City Cast Denver

Stuck between highways and hidden under a viaduct, the Sun Valley community has quietly gone about its business — until a few years ago, when it started getting a lot more attention and big money interest in its land. Meow Wolf has moved in, a new Latino cultural museum is on the way, and lots of big housing developments are in going up. But what do the people of Sun Valley want? On the show today...

Around 1:30 a.m. on July 17, just as the bars and nightclubs were letting out in LoDo, Denver police confronted an allegedly armed man and shot into a crowded street in LoDo, injuring 6 innocent bystanders. The city’s response? Ban food trucks from the neighborhood. Host Bree Davies sits down with Westword founder and editor Patty Calhoun to get some historical perspective on the persistent late-n...

Ever since South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker bought Casa Bonita last year, Denverites have been worrying, speculating, and looking forward to the day when the pink palace on West Colfax will re-open. Stone and Parker say they want to “change nothing, improve everything,” but what exactly does that mean? 9News investigative journalist Jeremy Jojola recently set his sights on the South...

It’s no secret: most Denver neighborhoods have sidewalks that are pretty terrible. In fact, around 40 percent of sidewalks around the city are either nonexistent, in bad shape, or are not accessible for people using wheelchairs or other mobility devices. Part of the reason our sidewalks suck? The city doesn’t have a dedicated funding stream to pay for construction or maintenance. But this November...

The City Cast Denver crew is back at the table with a new local food challenge and this time, we’re taking on sandwiches. While the Mile High is overflowing with great grinders, subs, hoagies, and tortas, today’s showdown is all about two out-of-town chains that Denverites have embraced as our own: Cheba Hut vs. Snarf’s Sandwiches. Which tasty sub will reign supreme? Host Bree Davies is joined by...

More than 3 million Coloradans are receiving $750 checks in the mail this week, but who’s to thank? Is it Governor Jared Polis and the Democrats, who re-branded and re-worked our tax policy to create this ‘Colorado Cashback’? Or is it the conservatives who convinced Colorado voters to approve the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (aka TABOR) in 1992 and have defended it ever since? Host Bree Davies and pr...

On July 15, Ma Kaing was shot and killed outside her home in the East Colfax neighborhood. The mother, restaurateur, and beloved community member was the latest victim of gun violence in Denver. But soon after Kaing’s death, her community came forward with serious concerns over the effectiveness of 911 calls made from the Denver neighborhood that sits on the border of Aurora. Today, host Bree Davi...

South Park, AKA the show that introduced the world to Casa Bonita, is celebrating 25 years on TV this week. That’s hundreds of episodes packed with thousands of jokes made at the expense of politicians, pop stars, and us, the faithful residents of Colorado. Host Bree Davies sits down with her friend and South Park superfan Kalyn Heffernan to talk all things Kenny, Stan, Kyle, and Cartman. A musici...

***This is the final episode in our four-part series on the future of psychedelics in Colorado. To get the rest of the story, here’s where you can find part one, part two, and part three. ***UPDATE (9/21/22): This episode has been updated to correct our characterization of SPORE's position. SPORE is not neutral. In fact, after this episode was originally published on 8/8/22, Matthew Duffy publishe...

It’s only been six weeks since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and ripple effects are still being felt across the country — including here in Colorado, where surprising new fronts have opened in the battle to keep reproductive healthcare safe, legal, and accessible. Today, host Bree Davies sits down with two Colorado experts on abortion issues: Denver Post reporter Elizabeth Hernandez sha...

Denver is home to many neighborhoods, cultures, and people. But lately, our host Bree Davies has been stuck on a certain kind of Denverite: the Denver Foo. Thanks to the @DenverFoos303 Instagram account, you can stay up-to-date on where local Edgars get their Polo shirts, what’s really going down in LoDo after let-out, and who serves the best tacos on a paper plate in the city. Bree sat down with...

The journalist and community organizer Theo Wilson is fresh off a high-profile new gig, hosting his own show for the History Channel. On “I Was There,” Theo explores the history you know from an angle you don’t know. So we invited Theo to give the “I Was There” treatment to an issue many Denverites are dealing with in different ways: our housing crisis. It turns out Theo is in the market to buy a...

For the first time in the history of legal weed, sales are falling. It’s an unthinkable turnaround for an industry that was once seen with limitless potential, and it’s going to mean a loss of tax revenue for all the public services funded by cannabis sales. So why are weed sales dropping? Ricardo Baca is the founder and ceo of Grasslands, a cannabis-focused PR agency. He’s been digging into the n...

