The above “Walk Score” is for the address of 1610 Little Raven Street, Denver Colorado 80202, the home of Zengo Restaurant and the heart of the plaza in Riverfront. The score (at least today when writing the post) is 83 or “Very Walkable”. How cool is this tool!!! 8-)

Walk Score calculates, on a scale to 100, how pedestrian friendly (walkable) your address is. If you are looking for a new home or just want to check out your existing home give it a shot. It calculates the score by looking at what surrounds it. Are there restaurants, parks, shopping, bars, etc. All the fun stuff. Here is what Walk Score says the scores mean:

• 90 – 100 = Walkers’ Paradise: Most errands can be accomplished on foot and many people get by without owning a car.
• 70 – 90 = Very Walkable: It’s possible to get by without owning a car.
• 50 – 70 = Some Walkable Locations: Some stores and amenities are within walking distance, but many everyday trips still require a bike, public transportation, or car.
• 25 – 50 = Not Walkable: Only a few destinations are within easy walking range. For most errands, driving or public transportation is a must.
• 0 – 25 = Driving Only: Virtually no neighborhood destinations within walking range. You can walk from your house to your car

Now they do concede that their are still some things they are working to figure out. Here is what they say doesn’t work yet:

” There are a number of factors that contribute to walkability that are not part of our algorithm:

• Street width and block length: Narrow streets slow down traffic. Short blocks make it easier to navigate the grid.
• Safety: How much crime is in the neighborhood? How many traffic accidents are there? Are crosswalks well marked and streets well lit?
• Pedestrian-friendly design: Are there walking paths? Are buildings close to the sidewalk with parking in back? Are sidewalks shaded by trees?
• Topography: Hills can make walking difficult, especially if you’re carrying groceries.
• Public transit: Good public transit is important for walkable neighborhoods.
• Freeways and bodies of water: Freeways can divide neighborhoods. Swimming is harder than walking.
• Weather: In some places it’s just too hot or cold to walk regularly.

As MarlonBain said, “You should use the Web 3.0 app called going outside and investigating the world for yourself” before deciding whether a neighborhood is walkable!”

What a great tool for house hunting and evaluating the pedestrian friendly nature of any neighborhood.  I don’t know about you, but I am trying to move further up the Walk Score with every change of residence I make.  So hopefully this helps out those relocating to Denver or those of you contemplating a move.

Please comment back and let everyone know how your address rates.

How did you score?

Last night I was fortunate enough to attend my first (yes, my first) concert at Red Rocks for the R.E.M. concert with Modest Mouse and The National. And yes, I cannot count on one hand how many people were shocked that it was my first concert. Don’t ask me how that happened, I guess my days in the mountains were just too booked. However I was still a slacker for putting this event off for so long. Red Rocks is an amazing place and it was an amazing show. And with the news about Obama winning the Democratic Presidential Nomination the show had a special energy for R.E.M. Michael Stipe began an earlier set announcing that Obama would be our next President and went through a number of songs that have had special meaning for the band based upon actions of the current administration.

The energy of the musicians on stage along with the crowd were through the roof. Michael Stipe also shared that this was the first concert they have played at Red Rocks that the weather was not difficult. And it most certainly wasn’t. Outside of a few stray raindrops in an early set the night was beautiful. Warm early breezes, a beautiful sunset, and a cool night. R.E.M. played a solid two hours and only during the encore did I notice the additional layers going on throughout the crowd as the temperatures dropped just a bit.

R.E.M. played a true bit of history spanning their many decades of music. Many of the old favorites were paired with the new. One politically focused 5 song set (can you guess what 5?) followed Michael’s celebratory Obama announcement as he walked through the band’s response to the Iraq invasion, the actions of the administration, and their sense of frustration. During the encore Michael shared his affection with several fan’s in the audience sporting Pro Obama and Democratic campaign T-shirts. A few made them to the jumbo electronic screens for us to see and there was a memorable and to the man without his shirt… “put it back on” comment to bring laughter from the crowd.

The show was great, and fan’s of R.E.M. should know it was a special night for them because of the news and it added a special energy to their performance.

But what I really wanted to share with you is one great tip to add to your night out at a Red Rocks concert. The friends I was with really know how to have a great time and this one simple thing is all they did.

Rent a Limo

Granted, we had enough people to make it cost effective. So if you can rally the troops for a concert it is wonderful to kick back and enjoy laughter, music and beverages both to and from the concert. First of all, you don’t have to worry about driving which huge for safety, but also for adding a couple hours of fun to your night out. One person mixed up a CD for the trip, another brought the beverages. The only thing we might do next time is throw in some more snacks. You get to chill out the whole ride home. Let someone else fight the traffic.

