6 FEBRUARY 8-14, 2024 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | the area say they’ve been locking their doors during regular business hours in recent months and letting people in one by one to help keep out the riffraff. “We’ve had to make sure that this door stays locked at all times now,” Madrid says. “The times that we have had it unlocked, there’s just been people who come in — like yesterday, a guy trying to sell us a fl at- iron — who are looking for excuses to get inside. Sometimes we’ll have people who come in and pretend they want to buy our products and then just start acting very weird, very odd.” “They’re often not trying to steal; they’re just inappropriate,” Abeyta tells Westword. “Pulling their genitals out and things like that. ... We just aren’t ever sure what their intentions are. I’m not sure if they’re home- less, drug dealers or what. It’s honestly a mixture of different things. There’s women doing prostitution, drug deals going on all over the place. It’s a lot, and I think it just comes down to desperation. They’re in survival mode, 100 percent.” Madrid adds, “It’s sad, and what makes it even sadder is that the owner of the salon has offered help to some of them — specifi - cally, the women who are out there on the streets — and they don’t want it. They just don’t want the help. They don’t want to be ruled by society or government and all that, so that’s why a lot of them choose to live the way they live.” Coming to work and leaving are often the most stressful times for the employees, as people lurk in blind spots around their parking lots and buildings. “A lot of times they stand just out of sight of the door,” Madrid says. “It’s super uncomfortable.” There’s a minivan in the lot next to the Glam House that’s been stationary for months. “The man who lives inside it is really scary,” Madrid says. “He just stares at us when we get out of our cars.” It’s people like the minivan occupant who make customers and workers feel the most unsafe, not the ones who are “dealing drugs and just trying to survive,” Abeyta adds. “Honestly, I’d be okay if there was just a guy doing a drug deal or something and he’s trying to feed his kid and all that,” she says. “But then it’s like, you have some psycho coming here and staying here who is doing weird stuff and living out of his van because he came here one time to buy drugs and now he’s never left. Those are the type of people causing the most trouble.” What attracts lawbreakers to this one- block stretch of Ogden? Residents, businesses and local leaders point to the popularity of the 7-Eleven at the corner and the clos- ings of nearby 7-Elevens in recent years, includ- ing one that was open for more than a decade at 2341 East Colfax before it closed in December and a store at 551 East Colfax near the McDonald’s that was notorious for shoot- ings and other crimes; it closed in 2022. “Where we really had problems prior to that was the 500 block of Colfax, between Pennsylvania and Pearl, with the is- sues emanating from the 7-Eleven there,” says Frank Locantore, execu- tive director for the Colfax Business Improvement District. “After it closed, those issues seemed to mi- grate to the 1400 block of Ogden and other 7-Elev- ens in the area.” The BID and city of- ficials are now pushing to help the area through “construction disturbance” and neighbor- hood updates — including “more lights, more greenery and other environmental infrastructure improvements,” Locantore says. “We have both immediate and long- term solutions. We anticipate all this to start happening in the summer months.” A parking lot surveillance tower near the 7-Eleven at Colfax and Ogden helped for a while; Locantore says the BID asked 7-Eleven to move it closer to the dumpster, where people like to gather, which the store did. Two months ago, though, without any explanation, it was moved back to the other side of the parking lot, according to 7-Eleven workers and Locantore. The area where everyone posts up now is out of view from both the tower and 7-Eleven surveillance cameras; from there, people will head down Ogden Street. 7-Eleven’s corporate offi ce did not respond to requests for comment. “DPD is aware of the reports of increased illegal activity in the area and is working with businesses in the area to address it as well,” a department spokesperson says. “Offi cers are conducting extra patrols when call load permits, as well as other operations to address the illegal activity. We encourage residents and businesses to call DPD when there is any illegal activity occurring.” Hinds tells Westword that the DPD and the BID have been using the Crime Pre- vention Through Environmental Design system to help reduce fear and crime inci- dents in the area and improve the quality of life. According to a police description of CPTED, the approach is based on four key overlapping principles: natural access control, natural surveillance, territorial reinforcement and maintenance. Hinds sums it up like this: “Basically, rather than get a whole bunch of police to profi le or make a mess of a situation, the idea is to create an urban design to make for a welcoming environment for the businesses and the people going to the businesses, and to make it an unwelcome environment for the crimes and drug dealing and whatnot.” According to Hinds and Locantore, the DPD did an assessment of the area in 2022, and recommendations were made to the BID, Denver City Council and businesses along Ogden on how to mitigate crime and implement long-term solutions. The recommendations included “better light- ing, making sure the News continued from page 4 A visitor outside the Corner Beet. More than 110 crimes have been reported on Ogden between East 14th and Colfax avenues over the past six months, according to the Denver Police Department’s crime database. continued on page 8 INSTAGRAM/@DOBETTERDNVR/NIKKI HAZAMY DPD
