Porche Lovely, the owner of Lovely Confections stepped up to the challenge and was able to spontaneously re-decorate a cake from another bakery in about a hour.

Porche Lovely, baking master.

Thanks Porche!

Tasty Colfax

Eats on the Beat!

Tuesday, July 28th
5:30 to 9:00PM

Tickets are on sale now at www.MyColfax.org or at:
Hooked on Colfax:  3215 East Colfax Ave. (Adams and Colfax)
Tattered Cover Coffee & Tea:  2526 East Colfax Ave. (Lowenstein CulturePlex)

Put down the remote and come see Colfax live.  Sample the rich and varied cuisine along one of America’s most
colorful byways. $20 gives you entree to a diverse selection of the most tantalizing East Colfax eateries.

Tasty Colfax Providers:
Encore Restaurant
Senger’s on the Fax
Tattered Cover Coffee & Tea
Rock Bar
Mezcal
Atomic Cowboy
Fat Sullys
Hooked on Colfax
Goosetown Tavern
Steve’s Snappin Dogs
The Shoppe
Lovely Confections
Stella’s on Colfax
Tommy’s Thai
Pie Piper

Tasty Colfax was created to promote Colfax Avenue businesses between York St. and Colorado Blvd., and provide the surrounding neighborhoods and beyond an opportunity to sample the exciting restaurant base along East Colfax Avenue.

Sponsored By:
MyColfax.org
Colfax on the Hill
South City Park Neighborhood Association
Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods Inc.
Propaganda Labs

I will be working on a project to re-engage with the neighborhood on a grassroots level, by having each block captain go door to door to reintroduce themselves and gather information about residents (names, emails, etc). I have the neighborhood resident listing as it’s currently recorded, and I’d liket to create a worksheet for each block captain to fill in/confirm/correct the information for each address.

Overall, it’s really rewarding to be part of neighborhood discussions. To know what is being planned by developers, the city, what the issues are, and most importantly who the people are who live here.

]]> http://grantgrigorian.com/2009/04/19/back-to-the-neighborhood/feed/ 0 http://grantgrigorian.com/2009/02/09/south-city-park-neighborhood/ http://grantgrigorian.com/2009/02/09/south-city-park-neighborhood/#comments Tue, 10 Feb 2009 06:53:36 +0000 Grant Grigorian http://grantgrigorian.com/?p=180 South City Park Neighborhood in Denver has been our home for the last year and our window into life in the city. It’s very a hip neighborhood, but it’s not “trendy hip” like Capitol Hill, or even “chic hip” like Cherry Creek.

The neighborhood is home to Bluebird Theater, and many other local businesses. Steve’s Snappin Dogs is literally across the street from where we live, there’s good coffee at Hooked on Colfax at few blocks away, Cafe Star is one of Jess and I’s favorite places to eat (especially for their Sunday dinner specials) and of course, though technically not in the neighborhood, there is Tattered Cover Bookstore complex with another great restaurant Encore.

As cool as all of these establishments are, the overriding reason to live here is the huge park a few blocks north. City Park, with it’s large lake, colorful (and tall!) fountain, jazz on Sundays in the summer is one of my favorite places in Denver. I run there with Whembley almost everyday. It’s also neat to have the Denver Zoo and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science within walking distance.

Downtown Denver, as seen from City Park

 Last fall, I got involved with the South City Park Neighborhood Association. And currently officially serve as the “Co-Secretary”! I continue to be surprised at how active my neighbors are in the neighborhood actitivies and it’s been interesting thinking about some of the issues that’ve come up.

And just a few minutes ago while browsing their website to make a link to for this post, I noticed that they have their own MySpace page, facebook profile (search Tattered Cover) and Youtube channel! Among some of the interesting video on their YouTube page was a tour of the aforementioned Colfax location.

And while I am sharing links, I might as well share a few John Hodgman videos, both of which are related to books:

• John Hodgman at the Books Out Loud Dance Party
• John Hodgman talks about Apple Commercials

To start, this week I attended a so called “New Denver Republican” meeting hosted by Mr. John Wren, who in the past, among other things, tried to raise opposition to the popular Denver mayor John Hickenlooper‘s inevitable re-election in 2007 (which he won by 87%!).

The meeting was interesting. The main lesson I took away from it were that it is best to start getting involved locally, very locally, such in the precinct level. To find out which precinct I live in, I went to a list of maps, and found that I live in House District 8, Precinct 0834 (source):

Yesterday I visited the African Community Center in Denver. The ACC is “Denver’s newest Refugee Resettlement program which welcomes newcomers who have had to flee persecution within their home country. Many of our clients arrive in the United States with little but possess great hope about their lives in America.”

The refugees come from all over:

• Ethiopia
• Sudan
• Bosnia
• Somalia
• Congo
• Seirra Leonne
• Cuba
• Iraq
• Iran
• Rwanda
• Mauritania
• Liberia
• Burundi
• Afghanistan
• Burma
• Vietnam

I met with two staff members there and we spent about an hour and half discussing the organization and how I might fit in to be of most use.

I think I have some interesting ideas on how I can leverage some of my skills to their advantage, and I hope to flesh them out here in another post.