The festival is the largest annual celebration of Asian and Asian American heritage in Colorado, according to the nonprofit group that runs it, as well as the largest Dragon Boat Festival in the U.S. Around 200,000 people attended in 2025.

But organizers were forced to move it back from its traditional late-July weekend to September last year due to safety and health issues raised by Denver Parks & Recreation, which manages the lake and surrounding park. Those concerns included dead fish, increasingly warm and shallow water, blue algae blooms, and a lack of filtration from untreated runoff pouring into the 177-acre lake.

A year earlier, the lake experienced a mass die-off of fish, with an estimated 5,000 going belly-up and washing ashore, according to the city. Algae growth encouraged by warm weather and low water levels drains the lake of oxygen, and its shallowness prevents cold, safe pockets for marine life to shelter during high-temperature days in the summer.

Sara Moore, executive director of the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival, told The Denver Post that she was notified earlier this year that parks officials “are doing everything within their power to ensure the health of the lake.”

This year, the festival will take place Aug. 29-30, at the park, which is located east of Sheridan Boulevard and north of 17th Avenue. Registration for racers is open now at . This year marks the festival’s 26th incarnation.

From a water quality standpoint, Sloan’s Lake is currently in good condition with no signs of blue-green algae blooms, according to Denver Parks & Recreation. Still, it’s closed to other events this summer, and won’t be open to event permits until the first weekend of September — or just after the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival.

“The primary challenge we’ve seen recently is reduced water inflow caused by ongoing drought, which has lowered water levels and could create future water quality concerns if conditions don’t improve,” said Stephanie Figueroa of Denver Parks & Recreation. “This week’s precipitation will provide some short-term relief.”

The parks department plans to work on phosphorus mitigation in advance of the festival to reduce the nutrients available to the oxygen-sucking algae, she added.

Without consistent spring and summer precipitation, however, the lake will return to its same sorry state in the coming weeks, said Kurt Weaver, executive director of the Sloan’s Lake Park Foundation. “The drought situation already has it at its lowest water level in a while. It’s going to lack the oxygen and nutrients it needs, and we’ll see more fish kills and more problems.”

He believes the lake needs to be drained and dredged to increase depth and water quality, as well as adding filtration to the water that flows into the lake from various cities and districts.

Those range from Lakewood and Wheat Ridge to unincorporated Jefferson County — all of which need to approve the rehab project due to their individual rights to the water, Weaver said. His organization is working with all of them, as well as the city of Denver, to negotiate terms of the upgrades.

The Colorado Dragon Boat Race last year featured 41 teams navigating the lake’s course in elaborate, colorful boats. The designs and culture of Dragon Boat races have roots stretching back thousands of years to China’s Duanwu Festival, “which remains a traditional holiday in mainland China and Taiwan,” organizers wrote online. “Today, it has spread all over the globe.”

As the third most-visited park in the city’s system (behind City Park and Washington Park), Denver Parks & Recreation does a great job of keeping Sloan’s Lake’s grass and other features tended, Weaver said. But with an average depth of 3.5 feet, along with steadily rising sediment, the lake itself is in terrible health. So much so that the dragon boats may start scraping the bottom of Sloan’s Lake in the next couple of years.

That would be a shame, Moore said, since the Dragon Boat Festival and its race typically joined by dozens of vendors, more than 50 cultural performances, food, drink activities, and more.

The organization also helms the Dragon Boat Film Festival alongside Denver Film, which hosts screenings at its Sie FilmCenter. The event on March 22.

“We’re building our coalition and the city is helping with planning, so we’re excited to get that going,” Weaver said. “We’ll also have two cleanups a month now through November, which will help improve the park.”

Volunteers can sign up for cleanup days at , Weaver said.

It’s one of Colorado’s deadliest roads, where state show an average of nearly 20 crashes per week. In the last month,  a white Toyota Corolla plowed into a juvenile pedestrian in a crosswalk, causing “serious injuries,” Denver Police said, and a silver sedan struck and killed a woman on foot just before midnight on New Year’s Eve — both hit-and-runs.

But scheduled to start next year will bring “transformative change,” Colorado Department of Transportation Director Shoshana Lew said.

CDOT contractors will “take this very busy, fast, too dangerous roadway and bring it more holistically into our community,” Lew said. The route will be remade “in a way that improves the safety of intersections, makes it easier to be a pedestrian, makes it an easier place to run or use a business, and just helps it function like more of an urban roadway.”

The construction follows Denver and CDOT’s $280 million overhaul in progress along Colfax Avenue east of downtown. On Colfax, construction has diverted traffic into surrounding neighborhoods and disrupted commerce. More than 90 businesses along Colfax scrambled to receive $1.18 million in city financial grants to help them survive.

A similar overhaul of Colorado Boulevard is scheduled for completion by 2030.

