Gateway City Chronicles

Addressing the idiotic rumor, that Venezuelan gangs that have allegedly overrun us here in Aurora. I cannot stress enough that I live 4 blocks from that apartment building. It’s just about 22 blocks from the building on Nome St. I walk around my neighborhood quite a bit, about 1 mile daily, and take the #15 bus everywhere I go, just rode it (and #16) up to Casa Bonita yesterday. I didn’t run into one Venezuelan gang member or any trouble.

I’m a 51yo citizen journalist and community organizer, I know my neighborhood.  No one is saying we don’t have crime here. We do. We also have a sadly large homeless population, and yes, we have gangs here. Despite that, easily 90% of the people here are kind and just trying to live their lives. My kids and grandkids are among them.

Do you know what else we have here? We have a lot of small businesses, usually minority owned. They’re trying to eke out a living and don’t deserve to have this negative press. Did Danielle Jurinsky think about or care about the irreparable harm she and Mike Coffman did to those businesses? Did they care?

I have a friend in from out-of-town that I met yesterday for lunch at Casa Bonita. He’s from Denver, but is a priest out in Kansas, and when he told people he was coming here, people urged him not to, because they heard the ridiculous rumors that Venezuelan gangs are running amok. I had to reassure him that we are not being overrun by Venezuelan or any gang members.

I wonder how many potential tourists have changed their plans to come to Colorado as a result of these irresponsible and demonstrably false rumors  that were caused by our own city leaders. The city leaders may have changed their positions, but you can’t put toothpaste back in the tube.