Limo’s can pull all the way up to the top and let you roll right into the concert space. And that is right where they will be waiting for you to take you home. It was great.

One other little tip for those of you in the CPV or the Highlands looking for some late night dining. There is an often overlooked place to eat in the wee hours at My Brother’s Bar. They serve their full menu through 1:30 A.M. and it is GOOD! I have done posts about the burgers at My Brother’s Bar, specifically the JCB which I love. But in this post I am giving them some Kudo’s for their late night dedication to Denver. It was a Tuesday and we got to roll up in our limo for some burgers an Guinness. Now that is a nice memory.

Which brings me to the next forum discussion if anyone can share. What are Denver’s best late night places to eat and when do the close. Let’s hear it Denver!

Discuss it here

But while I was updating a few other blogs for folks I finally made the jump to the newest version of wordpress for my own blog. Isn’t it funny how you always put yourself last in updates.

Anyway, a few things fell out of the mix in the upgrade. First, the old polls just didn’t transfer over very well and I decided to delete them. I know, the best pizza in Denver poll got a good amount of traffic. But the fact is, that poll was over a year old and every once in awhile you need to blow things out and start fresh or the info is dated. Maybe the best pizza in 2006 just isn’t the same best pizza in 2008. It’s good to ask the questions again.

And of course the theme had a few hiccups too. Now if I am going to roll out a new look I might as well get one that can handle all the fun plugins that are out today. So have patience with me and feel free to email me any that you like. I’ll be adjusting them a bit.

Cheers.

Compare this to the current year pricing…

This year, the same unrestricted pass would have cost $1,849
For employees in the Vail Valley, who have always gotten the best deal, an unlimited pass WITH RESTRICTIONS would have cost $869

Why the sudden change of strategy in pricing? Who knows, maybe all the real estate development needs a boost, maybe skier numbers need a boost, maybe they are hedging the threat of decreasing skier numbers due the the big R forecasts. Is a Recession on the way, are we already in one, are we on our way out of one, or is it all a big scare? Let the economists wrangle with that one, I’m just happy to have a great deal thrown my way.

Of course not everyone is happy about this. The Vail Valley in particular is wrestling with some predictions on what the increased traffic will do the the roads throughout the valley. Citing “Epic Problems” on the way many worry this will be a disaster for travelers and those working in the Valley.

Guess that’s why you are supposed to buy some real estate and head up there on Friday night to stay under your own roof.

What do you think? What ski pass, if any, will you buy next year?

That’s on my wish list anyway.

Now I know we got some snow last night. Let’s face it, last night rocked. After taking my very happy Alaskan Malamute for a snow romp we went to grab dinner at the Avenue Grill and watch the snow fall through the big glass windows. Cab’s both ways saved us from driving, but the wait to get the return cab was a bit long.

But nevermind that, I’m off topic from my friend’s trip into the office today.

First let me set the stage for you. She works downtown and lives in Highlands Ranch. That’s a long enough hike on a normal day but with the weather today… ouch. Her husband sets out for his day much earlier and gave her a warning call just before she left “I’m still not to the office yet” he let her know. This means close to two hours on the road.

So she quickly changed her plans and decided to take the light rail. Her usual 7 minute trip to the light rail station took her 30 minutes. No telling what a trip all the way downtown would have been. She missed her first train because apparently it was High School trip day and the machines were clogged with fun loving teens experimenting with their freedom and trying to learn how to use the system for the first time (this I actually find funny) and she catches the next train with no major issues. She thought about jumping on the train that was just sitting there and that she eventually missed waiting for the high school students to wrap up their purchases but didn’t want to risk getting ticketed.

Then on the way across Colfax WHAMMO a car collided with her light rail train. I guess the hit was pretty hard (and loud) with passengers on the train screaming and jolted from their peaceful trip. And what does the idiot who hit the train do… they run away. Can you imagine someone thinking they can get away with a hit and run on the light rail. Apparently no less than 50 people got their license plate numbers. I am just fascinated with how people think, or don’t think, sometimes. I can’t even imagine what will happen to that fool. My guess is the person wasn’t on the way to their job as a rocket scientist or molecular genetic engineer, but I’ve been wrong before.