Once rebuilt, Federal will incorporate Bus Rapid Transit, which features “stations” rather than stops and reduces delays, typically by installing bus-only lanes and giving buses priority at traffic signals. But Denver transit advocates and neighborhood groups contend that current plans for buses to share lanes with vehicles along parts of Federal don’t go far enough. They want bus-only lanes throughout the 18-mile corridor.

“Is it really going to incentivize people to leave their cars at home if some of the lanes are shared and the buses cannot compete with how fast you can travel by car?” asked Alejandra Castañeda, who lives 1.5 blocks off Federal in north Denver.

Curbside bus lanes

CDOT’s partially completed plans show curbside bus-only lanes will run along both sides of Federal through 75% of the corridor between Dartmouth Avenue in Englewood and 120th Avenue in Westminster. Buses would share lanes with vehicles along stretches through north and south Denver. Those shared lanes run between Dartmouth and Evans, between 20th and 50th avenues, and under Federal’s intersection with Interstate 76.

The 18-foot buses operated by the Regional Transportation District would arrive every 7.5 minutes at 74 raised, covered stations spaced an average of a half mile apart. CDOT plans also show new curbs with wider sidewalks. State and city officials have promised raised medians and landscaping with native trees, shrubs, and flowers.

Yet CDOT’s modeling projects that, even with BRT, the volume of traffic on Federal will increase to more than 60,000 vehicles a day before 2045. The planned reconstruction accommodates increased vehicle traffic, preserving two vehicle lanes in each direction throughout the corridor, requiring widening in some areas to create space for bus-only lanes.

“We want signal headers (the assemblies that hold red, yellow, or green lights) over each lane. That gives greater visibility,” CDOT deputy director for traffic and safety Angie Drumm said.

Protected left turn lanes, where a green arrow on a traffic signal gives drivers exclusive right-of-way to turn left, and sharper turn lanes into the cloverleaf interchange at West Colfax Avenue will help slow traffic, Drumm said. “If you tighten up the lanes, generally, people tend to slow down their driving,” Drumm said.

Instead of a Federal Boulevard speedway, she said, “our goal is to make it more of an amenity.”

Buses vs. cars

Neighborhood groups, seeking reduced traffic, fewer crashes, and an improved quality of life, have been urging planners to make a bolder shift toward buses.

“Anything that can slow down traffic, make us feel like we are living in a city, not surrounded by highways, would be an improvement,” said James Warren, a board member of the .

Whether to accommodate increased vehicles “is the big issue,” Warren said. “They should not be widening. The point is to provide access and speed for buses.”

Allen Cowgill, a Sloan’s Lake resident and member of the Denver Bicycle Lobby who serves as co-chairman of Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Advisory Board, wants speeds along Federal lowered from 35 mph to 30 mph to help protect the people who depend on transit.

“They are the people being killed,” said Cowgill, who also sees dedicated bus lanes throughout the corridor as essential.

“Part of the reason people don’t take RTD  buses is that the buses get stuck in traffic. If RTD buses had their own dedicated lanes, people would be more likely to take RTD. For a lot of people, transit is not realistic because it doesn’t run reliably and frequently enough.”

CDOT officials said they’re designing the new boulevard for slower speeds with limits posted at 30 mph through Denver.

More cars coming

Colorado’s Bus Rapid Transit program manager Ryan Noles said eliminating vehicle lanes to provide bus-only lanes on what would be shared-lane south and north stretches would cause traffic jams and divert vehicles into neighborhoods. The alternative of widening Federal between 20th and 50th avenues to add space for bus-only lanes would require “taking out beautiful planted medians or taking out front yards — pretty hard impacts,” Noles said.

Bus travel times from Dartmouth to north Denver (50th Avenue) will decrease from 40 minutes to around 30 minutes under current plans — “competitive with driving,” he said.

The state’s modeling estimates RTD bus ridership along Federal will increase from 6,000 a day now to 8,500 in 2030, then to 13,000.

“Thousands of people use Federal Boulevard every day to access jobs, restaurants, businesses, and social services,” Denver spokeswoman Nancy Kuhn said. “Many of them use cars. Our goal with BRT is to provide a viable alternative to driving, but we don’t expect that everyone will have the ability every day to switch from driving to using transit,” she said.

To help address crashes and persistent pedestrian fatalities on Federal Boulevard and Alameda Avenue, city safety officials have installed additional speed limit signs. Automated speed enforcement and red-light cameras are slated for introduction on Federal this year.

Historical roots

A century ago, Federal Boulevard emerged as a tree-studded lifeline for neighborhoods that workers could afford. It earned a reputation simply as “the boulevard,” with parks created along it, according to a commissioned by CDOT and Denver. Part of the appeal was the natural terrain on the west side of the South Platte River. Trolleys linked west-side neighborhoods to downtown.

That pattern broke down, starting in the 1940s, as state officials expanded Federal to give easier access to ammunition factory at the site of the Federal Center. Denver’s post-World War II boom through the 1950s and 1960s brought increasing vehicle traffic as more homes were built. State authorities designated Federal Boulevard a state highway, linking the 6th Avenue Freeway with highways to the north.

