QUID HAS HEARD that Aurora has sparked great curiosity as to whether it can actually turn out the lights on Goliath Xcel Energy’s monopoly on the lucrative street light business in Colorado — and other bastions of the Xcel empire. Seems that for eons, the city has gnashed its megawatts over having to pay to build and install street lights, only to hand them over to the heir of Public Service Co., which in turn then charges the city to change bulbs and keep the lights on at night. It’s no quid pro quo, yours truly hears. The price Xcel charges Aurora is light years more than what it would cost Aurora to maintain the lamps themselves. Of course this begs the questions, just how many Xcel employees does it take to change a light bulb when the government can do it for millions of dollars a year cheaper? No doubt that if Aurora is successful at shining a bright light on this messy monopoly, more (read: every) city in Colorado is likely to follow suit. That begs a darker question. If Xcel is forced to give up the lucrative, big-margin business of taking cities for a ride on the dark side of changing light bulbs, will company officials dig into your wallet to make up the difference? Not being tungsten in cheek here, nor wanting to turn the other.
AND QUID HAS HEARD that Aurora has yet one more reason to hustle to the front of the Front Range municipal crowd these days. Your faithful hack isn’t talking about Aurora’s fabulous catch of the day with Amazon, which announced this week it chose the third-largest city in the state — and not Denver’s Airportaflopulous — as home for a massive fulfillment center near Denver’s dogged airport. No, what your wag is talking about is Aurora actually making the Noo Yawk Times list of cities being cool with their public art projects. It seems that new public art at Aurora’s new-fangled light rail station at East 13th Avenue is a hit. Artist Christopher Fennell’s “Bike Train” is made from 40 used bicycles. Farther north at the Peoria Street Station, artist Blessing Hancock wowed the NYT with her giant lighted sculpture, “Biota.” We’re so cool that Quid can’t pass up the opportunity to look around the area and see why other public art projects didn’t make the list? And nearby? Denver jail’s, ummm, art, seems to have not captured the same awe from NY hacks. Yes, dear reader, there is public art at Denver’s dreary Havana Street Soviet-like jail, which looks suspiciously like something that would zap errant mosquitoes or vagrants caught feloniously camping on Denver sidewalks. Too bad, so sad. If anyone in big-sister-land needs art advice in the future, yours truly stands ready to help Denver make the grade.
AND THAT’S ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS