Drivers beware: Part of 17th Street between Northwest and Southwest D.C. is closed Wednesday to test the installation of a levee there.
Smack down the National Mall, 17th Street is closed between Constitution Avenue NW and Independence Avenue SW until 4 p.m. Wednesday.
The National Park Service said drivers, pedestrians and cyclists should plan alternative routes.
Below is the impacted area:
Colorado’s newest congressional district, covering the north Denver suburbs, would be its most competitive under a map approved by the state’s independent redistricting commission late Tuesday.
Commissioners came to an agreement just before midnight after seven rounds of voting and six hours of debate during which commissioners argued over splitting up certain communities and about how competitive the map should be.
All that’s needed to make the eight districts official is the approval of the Colorado Supreme Court, expected in November. (The court can also send input, and possible changes, back to the commission.)
As it stands, the map gives comfortable advantages to each of Colorado’s seven incumbent members of Congress — Democrats Joe Neguse, Jason Crow, Diana DeGette and Ed Perlmutter and Republicans Ken Buck, Lauren Boebert and Doug Lamborn.
But recent election results suggest the new 8th Congressional District will be a close race in 2022 — Democrats may have a slight advantage. Colorado was awarded the new district due to its population growth since 2010. It’s projected to have the highest concentration of Latino voters of any U.S. House district in the state, with its boundaries set south of Greeley and north of Denver, encompassing Thornton, Brighton, the Adams County portion of Westminster, Commerce City, Longmont and Mead.
The map was drawn using Census data that shows Colorado is growing, increasingly urban and diversifying. That data arrived months later than originally expected, forcing a rushed mapmaking process that commission staff director Jessika Shipley said “made us all a little anxious.”
The commission planned for about five months of deliberation and completed the work in closer to two months.
“We’ve been building a bicycle while riding it,” said Commissioner Paula Espinoza, a Democrat.
The commission is made up of four Democrats, four Republicans and four unaffiliated voters — a setup that Colorado voters asked for when they approved a pair of 2018 ballot measures meant to remove partisan advantage in redistricting. In order to adopt a map, state law required votes from at least eight of the 12 commission’s members, with at least two from the unaffiliated members.
The group finally reached that threshold in the seventh round of voting Tuesday. Two other maps — including one that would have split the Western Slope, created a huge district across southern Colorado and left the state with three competitive districts — also received strong consideration.
Commissioner Bill Leone, a Republican, said of the approved map: “I think this is a better map than would have been drawn by a partisan legislature, by far … I do think it was a productive debate that resulted in balance.”
Unaffilated Commissioner Moussa Diawara said the commission was careful not to “protect any incumbent candidate or parties and it was not drawn to dilute the electoral influence or voting rights” of any groups.”
The new lines for state House and Senate districts will come from a different independent commission, which is expected to approve its maps by Oct. 11.
When/where: 7 p.m. Friday at Legacy Stadium
Last meeting: Cherry Creek 49, at Cherokee Trail 7, Oct. 16, 2020
The two-time defending 5A champion Bruins open league play against a Cougars team riding a three-game win streak. The Bruins have won 26 straight against Colorado teams and five in a row vs. CT. Creek’s stout defense will be challenged by a Cougars attack anchored by CU-bound tackle Travis Gray and an array of weapons that include QB Logan Brooke (1,242 passing yards, 16 TDs), WR Jack Pierce (31 receptions, 506 yards) and RB Ciaran Hyslop (97 carries, 639 yards).
When/where: 7 p.m. Friday at NAAC Stadium
Last meeting: Columbine 34, vs. A-West 10, Oct. 16, 2020
A resurgent Wildcats program gets another crack at one of the top 5A teams in the state two weeks after hanging with No. 2 Cherry Creek for a half. A-West’s 21 points in that 53-21 loss were the most scored against the Bruins in 14 games. While Columbine’s defense isn’t quite as dominant, the Rebels appear to once again be among the 5A elite. Their lone loss of the season came at top-ranked Valor Christian (35-21) last week, and that was a one-score affair entering the fourth quarter.