CDOT records show at least 33 traffic fatalities along Federal since January 2021. CDOT has documented 5,102 crashes on Federal since then. That’s an average of 1,020 per year. consistently has ranked streets, with fatality rates up to 20 times the average for Colorado urban streets.

The reconstruction will determine whether new residents, such as Peter Hufford, stay in adjacent neighborhoods. Hufford attended one of the CDOT sessions in a westside school gym, concerned that federal funding cuts might scuttle or delay the overhaul.

He and his wife envision gardening at the house with a half-acre yard that they bought four years ago, just east of Federal on South Decatur Street. They haven’t ruled out raising children there, said Hufford, who designs electronic components for satellites.

Public transit must be viable, he said. “I’d like the bus to be a nice environment. I don’t like driving. I find it stressful. I’d much rather sit and read a book – and still be able to get where I want to go.”

The reconstruction ideally will address multiple problems, including noise, light, and air pollution, Hufford said.

“Those are all issues for me. Noise? I can hear cars drag-racing all night. I like to walk to restaurants on Federal, but walking on Federal now is unpleasant,” he said. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to see many stars in Denver.” Reasonable control over commercial lighting would help. “The lights are too bright. I wish they would dim the light.”

Business owners brace for disruption

State officials said plans will soon be finalized.

Full funding hasn’t been secured beyond the design and review phase. The projected funding for construction includes CDOT money, a of up to $150 million, and support from local agencies and the Denver Regional Council of Governments.

Meanwhile, business owners along Federal are bracing for the disruption. CDOT officials say they’ll work proactively to include owners in the planning, ensuring access for their parking and deliveries, and maintaining lanes down the middle of Federal during construction.

“The construction is going to hurt business. A lot of them may close. This is not good for business,” My Dodge said behind her counter at Celestial Bakery Deli and BBQ in the Far East Center, 333 S. Federal Blvd., an enterprise she’s built over 31 years.

“One day is enough. But oh my god. More than a year? How are we going to make money?” she said.

“I’m going to cry. Everybody’s going to cry.”

CBRE represented the seller, , in the transaction, which closed at more than $500,000 per unit, setting a record for multifamily pricing in Denver this year. The average price-per-unit in Denver in the third quarter of 2025 fell quarter-over-quarter to $278,000, according to .

“The sale of Raleigh at Sloan’s Lake reflects the strength and appeal of Denver’s multifamily market,” said Chris Crawford, senior managing director at Hines in Denver.

“Its exceptional lakefront location and top-tier design have driven strong resident demand and enabled it to outperform competitors, underscoring the depth of appetite for thoughtfully executed projects in this market.”

The Raleigh at Sloan’s Lake marks the fund’s , following its 2021 purchase of the Alton Jefferson Park apartments at 2920 W. 29th Ave. for $56 million, according to city property records.

Completed in 2020, Raleigh at Sloan’s Lake is adjacent to Sloan’s Lake Park, at 1650 N. Raleigh St., and features studio, one- and two-bedroom residences averaging 994 square feet.

Each home is designed with stainless steel appliances, gas ranges, floor-to-ceiling windows and large walk-in closets.

The property also offers several amenities, including a rooftop patio and lounge, resort-style pool, fitness center, co-working spaces, pet spa and approximately 4,192 square feet of ground-floor retail, fully leased to Livewell Animal Hospital.

“In urban Denver, asset quality and micro-locations have become crucial as peak supply in the first quarter continues to be absorbed,” said CBRE Vice Chairman Terrance Hunt.

“The Raleigh at Sloan’s Lake has maintained both strong occupancy and rent growth over the past year. Hines delivered a high-quality asset that has outperformed the market, and the buyer recognized the opportunity to acquire a property that has been stress-tested, demonstrating it will have long-term viability and outsized growth as the market recovers in the next year.”

The community has access to 177 acres of trails, water activities and recreation.

The Denver Police Department first posted about the fatal crash near West 17th Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard at 10:46 p.m. Saturday.

That intersection is on the southwest edge of Sloan’s Lake Park.

The pedestrian, who has not been publicly identified, died at the scene, police said. The unidentified driver stayed on scene after the crash.

Sheridan was closed in both directions at 17th for several hours during the crash cleanup and investigation, police said. It had fully reopened Sunday morning, according to an from the department.

The pedestrian will be identified by the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner at a later date.

Information about the cause of the crash was not available Sunday morning.

This is a developing story and may be updated.

The brewery plans to open a stylish, full-service restaurant and taproom at 5540 W. 29th Ave. in Wheat Ridge, just a few blocks northwest of Denver’s Sloan’s Lake. The location is close to Joyride Brewing, Hogshead Brewery, Cerebral Brewing and Barquentine Brewing.

