'Grotesque' homeless hotel, snarled traffic on Pena discussed during Denver council public comment

The former Best Western Hotel at 4595 Quebec now houses people experiencing homelessness.Photo byGoogle Street View

Denver’s homeless hotels and clogged traffic on Pena Boulevard dominated the public comment period Monday during the City Council meeting.

Homeless advocate Ana Miller told the council the conditions at the former Best Western homeless hotel on Quebec, one of many such hotels owned by the city, are “Absolutely grotesque … worse than most poorly run prisons ....(I’m) tired of hearing things are fixed. When you’re done using (a hotel) it will need to be completely gutted for habitation again. I want the council to look into these conditions and do something about it. Push for better oversight of how they’re running their shelters.”

Jesse Lashawn Parris, who lives in Fusion Studios, a homeless hotel owned by Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, complained about conditions there. The author of this article lives at Fusion too and writes extensively about the way some people behave there. People regularly bang on the walls, use power tools, and alter their rooms at all times of the day and night. Indeed, major reconstruction will need to occur at these places if they ever have another use.

The Internet is still spotty at Fusion Studios

“The internet is still messed up,” Parris told the council. “Still out, still spotty, you allocated a million dollars to it and it still ain’t right.”

The author of this article has written so much about the internet not working at Fusion that he finally bought his own internet Otherwise, he would still be suffering with it and writing about it daily.

“I’m getting up out of here,” Parris said to the council. “Five years has been long enough of this experiment gone wrong. Do better, CCH, we still don’t have a food pantry, we still don’t have the services we need at the property, the elevators still are down here we’re lucky if we have one working every week. There’s still trash and debris everywhere. You’re not doing better Denver, you’re doing worse.”

Earlier this month, a resident of the Coalition’s latest property to open, Renewal Village, emailed the author of this article about conditions there. She said she did not believe the Coalition was doing a respectable job of upkeep. She declined to give her name out of fear of retaliation.

Pena Boulevard a clogged thoroughfare

Also Monday, residents of Green Valley Ranch spoke about their frustrations from sitting in traffic on Pena Boulevard too many hours of the day. They said the car-centric throughfare should not add toll lanes just so the wealthy can avoid a line. They told the council to consider equity when planning Pena Boulevard solutions as well as sustainable changes that will benefit the environment.

Photo byIanonUnsplash

Jennifer Jensen of Green Valley Ranch said she lives off Pena, which is the main thoroughfare to Denver International Airport. She said simple things could be done to improve traffic, including re-timing lights at 56th and Pena. “If you’re going westbound on 56th and get the left arrow to go onto Pena, that probably lasts 60 seconds, and if you watch the traffic it will start to go and then it will become deadlocked and cease to move,” Jensen said.

Ian Coggins, also a Green Valley Ranch resident, said just like green chili and Blucifer, Denver is known for having to sit in traffic. He said public transportation needs to be expanded in a “meaningful way.” He said solutions to Pena Boulevard must be “multi-modal,” meaning more than just added lanes of traffic. He said additional traffic lanes would have a “multi-faceted climate impact, having tens of thousands of vehicles idling across the city.”