4 FEBRUARY 6-12, 2025 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | W ® 6 GROUNDED! Colorado-bound refugee fl ights canceled after Trump’s executive order. BY BENNITO L. KELTY 8 WHERE THERE’S SMOKE Can AI cameras help battle wildfi res in Colorado? BY CATIE CHESHIRE 12 VROOM SERVICE Michael Gadlin’s exhibition transforms a car gallery into an art haven. BY TONI TRESCA 15 GOING UP These Denver restaurants have expanded from the Mile High to the high country. BY ABIGAIL BLISS 19 NATURAL-BORN ROCKERS Shady Oaks is turning up the heat in Denver’s music scene. BY EMILY FERGUSON 12 Culture 15 Cafe 19 Music CONCERTS/CLUBS ................................... 22 19 Marijuana CANNABIS CALENDAR ............................ 26 ASK A STONER ......................................... 28 VOLUME 48 NUMBER 24 FEBRUARY 6-12, 2025 E D I T O R I A L Editor Patricia Calhoun News Editor Thomas Mitchell Food and Drink Editor Molly Martin Music Editor Emily Ferguson Culture Editor Kristen Fiore Social Media Editor Katrina Leibee Staff Writers Catie Cheshire, Jason Heller, Bennito L. 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MURAL BY PAT MILBERY AND JIMBO PHILLIPS “A BROKEN HEART,” PATRICIA CALHOUN, JANUARY 13 S T R A I G H T T O T H E H E A R T Talk about timing: the heartbreak of Dana Crawford’s death right after you published your suggestions about how to bring back downtown in “A Broken Heart.” We should finish what she started. Come together, Denver! Elaine Martin ‘Denver Great suggestions. Denver is still a vibrant city, and the tweaks on your list will ensure it remains vibrant. Harvey Weiss Phoenix Get rid of the mayor, fi rst off. Chris Lewis Denver Maybe there should be more emphasis on public safety; that possibly could be a major factor. We don’t go to downtown Denver anymore on account of the crime in the area. Just saying. David Heglin Littleton I read “A Broken Heart” and was shocked to see the letters to the editor in the last Westword were receptive to it. Increasing police presence is so clearly not the answer to revitalizing downtown. Denver police already account for 15 percent of govern- ment expenditure, making it easily the most funded agency. Perhaps making legitimate efforts to house and help our homeless population rather than further funding police sweeping with no real solution in mind would make our city seem safer to the pearl-clutching audience that thinks being asked for a buck on the street is tantamount to assault. But statistically, greater policing is directly linked to increased violence — a lot of this violence being created by cops themselves. Programs like STAR are a great start towards de-policing and solving problems instead of escalating them with the appearance of armed goons. Introducing some type of rent control for both residential and commercial might keep businesses from fl eeing to cheaper suburban strip malls. Some of the ideas presented (Night Mayor, and pushing for effi cient construc- tion efforts) sound like great ideas. But they would be kneecapped by giving more of our tax money to fund police toys instead of the things the people living in the city actually need. (Few things would make me want to avoid the 16th Street Mall more than horse- back cops wandering between the stores.) Jay Grubbs Denver I fi nd your suggestions interesting and germane, but I also might suggest that some positive media attention might help. Potential visitors to Denver have seen tele- vision footage of the BLM riots in downtown Denver. They have seen footage of the home- less encampments. If they’ve been downtown, they have probably walked by a homeless en- campment or glanced down a nasty-smelling alleyway with revulsion. They’ve seen a news story of a vicious knife attack downtown. Through the media, they have been given the impression that downtown is not a safe place, is a health hazard and should be avoided. Having the mayor giving a press interview on the Mall while being confronted by a yelling transient didn’t help, either. As a consequence, I would put your ninth point fi rst — there needs to be ample public- ity showing that downtown is a safe place to visit and live. I would remind you of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: People are not going to seek entertainment in places until after they have been convinced that they will be safe in those places. If they feel like they are going to be exposed to random violent attacks from drugged-out transients or caught up in the mass hysteria of protests, they will not come. Having a highly visible police presence should be one of the higher priorities. Maybe you, as a member of the Denver media, could convince the mayor and the city council to create an image of a safer downtown. Bill Thompson Denver
