Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado
Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado
Lakewood Chief of Police Philip Smith with be the guest speaker at October’s Ward 4 meeting, Wednesday, October 16, 2024. 07:00 PM – 09:00 PM, October 16 Lutheran Church of the Master, 14099 W. Jewell Ave., Lakewood, CO, 80228 View Map Ward 4 meetings always include Q&A about a broad range of topics. All city residents are welcome.
From Jonna Helm We will be at the City Council Meeting tomorrow (10/14/24) at 7pm and need your support and strength in numbers! There will be an opportunity to provide public comment for anyone interested. Address: 480 S. Allison Parkway, Lakewood Public Comment and to attend online: Lakewood Speaks – Item 1 – Call to Order The City of Lakewood’s Housing Authority, dba Metro West Housing Solutions (“developer”), has submitted their 5th revision to the major site plans for the development at 1515 Whippoorwill (Williams Pointe Apartments) and the City has provided their redlines back on the revised site plans. Despite multiple City of Lakewood Planning Commissioners concerns on the lack of connectivity for this development and the Vice Chair of the Planning Commission’s plea to the developer and the City of Lakewood’s Planning and Engineering Departments to revise the major site plans for the safety of the intersection and the driveway redesign during the subdivision appeal, the developer did NOT submit any changes in their 5th revision of the Major Site Plans that would improve the safety or connectivity for this development and the surrounding community. City of Lakewood Planning Commission Commentary regarding Williams Pointe 8-21-24 The City Planning Department has provided their redlines on this 5th version of the major site plans and is NOT requiring the developer to address any of these safety or connectivity issues. Major Site Plans do not have to go before the Planning Commission and are approved by the Director of Planning. Please ask City Council to recommend that the plans...
A line item for an $800,000 expenditure was added to the 2024 budget to fix the lights on RTD’s bridge, apparently at the request of Council Member Shahrezaei, in defiance of normal council procedures. At the time in 2023, the official explanation was that the expenditure originated from the Public Works department. As explained in Lakewood Informer news, the only communications Lakewood disclosed were between Councilor Shahrezaei and RTD, not city staff. Individual Council Members are prohibited from directing city staff in any action, including adding items to the budget. A councilor must request a study session and get permission from the rest of Council before staff take any action. So how did these bridge lights make it into the budget? The bridge does not even belong to Lakewood. During the 2025 budget discussions, city staff are not so willing to claim they originated this item. Now, the city staff explain that the item is in the budget due to Ward 1 Councilors, not staff. The only Councilor that spanned both years is Councilor Shahrezaei. (Note: the 2024 budget was passed in Oct, 2023) Shahrezaei explained that the bridge lights were approved last year, as if that answered all questions. She failed to explain that the expense could still be removed today, before approving the 2025 budget. She also failed to explain how she got the item in the budget in the first place. Shahrezaei worked with RTD representatives through the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG). She is the...
Lakewood City Council stopped efforts by city staff to put up signs that would discourage panhandling or window washing. In July, Lakewood City Manager Kathy Hodgson proposed draft language that would ask residents not to give money to panhandlers. After getting feedback from Council Members in August, all efforts were put on hold. City Council apparently would not support putting such signs up. An online community discussion, summarized below, shows Lakewood residents are frustrated with Lakewood’s lack of action. Lakewood implies permission by continuing to deny action against it. The proposed signs would not be a solution by itself. In fact, it would have blamed the givers rather than addressing the panhandlers. Other cities post signs similar to those below. Douglas County has claimed to have “nearly eradicated its own unhoused population with a simple message to its citizens: “Handouts Don’t Help.”” A recent discussion on nextdoor.com started with one Lakewood resident wishing that Lakewood would follow Arvada’s example by posting signs discouraging window washers. From the discussion, it is clear that most residents are frustrated with the presence of window washers in Lakewood. The key sentiments include: Overall, the general consensus leans toward a desire for stricter regulation or a complete ban on window washing at intersections, driven by safety concerns and the negative experiences of many residents. (Note: discussion summary and conclusion by ChatGPT)
Cross-post By Karen Morfitt, CBS News A resource for struggling families and those living on the street in Lakewood is in desperate need of a new location. Without it, Mean Street Ministry, which operates a food bank and day shelter along the West Colfax corridor, might not survive. “I was homeless and looking for a place to stay one night, stayed behind the dumpster here,” Rollin Huber said. The decision would change his life. “A gentleman from Mean Street came and got me at six in the morning and took me in,” Huber explained. Read the full article from CBS News
Lakewood Police Department continues to try to reduce crime through methods other than increased law enforcement. Crime reduction is not mentioned as an expectation or result-benefit to any department goal in the 2025 Budget Book. For example, to meet the goal of “preserving a safe and peaceful community“, the police department will “encourage residents to use alternative reporting options for non-emergency incidents“. This will allow police to respond to emergencies faster, but does not increase response time to all calls or increase number of calls responded to overall. Average response time and number of calls were not given. Lakewood Police have been critiqued for not responding to calls in Lakewood news. Presumably crime reduction will follow some of these initiatives. Other goals include “enhancing the public’s perception of safety“. For this goal, the police department will work with Human Resources to make sure police employees meet diversity standards, and ensure prompt completion of internal affairs cases. This assumes the public is aware of the results of internal affairs cases. To “provide the highest possible level of customer service to the citizens of Lakewood” the police will disperse grant funds in low- and moderate-income areas for code enforcement. There is no mention of enforcement targets, statistics, or crime enforcement priorities. For example, will drug use continue to be de-prioritized? Recently enacted new speed limits and traffic cameras are not mentioned. Lakewood Police are not asking for additional staff in 2025. Instead, they will take advantage of Artificial Intelligence to streamline police...
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