More than a hundred residents and business owners from Denver’s Golden Triangle area poured out their frustrations regarding crime and homelessness during a January 7 community meeting with city officials tasked with trying to solve those problems.
The crowd was an impassioned mix of young and old, renters and owners, residents and proprietors. Representatives of Mantra Cafe, Circle K and Margot Flats, a voucher-accepting apartment building, described a daily struggle with crime, homelessness and aggressive behavior. Surendra Pokharel, the owner of Mantra Cafe, a Nepali-Indian restaurant that opened last year at 1147 Broadway, said he’s been harassed by homeless residents who make racist remarks, telling him to things like, “go back to where you came from.”
Right in City Hall’s backyard, the Golden Triangle is the area between Speer Boulevard, Broadway and West Colfax Avenue. Although it’s known for hipster delis and cafes, old brick warehouses turned into stylish apartments and some of the state’s best museums, the neighborhood also hosts multiple parts of Johnston’s All In Mile (AIMH) program, the multimillion-dollar street-to-housing pipeline he’s been building for the past two years to solve Denver homelessness…