It didn’t take lovable Landri Taylor long to recover from a layoff.
Roughly 72 hours after he lost an 11-year job at Forest City Stapleton — the master developer of the Stapleton residential and retail area — Denver City Councilman Michael Hancock was knocking on Taylor’s door, recruiting him to be the president and chief executive of the embattled Urban League of Metropolitan Denver.
Taylor accepted the daunting job and the challenge of restarting the local operation. The 62-year-old organization that serves economically disadvantaged African-Americans closed last year amid growing debt and shaky financial records. An audit by a private accounting firm is ongoing.
“I’m going to find a way to erase the $400,000 debt the Urban League owes,” said Taylor, who, for his part, will take half pay for the rest of the year.
Priority No. 1 is finding office space, which Taylor said he will probably nail down today.
No. 2: “Recruit past, existing and future board members.”
No. 3: “Identify the needs that the Urban League has to fulfill for the next 18 to 24 months.”
2 4/7: “Fundraising. That never stops.”
Houston’s here.
Liquor license at 5 p.m., dinner at 6.
So it went Friday, the first night at Houston’s, the new eatery in a new building at 2355 E. Third Ave.
Houston’s older sister is the Cherry Creek Grill, with a more upscale menu.
Houston’s, which serves lunch and dinner daily, will start taking reservations in a couple of weeks. It also will seat incomplete parties if the joint isn’t jumping.
But baseball caps in the dining room? Strike three.
“We will ask people to remove them in the dining room,” GM David Biel said.
Suited up.
When Mullen High School senior and Kansas State- bound Joshua Ford learned that he would be honored at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Denver’s annual Youth of the Year Gala on Saturday, he wondered what any gala-goer does. What was he going to wear?
Cherry Creek clothier Andrisen Morton stepped up and gave Ford a black Zegna suit (retail value $1,795), tie and shirt for the event.
Ford is being honored for leadership, community service and academics.
Eavesdropping.
A man at Elway’s Cherry Creek: “Eighty percent of women make the housing decisions, and the other 20 percent will be divorced shortly.”
Penny Parker’s column appears Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Listen to her on the Caplis and Silverman radio show between 4 and 5 p.m. Fridays on KHOW-630 AM. Contact her at 303-954-5224 or pparker@ .
