4 JULY 24-30, 2025 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | W ® 15 SONIC BLOOM DOGTAGS is planting positivity with its new album, ROSEWORLD, and a last UMS performance. BY EMILY FERGUSON 6 HASTA LA VISA, BABY The Mexican consulate is seeing more citizenship and visa requests from Denver...as well as scams. BY BENNITO L. KELTY 10 ALONG FOR THE RIDE Brenda Fishman helps keep the wheels turning at Lakeside Amusement Park. BY BRENDAN JOEL KELLEY 13 EYE OF THE TIGER Longmont chef Devin Keopraphay is ready for The Great Food Truck Race. BY GIL ASAKAWA 18 DIY OR DIE BY EMILY FERGUSON 10 Culture 13 Cafe 15 Music CONCERTS/CLUBS ................................... 20 23 Marijuana CANNABIS CALENDAR ............................ 23 ASK A STONER ......................................... 23 VOLUME 48 NUMBER 48 JULY 24-30, 2025 E D I T O R I A L Editor Patricia Calhoun News Editor Thomas Mitchell Food and Drink Editor Molly Martin Interim Food and Drink Editor Gil Asakawa Music Editor Emily Ferguson Culture Editor Kristen Fiore Social Media Editor Katrina Leibee Staff Writers Catie Cheshire, Brendan Joel Kelley, Bennito L. 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PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY MONIKA SWIDERSKI “CAN DENVER RISE AGAIN?,” PATRICIA CALHOUN, JULY 17 M I L E H I G H H Y P E Why isn’t Patricia Calhoun mayor of this city? In one article she offered more smart ideas than I’ve heard from elected offi cials in ten years. Lisa Martin Denver What policy expertise does Patty Cal- houn have? Her piece read like every other Facebook comment section. Robert Greer Denver Thank you for this thoughtful piece. As a downtown resident, I would add this: Clean up our entryway. The I-25 corridor and virtu- ally all entry/exit ramps are unmaintained and strewn with trash. Our foyer is hideous. Marcy Welk Denver A third of the offices downtown are empty. The city needs to attract businesses back downtown not just weekend tourists and nightlife goers. Valdamar Archuleta Denver Denver could cut unnecessary expenses, like any household facing a budget crisis. We love holiday lights: an amazing tradition but an unnecessary one. Unless Denver is con- tractually obligated, it can save a few million dollars by not lighting up the City and County Building and other government buildings during the winter holidays. It could reduce its day-to-day utility bills by turning off offi ce lights when lighting is not necessary. (Why are offi ces lit up at night all night long?) J.E. Harding Parker I’d appreciated Patricia Calhoun’s origi- nal list for downtown, but her “trial balloon” about making government workers come back to downtown offi ces is genius. I hope the mayor and governor are paying attention. Most government employees have a sweet deal; the guarantee to work remotely should not be part of it. Few workers in the private sector enjoy that same luxury. Liz Mason Denver I’ve read Westword for years, expecting an independent voice that challenges power and advocates for working people. So I was stunned to read Patricia Calhoun’s proposal to force city employees back to downtown offi ces under threat of termination. Let’s be clear about what’s being proposed: economic coercion. Use the threat of unemployment to force workers to sacrifi ce their health, time and money to prop up private businesses. This is corporate welfare enforced at gunpoint. The timing is particularly cruel. While the city conducts layoffs and furloughs, Calhoun essentially suggests telling the remaining workers: “Waste money on commutes and overpriced lunches or join your former col- leagues in the unemployment line.” If downtown restaurants can’t survive without captive customers forced to be there under threat of poverty, they’ve failed capital- ism’s most basic test. The market has spoken — workers chose better lives over subsidizing businesses that can’t adapt to changing times. Now we’re supposed to use government coercion to override the market’s verdict. City employees working from home are healthier, spending less money on gas and parking, seeing their families more, and re- ducing traffi c and emissions. They’re more productive without commutes. Why should they sacrifi ce this to be unpaid economic stimulus for private businesses? The solution is simple: If Calhoun and oth- ers want to support downtown businesses, they should spend their own money there. Don’t force public employees to subsidize your pre- ferred merchants through economic violence. This proposal reveals whose interests re- ally matter to Denver’s establishment. Hint: It’s not the workers who keep this city run- ning. An “alternative” publication advocating for authoritarian measures to extract value from workers for private profi t? That’s not alternative — it’s just evil. Christopher Toth Englewood
