According to recent studies of U.S. neighborhoods, Stapleton has the highest number of three-wheeled strollers in the nation, the second- highest number of nannies in stay-at-home-mother households and the highest sense of privilege over its neighboring communities.
Just kidding.
It’s fake news from with the tagline “Think Globally, Laugh Locally.” Like , but with a hyperlocal twist.
“I’ve always been into comedy, and I saw so much to joke about in Stapleton,” said Gabe Hurley, a former stand-up comic who started the site more than a year ago.
He’s one of the people he pokes fun at — a family man, living in Stapleton with his pregnant wife and their 21-month-old daughter — which lets him get away with such things as predicting another baby boom in the neighborhood
as a result of wives’ reading
“My wife was joking about the book, and about how she and her sister were reading it,” Hurley said. “I was trying to think of a funny angle that would be appropriate to post on the site, and I thought that would be funny because there are already so many kids here.”
About 500 people have signed up for free subscriptions. People hear about the site through recommendations from friends, who forward stories from stapletonion.com to one another.
Away from the computer, people are less familiar with the site.
“Everyone in Stapleton has kids, so there’s no time to go online,” said Cristin Bracken, who was outdoors with other moms and their babies late Friday afternoon.
Hurley often writes the twice-monthly publication at the Berkshire restaurant. Owner Andy Ganick is a fan. “He’s taken an idea from people at The Onion and brought it to life here in the community in a nice, familiar setting,” Ganick said.
Favorite targets include the fitness craze, parenting, neighborhood developer Forest City, beautiful people and swimming-pool culture.
Stapleton’s homogeneity makes it easy.
“People have the exact same interests,” Hurley said. “I compare (The Stapletonion) to the newspaper of a dorm room in a college.”
Some ideas come from just listening to conversations.
“We always joke about how all the nannies get creeped out by all the guys looking at them,” said Hurley, who wrote a piece on how , which the moms and nannies loved — but the dads, not so much.
He particularly likes to riff on news, and in this young and growing neighborhood, anything to do with construction projects or orange cones — fixtures that recently achieved historic-landmark status, The Stapletonion says — plays well.
Ganick prefers the levity to quietly cursing the nagging issues of the neighborhood.
“I’d rather read something that sheds some light on it,” he said, “and really makes you laugh.”
Colleen O’Connor: 303-954-1083 or coconnor@denverpost.com
