City Cast Denver

In a city that’s been grappling with affordable housing issues for years, Denver landlords seem to hold all the power. Councilperson Stacie Gilmore wants to change that dynamic, with a new proposal that would strengthen renter protections and require landlords to be more accountable for their properties. Stacie is on the show today to talk through her proposal, including her personal motivation fo...

Here at City Cast Denver, we love podcasts. There are so many different styles and topics; each one is a window into its own world. So what better way to explore different parts of Denver than through the many podcasts made here? We invited the biggest podcast fan we know, Berry of Podcasts in Color, to recommend a good place to start. So in this first weekend bonus episode, please enjoy Berry’s #...

When is an “immersive art experience” worth the ticket price? What makes an art installation truly transformational and not just a cool place to take selfies? From Van Gogh to Star Wars to dinosaurs, Denver has been inundated with these “immersive” experiences. Today on the show, Denver Post arts and culture reporter and critic John Wenzel stops by to talk about the wave of all-consuming, immersiv...

Chicano history runs deep in Denver’s Westside, particularly in its collection of murals. Many have already been lost to time and development, but now, a proposed Historic Cultural District and a city-wide campaign to recognize more Chicano and Latino historical sites are in the works to help protect what’s left. With the guidance of mural expert and archaeologist Lucha Martínez de Luna, director...

Derek Chauvin is guilty of murdering George Floyd. With the verdict yesterday, the country exhaled after holding its collective breath through weeks of trial and 10 hours of jury deliberations. Here in Colorado, legislators gathered to share their reactions, their grief, and their plans to advance police accountability in our state. On the show today, some of their comments, some context, and a me...

Happy 420, Denver. Sorry you can’t celebrate with Snoop Dogg in Civic Center Park this year, but we’ve got a weed day treat for you. Ann Marie Awad, who hosts Colorado Public Radio’s "On Something," joins the show to talk about the current state of weed culture and the fight for social equity in the cannabis industry — a topic that just so happens to be the theme of On Something’s upcoming third s...

The numbers don’t add up. According to recent polling, 38% of Coloradans are not currently planning to sign up for the vaccine. That hesitation breaks down along political lines, with Republicans far more likely to skip the vaccine or, at the very least, take a “wait and see” approach. Herd immunity will require at least 70% of a population to be vaccinated or carry antibodies, according to the CD...

Colorado’s music scene does big business for our economy. But since the pandemic began, live music has been silenced, with many venues shutting down temporarily or closing altogether. Venue operators large and small across the state have been working together to find ways to keep them alive and now, with COVID restrictions lifting, live concerts are coming back. But what is live music going to fee...

Get Eric Cartman on the phone, Casa Bonita needs help. More than a year into the pandemic, the iconic Mexican restaurant slash immersive entertainment experience filed for bankruptcy earlier this week. There have been reports of community efforts to raise money to save the place, but until now it’s been unclear exactly how that might work. Andrew Novick, who’s visited Casa Bonita 300 times, and en...

As the world watches the Derek Chauvin trial in Minneapolis and protests continue over this week’s police killing of Daunte Wright in another Minnesota town, Colorado lawmakers are building on the major police accountability reform they passed last year. Democratic State Rep. Leslie Herod chats with Bree today about the new bill she’s sponsoring that would further limit the police’s ability to use...

Governor Polis has wanted it for ages. Lawmakers at the Colorado State Assembly are crossing party lines to back it. President Biden asked Congress for enough money to fund it. And now, after years — no, decades! — of dreaming, hoping and planning for a passenger rail line running all up and down the Front Range, it finally feels like it might happen. Colorado Public Radio transportation and growt...

It’s National Poetry Month! And what better way to understand Denver’s many diverse neighborhoods than through poetry — or at least that’s the idea behind History Colorado’s new podcast Living Denver. Bree speaks with the podcast’s director, Becca Mendoza Nunziato, and the poet featured in the first episode, Kenya “Mahogany” Fashaw, about Kenya’s Five Points, gentrification, and the lived experien...