Related: Why this award-winning Colorado brewery wants people to invest in its business at a time when the beer industry is struggling

But construction will take some time since it will involve the complete renovation of two adjacent buildings and the addition of a 1,600-square-foot rooftop patio (with views of the mountains) and an outdoor courtyard between them, according to plans revealed by Westbound. The company is hoping to finance the purchase of the property with another public offering.

The new location is expected to open by late 2026 or early 2027, Westbound said.

When it is finished, the 4,000-square-foot interior will feature 18 taps upstairs and another 18 downstairs, along with a full kitchen serving pizza, sandwiches and elevated pub fare.

“Denver has long been one of our strongest regions, but we haven’t had a true home there – until now,” Jake Gardner, Westbound CEO and Director of Brewing Operations, said in a statement. “This new location will bring our beer, food, and hospitality under one roof in a space designed for connection while helping accelerate retail adoption in Denver and beyond.”

Westbound currently runs a small taproom in the stylized alley behind the Dairy Block, at 1800 Wazee St. in Denver. The company was founded in Idaho Springs in 2015 and still operates a restaurant and brewery there. Its primary brewing facility, along with another pub, is in Lafayette. Westbound also owns a production facility in Aspen and taprooms in Aspen and Carbondale.

It is known for IPAs like Spirit of the West, Juice Caboose and Tropical Arts, and lagers like Infinity Pils and Italian Pils. It has won nine Great American Beer Festival medals, including three in 2024.

Westbound & Down has been using the crowd-funded platform DealMaker to raise capital and help continue its growth. The brewery aims to quadruple production by 2028.

But a potential move would hurt attendance, organizers said, at what they call both the largest dragon boat event in the country and the largest Asian Americans and Pacific Islander event in the Rocky Mountain region. The nonprofit festival draws 150,000 to 200,000 people each July with its colorful races and cultural offerings.

“It would be devastating for us to have to move, because Sloan’s Lake is such the perfect location for it,” said festival executive director Sara Moore. “No matter what, Sloan’s Lake moving forward is going to need some help financially and support from the community.”

This year’s 25th annual event has already been punted from its regular July dates to Sept. 5-6 over health and safety concerns raised by Denver Parks & Recreation, which manages the park and issues permits for its use, and other organizations.

Those concerns include dead fish, increasingly warm and shallow water, blue algae blooms, and a lack of filtration from untreated runoff pouring into the 177-acre lake. In addition to the Dragon Boat Festival, the city has nixed other permits for events at Sloan’s Lake until early fall, said parks department spokeswoman Stephanie Figueroa.

But even with a multimillion-dollar cleanup project looming, the chances of using Sloan’s Lake for future Dragon Boat events look dim. The cleanup planning currently includes a $5 million funding request in the latest version of the proposed $950 million — down from an initial ask of $40 million.

The bond request received initial approval Monday from the Denver City Council, but more changes could be on the way before it can be put in front of voters this November.

Whatever the amount, the lake needs to be drained and dredged to increase depth and water quality, as well as adding filtration to the water that flows into the lake from various cities and districts, ranging from Lakewood and Wheat Ridge to unincorporated Jefferson County — all of which need to approve the project due to their individual rights to the water, said Kurt Weaver, executive director of the Sloan’s Lake Park Foundation.

“Even if we had all the money in the bank today, it would still be at least one-and-a-half to two years simply for permits and approvals,” Weaver said. “And we don’t have the money.”

Weaver has worked to connect stakeholders in the lake, such as the Sloan’s Lake Watershed Alliance, with visitors, caretakers and commercial and nonprofit users, he said. But while he’s busy identifying EPA and USDA loans, grants and other funding sources to shore up resources, he’s worried the calm surface of Sloan’s Lake conceals the depth of the crisis to most visitors.

As the third most-visited park in the city’s system (behind City Park and Washington Park), Denver Parks & Recreation does a great job of keeping the grass and other features tended, he said. But with an average depth of 3.5 feet, along with steadily rising sediment, the lake is actually in terrible health. So much so that the dragon boats may start scraping the bottom of Sloan’s Lake in the next couple of years.

“Certainly Dragon Boat is our largest customer, and having to move their dates this year was a contentious couple of months trying to figure out what that looks like,” Weaver said. “Nobody wants to be moved because they love their spot. But unfortunately, it’s not going to be their option here soon. If we don’t do something, they literally won’t be able to paddle around the lake.”

He said there are numerous reasons as to why moving the festival would be bad for Denver, including lost revenue from visitors who travel from all over the country to participate. Any town that nabs it would see a financial and cultural boost, he said.

“But when 5,000 fish turn up dead, people tend to notice,” he added, referring to the mass aquatic die-off last summer at Sloan’s Lake. In a single weekend in July 2024, that included at least 400 fish floating belly-up or washing up on shore, according to the city. Algae drains the lake of oxygen, and its shallowness prevents cold, safe pockets for marine life to shelter during high-temperature days in the summer.

“We’ve treated the lake in the past, but stormwater drainage keeps bringing more debris and sand,” Figueroa said. “You can imagine what that does after years and years.”

