4 NOVEMBER 6-12, 2025 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | W ® 12 A HEALTHY APPRECIATION OF CREATIVITY Denver Arts Week will nourish body and soul with new programming. BY KRISTEN FIORE 6 HASHTAG HD5 Local social media stars, community organizers battle for Denver House district. BY HANNAH METZGER 8 THE BUS STOPPED HERE FasTracks has been slow to add promised lines to Longmont and other parts of Denver. BY BENNITO L. KELTY 17 FANCY FUNGI White truffl e season has arrived in Denver. BY ANTONY BRUNO 19 BECOMING IMMORTAL Bring your music to life at these Colorado recording studios. BY ZACHARY VISCONTI 12 Culture 17 Cafe 19 Music CONCERTS/CLUBS ................................... 20 26 Marijuana CANNABIS CALENDAR ............................ 26 VOLUME 49 NUMBER 10 NOVEMBER 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 Bennito L. 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DESIGN BY MONIKA SWIDERSKI “A GHOST OF A CHANCE,” PATRICIA CALHOUN, OCTOBER 30 C I V I C D U T Y Thanks to Patricia Calhoun for saying what so many think: The city should leave Civic Center alone for now, and maybe forever. The residents of this city are not only tired of construction, they are tired of projects that are just not necessary! Also, thank you for the wonderful Day of the Dead cover! Let’s keep Civic Center alive! Luci Archer Denver As long as it’s open in 2026 for the Broncos’ Super Bowl Victory Party (or at the very least, the pep rally after winning the division), be- cause as far as Civic Center is concerned, the fi rst quarter (of 2026) belongs to the Broncos. Rich Grant Denver I work in Parks & Rec in downtown Den- ver. I have been dreading the construction at Civic Center for a long time now, and a lot of my coworkers are not happy as well. Westword’s articles about Denver Parks & Recreation feature commentary from Stepha- nie Figueroa, a Parks & Rec spokesperson and, more recently, Jolon Clark, the head of Parks & Recreation. Upper-level management does not speak for all of Parks & Rec. Most, if not all, of the entire Civic Center crew is not happy about the closure and new construction of Civic Center. It is more than just being un- happy. We are pissed off, depressed and sad- dened about what will happen to Civic Center. In one of your articles, the construction was described as a “present” that we need to wait a little longer to unwrap. I would describe it more as a punishment, because they are going to take one of the most beautiful urban parks in the country and make it uglier. The rotating of the stage is completely un- necessary. It has worked for people for years and if you don’t like it, go someplace else. The canopy that is planned for the new stage is hideous, does not match the rest of the park, and will look like metal tentacles sticking out of the amphitheater. If some people have sun in their eyes, buy a canopy and erect it when you need it and take it down when you are done with it and buy some temporary chairs that you can face in any direction. They plan on cutting down a few trees near the amphi- theater and getting rid of some of the green space, making way for more concrete as well as a new entrance (whatever that is supposed to accomplish). You can kiss the fl ower beds as we know them goodbye forever, and I am sure the public won’t be too happy about that. As somebody who works at Civic Center every day, I know that people come from all over the country and all over the world to admire Civic Center’s beauty. But now some people want to take that away (both the beauty and opportunity to admire it), while at the same time trying to fi nd ways to get people to visit downtown Denver. In my opinion, this whole project is only meant to serve a handful of people who think it is okay to spend $50 million for themselves and treat this project like it is the most important thing right now. Denver has some real prob- lems that need to be fi xed or dealt with, and the amount that they are putting into this project is a slap in the face for those who work for the county and had to face layoffs. It doesn’t matter where the money comes from. We have better uses for the millions of dollars that are going to be spent on a project that we don’t need. Personally, I would love to have leaders who listen to both the public and workers who work at the parks. Instead, we have a bunch of leaders who live in their own fantasy world where they think they are a bunch of architects who believe they know what’s best for Denver for the next 100 years. What if they are wrong? Then it will be the next 100 years of regret, and we will have wasted $50 million. Jolon Clark said Civic Center “isn’t exactly what we want.” Well, Jolon, maybe you should fi nd a new job, because it works for everybody else. Civic Center is a great park and there is nothing wrong with it and I am proud to work there. I am sorry on behalf of Parks & Rec. I am sorry that some people are going to ruin Civic Cen- ter and I am sorry that some people want to spend the county’s money recklessly. But we never wanted any of this to happen, and there is another side to Parks & Rec that does not get mentioned in any of your articles. Name withheld on request