The train announcer was a bit confused. Ordinarily the train needs to sit and wait to swap information with the other car but since the driver did a hit and run there was no one to swap info with. Good news for those train passengers as the train went back on its path. After finally arriving to downtown she decided to make a pit stop at the bank at Lawrence with the intention of taking the 16th street shuttle the rest of the way. That, of course with Murphy’s law, turned out to be a big mistake as the shuttles were only running one way… for her the wrong way. And of course this means the last leg of her trip was on foot slipping and sliding every step of the way.

If anyone has a better trip into work story for today… bring it.

I didn’t really think our snow was that bad last night but it sure seems to have the ability to grind our streets to a halt. Good thing we all have a sense of humor (or at least most of us).

Photo credit from CBS website.

I’ll do a quick summary for those of you who are thinking about it. First of all, groups are the best. We had a group of 107 folks so we pretty much ruled a car and a half. At first I think everyone worried about seats and being right next to each other but the reality is that with train travel everyone is walking, talking, leaning, moving pretty much all the time. It’s a social scene on wheels.

The views are amazing, although again this became second place quickly to everyone being social. Yet far more scenic than a flood of taillights on I-70.

If you live downtown the Ski Train has a special appeal. We walked over the bridge in Riverfront Park right at 7:00 for our 7:15 departure. I personally set my alarm for 5:30 to take the pup for a long walk and to give me quite a bit of time cushion just in case, so it is not a good night to plan a big Friday out on the town.

Then on the train everyone greets each other, has fun, and kicks back and RELAXES all the way up. No white knuckle driving, no fighting traffic, and there is always a place to buy coffee or breakfast only a short walk away. Some slept, some read the paper, most chatted. Nice.

On the way back this gets magnified into a huge social gathering. Beverages flow throughout the car, there is laughter everywhere and no one is driving. What a great solution for downtown residents… instead of trying to balance doing apres with the drive home and fighting crowds on that sometimes painful return the ski train becomes the apres location. No risk, no worries. One person said it was just like staying in the mountains with no worries about the commute. Considering I carried my skis there and back in less than ten minutes I’d have to agree.

Some bits of advice for you…

Avoid car 2. It’s behind the engine so the front is sealed. Don’t worry, you don’t get any fumes but the lack of ventilation gets TOASTY. We had folks stripping down to the minimum so maybe chair two will be the naked car. Your choice.

There isn’t much you can do about this worry, but if you get behind a slower train your trip could take a bit longer. This happened on our way up but not on our way back. Not too bad, some folks slept longer and the train is comfy. But keep this in mind if you are making strict plans involving timing and make sure you have a puppy sitter on reserve in case your return is late.

Get your food or drink quick if you want it. They sold out of burritos pretty fast on the way up and while they had beer all the way through the trip back, the Stella was the first to go. Don’t forget they close the catering car when they think they are 30 minutes away from the station. This might be longer so if you want stock up before they close.

There is a great lounge car with scrabble and other games. Consider grabbing a spot there for awhile if you have a small group but be quick if you want a seat.

We will be doing the Ski Train again. Give it a shot for yourself. I forgot to mention that the train stopped on a cross track exactly where another train was heading at us. The folks in our car started getting a little bit nervous as it got closer.. and closer… and closer. Then we quickly moved, picture is one of others below.

Do I really need to say any more… (well maybe)

I was at a little Holiday Party last night chatting about an upcoming Riverfront Park Ski Trip on January 26th. The bullet points are that a car has been rented with only 62 seats available, several sponsors have signed up to give some perks to this first time trip crew that will be taking the Ski Train up and back followed by an Apres Party and a very close and cool spot downtown (Another wonderful sponsor).

No fighting traffic and it will be fun and social!! Siri at East West Urban Management is managing the rapidly growing list of folks who are snagging the seats for this inaugural event. You can email her if you are interested in learning more or if you are a homeowner in Riverfront you can
sign right up.

Think snow!!!

These folks have taken an interesting angle on blogging with regards to the immediate availability of news through the blogging community over status quo news agencies. Basically if you want to find out what is happening you might be better off doing a google or technorati search instead of just hitting the standard news channels. The reasoning is simple, with cell phone cameras (both photo and video) and sites such as youtube or personal blogs regular joes like you and me can be giving the rest of the world news faster than organized news channels. Interesting and fun for this blog to have gotten a little press so I hope you don’t mind my sharing.

Here is their article…

CRISIS MANAGER UNIVERSITY

Editor’s Note: When I received a short description of this situation from the author, a long-time “Crisis Manager” reader, I asked if he could develop it into a case history. He did so, superbly!

The Rockies Were Rookies at Crisis Management
By Robert Austin, APR

With its proximity to the Rocky Mountains, 300 days of sunshine per year, 650 miles of urban bike trails and over 20,000 acres of public parks and open space, Denver is a perfect setting for sports of every kind imaginable. Add in eight professional teams and you have a town where sport can be a religious experience.

