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News from Colorado - a Colorado State Open Thread, 1/6/2025 [1]

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Date: 2025-01-06

I’ll be honest. I first wrote the year as 2024. I need to update my mind.

The Colorado State Open Thread is for people of all types who are interested in our square(ish) state. I find a few things I think are interesting and I share them with you. I enjoy what you find and share with all of us in the comments, or, when you write a diary about something in your own right. As three more of you can do during the upcoming month of February when I will be out of the country, slowly warming up in the Thai sun. I have had one volunteer to write a diary (or story, if you prefer) about a Colorado issue or two to be published on one of the Mondays in February at 7PM. Otherwise, you’ll just get a placeholder diary, and nobody wants that. As John in Denver said, there will be plenty to write about with the Colorado legislature in session, the early days of the Trump administration (remember this is an open thread so you can literally (or figuratively or poetically or graphically etc. write about anything you like) and the Broncos playing for the Superbowl, even.

Here are the things I want to share with you.

The Denver Broncos are in the NFL Playoffs for the first time in 9 years! I have learned over time that few if any of my readers are sports fans, but trust me, this is big news to most of the people in the state. A great deal of money is spent by fans and taxpayers to support the team and, like it or not, if the team does well, the mood of the whole state is improved and people even say “Hello” or “Go Broncos” to complete strangers on the street. This good mood even oozes over to nearby states that don’t have their own teams to cheer for. The Broncos are indeed a regional team instead of just belonging to a single state (or city). They don’t even have to share their stadium with another team because of the generosity of you, the taxpaying public.

I have learned over time that few if any of my readers are sports fans, but trust me, this is big news to most of the people in the state. A great deal of money is spent by fans and taxpayers to support the team and, like it or not, if the team does well, the mood of the whole state is improved and people even say “Hello” or “Go Broncos” to complete strangers on the street. This good mood even oozes over to nearby states that don’t have their own teams to cheer for. The Broncos are indeed a regional team instead of just belonging to a single state (or city). They don’t even have to share their stadium with another team because of the generosity of you, the taxpaying public. In keeping with the Broncos, from the Denver Post (Guest Link) www.denverpost.com/… the Broncos are trying to get a deal for not just a new stadium, but also businesses and housing to be built around it to guarantee a much larger income in the future.

This is what success looks like for professional sports in the 21st century. Franchise ownership is less about bragging rights than it was three or four decades ago, and more a lucrative, multipronged entertainment venture, at the heart of which sits the stadium. With this series, The Post will examine the state of professional sports stadiums in Denver and what could be coming next, from publicly funded facilities that set the trend (Coors Field) to those whose ambitions have yet to be realized (Dick’s Sporting Goods Park).

Also from the Denver Post, with another guest link, www.denverpost.com/… about water in the Rio Grande river disappearing each winter because of a dam(n) improvement.

The mighty and fabled Rio Grande dwindles to barely a trickle in the winter west of Creede, exposing nearly a mile of rocky riverbed to dry under the weak sun. This section of the river near its headwaters wasn’t supposed to be left dry in the winter, according to environmental groups. A rehabilitation project on the dam that creates the Rio Grande Reservoir was billed as an upgrade that would make the river healthier and improve recreation throughout the year. But even four years after the construction project concluded, those promises haven’t materialized. That’s because the dam’s new valves cannot safely release water during the winter, according to the Committee for a Healthy Rio Grande, a group formed to push for more water releases from the reservoir for fishing, rafting and environmental health. The irrigation district that operates the dam closes the valves from November through March. The lack of water in the winter kills off aquatic insects and vegetation — the base of the river ecosystem’s food cycle.

That is what I have time for. I have some more information from former Colorado State Representative Stephanie Vigil of Colorado Springs, but I’ll put that into a comment so this gets published on time. Please consider writing a diary in this series, and let me know in the comments if you can possibly do one.

Until then, the floor is yours.

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