🛏️ Is Denver out of shelter space?

🛏️ Does Denver Have Enough Room to Shelter Both Migrants and the Unhoused?

People who were living at a Quality Inn in Aurora are claiming that the hotel’s owner kicked them out after the City of Denver booked all the rooms to house migrants. As Denver continues to grapple with a housing crisis that has thousands of Denverites living on the streets, hundreds of migrants also seeking shelter are arriving in Denver every week. [9News]

🚄 Front Range Rail Gets Federal Seed Money

The Federal Railroad Administration has agreed to grant Colorado $500,000 to conduct planning studies for the development of a Front Range passenger rail that would run from Pueblo to Fort Collins. Gov. Polis promises the project would not only alleviate traffic congestion, but also reduce gas emissions and support the economy. [CPR]

• Dive deeper: We asked CPR growth and transit reporter Nathaniel Minor about the reality of a Front Range-serving train system, as well other hot transit topics. [City Cast Denver 🎧]

Last week’s answer: Rio Grande downtown

• I’m not sure if Big Tex has a doppelgänger based on the amount of people who guessed Atomic Cowboy for last week’s photo, but this particular neon cowboy is in the entrance of Rio Grande’s new downtown location on 18th and Wazee. The popular homegrown TexMex joint relocated from its longtime digs a few blocks away on Blake Street last summer. Rio owner Pat McGaughran told the Denver Post about the move:
  
  “LoDo is a different space in today’s world … I think that the energy changes block by block these days. And when this location became available on Wazee, we knew that it’s headed in the direction of some pretty significant investment.”

🍹 Congrats to our quickest correct guessers — you all deserve a Big Tex Marg.

• Madison D. was the first to write in with the correct answer!
• But Amanda J., Savannah T., Danielle M., Reed R., Mitchell W., Kelly O., and Bill J. weren’t far behind!

This Week’s Photo:

🕵️ Do YOU know where this building is? Bonus points if you can tell me how long Martial Arts Supplies has been there. Be among the first to respond with the right answer and you’ll get a special shoutout in next Friday’s newsletter!

What’s Denver’s Word of the Year? Plus, the Nutcracker’s Cheap Seats and Dyketopia!

The Nutcracker is Colorado Ballet’s holiday tradition — and also one of their biggest revenue generators for the year. So why are the tickets so cheap? Plus, the Oxford English Dictionary named “rizz” the word of 2023. If Denver had a word of the year, what would it be? Producer Paul Karolyi and host Bree Davies are joined by Lee Robinson and Kate McLachlan, co-hosts of the Dyketopia podcast, to answer these questions and more.