business owners even complain that they steal.
Tensions may increase next year when East High’s population is expected to soar to 2,250.
School administrators and student representatives continue to work with the Colfax Business Improvement District, City Council President Elbra Wedgeworth and merchants to improve the situation. The improvement district also is searching the city for additional trash receptacles and school administrators are enforcing no-littering rules.
To temper merchants’ complaints about teen patrons, the improvement district reminds businesses that teens bring an estimated annual $5 million in sales to East Colfax, said Dave Walstrom, executive director of the improvement district.
Pizza Express manager Garfield Price recognizes the buying power of East High students. He dreads the summer months because he knows business at the Pizza Express at Colfax and Clayton Street will be so slow that the owner will work behind the counter to avoid paying for extra staff.
“Those kids keep us in business,” Price said. The shop makes $60,000 in the 30 or so weeks school is in session with $1 per-slice pizza sales.
But summertime for Maher Awad will be a reprieve from patrolling the aisles at the Sun Mart he manages at Colfax and Josephine Street.
“Everyday I catch a couple of kids trying to steal stuff. Candy, pop, Gatorade, gum, sandwiches, chips – anything they can get their hands on.”
If students steal, get into fights or leave a mess and don’t want to clean it up, it’s fair for stores to enforce rules, such as only allowing a few students in at a time, said Madeline Basse, a 15-year-old freshman.
But Amy Easley, another 15-year-old freshman, said business owners should treat students better. “A lot of people think Colfax is sleazy and edgy. They don’t want to come down here to eat. It’s mostly just us.”
Besides, teens say they resent being viewed as thieves.
“I’m not going to steal anything,” said 14-year-old Evan Martin as he ate lunch at the China Star restaurant. “It’s lunchtime. I just want to find something to eat and have fun with my friends.”
“I guess they think kids can’t be trusted,” said Torin Thames, 14.
“Yeah, but I’m pretty sure in the summertime, they don’t get any kind of business when we aren’t here,” Martin insisted. “If we spend our money here shouldn’t they trust us?”
Denver high school campuses are open, some to all grade levels and others to upper classes only. Similar issues between teens and merchants seem to crop up near George Washington High at Leetsdale Drive and South Monaco Parkway as well as near Cherry Creek High at Union Avenue and Yosemite Street.
Of its racially and economically diverse population of about 1,850 students, easily 1,700 eat out, said Wes Ashley, an assistant principal at East for nine years. The cafeteria was built to serve only about 100 students, and few take advantage of the free lunch program, even though many students qualify.
Sometimes the newer businesses don’t realize what a boon the kids are to them, said Denise Sanderson, president of the Parent Teacher Student Association at East High.
“I think what’s really going on is that a lot of people just don’t know how to deal with teenagers, especially when there are so many of them,” Sanderson said. “There are all kinds of kids out there. Not all of them are angels. But neither is everyone else coming in off Colfax.”
“The businesses don’t understand that lunch is the students’ only social opportunity,” she said. “You’ve got four paying customers, but you can’t let one kid sit at the table and visit with his friends?”
Every school year Ashley and other school officials visit with merchants to maintain a good-
neighbor relationship. He said some merchants want teachers “to be cops” and patrol East Colfax during lunch.
Teachers and deans walk the campus and an area within a block around the school. A security guard is also on duty, “but we’ve had such a mellow group of kids these last few years” that few problems have been reported, Ashley said.
Plus, just the threat of taking students’ lunch privileges keeps them in check.
On one school day, shouting could be heard emanating from the Sun Mart, a convenience store that opened in January. Store manager Maher Awad allowed only five students inside to shop at one time. While standing in the middle aisle of the store, he noticed a teenager entering and quickly confronted her.
“Get out! Get out now!” he yelled.
“What the %#$*!” the female student yelled back. “Why can’t I come in here?”
“You better not come in here again,” Awad said as he grabbed the student by the hood of her jacket and pushed her out while she lashed him with a barrage of curses.
“I caught her stealing a candy bar,” he said under his breath, to no one in particular. “B—-!”
Directly across the street at the 7-Eleven on Colfax and Josephine, manager Aregash Abraha acknowledged there can be problems with teen customers.
“Yes, I know occasionally they do steal small things, but I also know they are children and I know how children will act. I have no problem with them,” Abraha said. “When school is closed, we lose between $100 to $200 a day. It’s only gotten worse since the Sun Mart opened across the street. Now we lose $500 to $900 a day. We like them kids. We need them.”
Older businesses such as the Pizza Express, which has survived on Colfax since 1980, recognize the need to call a truce with their young patrons, said store manager Garfield Price.
In fact, Pizza Express moved closer to East High in 1992 to be closer to its customers. The business has hired many students over the years, advertised in East’s student newspaper and cut deals with teachers who order numerous pizzas at one time.
“We don’t have any trouble with the kids,” Price said. “It’s not 100 percent great all the time. We get a few bad apples. But these kids know us and we know them.”
James Kang, manager of the China Star restaurant that opened a year ago, said he was overwhelmed when the school year started and students started to crowd in.
It became hard for his cooks to prepare the dozens of small items students would order. Then they would try to share food, taking more potential sales away from the restaurant, Kang complained.
To save time and energy, Kang began offering a special student buffet with eight prepared meals at $5 a plate. A copy of the school lunch schedule is tacked to a wall inside the kitchen, and a sign prohibiting sharing food is posted near the buffet.
“The children aren’t even a big part of our revenues,” said Kang, adding that more money is made from deliveries. “It was just easier for us to accommodate them this way.”
Students and merchants aren’t the only ones who have to adjust to an open-campus lunch. Pam Musso, 50, was worried about her daughter, Erin, 14, who was a student at Christ the King before she became a freshman at East.
“I didn’t want her running around Colfax alone,” she said. “I didn’t know if Colfax was safe.”
It wasn’t long before Musso realized that lunch was her daughter’s first chance to experience being responsible.
“Going to lunch, I’m not concerned about it now,” Musso said. “But when she starts driving … I’m not sure I’ll ever get over my fears about that.”
Staff writer Sheba R. Wheeler can be reached at 303-820-1283 or swheeler@denverpost.com.
