Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Public Safety Globeville topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Resident urges Denver to address open-air drug and sex market blocking Globeville path access
Summary
A Globeville resident told the Denver City Council that an area near the neighborhood’s access to a river path is “riddled with fentanyl” and prostitution, creating safety and access problems. He urged city action after recent fires and daily exposures to drugs in the location he identified.
A Globeville resident told the Denver City Council during the Jan. 27 public comment period that an open-air market for fentanyl and prostitution near a key path access point is blocking neighborhood use of the river path and creating public-safety hazards.
Philip Marino said he lives in Globeville and described the problem at “40 Fifth in Washington,” which he said is the only location the neighborhood can use to reach the path. “There’s an open air fentanyl and prostitution market that exists at 40 Fifth in Washington that obscures the entire neighborhood’s ability to access the path system,” Marino said.
Marino described frequent drug use and people “lying down, dying every day,” and said there was a large fire beneath a railroad spur four days earlier. He said the area is the neighborhood’s sole access point to the path system and that efforts proposed to date—more police presence, protecting cars’ catalytic converters, and enforcement—had not solved the access and safety problems.
Marino criticized what he characterized as unequal treatment of communities, saying bike-lane improvements have been labeled “gentrification lanes” in his neighborhood and that people using the park are “not from our community.” He urged the city to address the roughly “50 square foot area” he described as a daily site of drug sales and public-safety incidents.
Council rules prohibit members from responding during public comment; Marino’s remarks were recorded for council and staff follow-up.
