Your Guide to Community, Politics, Arts and Culture in North Denver DenverNorthStar.com TRANSPORTATION Road safety improvements coming to Regis, Berkeley and Highland neighborhoods PAGE 2
POLITICS
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Volume 5, Issue 12
| September 15, 2024-October 14, 2024
Pizza Alley slated to make a comeback after extensive renovations
City compost projects prioritize quality over speed PAGE 3
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ALWAYS FREE!
North High alums reflect on school past A spectrum of diversity and greatness By Jill Carstens
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stately Beaux-Arts building on the hill near the intersection of Speer and Federal draws the gazes of those passing by. Denver North High School. Entering the historic structure, a varied past seems to echo through storied hallways. “North Side High School,” as it was originally called, has experienced many changes over the 130-some years since graduating its first class of six students, all women, in 1886. In 1913, Golda Meir left her parents’ home in Milwaukee for a life in Denver. She attended classes at North, recording in her autobiography, "It was in Denver that my real education began."
COMMUNITY Benefit concert to support Bienvenidos Food Bank on Sept. 28 PAGE 5
TRANSPORTATION New app for low-stress bike routes in Denver PAGE 6
PHOTO BY SANDRA FISH
Extensive repairs and interior renovations have made for a disheveled look, but a freshly painted and polished sign shows progress toward the pizza shop’s reopening, which is slated for this month or early October.
By Sandra Fish ew York-style pizzas and spaghetti and $46,000 in unpaid bills. Court filings indicate meatballs will again be on the menu the food company’s legal team has been unable when Pizza Alley reopens in West Highto locate Sargent. land later this month or in early October. Another business owned by Sargent, TJ The pizza joint, which has operated at the corStreet Tacos in Aurora, closed in 2022. A mortner of West 32nd Avenue and Irving Street since gage lender got a $294,000 judgment against 1976, closed suddenly in late December with a Sargent the following year, according to a city handwritten sign on the door citing mechanical of Denver filing. issues. That was followed by notices demanding Michael Brackett told The Denver North Star back rent and taxes owed. that he sold Pizza Alley to Sargent in 2021. Brackett and a Pizza Alley coKhagendra “K.G.” Gurung, owner of Himchuli worker bought it in 2007. Indian and Nepali restau“We were 18 and 20 rant next door, stepped years old,” Brackett said. in to buy the business in “We just put our heart and April. Since then, consoul into it, and really got tractors have been reit going, and spent a lot of modeling the interior and time and effort doing it.” making significant reBrackett bought his pairs to the plumbing syspartner out at one point, tem, including tearing up then decided to sell after the parking spots in front getting married and starting a family. of the business. “He had worked at Gurung told The Denver North Star that he’s reChick-fil-A before as a placing the kitchen equipmanager, and wanted to PHOTO BY SANDRA FISH ment and remodeling the A sign referring to mechanical issues do his own thing,” Brackett said of Sargent. “And dining room. He said he was posted on the door at Pizza seemed like it could be the hopes to get a city permit Alley when it closed last year; it was to reopen in late Septem- followed by multiple notices of rent and right fit.” ber or early October. Brackett moved out of back taxes due. “Everything is the state after the sale, but he same,” he said. “The same recipe, same employees said he still stopped by the business when returning to visit family. “Every time I went in, the place and same name.” looked dirtier, and the things looked not kept up,” The previous owner, PRESORTED Brackett said. “It was really tough being in there.” Paul Sargent LLC, owes STANDARD Sargent still owes him money too, Brackett added. more than $42,000 in U.S. POSTAGE Gurung, meanwhile, is looking forward to reback taxes, according to opening the landmark pizza place in the West the Colorado Department Denver, CO Highland neighborhood. of Revenue. Shamrock Permit No. 2565 “I try to do best for this community, best pizza, Foods is suing Sargent in EDDM Denver District Court for best service from the Pizza Alley,” Gurung said.
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ARTS & CULTURE After-school arts programs near North Denver PAGE 7
COMMUNITY Jamming on the Jetty returns Sept. 21 PAGE 8
COMMUNITY What’s a good neighbor? PAGE 10 Postal Customer
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PHOTO BY JILL CARSTENS
Denver North alum Joe DeRosa (class of 1966) takes in the view of downtown Denver from inside Denver North’s Beaux-Arts school building.
North, situated in what had been Denver’s working-class neighborhood, has boasted a wonderfully diverse student population, producing graduates who went on to equally diverse occupations, from science to education, writing for local papers, founding restaurants and more. Many North Denver families boast a legacy of generations attending the school. Some families, priced out of North Denver, commute across town to continue a family tradition of attending North. Kimberly Eggers (class of 1998) reflected that attending North gave her grit and a deep awareness of and sensitivity towards others’ history and cultures. A third-generation alum, her great-grandparents immigrated to North Denver from Italy in the 1920s. Eggers’ grandparents graduated in the 1940s, her mother in 1966. “The teachers during my time at North were amazing,” Eggers said. ”They were dedicated and committed. They stayed late, came in early and gave us their home phone number so we could call them if we needed help on our work. … Many lived in the community and some were even North graduates themselves. It seemed everyone knew everyone. A couple went to school with my mom. That dynamic helped to
See ALUMNI, Page 10