When/where: 7 p.m. Friday at de La Salle Stadium
Last meeting: Ralston Valley 21, vs. Mullen 3, Oct. 15, 2020
Don’t let Mullen’s record fool you. No team in the state has played a more difficult schedule. The private school Mustangs have faced four of the top eight teams in the current CHSAANow.com 5A poll, beating one (No. 7 Legend). Things don’t get any easier with Ralston Valley up next. The public school Mustangs have allowed only 9.2 points per game through five weeks — an effort they will need to replicate as they begin the 5A Jeffco League gauntlet.
When/where: 7 p.m. Friday at EchoPark Stadium
Last meeting: Legend 21, vs. Pine Creek 20, Nov. 7, 2020
The Eagles began playing up a classification in league play last fall, and paid the price with a heartbreaking loss to Legend that began a string of three straight defeats to end last season. They now return to the scene with a red-hot QB (Josiah Roy, 1,177 total yards) and defense that has more tackles for loss (57) than points allowed (49). Legend running back Bryce Vaz (101 carries, 700 yards, nine TDs) should expect plenty of resistance.
When/where: 6 p.m. Friday at Don Breese Stadium
Last meeting: Palmer Ridge 42, vs. Montrose 20, Oct. 30, 2020
The top-ranked Bears face their stiffest test yet with the Indians set to visit Monument. Montrose has held all but one of its five opponents to a touchdown or less, which should make for an intriguing matchup against a Bears offense that averages 40.8 points and 446 yards per game with three pass catchers with more than 200 yards receiving in Anthony Costanzo (15-246), Ayden Snow (6-258) and KC Fackerell (20-269).
When/where: 7 p.m. Friday at Jeffco Stadium
Last meeting: Dakota Ridge 48, at Bear Creek 14, Oct. 15, 2020
Since surviving a slugfest in Jacksonville, Fla. (23-20 over First Coast), the Eagles have been a force of nature, outscoring teams 187-36 over four games. Junior RB Noah Triplett has 740 total yards and 15 TDs, while senior QB Adam Graves has 817 yards and 10 TDs on 48-of-75 passing. The Bears, who possess an explosive offensive of their own led by QB Jaedon Minter (1197 passing yards), will likely have to match Dakota Ridge’s fireworks to have a chance.
When/where: 7 p.m. Friday at Frederick High
Last meeting: Eagle Valley 14, vs. Frederick 8, Nov. 7, 2020
Eagle Valley has come a long way from a winless 2017, with first-year coach John Davis guiding the Devils to a pair of overtime victories and their best three-game start in seven years. Now comes a date with the fifth-ranked Warriors, who have been impressive in outscoring opponents 152-41 so far this season, but have only played once in the past three weeks (53-12 over Palmer).
When/where: 7 p.m. Friday at Evergreen High
Last meeting: Evergreen 59, at George Washington 36, Oct. 12, 2019
The Patriots carry the DPS banner into their final non-conference game of the season, fresh off a dramatic 41-34 win at Monarch. Junior RB Cellus Honeycutt is a big play waiting to happen with a touchdown run of 91 yards and an average of 11.1 yards per carry (47-522). Running room will likely be harder to come by against an Evergreen defense that has allowed just 22 points through four games and dropped ball carriers for a loss 29 times this season.
Nick Costanzo wants to bring downtown Denver’s food scene to the suburbs.
The former local franchisee of Marco’s Pizza is building a 12,000-square-foot food hall called Freedom Street Social near the intersection of Indiana Street and West 91st Avenue in Arvada’s Candelas community.
“We want to be the food hall in the suburbs for all the 45-year-olds with two kids that still want to go to Avanti but can’t drag the whole family down there,” Costanzo said.
“I’m literally building it for me and my wife,” he added. “We’re 47, we’ve got two kids and live right here, and it’s just a pain in the butt to try to go downtown anymore. So to be able to bring these concepts out here and make it kid-friendly, where you don’t mind if a 4-year old is throwing a fit, is a dream.”
The 12,000-square-foot food hall will feature nine food stalls.
Freedom Street Social, which he plans to open in March next year, will feature nine stalls, including:
“We’re out in the middle of a food desert out here,” Costanzo said. “We’re so far northwest Arvada, and you’re going to Wadsworth, Golden and Boulder to get food.”
“Arvada wants this,” he added. “They want to start promoting it because, for them, it’s the biggest restaurant in Arvada, and the first food hall.”