When a team in such a place makes it to a championship, it is, for many, more rare and significant than a virgin birth. Tens of thousands will make whatever pilgrimage necessary to touch the holy grail of a ticket. It follows that when the Colorado Rockies made it to the World Series, fans prepared to camp out at Coors Field for the lottery that might lead them to salvation. Five days before the sale, however, the Rockies’ front office committed a blasphemy that put fans up and down the Rocky Mountain Front Range in crisis mode:tickets would be sold only online.

Immediately, fans and analysts began to question the logistics of the decision. Local news stations invited computer experts to give their opinions on how any system could handle the expected onslaught of Internet users looking for tickets from around the world. ESPN easily found non-experts to comment, quoting one hopeful fan, “If 250,000 people are online trying to get tickets, I can’t imagine the Rockies’ Web server can handle that sort of load.”

After thoroughly debating the technical aspects, attention turned to the fairness of the process. Some speculated that scalpers would use automated software that would enable them to process requests much faster than a human could. Others pointed to the number of fans disadvantaged with slow, dial-up connections or no Internet access at all. Still others pointed to the fact that anyone, anywhere in the world was able to stand in line, a situation that a queue at Coors Field might have averted.

Throughout these debates, the Rockies’ front office stayed on message. The fears of technical snafus were met with confidence. Both the club and Major League Baseball gave reassurances that all would be fine. Rockies spokesperson Jay Alves insisted the club’s computers were ready to go and said the staff prepared for any crashes. “We don’t anticipate that, but if something happens, we’re ready for that too,” he said. Matthew Gould, vice president of corporate communications for MLB, allayed fears by pointing to experience. “Obviously, this is not a first-time thing for us,” he said. No one gave any details about contingency plans.

On Monday, October 22 at 10:00 a.m., the sale began. Tens of thousands of fans sat in front of computer screens, aimlessly clicking the “refresh” button only to be repeatedly faced with the ominous message “site not available.” Two hours into it, Mike Miller, author of the blog The Urban Brain performed a “whois” search for evenue.net, the apparent host for the online sale. From that search, he obtained a phone number of the parent company, Paciolan, and called it. Miller then scooped news outlets with a blog post describing the developing crisis:

“The very nice lady who was answering phones caught on to what I was up to right away as she asked ‘are you calling about Rockies tickets’.

‘Yes’ I replied. So she gave me the scoop.

They are having issues, big issues, on the hosting side with their ISP. Whatever is going on, they can’t resolve traffic between their servers and the outside ISP’s.

They have contacted their ISP and are hoping for some resolution soon. They don’t know if it is something really big or something really easy to fix, but either way they are dead in the water and the update they gave me is that fewer than 100 tickets have been sold so far.

She said the IT guys just were not expecting this mass amount of response and they whole system is overwhelmed.

Well duh, what did they think would happen? Someone is going to get a little dose of reality about this whole thing.”

Three hours after Miller’s post, Rockies Spokesperson Alves appeared at a press conference in front of eager reporters. Enough fans had shown up at the ballpark for furious chants of “we want tickets; we want tickets” to be heard over the spokesman. Alves announced that ticket sales had been suspended due to a system crash brought on by 8.5 million hits in 90 minutes. The crash was so bad that all of Paciolan’s North American customers were affected.

At 4:36 p.m., the Rockies posted a press release on the club Web site announcing suspension of the sale. Prior to that, the Web site still featured a banner announcing the sale was in progress. It wasn’t until the 10:00 p.m. newscast that the club announced the system was fixed, that sales would go back online at noon the following day and that a contingency plan was in place should anything go wrong again, although no details of that plan were given.

By this time, the club and Paciolan had also figured out the problem: a malicious attack. “Our Web site, and ultimately, our fans and our organization, were the victim of an external malicious attack on our Web site that shut down the system and kept our fans from being able to purchase their World Series tickets,” Alves said.

Yet, even fans with no IT background doubted that claim. One fan, who had been a victim of such an attack said flat out, “They’re lying.” Drew Curtis, the owner of Fark.com, told The Denver Channel. Com: “If they notified their upstream provider that they were under attack, the upstream provider could have shut that off in no time flat.”

The following day ticket sales went off without a hitch and some 60,000 tickets were sold within a few hours. At this point, news outlets pointed out that no investigation was being launched for the perpetrators of the attack. Analysts and computer experts began a new discussion on this topic.
The Aftermath

In the end, tickets sold out and, inevitably, thousands ended up disappointed and ticketless. So what was the actual damage?

