Public Health References
CDC * Colorado * Jefferson County * City of Golden
CDPHE updates Coronavirus stats Monday through Friday afternoons, so the next update will appear in tomorrow’s post.
Cases in Jeffco – Thursday: 2965 | Friday: 3008
Deaths in Jeffco – Thursday: 215 | Friday: 215
Ever Hospitalized in Jeffco – Thursday: 435 | Friday: 439 (currently 10)
Recovered – Thursday: 2540 | Friday: 2570
Known Cases in Golden – Thursday: 122 | Friday: 122
The Safer at Home and in the Vast, Great Outdoors protocol is in effect. City and County fire restrictions are in place. Masks are required in public spaces (including stores and restaurants) in Golden. There are some exceptions. See more….
Status of the Creek Closure
Virtual Golden
6:30-7:25AM Virtual Dynamic Circuit
9-10AM Virtual Power Training Monday
10:15-11:15AM Spanish Story Time with the Library
6:30PM GURA Board Meeting Online
The Golden Urban Renewal Authority meets this evening. They will recap their July 1st discussion with the Planning Commission, in which the two boards discussed the South Neighborhoods and Urban Renewal Plan for the West Colfax Corridor as well as ways to increase affordable housing in Golden.
One method that they hope to try involves changing the zoning on the existing mobile home parks, which they hope could provide some protection for the residents. They would expect to encounter resistance to this approach from the property owners.
They also discussed an approach called “inclusionary zoning.” This means that any new development would be required to include low-income housing. The Planning Manager favors making this change only in the Urban Renewal areas.
This would have the effect of concentrating low-income housing in the parts of town already deemed to be “blighted.” There are three Urban Renewal areas. GURA recently decided that the Parfet-Briarwood Urban Renewal area was too expensive to include affordable housing. The Central Neighborhoods Urban Renewal area has one low-income housing project with another about the break ground. The West Colfax Urban Renewal area has the greatest potential for redevelopment that would include affordable housing.
Editorial
I have two concerns about this plan to focus affordability efforts in GURA areas:
1) This would result in any new low-income housing being built in the Shelton Elementary district, which currently has 35% of their student body on free and reduced lunches. In contrast, Mitchell Elementary has only 8% eligible for free and reduced lunches.
2) When City Council changed the Comprehensive Plan (p. 31) to say that 45% of our housing should be affordable, the new text also stated that the affordable housing should be distributed geographically and integrated into the fabric of Golden’s existing neighborhoods. This plan to make only the urban renewal areas “inclusive” seems to accomplish the opposite of geographical distributing.
Golden History Moment
100 Years Ago
The July 15, 1920 Colorado Transcript reported the following.
2000 chickens were killed when lightning struck the coop at the Industrial School (now the Lookout Mountain Youth Services Center). An employee of the school was in the building when the lightning struck and was “slightly stunned.” The chicken coop was 25’x120′ and burned “in a flash.” There were an addition 7000 chickens in the brooder house, which was ten feet away from the burning coop, but the Golden Fire department was able to save that.
A young lawyer who was visiting from Denver drowned in Clear Creek and his companion narrowly escaped the same fate.
The state chemist took samples of Golden’s water and declared that “no city in the United States had water more pure than Golden’s.” The article goes on to say that “Samples taken from the distributing reservoirs show no bacteria and no colon baccili.
The Golden Chamber of Commerce, then in its first year of existence, was planning to meet to discuss paving some of Golden’s streets.
Professor O’Byrne finished the 14 year task of writing a mathematics text book. The cost of printing was going to be prohibitive until he thought to have his freshman mathematics students hand-letter his 267 illustrations. He used the hand-lettered pages to produce zinc etchings, which greatly reduced the cost of printing.
Professor O’Byrne was having a big week, because that same issue of the paper announced that he had married Mrs. Dorothy Foss. Mrs. Foss’s first husband had died two years earlier, during the Great Influenza Epidemic. Mrs. Foss had a two-year old son in 1920, and she continued to run the Foss Drug Store until he was old enough to take up the reins. Professor O’Byrne, who died in 1927, designed the M on Mt. Zion.
The Sheriff’s Department was puzzled about a seven-passenger Chalmers car that had been wrecked on the Lookout Road. The car was upside down and there was blood on the ground, but there were no occupants and no one to be found in the vicinity. The license plate had been removed, as had the top of engine, which would have had a serial number on it. The tires and all accessories had also been removed.
Stewart Grocery Company was urging Golden to EAT FRESH FRUITS. Linder Hardware was selling Winchester Rifles and suggested that people take them on family vacations and teach the children to shoot. Robinson’s Cash Bookstore said its patrons should Buy a Golden Pennant for Your Motor Car or as a Souvenir Gift.
The Gem Theater planned to show Pricella Dean in “Pretty Smooth” on Thursday, Michael Lewis in “Faith of the Strong” on Saturday, and Buck Jones in “The Last Straw,” plus “Silent Avenger” on Tuesday.
The Local Paragraphs section advised us that H. M. Rubey was going to North Park for a fishing trip. Mrs. Grant Churches and children were spending the week with relatives in Longmont. Mr. and Mrs. Geo. W. Parfet motored to Colorado Springs Sunday in their new Cadillac.
A classified ad offered a $500 Reward “for information that will convict and punish the women and men of Pleasantview with Serpents’ Tongues.”
Many thanks to the Golden History Museum for providing the online cache of historic Transcripts, and many thanks to the Golden Transcript for documenting our history since 1866!
