BY PEYTON GARCIA | @CITYCASTDENVER

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WHAT’S GOING ON AT LA ALMA-LINCOLN PARK?

Last Wednesday, 63-year-old Gary Arellano was fatally shot at La Alma-Lincoln Park in Denver’s West Side. Reports say Arellano, a regular visitor of the park, was attempting to break up a fight between two young women when he was shot multiple times. Police have made an arrest for the crime.

The next day, the city announced they were closing the park to the public indefinitely, erecting metal fencing around the perimeter. It’s been a go-to move for the city as of late in response to spikes in violence (see: the two-month closure of Civic Center Park).

Councilwoman Jamie Torres, who represents the district that includes La Alma-Lincoln Park, is lobbying the city to install HALO surveillance cameras around the park. Denver police have upped their patrols in the area. And there’s currently a push to outlaw concealed weapons in parks.

👉 Important to know: The Chicano/a Murals of Colorado Project, in partnership with History Colorado, had a national news announcement planned for Wednesday at La Alma-Lincoln Park in front of one of Denver’s oldest and most famous Chicano murals — “La Alma” by Emanuel Martinez. Because of the park’s closure, the event has been moved to a different mural on the west side of the Mana Supply Co. building at 2895 W. 8th Ave.

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THE FENTANYL CRISIS 💊

“Honestly, I think we have to acknowledge the fact that I’m in a place of ‘do as least harm as possible,’ because right now, people are running this bill for political gain.” — Rep. Leslie Herod

Inside the Fentanyl Fight at the Capitol
Today on the show: Rep. Leslie Herod. She’s been a champion of harm reduction, yet she voted “yes” for a bill that includes harsher punishments for fentanyl possession. City Cast Denver Host Bree Davies sits down with Rep. Herod to unpack that vote and take us inside the “political hell” around the fentanyl issue at the Capitol.

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MORE NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW

✊🏽 Polis poses obstacles for proposed Indigenous advocacy bill: A new bill aimed at spotlighting and solving the disappearances and murders of Indigenous people in Colorado is facing objections from the Polis administration. Instead of the creation of a five-person office dedicated to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives (or MMIR) as suggested in the bill, Polis wants to create a volunteer task force that would work with agents from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. [CPR] 

• 🤔 My question: Wouldn’t Polis’ solution just lead back to the same cracks in the system that the bill is trying to fix?

• 🔎 Dive deeper: Hear from Raven Payment, an Indigenous advocate and member of the Kanien’kehá:ka and Anishinaabe nations. We spoke with her about the new MMIR bill in this recent City Cast episode: “How Can Colorado Tackle the Crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People?”

🚲 About those e-bike rebates… Remember when we talked about the e-bike rebate vouchers the city was promising on Earth Day? We checked in with Grace Rink, the head of Denver’s Office of Climate Action, Sustainability, and Resiliency, for an update on how the program is going. 

• 💬 Here’s what Grace said: “As of [last Thursday], 1,278 applications have been submitted for the standard rebate voucher ($400) and 871 applications have been submitted for the income-qualified rebate voucher ($1,200).” Learn more about the program 👉 here [City Cast Denver] 

🚩 Cap Hill residents faced mass eviction this weekend: Dozens of tenants living at the Clarkson Lodge boarding house were forced to move out this Saturday. Residents were originally given only two weeks’ notice of their eviction, but the Colorado Poverty Law Project stepped in and secured a six-week extension, per local law. Still, with Denver’s current state of housing, many former tenants are unsure where they’ll go now that they’ve lost their housing. [Denver7]

• 👐 How you can get involved: Learn more about the Colorado Poverty Law Project and the resources they offer to help fight housing injustice. 

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LOCAL CHATTER: MORE ON BEAU JO’S PIZZA 🍕

Last week on the podcast, City Cast Producer Paul Karolyi aired his grievances about Beau Jo’s pizza — You can listen to that episode here.

Listener Warren B., who grew up in Idaho Springs near the original Beau Jo’s, says:

“I watched Beau Jo’s grow from a single storefront to the pizza juggernaut it is today. Their food is garbage and no one in Idaho Springs eats there… I am confident in saying that I am not alone in my frustration when I tell people where I grew up, and hear ‘Oh, Beau Jo’s Colorado? I love it there!”… To locals, Beau Jo’s is a place one can make okay money tending bar or waiting tables if they are willing to swallow some dignity and deal with the clientele. For pizza, you go to Picci’s.”

🗣️ Have thoughts on something we’ve covered on the podcast or in the newsletter? You can always write in to Denver@CityCast.fm, or call and leave a voicemail at 720-500-5418. 

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