* Confidence in the club’s management faltered. On blogs and news outlet Web sites, fans wrote at length about the poor treatment the club gave its fans.

* Business lost immeasurable productivity. Many fans took the day off to try for tickets online. Others used office computers. In fact, a Denver Post news report blogged live from the offices of Blue Cross/Blue Shield detailed how several employees tied up office computers for several hours trying to access the site. The fact that the entire process was repeated the next day may have doubled the loss.

* Paciolan’s entire North American customer base were thrown into crisis mode as well. They, too, likely suffered loss of sales. For example, the Denver Center for Performing Arts also uses Paciolan for online ticket sales. The DCPA first started to experience a slowdown shortly after the Rockies sale began. Soon after, the system failed entirely. During the outage, the DCPA posted a notice on its web site advising ticket buyers to order their tickets by phone or in person. Those were options Rockies fans didn’t have. Anita Edwards, the Center’s Web services manager said, “harm done.” It would take another few weeks before the Center could assess any financial damages.

The Lessons

This crisis began long before the servers crashed. It began the moment the Rockies made the announcement that tickets would be sold only online. It was at that moment that the club’s public, its fans, went into crisis mode. Many made immediate plans to take the day off, to have multiple computers set up to try to up their odds of scoring a ticket. After the announcement, news outlets and computer experts began to ask questions that were answered too easily and almost flippantly: “Obviously, we’ve done this before.” Questions on the fairness of the decision were left unanswered. In announcing the decision, the club simply stated that it was the most fair way for fans to get tickets – period, no discussion.

As communicators, we’ve all heard the tips on how to manage crises. We learn about the first, golden hour of a developing situation. We list out steps to be taken, messages to be disseminated and follow-up to be carried out. We practice how to talk to the media to convey those messages and how to think on our feet with microphones pressed in our faces. We train our employees not to make unauthorized statements to members of the media (or others, for that matter).

Each of these lessons is reinforced by the Rockies’ ticket woes. Among them:

* The club was slow to respond to the media and to its fans. Blogger Mike Miller exposed the crash at least two hours before the club made any statement. It took five hours to get a statement on the Web site – the very place where thousands of fans had been camped out for information.

* When the club and its partners did give an explanation, a “malicious attack,” no details were given and no investigations were launched. To skeptics, this was further evidence that the club, MLB and Paciolan simply weren’t taking responsibility for messing up.

Ultimately, however, the biggest lesson lies in the failure to think the decision to sell tickets exclusively online all the way through in the first place. Our job, as communicators, is to try to anticipate the perceptions, attitudes and actions of our publics. That means examining every policy decision and asking the “what if” questions.

Sure, it is possible that our colleagues at the Rockies don’t have a seat at the table where these questions can be asked, which merely underscores another lesson of crisis management. Nonetheless, someone at the club should have been asking the questions. What if we sold the tickets using a system tested by other clubs in the past? What if the servers can’t handle the load? What if there was a back-up plan to shift to in-person or phone sales if the server did crash? What if we’re wrong and this system isn’t fair to local fans? What if we did have a lottery system, even if it were for online only sales? What if a rookie performance in ticket sales somehow translates to a rookie performance on the field? We may never know.

Robert Austin, APR, is Director of Professional and Public Relations for the Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Bank in Denver, CO. Contact: raustin@corneas.org.

First I tried to call the Rockies office, but no one answered.

Then I tried to pull up evenue.net, but the site didn’t respond. evenue.net looks to be the folks who are handling the sale of tickets for the rockies.

Then I went to Network Solutions and did a whois on the domain owner of evenue.net…. and found them with a front desk number. So I of course called the company to see if I could find out the scoop. The very nice lady who was answering phones caught on to what I was up to right away as she asked “are you calling about Rockies tickets”. “Yes” I replied. So she gave me the scoop.

They are having issues, big issues, on the hosting side with their ISP. Whatever is going on, they can’t resolve traffic between their servers and the outside ISP’s. They have contacted their ISP and are hoping for some resolution soon. They don’t know if it is something really big or something really easy to fix, but either way they are dead in the water and the update they gave me is that fewer than 100 tickets have been sold so far. She said the IT guys just were not expecting this mass amount of response and they whole system is overwhelmed.

Well duh, what did they think would happen. Someone is going to get a little dose of reality about this whole thing.

I heard that Rockies.com did an interview where they said it was all going okay. Don’t believe it, they are still down. I hope you all get tickets, just not mine. :)