Cute, cute, cute...

Are you kidding me? These guys are soooo cute. But, they are apparently a problem when they venture away from open space and the foothills. In fact, there are crews of park workers who "relocate" prairie dogs from residential areas to the wildlife areas.

c

Tour de Fat, baby!

More than 5,000 cyclists, many donning costumes and riding homemade contraptions, took to the city's streets of Fort Collins last Saturday for New Belgium Brewing's Tour de Fat "a bicycle carnival, a pedal-powered imaginative chaos of creativity" The event started 7 years ago and this year Fort Collins broke the world record for the largest bike parade.

This year's Tour de Fat theme was "Salvation from Dumpnation." Spectators lined streets to catch glimpse of the parade's costumes, which ranged from Miss Piggy and Fred Flintstone to striped knee socks and hot pink feather boas. New Belgium launched Tour de Fat as a way to increase awareness of and participation in bicycling as an alternative means of transportation to driving.

This summer the tour hit 12 cities with its message of sustainable transportation, its vehicles fueled by B100 biodiesel. Musicians performed on solar-powered stages and the tour used composting and recycling to keep most of its waste out of the trash. Last year it diverted 85 percent of its garbage, and organizers hoped for 95 percent this year.

Money raised through biker registration and beer sales Saturday will go to Diamond Peaks Mountain Bike Patrol, a volunteer-run nonprofit organization, which promotes responsible mountain biking, and Bike Fort Collins, which educates and encourages people to foster a bicycle-friendly culture. Last year the Tour De Fat raised $166,000.




I love this town!

c

Got to see Boulder today

Seriously cute town with lots of tourists on foot. It was a lot like Fort Collins but many of the buildings were very new. And, they also adhere to the "build nothing over four stories high" rule so everyone has a great view of the mountains.



Speaking of the mountains, I got to see the Flatirons for the first time. Rising more than 2,000 feet above the plains, the Flatirons rock formation is the iconic backdrop of Boulder, Colorado. These iron-rich sandstone formations were tilted on-end 300 million years ago when continents collided and the ancestral Rockies were uplifted. At 5,430 feet of elevation and 28 miles from Denver, Boulder is where the Great Plains meet the foothills of the Rockies. The Flatiron Mountains got their names by the pioneer women who said they looked like the flat, metal irons they used to iron their clothes.







Boulder also has more used bookstores per capita than any other city in the country.

c

And, we're off!!

BEET STREET UNVEILED


Cultural initiative takes arts' beat to the people

BY CARI MERRILL

Organizers unveiled the Beet Street concept Wednesday night to dancing, drums and music - just a taste of what the downtown cultural initiative figures to be.

The official launch of the effort, a project five years in the making, featured a blessing and prayer from David Swallow, a Lakota spiritual leader, dancing from the Falé West African Drum/Dance Group, a chat with author John Villani and a featured performance from Grammy winner Arturo Sandoval.

The white tent in Civic Center Park was filled to capacity with the 800 people, many of whom had rave reviews for the idea that will make cultural entertainment a staple in downtown Fort Collins.

"I don't think anyone could be as lucky as we are," said Beet Street Executive Director Carol Bennis of the hundreds of business leaders, city officials and community members in attendance. "It's amazing to finally flip the switch and give a little taste for what's to come in 2008."

It's still unclear where the initiative will be housed. The Beet Street committee is in discussions, though it's already working with the Fort Collins Symphony to bring performances to an open-air venue and with Colorado State University's School of the Arts to bring plays, including an annual Shakespeare Festival, to the outdoor stage.

An open-air venue is part of Beet Street's long-term plans.

It was the growing arts culture and community that brought Dennis Bigelow back to Fort Collins after going to school in St. Louis.

"Fort Collins seemed to be on the brink of something really big artistically," said the KRFC-FM music director and emcee for the night, adding that Fort Collins just needed a push that Beet Street provides.

Mike Burns, former Chamber of Commerce president, summed up the night in one word: fabulous.

"(Beet Street) is pulling together the community to give Fort Collins a unique identity," he said of the project that will add to the qualities that make Fort Collins a great place to live. "This gives us something to talk about that's real and exciting."

Community member Cindy Lopez heard about Beet Street through word of mouth and came to Wednesday night's unveiling to learn more about the project she hopes will tie the Northern Colorado region together.

Lopez, who was waiting to hear the music of Arturo Sandoval, admitted she was a bit skeptical, thinking Beet Street was "narrowly focused" only on art in Fort Collins but after hearing plans to encompass the region, she is now "anxious" to see the project up and running.

"I just hope the art community does reach out to our young folks and the university, and I hope they broaden the focus," she said. "There's plenty of art to go around."

Originally published in the Fort Collins Coloradoan on Thursday, September 20, 2007