4 JANUARY 9-15, 2025 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | W ® 17 BACK IN THE SADDLE Four years after a tragic death, Denver doom/shoegaze band Palehorse/Palerider is ready to move ahead. BY JASON HELLER 6 THE CALL OF THE WILD A year of wolf reintroduction in Colorado, by the numbers. BY CATIE CHESHIRE 12 A LOWRIDER FOREVER How Chicano tattoing made its mark in the Mile High City. BY EDWARD SIMPSON 15 WHET YOUR APPETITE The most anticipated restaurant openings of 2025. BY MOLLY MARTIN 12 Culture 15 Cafe 17 Music CONCERTS/CLUBS ................................... 20 24 Marijuana CANNABIS CALENDAR ............................ 24 ASK A STONER ......................................... 24 VOLUME 48 NUMBER 20 JANUARY 9-15, 2025 E D I T O R I A L Editor Patricia Calhoun Editorial Operations Manager Jane R. 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PHOTOGRAPH OF DANIELLE JURINSKY BY EVAN SEMÓN “25 PEOPLE TO WATCH IN 2025: DANIELLE JURINSKY,” BENNITO L. KELTY, JANUARY 2 T O W N W I T H O U T P I T Y Genius idea to put Danielle Jurinsky on the cover of the People to Watch issue. With city council members like her, Aurora deserves all the criticism it gets. She is defi nitely someone to “watch out for!” Lanie Power Aurora Why would you let this vile, racist and of- fensive woman grace your cover? Westword, did you really sell your soul to the Devil? She’s not the face of Aurora, period. Aaron Futrell Denver Danielle Jurinsky might be the most pow- erful woman not just in metro Denver, but in all of Colorado. Who else could get Donald Trump here for a rally? Scott Masters Denver “25 PEOPLE TO WATCH IN 2025: BILL MOSHER,” PATRICIA CALHOUN, JANUARY 2 T H E B L I G H T S T U F F I hope Patricia Calhoun is right about Bill Mosher being the right man to bring down- town back. Right now it’s a gaping hole in the heart of this city. Joel Marsh Littleton Is there a reason for always having nega- tive comments about the 16th Street Mall? The progress made over the last year is pretty impressive. New shops and restaurants are coming. Randy Hunt Denver A proposed resolution for Denver: Just be positive. Yes, there are lots of issues, but this is our city. Let’s resolve together to be posi- tive and rebuild Denver into a great Western city. We have the people and the talent; we just need to get pragmatic, solve issues, be cooperative, and be gracefully accountable. Let’s make our Denver a model for a great, cultured, vibrant American city. Brad Dempsey Golden “25 PEOPLE TO WATCH IN 2025: DEBRA JOHNSON,” CATIE CHESHIRE, JANUARY 2 A B U M P Y R I D E You are completely wrong. Debra Johnson is a joke. The only thing she has accomplished is decreasing the fare. The buses run well, but the light rail has been a disaster for the last year. I have to get up at 4:15 a.m., walk twenty minutes to catch a bus to get to the light rail, and wait another 25 minutes to get that. Assuming the light rail isn’t canceled or thirty minutes late, I then sit on it for one to two hours. And even then, I still end up being late. Now I have to get up even thirty minutes earlier because every operator has told me it is going to get worse. Hiring has improved, yes — but that isn’t her doing. That is a result of the economy and lack of jobs. I myself am stuck working for a company that pays me minimum wage and doesn’t believe in raises even though they’ve been in operation for twenty or so years. I just want to get work on time and have faith in the public transportation system, and she’s destroyed that. Sandra Mader Lakewood Jeez, $421,000 a year for the next three years for running a transit system into the ground? The reason ridership is down is a compete ignorance of crime and drug usage on RTD buses and trains. And Debra Johnson has done nothing to address the ongoing and worsening security issues. If RTD wants to acquire revenue, it shouldn’t do it through propositions that increase taxes, but by selling land it possesses that goes unused (the Central Park station parking lot). And an extension of service to adjust to events at Ball Arena, the Paramount and the Performing Arts Complex would defi nitely help ridership. Walt Sobchak Thornton