For her part, Dragon Boat Festival director Moore said she’s “actually getting a lot of positive feedback from people who are glad it’s going to September, because it’s going to be cooler.”

And while she’s looking forward to another banner year for the event, she has also begun searching for new locations — although she declined to provide specifics on where.

“It’s an impending doom that is coming faster than everybody thinks,” Weaver said about the lake. “There are 100 ways this thing is going to go poorly, so we have to start now.”

Colorado-based property management firm made the deal with CentrePoint. Its sister company, LCP Development,  opened Edgewater Public Market in a former King Soopers grocery store in November 2019. Since then, the market has become a frequent gathering place for locals and tourists.

“We believe Edgewater Public Market stands as one of the best market halls in Colorado,” said CEO and founder of CentrePoint Properties Tucker Manion in a Monday news release about the property.

“The LCP team has done a tremendous job with the redevelopment, creating a vibrant and inviting space for the community.”

Just west of Sloan’s Lake, the 76,000-square-foot neighborhood retail center features a market hall with 16 food and beverage businesses, a cocktail bar, a brewery and 17 retail and experience-based businesses.

Nearly all of the businesses are independently and locally owned, according to the release.

The property also includes three other buildings, which are home to Shake Shack, Syrup, four fitness businesses, the Veterinary Emergency Group and the recently opened Adelita’s Cocina y Cantina.

“The community of Edgewater and our surrounding Denver neighborhoods have really embraced this market hall as a focal point of their lives,” said Gisela Mediavilla, general manager of Edgewater Public Market.

“We’ve got a lot of regulars, and a lot of small business owners doing really interesting things here.”

Market visitors should not expect to see immediate changes, but the firm expects to make upgrades at some point.

With suggestions such as making food ordering more efficient and adding televisions in the main hall to attract sports fans, Manion said the firm met with every tenant at the center to gather their suggestions on what could improve the property and increase its value.

“We haven’t exactly decided (if) we’re going to do this or that but we have a handful of items that we want to pour capital into to help bring it to the next level and continue to push traffic into the hall,” Manion said.

According to Manion, LCP Management will continue overseeing the daily operations at the market.

The market also hosts a popular Monday Night Movie series every July to October, bimonthly pop-up markets featuring independent artists and makers, live music, special events around most holidays and throughout the year.

Founded in 2008, CentrePoint Properties has more than $400 million in assets under management and works in all major markets in Colorado and Arizona.

This investment in Edgewater Public Market represents the third addition to the firm’s Fund I portfolio.

Scott-Trask has cleaned up vomit and graffiti on her windows and blood splattered on the front door of her shop. A vandal shattered her door’s glass panel in March. She said she was also struggling with the cost of rent and extra expenses tacked on by her landlords as they contend with rising property taxes.

With over three years left on her five-year lease, she’s debating whether to move — or leave the state entirely.

“We can’t afford to be here anymore, and we’ve only been here a year and a half,” Scott-Trask said. “It’s making it feel impossible to exist here as a small business — and I mean the entire city, not just Broadway.”

Several quirky, independent stores like Scott-Trask’s are fighting to stay afloat on the iconic Denver corridor, while others succumb to business pressures that have closed their doors for good or pushed them elsewhere. As more investor-backed projects and chains move into the neighborhood, Broadway’s future is looking less avant-garde than its past.

The street has lost a string of legacy establishments — most recently, Mutiny Information Cafe, a bookstore and community space that closed at 2 S. Broadway and was set Friday to reopen farther south on Broadway in Englewood; and Sol Tribe Custom Tattoo & Piercing, a tragedy-marred shop at 56 Broadway that shuttered permanently in July.

But empty storefronts aren’t the whole picture. Broadway has welcomed new additions, including Brooklyn’s Finest Pizza, Rhapsody Karaoke & Chicken Wings, Beet & Yarrow Florist, MAKfam restaurant and La Forêt restaurant. Several blocks south of Electric Dream Boutique, BurnDown, a multi-story restaurant, bar and live music venue, is drawing crowds.

“It’s time for whatever ‘new Denver’ wants,” said Mutiny co-owner Jim Norris, who previously served as a partner in the now-defunct 3 Kings Tavern nearby. “Just because Mutiny is not here doesn’t mean the neighborhood’s gonna die — it just means that it’s going to change.”

The corridor has long been recognized as its own destination within the city, largely because of the funky businesses that call it home. The street is dotted with restaurants, dive bars, breweries, thrift stores and music venues that give Broadway its distinct free-spirited, gritty vibe.

In Mutiny’s case, Norris said, worries about security and higher rent ultimately forced the shop to pack up and relocate.

Other Broadway business owners say they are weathering safety concerns, costly commercial leases, the lingering financial strain from the COVID-19 pandemic and, more recently, the construction and parking impacts from a major extension of the corridor’s two-way protected bike lane.

