Beauty in Urban Blight: Gates Rubber Factory

Not my photo. :-)

One of my favorite areas of urban blight in Denver is the old Gates Corporation building -- or Gates Rubber Factory, as we Denverites call it. The factory is due for a slow demolition, but a large portion of it remains along my scooter route to work on S. Broadway. It's a testament to Denver's working-class, industrial past, and it shows no immediate signs of leaving us just yet for the espresso-swilling, urban yuppie communities that are descending upon our cities. According to Wikipedia: 


In 1911, Charles Gates Sr. purchased the Colorado Tire and Leather Company located in southern Denver beside the South Platte River. He paid $3500 for a property that would soon become one of the largest non-tire producing rubber companies in United States. Their first product was called the Durable Tread, a cover attached to the bald tires as an alternative to purchasing new ones.


In 1996 the Gates family sold the company to the British-based engineering firm, Tomkins plc, ending 85 years of family ownership. The Denver factory closed, and by 2001 some buildings hadn't been used in nearly a decade. While parts of the property have been redeveloped, the original factory sits deserted on the corner of South Broadway and Mississippi, awaiting further cleanup and redevelopment into residential and commercial structures.

Clock outside, representing a lost Denver relic,
suspended in time.

A lot of crazy stuff has happened here due to urban exploration. (If you were an urban explorer, could YOU resist this?!) A friend of a friend was arrested for trespassing one evening. He posted his pictures online, and one of them haunted me for years -- an old bathroom, with a grubby, rusted toilet. It was the stuff movies like "Saw" are made of. 


Just over a year ago, a 17-year-old fell 45 feet through the roof onto some concrete. She recovered -- and is very lucky. She and her friends were charged with trespassing, as well.


One morning in 2007, another urban explorer wasn't so lucky. The 23-year-old, who was going into his final semester at Metropolitan State College, fell down an elevator shaft and was paralyzed... later, he died from his injuries. The Denver Westword wrote a beautiful article about it. They also go into urban exploration a little bit. I find it fascinating.


Falling injuries and deaths and trespassing charges (oh my!) aside, apparently the factory is riddled with asbestos and trichloroethylene, an industrial solvent. So, you won't see Scooter Lass getting too close... these pictures I show here were close enough for my blood! You can find tons of great (and ridiculous) images of the factory, old and new, inside and out on a Google image search.

I love the building. Whenever I pass by, I can't seem to take my eyes off it. But I'm well aware that some day it has to go. Unfortunately, it appears to be another victim of the economic downturn, as Cherokee Denver -- the developers slated to clean up the site and turn it into a residential and retail hub -- had to pull out when they couldn't get financing. So, the decrepit building is stalled in time, with only part of the development on the site begun in the form of the Alexan Broadway Station apartments (pictured above, left side). Here's some more information about the proposed project from Denver Urban Renewal Authority.


(Join me for Part II, when I interview my friend Shawn Snow, an avid Denver historian, who will be able to tell us a thing or two about this magnificent Denver ghost, for sure. I just have to wait until the big jerk-head is back from his four-week stent in Europe. So jealous! :-) )

It's gettin' real up in he-ah

"Come to meeee....  give me all
your moneeeyyyy...."

Where I moved, I can see the Whole Freakin' Paycheck Foods sign glowing like a beacon in the night, beckoning me to spend $200 on my small bag of organic, hippy goods. Seriously, though, I did just spend $30 the other night on like four things. Is recycled toilet paper really worth it?

Anyway, another cool thing about tootling around on your scooter is that at places like Whole Foods, where apparently there is universally NO PARKING no matter which Whole Foods you go to in the country (what is with that? They're taunting cranky, malnourished vegans, for goodness sake!), I can just go past everyone and park on the sidewalk. Parking the parking of the just! And avoiding being driven to make a rap song about it, although this is awesome:

I realize this is totally so two years ago, but give a girl a break -- I only JUST got my very first laptop a  couple months ago, for example. I know that's sad, but you know, there's stuff like 50 pairs of shoes and scooters to buy instead. Important things!

So, back to Whole Foods... I'm actually really excited it's so close. Scooter Lass needs to get healthier. Here's to more Kombucha and kale and sh%t in my near future!

P.S. This is a totally unrelated public service announcement: don't forget to set your clocks one hour ahead this Sunday, March 11!

Scooter's Best Friend

The sun is shining. The birds are singing. Ahhh yes, springtime is peeking it's glorious head over the snow-capped mountains this week in Denver. And with this beautiful 60-degree weather comes the ability to scoot to work again! Amazing how commuting on my scooter lets me start my day with a happy heart.

This isn't Buddy, but this is the look he
has when he first sees me. So cute!

One of the best things about my commute -- and something I dearly missed over the winter -- is a German Shepard I've met along my route. I'll call him "Buddy," because that's what I say to him each morning when we greet each other: "Hi, buddy!" There's a very large house with lots of land in one of the areas I scoot into work where Buddy lives. Every morning he's outside, he'll be laying there in the yard, and when he sees me coming, he leaps up and gallops beside me along the fence, barking his fool head off and wagging his tail. I've watched -- he doesn't do this for cars. Just me. It's like we have our own little private, happy ritual in the mornings. He makes my day.

I love dogs...for all their simplicity and consistency. Dogs have mastered living in the moment. We humans could really learn some lessons.

Happy almost-spring!

I move mountains!

Well, it feels like mountains lately. I'm moving to a new apartment; I have been for the past couple weeks. I was lucky enough to have some time, but wow, there's no way around it: moving sucks.

But my Little Chaos made it a lot easier. I was able to haul quite a bit on him to the new place during the past few weeks. This is how it's done:

And he didn't even complain once. What a good scooter!

But thanks to Denver's Affordable Movers, you won't see me doing something like this:

Hey, we're total overachievers! We love us!

No, thank you. I'm pro-scooter, but I'm not a lunatic. 

Scooter Lass might be a little incommunicado for the next few days, because she will be unpacking -- you know that thing that is even more unpleasant than a bikini wax? Yeah, that. 

Scooter Lass: Ready to Join the 21st Century

Hallelujah! Scooter Lass now has a Facebook page. I just need a few more "likes," and I can get a customized Facebook URL. I'm willing to give bribes (as long as they don't get me incarcerated... for too long).

With a Facebook page, not only can I share my blog posts with you, but I can share weird stuff I find on the web related to scooters. Like this:

When you Google "scooters," you may be subjected to photos like these,
but this is NOT what I do. I repeat, NOT what  I do. Especially with those sideburns. 

How could you resist?

See ya on the socials!