So what exactly is Denver-style Mexican food? How do we differentiate our particular brand of Mexican food? (Hint: We’re talking green chile. On everything.) Food writer Gustavo Arellano and Westword editor and Den-Mex super fan Patty Calhoun break down where it came from, what we need to do to protect it, and what makes Den-Mex so special.  Warning: Side effects of this episode may include a grow...

Earlier this year, Colorado’s cannabis industry passed a major milestone: $10 billion in revenues since legalization. But the vast majority of that money is ending up in the same old white hands. Bree speaks with Hashim Coates, executive director of Black, Brown and Red Badged, an organization founded in 2019 to speak on behalf of cannabis business owners of color. He explains why he thinks the lo...

When Major League Baseball decided to move their All-Star Game from Atlanta to Denver in protest of Georgia’s restrictive new elections law, Georgia governor Brian Kemp went on Fox News to complain. He claimed there isn’t much of a difference between elections law in Colorado and Georgia, “so it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.”  Well, Gov. Kemp, it makes sense to us. On the show today, Br...

When former 9News reporter Lori Lizarraga came to Denver, she knew it was going to be a challenge to gain the trust of sources in Black and Brown communities. What she wasn’t prepared for were the battles she would have to fight in her own newsroom to get their stories to air.  After Lori’s contract was not renewed at the ratings giant, she wrote a piece in Westword last week that detailed years o...

For the first time in a year, sports fans were welcomed back to Denver’s stadiums and arenas this weekend. The Rockies played an opening series against the L.A. Dodgers and did…alright? The Nuggets and Avalanche continue to kick ass. But let’s talk what people are wearing. Like what’s up with those “Fire Bridich” and “Sent from my iPad” shirts we saw at Coors Field? Sports guy Jake Shapiro breaks...

We knew Denver’s air quality was bad, but we didn’t know it was this bad. Whistleblowers within the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment say the people in charge have been overriding requirements of the Clean Air Act and endangering the health of Coloradans. Bree speaks with Colorado Sun reporter Michael Booth about his reporting on the whistleblower complaint and what it means for...

Governor Jared Polis announced that starting this Friday, all Coloradans at least 16 years old will be eligible for the vaccine. But where does that leave our disabled community members? Bree speaks with disability advocate Rosemary McDonnell-Horita about her personal struggle getting a shot, her work on Polis’s Health Equity Response Team, and the work that still needs to be done to make sure all...

It’s been three years since the first Lime scooter zipped down Denver’s streets, and the city is on its second major effort to regulate the aging scooter and bike-share fleets. This new proposal would eliminate the permit process that allowed scooters to spread as far and fast as the market allowed, replacing it with (yet another) public-private partnership and provisions designed to promote acces...

This week marks the 20th anniversary of Mizuna, one of Denver’s favorite fine dining destinations and the flagship of Frank Bonanno’s restaurant empire. But earlier this year, Frank’s landlord told him they’re planning to sell the Capitol Hill building that houses Mizuna and three other Bonanno spots. We joined the 20th anniversary festivities at Mizuna earlier this week, and our host Bree Davies...

We had a whole plan for how this week was supposed to go. But then a man with a gun shot and killed 10 people at a King Soopers in Boulder. It’s a tragic loss for the whole Front Range community, and we felt compelled to show up ahead of schedule, with a personal reflection from our host Bree Davies and a conversation with KUNC reporter Leigh Paterson. Leigh recently wrapped up a two-year project...

Go ahead and try to define Denver. Is it an oil-rich cowtown? A tech-friendly ecotopia? Or maybe it’s something entirely its own, changing before our very eyes. Post-Zaidy’s, post-El Chapultepec, post-COVID, what is Denver all about? Starting March 25, join us every weekday morning for 15 minutes to get all the Denver news you need (and want) to know. We promise to ask hard questions and refuse ea...