For some businesses and their landlords, rising property values — and the soaring tax bills that result — have been hard to keep up with. A Denver Post analysis of data from the assessor’s office shows that between the 2019 and 2023 assessments, valuations of commercial and industrial properties along Broadway between Third and Virginia avenues increased by nearly 39% on average.

Still, several of the many remaining entrepreneurs are adamant that the city isn’t witnessing an exodus from Broadway. They say Denverites shouldn’t give up hope on a corridor that’s determined to swim, not sink.

“All of the talk about how South Broadway is moving to Englewood is also really harmful and very frustrating for those of us that are staying,” said Rose Kalasz, the owner of , 38 Broadway. “We’re not going to leave.”

One of the new faces of business on South Broadway is Alex Vickers, who opened BurnDown near Virginia Avenue with co-owner Reed Sparks in May 2023.

“We were hoping that, with this spot, we kind of compete with other neighborhoods, right? So South Broadway is suddenly in league with, say, Highlands or RiNo,” said Vickers, 35.

He’s watching business improve year over year, he said. He hopes his restaurant, at 476 S. Broadway, becomes a staple along the corridor, helping attract other businesses to his block — which is quieter than those north of Alameda Avenue.

Safer and “more gentrified” than in past

The area known informally as “South Broadway” consists of the blocks south of Ellsworth Avenue — Denver’s north-south dividing line for addresses — along with a few blocks to the north that include the Mayan Theatre. The Baker neighborhood is where much of the action on Broadway takes place.

Mark Tabor, the president of the Baker Historic Neighborhood Association, bought his first house there in 1987. He remembers Broadway as a haven, even decades ago, for an eclectic mix of people, including the LBGTQ+ community.

“It was sketchy back then, but it was really a fun neighborhood,” Tabor said. “It had a very active commercial district, even back then.”

After spending time away, he returned to Baker a decade ago.

“It’s like night and day,” Tabor said of the change he observed. “It’s so much safer — and, unfortunately, more gentrified, too.”

A few of the shuttered businesses reminiscent of “old Denver” included Fancy Tiger Crafts Co-op, which was by high rent, and Hope Tank — strangled by the pandemic that later reopened as an event space on East 22nd Avenue in City Park West.

, a bar slinging drinks for two decades, closed last year after lease negotiations fell through. The location at 58 Broadway was filled by another watering hole, .

Remaining business owners are still trying to shake off the last dregs of financial strain caused by the pandemic and Denver’s bike lane construction. The controversial $14 million city project, which kicked off in October 2022, resulted in a 1.5-mile protected bikeway on Broadway when it wrapped up in February.

Adam Hodak, the owner of bar, signed his lease at 46 Broadway in 2019 before opening in 2021. He’s resided in the Baker neighborhood for 16 years.

Hodak turned a former pet store into a bar — one of the notable conversions along the corridor. A Big Lots location at 65 Broadway was transformed more than a decade ago into Punch Bowl Social, itself seen as a buzzy entertainment and bar space when it opened. More recently, , a gay bar at 145 N. Broadway, closed and was replaced in 2019 by wine bar, now one of the multistate chain’s five Denver locations.

Businesses like Dave’s Hot Chicken and Boulder Barbers have opted to occupy the ground floor spaces of newer apartment buildings developed in recent years.

When Hodak’s bar opened, “Broadway, at that time, was booming.”

“It was sort of my dream to open my bar on South Broadway,” he said.

But during the pandemic, the corridor’s foot traffic plummeted, with not much room for outdoor dining along the busy thoroughfare. “Coming out of COVID, we lost a lot of restaurants,” Hodak said.

And since then, he’s watched the rapid turnover of businesses at several locations along Broadway. Hodak points to the pandemic as the corridor’s No. 1 hurdle, but bike lane construction ranked as No. 2, he said.

Angel Macauley, the owner of , took a break from researching small business loans to speak with The Denver Post. Her lingerie store, at 26 N. Broadway, opened in 2019.

Like Hodak, she criticized the bike lane construction and its impact on parking. When construction was underway, she had to take on a second job to make ends meet, she said.

As a business owner, “it’s been great up until this last year,” Macauley said. “There’s no more parking now that they put these (expletive) bike lanes in.”

What’s worse: Crime or its stigma?

Concern about crime varied among entrepreneurs on South Broadway. Several worried about its impact on their businesses. But others were nervous that an exaggerated stigma tied to the risks on Broadway could drive customers away.

Kalasz, at Awakening Boutique, has handled broken windows and theft, but she said crime didn’t feel more troublesome along the corridor.

“In any neighborhood in any city, I think that we would have the same problems,” she added.

However, the incidents at Electric Dream Boutique not only left Scott-Trask feeling violated, she said, but also “really alone.”

“There is no one there to help you with it. The city doesn’t help,” she said.

Over the past four years, crime has fluctuated along a four-mile stretch of Broadway from Colfax Avenue to Evans Avenue, according to the Denver Police Department. So far this year, the data show fewer incidents reported along the corridor compared to recent years.

