5280 Magazine September 2022

It’s 10:45 a.m. on a Friday, and I’m writing this at my kitchen counter. I’ve had a cup of tea but no shower, and there’s a good chance I won’t put on shoes today. Three years ago, this scene only would have unfolded on a workday if I’d had a nasty cold. Today, I’m one of thousands of Denverites who once worked downtown every single day—in my case, for about 15 years—but now only venture into the city center a couple of times a week. I really like wearing yoga pants to “work,” but I know I’m part of the problem. The issue, of course, is that without its full cohort of office workers, downtown Denver has lost some of its lifeblood. Even on the busiest days, the streets still sometimes…

In “The High Cost Of High Country Living” (page 88), O’Neil writes about the housing crisis in Breckenridge, his home of two decades. LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION ”When I first moved to Breckenridge, I lived in the Nordic center and slept under 200 pairs of skis that hung over my head like spears.” ON COVERING HIS HOMETOWN ”It came with pressure not to screw it up or misrepresent the issues, lest I run into an angry source at the grocery store.” PERKS OF THE JOB “I did most of my interviews with Mike Quigley at Arapahoe Basin. We either talked on the chairlift or while hiking up the East Wall. He’s a beautiful telemark skier, and I think it put us both at ease.”…

In an alley behind Denver Central Market, a painted 10-by-20-foot wall depicts the face of hip-hop artist Sa-Roc surrounded by organic lines in black and white. The piece may not seem all that special, considering it’s one among dozens in mural-filled RiNo, but savvy art-seekers know it contains a secret. “I Am Her” (pictured) was created by Ally Grimm, a street artist who goes by the pseudonym A.L. Grime. She made the mural for Crush Walls 2020, and when viewed on a smartphone through the Artivive app, the piece plays the rapper’s music, its painted lines dance, and the eyes blink. This fall, Grimm, 30, will exhibit the same cutting-edge blend of street art and technology during the debut of Denver Walls (exact dates were still TBD at press time)—a branch of…

Of Two Minds Byrne read about researchers in Sweden who in 2011 used video headsets to connect people to artificial bodies either one foot or 13 feet tall. Subjects in the smaller forms consistently overestimated the size and distance of objects, while the giant avatars experienced the opposite effect. In other words, their brains were tricked into believing they’d truly changed size. This inspired Byrne’s “The Institute Presents: Neurosociety,” a 2016 show in which attendees took part in that experiment and three other illusions. Gray Matters After the success of the 2016 show, Byrne decided binding similar reality-altering experiences together with an immersive narrative would create a deeper connection to the science and began working on a larger theatrical project with the DCPA. Theater of the Mind, during which hosts lead groups of…

Kween Werk calls herself a “social media diva,” and she sure makes the gig look fun. In any given post, she might be frolicking on the beach or teaching an awkward Governor Jared Polis how to dance, always in vibrant glasses and coaster-size earrings. Upon closer inspection, though, her posts take on a deeper meaning—even her simple hiking videos. “I show up as myself, a fat, Black woman in outdoor spaces—where a lot of times people are surprised to see me—and talk about my experiences,” says Parker McMullen Bushman, the 43-year-old Denver resident behind the TikTok account. “I’m hoping to be a source of light and positivity around these topics.” She’s amassed more than 210,300 followers since her 18-year-old niece introduced her to Tik-Tok during the early days of the pandemic,…

NORTH AMERICA, PATAGONIA & NEW ZEALAND Stitcher spent the first part of his career helping landowners build private trophy trout fisheries. He used that experience—plus samples and data from fish and game agencies and other researchers—to catalog the species and subspecies of insects that trout find tasty in North America, Patagonia, and New Zealand, three of the world’s most popular fly-fishing regions and the areas to which Stitcher tailors his flies. LITTLETON HQ Using that database, Stitcher can identify which of the 600,000 fly patterns Ascent stocks best match the bugs of any waterways in those regions. “I might not have samples from a particular tributary,” he says, “but based on the bugs that live at similar elevations in bigger streams nearby, I can extrapolate the bugs that’ll be there as well.” SOUTH PARK…