Denver, CO
Denver business owner fuming after grant request to mitigate homeless camp costs is rejected
A Denver small business owner is fuming after the city denied her grant request to help alleviate some of the costs related to a nearby homeless camp despite meeting all criteria for eligibility.
“During this whole encampment situation, they said that funds are coming and don’t worry about everything,” Samantha Menendez, co-owner of “One Shot Back” bar in the Mile High City, told “FOX & Friends Weekend” on Sunday.
“[There were] 200 plus tents around our business and basically nothing came for us,” she continued. “They gave us nothing in the end, and we had to go through eight months of craziness, and we received nothing, so it’s a little bit sad to be quite honest.”
DENVER MAYOR TOUTS ‘AMBITIOUS’ PLAN TO GET HOMELESS OFF STREETS, TAKE BACK DOWNTOWN FOR FRUSTRATED RESIDENTS
Downtown Denver skyline, photographed from the Jacquard Hotel rooftop in Denver, Colorado on November 15, 2018. (Raymond Boyd/Getty Images)
Deborah Cameron, Chief Business Development officer at Denver’s Economic Development and Opportunity Office, addressed the disquiet, saying, “We definitely understand how frustrating it is to the business when they meet the eligibility criteria, but we just don’t have enough funds to spread them around.”
The problem went much deeper than homelessness, according to Menendez.
Drug deals, prostitution and physical offenders lingered outside her door. The conditions steered customers away and proved disastrous for business.
DENVER BUSINESSMAN DUMPS POOP FOUND OUTSIDE HIS BUSINESS ON CITY HALL STEPS, DEMANDS ACTION ON HOMELESS CRISIS
People exercising homelessness gather belonging as crews work to cleanup a homeless camp in the RiNo neighborhood near the Platte River on May 17, 2022, in Denver, Colorado. (RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images))
“I physically got attacked inside my own bar by the same people that were sitting outside my bar, so, of course, no one wanted to come there,” she said.
“There’s people right across the street that couldn’t even get to our door, so decline was pretty quick. The first three months, it was fine. After that, it was pretty aggressive for the decline of business.”
Despite being handed a rejection herself, she claimed every surrounding business received $15,000, funds she believes could have yielded better benefits if spread out among more establishments.
‘ECSTATIC’ DENVER MAYOR SAYS CITY TRANSFORMED BY PUSH TO HOUSE HOMELESS, BUT CRITICS SAY JOB ISN’T DONE
“Three thousand businesses applied, only 69 got them…” she said. “It doesn’t change anything for us.”
Though the camp is gone now, and the bar is thriving in its absence.
Menendez said that doesn’t mean it won’t return as the seasons change, but, in the meantime, the goal is to “keep trucking along.”
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Denverites looking for a stellar cup of Joe don’t need to travel far to savor the flavor of excellent coffee.
That’s according to The World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops, a website that rates global hospitality establishments where coffee lovers can find better brew. The website recently announced its 2026 list of the best coffee shops in North America, Central America and the Caribbean and two local companies made the list.
Sweet Bloom Coffee Roasters came in at No. 43, while Queen City Collective Coffee ranked No. 61. Not bad for a list that includes must-hit destinations in places like Guatemala and Costa Rica, which are known for their exports of coffee beans.
The World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops decided the ranking through a mix of nominations and voting by both the public and experts. Places were evaluated based on the quality of coffee served, barista expertise, ambiance, sustainability practices, and innovation among other criteria, according to the website.
Sweet Bloom Coffee Roasters, which came on the scene in 2013, helped usher the so-called fourth wave of coffee locally, which focuses on honoring the beans’ agricultural roots and using techniques like pour-over to extract more flavor from each brew. The company started with a wholesale roastery and retail shop in Lakewood before expanding to Arvada through a merger with another company called Two Rivers, and later to Westminster. In 2022, Food and Wine magazine named Sweet Bloom’s Westminster locale the best coffee shop in Colorado.
Queen City Collective has certainly earned the popular vote among Mile High City coffee drinkers if the company’s expansion is an indication. Since opening its first retail location in 2018, in a spot shared with Novel Strand Brewing Co., Queen City has expanded to seven locations between Denver and surrounding suburbs, including Wheat Ridge and Aurora.
To see the full list of must-hit coffee shops across the globe, visit theworlds100bestcoffeeshops.com. For additional recommendations, check out our list of Colorado’s best coffee shops with picturesque patios and views.
Subscribe to our new food newsletter, Stuffed, to get Denver food and drink news sent straight to your inbox.
DENVER (KDVR) — With the mild winter and warm start to spring, beekeepers are seeing swarms earlier in the year and expect the season to be longer than usual.
Gregg McMahan is a dispatcher for the Colorado Swarm Hotline. It’s usually his job to send a beekeeper to collect a swarm when someone calls, but on Sunday afternoon, he decided to handle one himself.
“Nice little swarm,” McMahan said. “It’s tricky, though, because it’s hanging on a fence.”
A warm winter and spring mean swarm season has begun four weeks early.
“Never seen it like this ever,” McMahan said.
This call is to a house on Denver’s east side. When McMahan arrived, he saw a swarm had taken up residence on the fence.
“Absolutely typical, it is on the small side,” McMahan said.
He got to work, first luring them into a box when he spotted a good sign.
“See all these girls, they got their butts up, they’re fanning their wings. That’s telling us the queens in here,” McMahan said.
With the queen in hand, the rest began to follow her into the box.
McMahan said two years ago, he had 400 calls like this. Last year, only 100, the Swarm Hotline was as unpredictable as the weather, which has caused bee activity earlier in the year than ever.
“It makes it hard on the bees, you know? Two days ago, I’m collecting swarms in the snow,” McMahan said.
Rescuing them is integral to Colorado’s ecosystem. McMahan hopes people give a beekeeper a call instead of spraying them or harming them in any other way.
“They do a phenomenal amount of pollination within this state. Not only our native flowers but all the other flowers that people bring in,” McMahan said.
Slowly but surely, the swarm left the fence and moved into the box. McMahan loaded them into his truck to deliver them to their new home.
“Westminster to the Stanley Lake Wildlife Refuge, so these girls will have lakefront property tonight,” he said.
As he wrapped up, McMahan’s phone was buzzing more than the bees. Just another call to start a swarm season, he thinks, could be a long one.
“This year I’m already 20 swarms deep, so I’m expecting way more than 100 this year,” McMahan said.
To have a bee swarm removed for free from your property anywhere statewide, the Swarm Hotline number is 1-844-SPY-BEES.
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