Opinion

Opinion

What Farmers Want You to Know About Local Food

Before sunrise, while most of Jefferson County is still asleep, local farmers are already deep into their workday. Headlamps move through fields as tomatoes are harvested by hand, crates of greens are stacked into trucks and coolers are checked before the drive into town. Hours later, customers arrive at a farmers market to tables lined

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Opinion

Don’t Stand So Close To Me

In what world did we collectively decide that it’s acceptable to sit next to someone at a restaurant or bar and blast cat videos, sports highlights, or TikTok clips on speakerphone for everyone else to hear? Somewhere along the way, public space started feeling a little too public. Recently, United Airlines announced that passengers who

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Opinion

Letters to the Editor

Dear Guy, I’m late and thanking you for your February article on education. Fabulous article thank you so much, and thank you for all that you do for the community.  Rebeccah Bayshore Mr. Stites, Investing $4.5 million for new housing near the Arvada Ridge G line rail station is an admirable use for these funds.

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Opinion

The Cost of Balancing Needs and Wants

Attention voters: surveys are on the way. The question is straightforward—how much more are you willing to contribute, and for what? Three fire entities—West Metro, Arvada Fire, and Jeffco Fire—are each preparing funding requests. All provide critical services, and their work is valued. At the same time, overlapping roles in staffing, equipment, and administration raise

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Opinion

Letters to the Editor

Dear Mr. Nahmiach,  Thank you for the picture of the demolition of the old Lutheran Hospital.  It reminded me of my connection to that old hospital.  For three years my mother was a patient at the Lutheran Sanitarium for tuberculosis patients. Yes, it was nearly a hundred years ago.  She entered the sanitarium on May 15,

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Opinion

Thank You, Eugene

Eugene is one of those rare personalities in our town who refuses to let fear, risk, or rising costs stand in the way of a vision. At a time when opening a restaurant feels harder than ever, he took on an aging, struggling building and brought it back to life—transforming it into Colorado Plus, a

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Opinion

Letters to the Editor

Dear Neighborhood Gazette Team,  I just read Daniel Greeson’s piece on families seeking alternatives to traditional schooling and I wanted to say how spot-on it is.  We are seeing the exact same trends here at Alpine Valley School (also in Wheat Ridge). Many families come to us specifically because they want to opt out of

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Opinion

Hard to (Not) Change

Every time I have a client thinking about moving to Wheat Ridge, I ask them straight up: “Are you moving here because of how we are… or because of how you want us to be?” That question never lands softly. The City and Council are constantly trying to balance both sides. Improvements with no change.

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Opinion

Who Is Looking Out for Your Neighborhood?

As the city works to accommodate a growing demand for housing, a range of creative solutions is being explored and implemented. Sometimes these efforts yield positive results. Other times, not so much. The removal of occupancy limits, short-term rentals, home sharing, ADUs, and the rezoning of single-family properties into multi-unit housing has created a little

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Opinion

Funding Failure: Why Bigger Budgets Aren’t Fixing Our Schools

John Mellencamp asked “Will you teach your children to tell the truth?”. Earlier this month (January 20), Jefferson County Board of Education President Michele Applegate wrote to the community stating, “Since 2010, our district has lost more than $930 million due to state underfunding.” What she left out of that message, however, is just as

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Opinion

Letters to the Editor

Hi all, Thank you Guy for your tenacity as a smiling warrior seeking to keep the community informed about good, bad or ugly items of business or governance. I also love the mix of human interest stories that involves our neighbors as well. This is such a nice paper to receive each month. Your publication

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Opinion

Closing Out ’25… The Short of It

“Tell me something you know today that you didn’t know yesterday.” That was the nightly ritual at our dinner table — our version of a debrief mixed with a pop quiz. You could always tell which teacher had impressed my kids by how animated they got. But the moment I’d ask them to review lunches

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Opinion

Should Every Student Deserve to Learn About Life-Saving Organ Donation?

This point-counterpoint article explores opposing viewpoints on a single topic, giving readers a balanced look at both sides of an issue. Transplantation Science is an educational curriculum designed to teach students about organ, eye, and tissue donation through hands-on learning experiences. As a Transplantation Science educator, I get to see middle and high school students

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Opinion

Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor,  Thank you so much, Guy and Daniel, for this month’s article on Wheat Ridge Poultry and Meat. I really enjoyed the upbeat, future-focused update on the market at 29th and Depew. It’s exciting to see the positive momentum and to know that neighbors will have more options to support a small, local business

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Opinion

I Believe

I started believing in miracles again the night a Lutheran Hospital ICU nurse from Wheat Ridge pulled over along Route 6 in Clear Creek Canyon. It was dark, and she had spotted what looked like a body lying in the middle of the road. No pulse. No breathing. Half his face gone. The man had

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Education

Wheat Ridge School Safety

I was a high school senior when I watched the Columbine shooting unfold on TV. Like many parents, it and subsequent events have left a lasting mark, and I sometimes feel a flash of panic when I drop my kids off at school. I’m fortunate, though. My children live in a community and attend schools

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Opinion

Making Important Decisions In Wheat Ridge

The phone rang…  “Hello, Guy, will you join us at city council to speak in defense of roosters?” I mean, it doesn’t get more Wheat Ridge than this. “Yes, of course I will stand up for our roosters!” The council chamber at City Hall was full of residents ready to debate the pros and cons

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Opinion

Small Town USA

Before I moved to the US I had always read and watched movies about small towns in America. I listened to John Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen sing about life in small towns. Our family vacations were always spent up and down the east coast. Small towns like Wildwood NJ, Ocean City MD, Myrtle Beach SC

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Opinion

The “Darkness On the Edge of Town”

The calls and emails that come in to the Gazette range from all sides of the spectrum, bright to dark, and sometimes the dark gets real ugly. Sometimes self serving, misinformed to downright threatening and mean. But the bright messages that we get, filled with hope, passion and uplifting stories are why we do this.

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Opinion

Letter to the Editor – Response to Interview with Chris

The referendum petition is about one thing: zoning. Specifically, what will be allowed on the old Lutheran campus—no matter who owns it.  It is not about developers or their plans. This new zoning includes sweeping concessions to developers. Some of these include: 70-foot buildings with no setbacks or landscape buffers. No Parkland Dedication.  No Historic

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Opinion

Independence Day

July 4th is my favorite holiday of the year. It means the world to me to live in the USA. It’s something I had tried to accomplish since I was 16 years old. Going down every year to the US consulate in Montreal and then Toronto to get a chance to win the green card

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Opinion

Letters to the Editor – June 2025

Why Wheat Ridge Must Maintain the FSED Moratorium The debate over free-standing emergency departments (FSEDs) often centers on access. But in Wheat Ridge, we already benefit from exceptional emergency care through Lutheran Hospital – a full-service facility equipped to handle the most critical medical situations. A recent proposal to lift the moratorium on FSEDs in

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Opinion

The Importance of Having Our Own Voice

They said that “print is dead” and that buying a newspaper was a terrible investment. But I remember feeling nothing but excitement at the opportunity to carry on a tradition—ensuring Wheat Ridge continued to have its own voice. It wasn’t just about continuing what Charlie and Tim had started. For me, it was about giving

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Opinion

Dollars and Sense

This one is going to be fast and furious with just so much going on! Let’s start with my favorite topic, whatever you heard about the Wadsworth project and when it’ll be fully completed I want you to start adding to whatever number is in your head, more details in the next issue, read this

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