Costanzo joined Marco’s, which started in his hometown of Toledo, Ohio, as a franchise owner in 2008.
Over the years, he opened 14 locations, including one in Westminster that was ranked No. 2 last year for highest sales out of all the Marco’s locations, and also served in a role assisting other Colorado franchisees.
But by this June, he felt he had “outgrown the business” and sold his stores.
A rendering of Freedom Street Social.
While he was an owner, Costanzo worked with Cameron Cummins, who was Marco’s head of development and helped grow the company from 70 to a little more than 1,000 stores.
The two exited around the same time and teamed up to open Freedom Street Social, along with Jeff Kaplan, the Colorado franchise owner of Giordano’s, and Jon Morgan, co-founder of Chicago-based Interra Realty, who is spearheading the construction of the food hall.
After leaving Marco’s, Cummins started Pivotal Growth Partners, a holding company that helps small brands grow their franchise business.
Costanzo said the team plans to use Freedom Street Social as a way to test out some of the brands he’s working with for possible future expansion, such as Jeremiah’s Italian Ice.
“Our goal is to bring in a concept, test them out, see if they have legs to stand on and help them grow,” Costanzo said.
The team bought the 1.8-acre lot at 15177 Candelas Pkwy for $1.8 million last year and broke ground in January, Costanzo said. It’s currently in the core and shell phase, but he expects to have concepts in there ready to test out their operations by February.
The 12,000-square-foot building will include an 1,800-square-foot mezzanine and a 3,500-square-foot patio. Williams Construction is building the food hall, and Michigan-based Studio H2G is designing the space.
Costanzo named Freedom Street Social after the street his grandmother lived on in Toledo, Ohio, for almost 70 years. She passed away a couple of years ago at 97, but he’s paid homage to her throughout the restaurant.
There are personal details, such as inserting the same bathroom tiles and drapes that were found in her home, coasters with her handwriting on it, and including her address in the logo.
“My mom died of cancer when I was 4 years old, and my dad became a single dad, so my two grandmothers became my mom,” Costanzo said. “And within a year both of my grandfathers died, so it was just us. My dad’s mom, who is a 4’8’’ Italian woman, cooked every day, and we’d get dropped off in the morning or after school, and everything was centered around food.”
Meow Wolf trades on the dark side of American popular culture, in cults and conspiracies, in supernatural beings, extraterrestrials and unsolvable conundrums. The chain of oversize immersive art installations teases visitors who wander through its dimly lit environments by dropping hints about nefarious mysteries they could spend a lifetime — not to mention multiple $45 admission charges — trying to work out.
That spooky stuff feels right at home in Meow Wolf’s first two locations, Santa Fe and Las Vegas, desert cities located in the paranormal heartland. If your goal is to create narratives about underground evildoers, each worthy of their own “X-Files” episode, it helps to set them in places where alien sightings are routine and where the government actually has established secret military test sites. Northern New Mexico and Southern Nevada were creepy long before Meow Wolf arrived.
It is a different story in central Colorado, where Meow Wolf opened its third location last week. Fans of the popular attraction will find its special effects familiar: cavernous rooms pumped up with pulsing lights and sound; post-apocalyptic dioramas; steampunk scenery meant to be touched, clicked, climbed over and gawked at. Anyone looking to get their mind blown and then blown again will deem Meow Wolf a thrilling fun house.
Meow Wolf: Convergence Station; 1338 First St., Denver, (720) 792-1200; meowwolf.com.
Still, I found its ominous themes an awkward fit in Denver, a good-mood city founded on American optimism and sustained by Western exuberance, thanks to abundant sunshine, decent traffic flow and the country’s third lowest property taxes. In a land of Rocky Mountain highs, Meow Wolf’s eerie aura feels a little out of this world. I was hoping for something more connected to place, less corporate.
That has not deterred crowds, who are thrilled just to get inside. Denverites waited five years as the company planned and constructed its latest location: a five-story installation built ground-up in the industrial Sun Valley neighborhood for more than $60 million. Fate positioned Meow Wolf to represent all the fun and freedom possible as the coronavirus pandemic ebbed and buyers snatched up 35,000 tickets in the first 24 hours of sales this month.
