The owners of Lakewood affordable housing are plagued by crime that is ruining their business and driving residents away. A piece of their property was taken by Lakewood in 2022 through eminent domain to be used as a bike path. Now that bike path, along RTD tracks, is home to so much illegal activity that the people living nearby are leaving their affordable housing to go elsewhere. Property owners made another plea to City Council on August 26 asking for police enforcement. Property owners met with RTD on September 9 and city representatives accepted the invitation to attend. However, no new actions or greater enforcement was promised. Property owners were urged to keep calling but their calls will remain a low priority since Lakewood does not prioritize drug use or vagrancy. “We have Section 8 people who do not want to live at our property and are moving out. We have higher turnover and vacancy costs. We are being put out of business by the issues going on across the street. Our business is to help and provide affordable housing.” – Property owner The owners have made hundreds of calls to police in the last years. The police are involved in several incidents but say their hands are tied so they try and disperse the people loitering, who then return and continue their activities, leaving evidence of drug use and drug deals on the property. City Council defends programs of selective enforcement or non-enforcement. These programs nullify the law, leaving...
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Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado
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Correction 9/21/24: There is no single commercial applicant currently under consideration for the Vivian property. This month, following a pre-qualification process, several applicants were invited to submit final proposals which are due in October. Correction 9/26/24: Paula Reed represents District 2, not District 1. District 2 includes Green Mountain and Lakewood High Schools . Erin Kenworthy is District 4 which has Alameda High School and the now closed Emory Elementary. Three Board Members are up for election this year: Danielle Varda – District 1, Paula Reed – District 2 and Mary Parker – District 5 Thank you readers for your corrections and information! An untested process caused misunderstandings and hiccups resulting in delays to Lakewood purchasing shuttered Jeffco schools. Lakewood is now negotiating to buy 3 acres of Vivian Elementary School. They are also still asking about acquiring Emory Elementary for use by the Action Center. At a meeting on September 13, 2024, City Councilors and Jeffco School Board Members were able to get a lot of their positions stated for the record; however, this remains a closed process with both managers negotiating on a staff level. There has been no presentation to the public of a plan for school properties. School district documents show that the district must approve the use designation. That means that Lakewood must have presented their plans for the Action Center months ago, during the same time Lakewood Mayor and City Manager were calling the stories “misinformation”. City officials appeared united in their efforts to...
City Council Member Rich Olver’s column was not included in the latest Looking@Lakewood because he explained alternative facts for the Council-approved TABOR ballot issue. He did not advocate for a position either way but Lakewood is. Lakewood initiated the ballot issue and spent $74,000 for a study to craft the ballot language to gain approval. Olver was told he wrote an opinion piece about a ballot issue so it couldn’t be printed. Olver then wrote a short piece to refer readers to his own website where he posts what the city won’t print. The city refused with no explanation. Print deadlines may be to blame. There is no column from Councilor Olver this month. Lakewood posted its own TABOR ballot piece in the newspaper, as it was designed and approved by the City to maximize voter approval (see pg 8). Under dispute is whether voters consider keeping rebates to be a new tax and if the new tax money will actually be spent as the ballot describes. Lakewood also published a piece about the budget, including vague explanations about how TABOR funds have been and will be used. This also steers voters into thinking that TABOR funds did not impact general fund expenditures. Olver tried to expound on this point as well. Councilor Olver did not advocate for or against the ballot issue. Instead, he explained things that might be misconstrued. Lakewood crafted this language, using tax dollars, before they approved it becoming a ballot issue. Today, Councilor Olver is...
The Lakewood Advisory Commission (LAC) has proposed changing its ethics rules to allow penalties for misinformation. This rule change is a result of information posted by the Lakewood Informer. As discussed in the public LAC meetings, this change would allow Commissioners to be removed from the LAC if they are found to have violated the new ethics rules. Lakewood Informer publisher, Karen Morgan, is also a volunteer Commissioner on the Lakewood Advisory Commission. Morgan posted an article by guest author Bill Foshag titled “A Review of Lakewood’s Proposed “Beneficial Home Electrification and Upgrade Program”. This piece was not authored by Morgan and made no claims to be from Morgan in an official capacity. It was published under the Lakewood Informer banner, which makes no claims to speak for Lakewood or the Lakewood Advisory Commission in any way. Note: This current article, authored by Morgan, also does not speak for Lakewood, the LAC or Morgan in any official capacity. Nevertheless, Morgan was asked to censor the Foshag article by changing the content. The Foshag article is a well written, thorough rebuttal of the information presented by the LAC in their report to the Lakewood City Council. Foshag presents clear facts and tells the side of the story not presented by the LAC. The LAC proposal makes several one-sided claims about climate change, the benefits of electrification through elimination of gas-powered appliances, and the need for government mandates and incentives. The LAC proposal includes no balance and no drawbacks to their recommendations. The...
A Lakewood resident gave an impassioned speech about how crime has dramatically increased around the Lakewood Navigation Center. She spoke immediately after City Council passed their new ordinance to allow more transitional housing for homeless. This resident lives near the new Navigation Center shelter and has had her life threatened multiple times. Council members, like Council Member Low in Monday’s meeting, like to point out studies where crime has decreased around pallet homes or shelters in Los Angeles. What they don’t say is that crime first dramatically increases due to the city’s policy of enabling crime through compassionate non-enforcement and enabling of unhoused activities. “Today is the third time in less than three months that my life has been threatened…. These people told me they would knock me off my bike, beat me to death and kill me.” “They go back there and smoke their crack and smoke their meth.” “When we call the police, WE become the criminals.” See this Lakewood resident speak at video minute marker 2:05:30 Transcript: I live [in Ward 1]. The Garrison station’s there, the James Richie park is there, the action Center’s there, and just a few blocks from that is your Recovery Center. I can’t walk to the grocery store. I can’t ride my bike around my neighborhood from all the drugs and you all sit here with all this enthusiasm to help the homeless. I’m not an uncompassionate person. I have compassion to help those that want to help themselves. Drug addicts...
Lakewood City Council amended the building code to allow transitional housing for homeless on September 9. There were no defined programs, no defined projects, no defined locations, no operational guidelines and no defined structures. City Council Members spent most of their comments defending the lack of specificity by saying this is just the first step. They pointed to the housing crisis as evidence of need. Council positions are summarized below. The vote was 10-1, with Councilor Olver being the sole no vote. Programs can start as soon as the city acquires land, which was not approved in the 2025 budget. Councilor Rein proposed a contentious amendment that would require the city to own or control the housing programs. There was push back from Council Members Shahrezaei, Mayott-Guerrero, Stewart, Cruz, Low, Nystrom, and Sinks. The feeling seemed to be that Lakewood should buy the land with taxpayer money and allow the programs but essentially give it to private actors to use for the homeless. An interesting note is that many Council Members frequently mention their work for non-profits while advocating like they are soliciting donations, rather than legislating from a government responsibility standpoint. There is a homelessness crisis and if we don’t do anything we are complicit…. People have a right to shelter. – Public Comment, Amber Varwig Rein eventually removed his owned or control language. That means any non-profit can control the program. As Council Member Shahrezaei pointed out, this includes faith-based programs. Once approved, the city will have no...
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