The April 22 Lakewood City Council meeting had two hours of public comment, most of which were advocates of a ceasefire in Gaza. This seemed to be a scheduled appearance, with some Council Members in possession of prepared statements on the subject and one member, Councilor Olver, wearing a T-shirt in support for Israel. In this case, that sign of support was all he was allowed to demonstrate because his comments were interrupted by a motion to adjourn by Councilor Shahrezaei, who followed the motion with the words “We’re done with you, Councilor Olver.” The early adjournment not only cut off Olver’s comments but deprived three Councilors of their ability to make a ward report. This motion came after Shahrezaei herself made a statement in favor of a ceasefire, so the motion seems intended to stop Olver’s pro-Israeli sentiment. The motion passed by a vote of 6-5. Councilor Comments: Shahrezaei: Thanks everyone that came out and shared in public comment. She says “there’s some of us who’ve had the opportunity to connect with leadership in your group quite frequently” and she continues to offer her small sphere of influence to support this cause. She wants to continue this conversation Mayott-Guerrero: “Thank you all for your energy and sharing your frustration and continuing to care when it is very, very easy to stop caring. And I absolutely feel aligned with you all.” Signals her willingness to talk about bringing a motion to a future meeting on this topic. Cruz: Thanks the...
Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado
Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado
LAKEWOOD INFORMER
Reference Shelf
Share your pictures!
Support the
Lakewood Informer
Latest Articles
- All Posts
- Budget
- Business
- Community
- Crime
- Development
- Elections
- Entrenched Bureaucracy
- Homeless
- Jeffco
- school
- Statewide
- Sustainability
- Transparency
- Vote Tally
- Word Games
The mid-year report on Lakewood’s homeless shelter showed some progress and some new problems. The April 15, 2024, Council Study Session highlighted the 50-person capacity of the new “emergency” cold weather shelter at the location of the new Navigation Center on West Colfax. This was a planned shelter, used on an emergency basis because the building is not ready or approved to act as a shelter. As a new venture, the shelter encountered problems that Lakewood is learning from, such as determining the capacity of the building in-transition. Other problems that will be more difficult to solve are becoming apparent. For example: The success of the shelter was evidenced by the number of people using the program. The Navigation Center can currently support 50 people, and it exceeded that limit several nights. Guests who exceeded capacity were offered vouchers for hotels, paid for by Jefferson County. This has led to some policy changes so that people are not incentivized to wait for a hotel opportunity. Lakewood has started providing transportation services to and from these hotels for the people who want to use a hotel voucher in another city but want to remain in Lakewood. Transportation includes coordinating volunteer efforts and paying Bayaud Enterprises. City Council Members pointed out that problems would be decreased if other cities made the same switch Lakewood has, with the government taking on the work of what was previously non-profit domain. “It was never envisioned that Lakewood would be the sole provider of navigation services....
Denver and Colorado are being sued for rules on climate goals and greenhouse gas emission standards that the City of Lakewood is considering adopting. Denver and Colorado both approved a building performance standard that would force builders, landlords and homeowners to meet emission goals through green remodeling and electric appliance retrofits. Lakewood also has building performance standards through its Article 13. Lakewood takes four times as many climate mitigation and adoption steps as other cities, leading to Lakewood being named a leader in climate action. Lakewood is one of only 119 cities around globe to take steps like building standards. Rule 28 in Denver and Colorado goes even further by requiring “benchmarking” performance since 2021. Based on building performance, it is now time for required cuts, leading to a lawsuit by the Colorado Apartment Association, the Colorado Hotel and Lodging Association and others. The cuts will require costly remodeling. In August of 2023, Lakewood staff recommended the city join Denver and Colorado in the benchmarking program, described below, that only about 30 cities throughout the nation have adopted. However, these policies are not market-tested and they are extreme enough that Denver and Colorado are being sued. If Lakewood leadership adopts the additional staff recommendations, or agrees to recommendations from the LAC on Green Remodeling, the city may find also find itself in the news and in legal jeopardy. Colorado apartment landlords sue to block Denver, state greenhouse gas cuts that they find crushing State and local governments don’t have a right...
Letter from Celia Greenman regarding The All-America City Award – National Civic League I am writing because I have heard that Lakewood is being considered for the All American City award. According to your website, some of the areas of focus for this year’s theme are: Removing barriers to participation in civic lifeImproving public meetings through innovative practicesUndertaking reforms that give people a meaningful say in public decision-makingCreating a stronger sense of belonging and communityPromoting deliberative forms of public decision-makingAdvancing equity and inclusion In the above six categories I would say the City has failed. Since the election of the new mayor in November, public comment has been pushed to the end of the agenda, whereas it had been historically in the beginning after the opening ceremony. Mayor Strom has said this is to allow Council to complete their business, whereas a former City councilman once responded, “The people’s voice is the City’s business”. The change in schedule means that people who work, have families, and/or who rely on public transportation can be excluded from in-person comment. Remote Call-ins have been restricted because of recent hate speech. Comments submitted on a web forum are often unread by City Council (a notation at the end of a comment signifies the number of council people who have read the comment. At the April 22 Council meeting, a motion to adjourn was passed, leaving three councilors without an opportunity to give a report that might have provided diversity of thought. Therefore, I conclude...
The Lakewood Informer is growing! We know that many of you are too busy to watch meetings and write articles and this is another way you can support local efforts. We still plan on keeping the content free but if you’d like to contribute towards costs, please use the link or QR code below. Thank you! https://app.autobooks.co/pay/lakewood-informer
Lakewood City Council agreed to lower residential speed limits on April 1, 2024, however what to lower them to is still in question. Council is reacting to a rash of complaints about speeding, however, Lakewood Police cited a lack of safety incidents. Lakewood Traffic Engineering cited studies that showed that lowering the speed limit 5 mph will turn into a 1 mph decrease, and sometimes there’s a overall speed increase, because drivers think that the new speed limit is unreasonable so they ignore it. Council relies on a report from the Lakewood Advisory Commission (LAC) to show the good intentions of speed reduction. Other programs that were discussed include automatic ticketing cameras and red-light cameras. All of these proposals will likely operate at a loss, as shown by recent experience in Aurora and other cities. The speed reduction concept started years ago, with an assignment to the LAC to study the issue, which was presented June 12, 2023. The LAC report showed several ways of slowing people down, but did not show the other side by fully reporting effectiveness or unintended consequences. They also assumed a low-level residential speeding problem was a safety problem. At that time, Lakewood Councilor Rich Olver sounded the alarm the issue was coming and was told he was a conspiracy theorist. The Lakewood Police Department and Public Works Department had a slightly different view from the LAC, as presented on April 1. Their experience in the city showed that speeding was more of a complaint...
End of Content.