***This is the third episode of a four-part series on the future of psychedelics in Colorado. To hear the whole story, you can find part one here and part two here. Recently, news broke that at least one of the dueling campaigns to get a psychedelics measure on the November ballot has been successful. This means Colorado voters will decide on Initiative 58, also known as the Natural Medicine Healt...

It’s been all over the news: RTD is going FARE-FREE for the entire month of August! Our elected officials pushed for the transit agency to adopt a month of no-cost rides in an effort to combat Denver’s chronic smog problem. But the move also comes as the metro area grapples with a decades-old traffic congestion issue that many think could be solved if car drivers would just fundamentally change ev...

After our episode yesterday with Planterra CEO Darcey Macken, City Cast Denver’s resident vegetarian, producer Paul Karolyi, and “flexitarian” host Bree Davies were itching to talk more about protein. Today on the show, Paul and Bree discuss their experiences with non-meat, plant-based, and animal-alternative options in Denver and tackle the big question: does the Mile High’s reputation as a liter...

Plant-based protein is all the rage, with Beyond- and Impossible-branded products popping up in grocery stores and on fast food menus across the country. But there’s a plucky new local startup, Planterra, angling for its share of this new market, and they’ve got a not-so-plucky parent company lurking behind the scenes, armed with data and know-how from running a global “protein” business. That com...

Denver is a dog city, that’s for sure. But what happens when dogs run free at one of many informal “dog parties” popping up in parks across the city? Host Bree Davies sits down with producer Erin O’Toole and newsletter editor Peyton Garcia to talk about park-roaming dogs and their scofflaw owners, the controversy around these so-called dog parties, and some reader comments about the great off-leas...

Cannabis has been legal in Colorado for close to a decade. In 2019, Denver decriminalized psilocybin. Soon, voters will be asked to consider changes in the regulation of psychedelics statewide. But before Colorado has the chance to capitalize on this latest potential drug policy shift, some experts are sounding the alarm. Will historic inequities that followed other legalizations play out with psy...

There are many narratives about Denver — we’re a boom n’ bust town, we’re a weed town, we’re, well (in the eyes of one rural Colorado politician), a “toilet bowl.” Earlier this week, Mayor Hancock shared his own, albeit bland, narrative of the Denver he’s been in charge of for the last 11-plus years. Over at Westword, editor-in-chief Patty Calhoun and the crew pondered that same narrative and aske...

Outdoor concerts are a staple of the Colorado experience, and this month, Levitt Pavilion Denver is celebrating five years of bringing live shows to the Ruby Hill neighborhood. On the show today, host Bree Davies talks with Levitt’s Interim Executive Director, Andy Thomas, and Marketing and Development Director Jessi Whitten about why Levitt is about more than live music — it’s about creating comm...

It’s host Bree Davies’ Sweet 16 sober anniversary and she’s ready to celebrate! Because not-drinking can sound like a drag, Bree wanted to shed some light on what can make a bar inviting to those who don’t imbibe. She invited friend of the show, Artistic Director at the Sie Film Center AND fellow non-drinker, Keith Garcia, to chat about how to go out on a Friday night and find fun in Denver, wheth...

On Monday, Mayor Michael B. Hancock offered many thoughts and some interesting prospects for Denver’s future in his last State of the City address. Winding down his third and final term as Denver’s mayor, Hancock focused mostly on what he’s done for us lately — like championing programs and policies to address housing and homelessness and announcing the new Denver Institute of Racial Equity, Innov...

Psilocybin, AKA magic mushrooms — maybe you’ve heard of ‘em? Or, you know, tried them for yourself? Because here in Denver, voters decriminalized psilocybin back in 2019, but the statewide fight to regulate naturally derived psychedelics like mushrooms — and mescaline, ibogaine, ayahuasca, and DMT — is only just beginning.  In the first episode of a new four-part series for City Cast Denver, award...

What happens when an anti-gang activist shoots someone at his own peace rally? For Terrance Roberts of Northeast Park Hill, that question came to define his life following that very incident on September 20, 2013. Award-winning journalist Julian Rubinstein spent seven years reporting Roberts’ story. The resulting book, “The Holly: Five Bullets, One Gun, and the Struggle to Save an American Neighbo...