2 westword.com WESTWORD APRIL 9-15, 2026 | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | W ® 4 COLLISION COURSE The fi ght for Denver’s e-scooter contract is getting ugly. BY HANNAH METZGER 8 YOUR NEXT HAUNT This historic mansion-turned- luxury-apartments comes complete with ghosts. BY CYNTHIA BARNES 10 ROCK SOLID DMNS’s popular Gems & Minerals hall closes April 15 for a $30 million renovation. BY KRISTEN FIORE 13 HIGH FIVE What we love about Colorado’s 2026 James Beard fi nalists. BY THE WESTWORD CAFE TEAM 15 MAKING MOVES Joshua Randy Abeyta is taking a risk...and it’s paying off. BY LINDSAY TEMPLE 10 Culture 13 Cafe 15 Music CONCERTS/CLUBS ................................... 16 20 Marijuana CANNABIS CALENDAR ............................ 20 VOLUME 49 NUMBER 32 APRIL 9-15, 2026 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 Bennito L. 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PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY MONIKA SWIDERSKI “TOWERING AMBITIONS,” BRENDAN JOEL KELLEY, AUGUST 2 T O W E R O F P O W E R Thank you for the story about Asher Luz- zatto, and the in-depth look at what’s really happening in downtown Denver. Fingers crossed that his idea can really work. Maree Baker Denver How do I get my $63 million for a stupid Denver project from the Downtown Denver Development Authority? Joel Marvin Denver The DDDA sounds like a house of cards. Chris Estrus Denver Please, think more pragmatically than some new PPP. Downtown is not some regional amusement park. Niccolo Casewit Denver People need to quit proposing their business ideas as “government ideas” just because they don’t have the capital to get them going. Just so they can have taxpayer dollars pay for them. And people need to get it out of their heads that building infrastructure like this on taxpayer dollars will ever generate enough revenue to do the city any good. Look at taxpayer-funded stadiums and how after everything is said and done, maintenance and all the other costs over time wind up barely bringing in any revenue. You want a theme park in the middle of the city? Go to Disneyland. Alan Baker Denver We could throw food down to the home- less folks below while hobnobbing between ultra nightclubs. Jim Gardner Denver The city and RTD need to address the transit station at Civic Center. What an em- barrassment to allow that fi lthy vacant patch to welcome visitors to the heart of our down- town! It is such a basic necessity/priority and absolutely shocking that it has persisted in this pathetic state for so long. Why not build highrise affordable housing there above a world-class transit and bike station? We used to hold big design charettes that engaged the whole community, facilitated by urban design experts who could mock up community-generated ideas in real time. They were fun and engaging exercises, the kind of authentic community engagement that got re- placed by lobbyist manipulated “open houses” where bureaucrats just tell community mem- bers what they are going to do on behalf of the developer/special interest agenda du jour. Good city planning in this cowtown died with Jennifer Moulton. Good transportation planning has never had a snowball’s chance in hell, and the outlook continues to be dismal now that the mouthpiece for widen- ing I-70 used the political lackey revolving door to become head of DOTI. Facepalming myself into unconsciousness. Katherine Cornwell Denver I moved to Denver in ‘98, lived in Five Points. Did the Capitol Hill thing, Wash Park thing and Auraria Campus thing. It’s always been a theme park. It’s always getting ahead of you. It’s Denver, Willy McGaa had the same sentiment, as my old grandpappy told it. Bruh, you just got old. See you in the suburbs. Ryen C. Schimerman Thornton “NO FOOLING,” ZACHARY VISCONTI, APRIL 2 H O L Y F O O L ’ S E R R A N D Not a secret that’s what we paid bands in the ‘80s. Nonprofi t toots own horn using imaginary idea of what a living wage is. Michael Lustig Denver Amazing. Other venues in town want you to pay to play. Aaron Betcher Denver