From January through August, police recorded 765 reports of criminal offenses, including 119 incidents of larceny, 93 drug offenses and 80 reports of simple assault.

For the same time period in 2023, police received a total of 846 reports along that part of Broadway, and reports totaled 796 in 2022 and 864 in 2021.

The effects of that crime also pose problems for landlords. Derek Vanderryst of DV Development Group said it had been a challenge to adequately handle the mounting problems at his two buildings on the street — the Werner building, 76-98 S. Broadway, and the White Palace building, at the corner with Bayaud Avenue. Businesses operating out of his properties include Voodoo Doughnut, Insomnia Cookies, Badger’s Pub and Ritual Tattoo.

Vanderryst, who first managed the properties and then , says he often deals with trash on the sidewalks and in the alleys. He bumped cleaning services up from once a week to twice a week, to no avail.

“I don’t even look at my cameras anymore,” he said, “because I know it’s just gonna make me so upset.”

He points to homelessness and drug use on Broadway as major challenges. Like other landlords, he’s also been shelling out more for rising property taxes and insurance bills, among other costs. He manages nearly 20 rental units but says he can’t retain lessees because of safety concerns.

Several months ago, a man lit one of Vanderryst’s buildings on fire by throwing burning paper into vents, causing about $10,000 in damage.

“I’ve lost a ton of tenants,” he said. “Nobody really wants to stay after they’ve been there for a while. They’re like, ‘This is just crazy.’ ”

Scott-Trask said she wished Denver offered grants to help business owners repair damage like graffiti — fixes that stretch her budget thin.

“That all comes out of my pocket at the end of the day,” she said.

After more than a decade on Broadway, Mutiny’s Norris was also left upset about the lack of support from the city, which he said was investing “everywhere else but here.”

For him, the problems stacked up: broken windows, safety concerns, visible drug use in the area and an inability to pay a higher rent.

But he ended on a positive note about the community: “The neighborhood is great, and there are great people still down here doing great things,” Norris said.

“I believe in the street”

For Luke Johnson, who owns Luke & Company Fine Pet Supply & Outfitter, the solution to many of the corridor’s hurdles lies in the establishment of a business improvement district. It would fill the corridor-investment gap that some local entrepreneurs lamented. As the president of the Broadway Merchants Association, he’s helping create it.

Johnson said a BID would rely on business owners putting their tax dollars toward objectives such as 24-hour security, landscaping, benches and local events, including the Broadway Halloween Parade. This year, parade organizers had to fundraise to pay for pedestrian barricades that were newly required by the city.

If all goes to plan, the BID should take effect in January 2026, Johnson said. For now, his association can’t collect money to accomplish those long-term goals, but it does represent the voices of Broadway’s mom-and-pop shops.

“People are still interested in putting a business on Broadway,” Johnson said. “We just have to make it better. And that’s kind of where the BID comes in.”

He argued that “the economics of (Broadway), while not cheap, still make it an attainable place for someone to open an 800-square-foot dream of theirs.”

Johnson, 36, has continued investing in Broadway’s future since he opened the original location for his store on the street in 2016. He spent $5 million on a building at 530 Broadway in 2020, and he reopened his store there in 2023.

“I believe in the street, and I’m not the only one,” Johnson said. “Do we have more room to grow and to be better? Absolutely.”

Through Sunday. There’s a festival for nearly every taste this weekend in Colorado. Adams County’s Festival Latino, free and family-friendly, takes place Sunday, Sept. 15, at Riverdale Regional Park in Brighton (). Michelada Fest visits Mile High Flea Market Sept. 14-15 (7007 E. 88th Ave. in Henderson; ), while Telluride Blues and Brews Fest returns to that mountain town Sept. 13-15 ().

Our top pick in Denver, however, is the Colorado Festival of Horror, which returns with a bulked-up lineup and programming for its fourth year. The event takes place Sept. 13-15 at the Marriott Denver South at Park Meadows, 10345 Park Meadows Drive, Lone Tree, and features national filmmakers, authors, artists, diverse horror-themed merch, and celebrities such as local hero Pam Grier, plus actors from “Doctor Sleep,” “The X Files,” “Annabelle,” and the “Friday the 13th” series (the latter being this year’s theme), among others.

Tickets: $30.75-$42.25 per day, or $76.77 for a weekend pass. Photo opps are an additional fee. Kids under 10 are free with a paying adult, and hotel and ticket packages are available on .

10 years of Celtic music

Thursday. Denver is home to a variety of folk-music luminaries, including the world-touring Avourneen, a.k.a. writer and artist Adam Goldstein. You may also know him from his vigorous Bob Dylan tributes, but Goldstein’s long-running Avourneen project plays lovingly faithful Irish music and features musicians from around the statewide Celtic scene.