A guest looks through a structure’s window at Meow Wolf’s “Convergence Station,” location in Denver, Sept. 17, 2021. “Convergence Station,” the company’s third installation, may be good business. But is it good art? (David Williams/The New York Times)
On Sept. 18, when I arrived for the opening weekend, lines were long and parking sparse, though there were few signs of frustration over the mandatory face coverings or the inevitable bumping into one another that comes with a maxed-out venue. Denver Meow Wolf, despite itself, is a happy place.
That is due, in part, to the staff members, who dress in hooded cloaks and glow-in-the dark fashion accessories and keep the mythology rolling — not an easy task when visitors walk through perplexing areas, like a hall of whispers with chattering walls, a psychic’s den offering live readings, and a laundromat where marbles spin inside dryer windows.
Visitors can sit behind the wheel of futuristic cars, flip through books in a pretend library, wander into a neon cathedral with a playable pipe organ or enter a beauty salon, pizzeria or grocery store, each with its own surreal twist.
Somehow these elements come together as Convergence Station, an interplanetary transit hub where different worlds connect but where “Earthers” remain outsiders. There are subnarratives that explain it all — if you can add up the clues. One story, for example, involves a bus driver named Pam, who once steered her vehicle into Convergence Station and vanished.
If I don’t have the story arc correct, it is not for a lack of trying. I explored secret corridors, read text, watched animations and asked the actors/workers for help. I paid $3 for a wallet-size Q Pass that activated digital screens dispensing clues. I spent close to three hours.
In the end, I spent another $9.50 in the gift shop for a slim paperback that got me nearer to understanding Eemia, Numina, Ossuary and the other peoples and places that make up this scenario. It is possible that I tried too hard; the real thrill of Meow Wolf comes not in wrapping your mind around its enigmas but in letting its 90,000 square feet of enigmas wrap themselves around you.
A guest climbs through a wall at Meow Wolf’s “Convergence Station,” location in Denver, Sept. 17, 2021. “Convergence Station,” the company’s third installation, may be good business. But is it good art? (David Williams/The New York Times)
Immersive installations like Meow Wolf bill themselves as art, but they fit better into the category of entertainment venue, more like Disney World than MoMA. The company involved 110 Colorado artists in this project, giving each a bit of real estate to show their wares and paying them for their efforts. And I did recognize contributions from respected local names — a light sculpture by Collin Parson, a mural by Jaime Molina, an inflatable by Nicole Banowetz — but couldn’t find any signs on site crediting their efforts.
As a result, their pieces are swallowed up by the overall bigness of the theme park and, in effect, rebranded to fit the dark and spooky Meow Wolf mode. Work by those and other artists whose creations I’ve always found hopeful, vital and connected to community felt invisible here.
That anonymity is a choice on the part of Meow Wolf, which emphasizes collaboration and resists breaking the fourth wall, and maybe it’s the right one when it comes to giving customers what they truly want or need right now to escape a particularly stressful world. There are plenty of places to contemplate fine art in a city like Denver but few offering the retreat Meow Wolf provides, and maybe individual recognition is something artists and critics value more than the public does.
But letting the local work and the intention of the artist who made it stand out might have been the thing that gave Convergence Station its own identity, a purpose beyond simply offering shock and awe, and distinguish it from the other Meow Wolf sites.
Instead, it is the brand’s trademark spookiness that defines the place. If Meow Wolf actually is art, I struggle to find meaning in it.
Immersive art can feel new because it is trendy now, but it has a rich past, going back to early work by perceptual artists like James Turrell and Yayoi Kusama (her “Infinity Mirror Room — Phalli’s Field” was in 1965) or by adventurous theater companies like Punchdrunk, whose 2011 interactive “Macbeth” adaptation, “Sleep No More,” challenged ideas of what a play could be.
Those creators never matched the level of public interest Meow Wolf set off like a firecracker when it opened in a former bowling alley in Santa Fe in 2016. That place caught on fast, attracting 1 million visitors in less than two years and inspiring scores of imitators.
But the earlier pioneers showed that immersive art could be mind-blowing and, at the same time, strive to say something about the human condition — that thing we expect art to aspire to. It’s a standard and a purpose that Meow Wolf, with its millions of dollars and millions of visitors, might aim for.
