Serving the community since 1926
WEEK OF JULY 18, 2024
VOLUME 97 | ISSUE 33
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A vibrant tradition with a dark history
Colorado reins in HOAs’ foreclosure powers BY JESSE PAUL THE COLORADO SUN
hold Dragon Boat Festivals, incorporating food, arts and sports, all in celebration of Chinese history and culture. Denver’s Sloan’s Lake Park is home to the United States’ largest Dragon Boat Festival, attracting nearly 200,000 attendees in recent years. The Colorado Dragon Boat Festival debuted in 2001 with the mission of building bridges of awareness, knowledge and understanding between the diverse Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) communities in Colorado and the general public through cultural education, leadership development and athletic competition.
Colorado homeowners associations will have a tougher time foreclosing on their residents for unpaid debt starting in August. House Bill 1337, signed by Gov. Jared Polis in early June, creates new hurdles for HOAs before they can file for foreclosure and limits how much associations can charge in attorney fees when they are trying to collect what they’re owed. It also gives homeowners and renters a second chance at keeping their properties in the event a house is foreclosed on by an HOA and sold at auction. “(This bill) really gets at the pieces of this process and how it works that we were really seeing lead to the most devastating foreclosures,” said Melissa Mejia, director of state and local policy at the Community Economic Defense Project, which was one of the main groups behind the bill. The measure, passed by the legislature in April, is aimed in part at making good on a promise from the governor and lawmakers to change the state’s HOA laws following a Colorado Sun investigation published last year. The investigation revealed Colorado HOAs had filed roughly 3,000 foreclosure cases between 2018 and June 2023, more than 250 of which — or roughly 8% — resulted in properties being auctioned off, most for well below market value.
SEE TRADITION, P8
SEE FORECLOSURE, P6
The Dragon Boat Races on Sloan’s Lake are a highlight of the festival, set for July 27-28 this year.
24th annual Colorado Dragon Boat Festival to take place at Sloan’s Lake on July 27-28 BY CHANCY J. GATLIN-ANDERSON SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
As the legend goes, an ancient Chinese poet and court official named Qu Yuan drowned himself in the Miluo River in protest of the corrupt imperial government. Onlookers from the nearby village rushed into the river with their boats to retrieve Qu Yuan’s body, violently thrashing at fish with their paddles along the
way to prevent them from eating his quickly decaying flesh. This is said to be the origin of the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival, and ultimately the dragon boat race. Historically, the Dragon Boat Festival takes place on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, a traditionally unlucky time of the year. According to the Smithsonian Institute, the festival incorporates several traditions that work to rid people of misfortune during this time. Parents, for example, give their children five threads of colored silk to carry around with them during the Dragon Boat Festival. The threads are meant to keep negative spirits at bay. To honor this Chinese tradition, communities all over the world
VOICES: 12 | LIFE: 14 | CALENDAR: 17
PHOTO COURTESY OF COLORADO DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL
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