Real World Events
8AM Golden Gran Fondo (Bike Race)
10AM-3PM Brunch at the Rose @ Buffalo Rose
2PM Before You Go @ Miners Alley Playhouse
2-7:30PM COVID Vaccine Clinic @ North Table Mountain Park – West Trailhead (map)
Vaccines are free, and no insurance, ID, or appointment are required to get vaccinated.
Live Music
11AM Scott Slay @ Buffalo Rose (Sky Bar Stage – outdoor patio)
12PM Dave Frisk Band @ Dirty Dogs Roadhouse
2PM The Dale Cisek Duo @ Golden Mill
3PM Jewel and the Rough @ Wrigley’s
4PM Justus & The Limits @ Buffalo Rose (Sky Bar Stage – outdoor patio)
8PM Karaoke Contest at Ace Hi Tavern
Golden History Moment
Originally Published February 4, 2020
The Never-Ending Story of Parking in Golden – Part 3
As traffic levels grew in Golden, the City began to regard diagonal parking–a great solution in the 1920s–as a waste of lane space. In 1970, Washington Avenue reverted from diagonal parking back to parallel parking, and we went from two lanes of traffic to four. This loss of parking spots made it more urgent that we create off-street parking.
Businesses began to move out of downtown–or to the fringes of downtown– in order to have their own parking lots. Increasingly, businesses would advertise “Plenty of Free Parking!” Likewise, the church congregations also moved out of downtown, in search of properties big enough to include parking lots. Residential neighborhoods were also changing to include off-street parking. In 1971, council passed an ordinance (#650) requiring that multiple family dwelling units provide two off-street parking spaces per dwelling.
The Golden Downtown Improvement District continued to acquire and demolish old buildings to make way for parking lots–as did Mines, and Coors, and Jefferson County, and the rest of the country.
In 1971, the GDID acquired the Astor House. For some Golden residents, that was the last straw. In the past few years, we had lost the Courthouse, South School, North School, several churches, and many old houses. People didn’t think that trading the Astor House for 8 parking spaces was worth it. What followed was an amazing display of grassroots advocacy (worthy of another post on another day), and in 1972, the citizens of Golden voted to have the City purchase and preserve the building.
The endless search for parking slowed in the 1980s. Downtown Golden was in an economic decline, and we actually reached a point where our parking was adequate to our needs. We had plenty of other things to worry about (notably the dying downtown), but for a few years, we had adequate parking.
