Commencement, New Exhibit at Foothills, City Council, GHS Theater, and Music

The School of Mines will hold Commencement for graduate students at 5PM today. It will be held in Lockridge Arena in the Student Recreation Center (1500 Illinois St. – map). Be prepared for parking shortages, which will be even more pronounced with the undergraduate commencement at 9AM tomorrow morning. Congratulations to all graduates!

Foothills Art Center will host a Members-Only Preview of their new exhibit tonight from 6-8PM—Otto Kuhler: Designing the Future.
Famous for his work in industrial design; streamlining of American railroad engines in the mid-20th century. Otto Kuhler’s fascination with machinery and the ingenuity of the human mind are front and center in his diverse portfolio or artwork. This show will feature works on loan from the collection of the Colorado Railroad Museum. Colorado Railroad Museum Members receive free admission to see this exhibit. FAC Members will receive free admission to Colorado Railroad Museum while the exhibit is on view.

City Council meets tonight at 6:30 in City Council Chambers. They have a couple of interesting topics on their agenda.

First, they will review the status of our Neighborhood Plans. Each of the Plans contained improvements that the City should work on. Tonight, the Economic Development Director will go through the Plans and update Council on our progress. His report makes interesting reading, so you might want to peruse it (item 10 on tonight’s agenda–click “Neighborhood Planning Implementation Update”).

The 12th Street Historic District hasn’t had a Neighborhood Plan, so City Staff is currently developing one, calling it the “West Downtown” neighborhood. They did a survey last summer of people shopping at the Farmers Market (presumably other people as well, but I observed them working at the Market). The results of that survey showed that people wanted more commercial development, starter homes, and improved pedestrian and “alternative mobility” routes through the area. From the text of the memo, I gather that the proposed mobility improvements would come at the expense of parking spaces. A second survey is now online. If you have an interest in that part of town, you should take the survey. Staff will also emphasize that we need to revisit planning efforts in the Goosetown area, in light of the City’s plan to purchase and redevelop that area.

You should familiarize yourself with your own neighborhood’s plan. When the city does unexpected things, such as putting islands in the middle of your street, removing right turn lanes, or turning car lanes into bike lanes, the origins of their actions can often be traced back to your neighborhood plan.

The second topic of interest is our long-anticipated lodging tax. Most cities tax lodging. At present, Golden does not, but that’s largely because we’ve been holding the possibility in reserve for when we wanted something “really special.” Right now, there are at least three suggested uses for the proceeds of our theoretical lodging tax: financial support to our cultural organizations; purchase of additional open space, and funding for affordable housing. The Finance Director also cited a lodging tax as one way to help pay for the property in Goosetown. Two Citizen groups have formed–one wanting to use the money to support our museums & other cultural organizations, and the other proposing to form a “community land trust,” which would purchase property in Golden and use it for either open space or affordable housing projects.