Your Daily Guide

🛣️ Bow Mar Gate-Gate

The Town of Bow Mar just got real about its plan to cut down on cross-through traffic, with town councilors giving final approval this week to to put up a gate on South Sheridan Boulevard by the end of November. Denver City Council member Kevin Flynn called this “an unacceptable alteration of Denver’s right of way.” Denver’s solution? Perhaps building its own retaliatory gate.

• Why does Bow Mar want a gate? Bow Mar has seen nearly 900 citations for speeding and unsafe driving in the past four years. Around 1,200 vehicles come through Bow Mar daily via Sheridan, which marks a 51% increase in the past eight years.
• How would it work? In addition to approving the gate proposal, Bow Mar’s town council also decided to permanently close the entry point at West Tufts Avenue. The plan is for Bow Mar residents to use RFID tags to enter the neighborhood, and visitors/deliveries to use a guest pass or code.
• What’s next? Both Denver and Littleton have threatened lawsuits against Bow Mar, even going so far as to hint at retaliatory gates that would block Bow Mar residents from easy access into Denver and Littleton, aka “the nuclear option,” according to Flynn. [Denverite]

🎸 Festival Leaders Announce Blucifer’s Second Rodeo

After a reported 3,100 people attended Blucifer’s First Rodeo last July, the upstart music festival’s organizers announced this week that they would return to venues around South Broadway on July 22-25, 2027. Organizers say tickets sold out a month in advance this year, so they plan to release more tickets and expand to more venues next year. [Denverite]

• The intrigue: Blucifer’s First Rodeo took place the same weekend in July as the Underground Music Showcase, the 26-year-old festival that moved from Baker to RiNo in 2026. UMS organizers have yet to announce a date for 2027.

🔍 Is Mayor Johnston Keeping Secrets?

Denver Auditor Timothy O’Brien said this week that Mayor Mike Johnston has been withholding certain documents for more than a year, blocking the auditor’s office from completing a long-planned review of the city’s budget process. A spokesperson for Johnston says the mayor’s office has cooperated with auditors and provided hundreds of pages of documents. [Axios Denver]

• Speaking of the budget: Denver voters are currently faced with a ballot question suggesting that the city government shift from annual to two-year budgets, and that’s just one of 20 local and state-level questions on Denverites’ ballots. We’re breaking them down all week on the podcast 👇 [Denverite; City Cast Denver 🎧]

⚡ State Regulators, Xcel Debate Data Center Costs

With climate protesters gathered outside, Colorado’s Public Utilities Commission kicked off a series of hearings yesterday on Xcel Energy’s proposed restrictions on data centers. Xcel submitted the “large load tariff” proposal in April at the PUC’s request in an effort to address concerns from the public about potential environmental impacts and increased prices. [Colorado Sun]

• What’s in Xcel’s proposal? Host Bree Davies sat down with the president of Xcel Energy Colorado, Robert Kenney, to discuss the electricity provider’s proposal to charge the companies behind large data center projects more for the infrastructure they require. [City Cast Denver 🎧]

☕ Stella’s Brings Back Wi-Fi, Extended Hours

Regulars of Stella’s Coffee Haus on Pearl Street were surprised earlier this year when the cozy cafe’s owners decided to shut off their free Wi-Fi and reduce operating hours. After months of neighborhood grumbling about the loss of a favorite remote workplace, Stella’s reversed course yesterday, turning the wifi back on and announcing extended hours — 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. — to begin on 10/26. [Stella’s Coffee Haus email newsletter; Reddit.com/r/Denver]