The band is celebrating 10 years on the scene at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 19, with a concert at the Mercury Cafe, 2199 California St. in Denver. “We’re going to have a bunch of friends from a whole slew of other Celtic acts involved, and we’re going to incorporate contra dance callers and dancers,” Goldstein said. Tickets: $23 via . Call 303-294-9258 for more information.

A boundary-pushing “Rush”

Saturday-Sunday. Globe-hopping dancer, choreographer and master teacher Robert Sher-Machherndl runs his Lemon Sponge Cake Contemporary Ballet (LSC) company under the radar at times, but his artistic consistency over the last 25 years is unquestionable.

The former principal dancer with Dutch National Ballet and Bavarian State Ballet will celebrate Boulder-based LSC’s quarter-century birthday by premiering new work “Rush” on Sunday, Sept. 15, with collaborators Makaila Wallace (of Ballet BC) and Sadie Brown (Aspen Santa Fe Ballet). The piece pays homage to Sher-Machherndl’s European roots, he said, and promises to push the limits of its description.

Shows take place Saturday, Sept. 14, and Sunday, Sept. 15, at Gordon Gamm Theater in the Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St. in Boulder. Tickets: $28-$34. Call 303-440-7826 or visit for more.

Free wrestling, markets, and more

Through Sunday. This weekend’s free, all-ages Lucha Libre events on West Colfax Avenue aren’t the only family-friendly activities to check out. In addition to that noon-6 p.m. event on Saturday, Sept. 14, at 1611 Raleigh St. in Denver (a.k.a. Sloan’s Lake; RSVP at ), there’s Union Station’s Handmade in Colorado Expo, which offers independent designers and goods ranging from handmade art to food, drinks and live entertainment. Entry to the Sept. 14-15 expo is free () at 1701 Wynkoop St. in Denver.

We’re also looking forward to the free Sugar Plum Bazaar at The Arvada Center (6901 Wadsworth Blvd.) and its Fall Fest makers market, Sept. 14-15, with donations accepted at the door for the Big Dogs, Huge Paws nonprofit. Free entry. Vendors are local and, in some cases, only use all-natural materials.

The tension exploded earlier this month when a bicyclist was videotaped cursing and yelling at the sandwich shop’s staff over parking issues, calling owner Thuc-Nhu Hoang “an ugly, nasty piece of garbage” on top of race-related slurs.

“I don’t feel safe anymore,” Hoang said in a phone interview with The Denver Post. She called the incident “very racist.” CôNu’s Corner posted footage of the rant on its Instagram page.

Her shop sits at the corner of Tennyson Street and West 29th, where the Sloan’s Lake neighborhood transitions into West Highland. CôNu’s Corner Cafe, 4400 W. 29th Ave., is just one business along a small corridor (where bike lanes have already caused some agitation) that includes Quarterback Liquors, Leroy’s Bagels and SloHi Coffee + Bike.

On a recent Tuesday, only a few of the dozen-plus spaces in front of CôNu’s were available. Posted signs warned drivers that only customers are welcome and violators will be towed.

For over four years, that wasn’t the case. When Hoang’s business operated solely as a convenience store, she said she let it slide when her neighbors’ patrons parked there. That changed once she opened the sandwich shop last year.

There wasn’t enough room for her customers to park, too, Hoang said, and she worried about the potential for lawsuits during snowy months if clients of other businesses slipped and fell in her lot.

But once Hoang began booting and towing violators, she experienced harassment. Her shop is currently rated 4.7 stars out of five on Google reviews, but Hoang says she’s contended with “fake” one-star reviews written by parking offenders.

“They lie,” Hoang said. “It’s really hurt our business.”

Quarterback Liquors now pays to share several spaces in the lot, but other business owners haven’t agreed to the offer. Hoang declined to provide the cost for monthly parking rent.

“I don’t know what else to do,” she said. “They should let their customers know. That’s their job to do that.”

“Being able to be neighborly again”

Sarah Green, who owns Leroy’s Bagels, 4432 W. 29th Ave., depicted the turmoil as uncharacteristic of their community. “We’re all small businesses, and we’ve all been able to coexist really peacefully over the years,” she said. The shop opened in 2015.

In Green’s opinion, the neighborhood rift started with a lack of signage at CôNu’s, which left drivers in the dark about the towing risk. Local business owners met to discuss the issue and asked Hoang to put up signs, Green said.

“There was a good amount of time that there were no signs, and there was still a lot of towing happening, which felt unfair,” Green said.

During that waiting period, entrepreneurs posted their own notices in their storefront windows to notify customers. Green said she’s never encouraged her patrons to park in the lot, adding that she can’t afford to pay the cost to rent the allotted spots.

Future talks are planned between the parties, which Green hopes “will at least be able to get us to a point of being able to be neighborly again.” Representatives of SloHi Coffee + Bike didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Regardless of the strain between neighbors, Green shames the person who berated Hoang and hopes for accountability.

“No one should ever, ever be able to say something like that to another person, especially seeing that in our corridor, because we always have been tightknit,” Green said.