Please, no more “Stapleton Stops.”

I live in Stapleton, near a four-way stop, just a couple blocks from an elementary school and near a park. It’s a busy area, with kids playing, bicycle riders, joggers, folks walking dogs, etc. At all hours of the day and night, I see drivers rolling through the stops signs, sometimes blowing through. I assume it’s mainly people who live in the area. After all, we drive these streets every day. We know the route. We pass this intersection frequently. We’ve never had a problem. I’ve taken to calling it a “Stapleton Stop,” because I think it’s us who are the offenders. But God forbid we miss something, just one time. We’re in a hurry. We are distracted. We’re late to drop the kids off at school, or for work. We’re headed to something we think is important. That one time could lead to a tragic outcome. It could change your life, and your family’s life, forever. And the lives of others and their families. So please, no more Stapleton Stops. It’s not worth the few seconds we save. It’s not worth being forever sorry for making a terrible mistake It’s not worth it, period. Please, no more “Stapleton Stops.”

—Randy Loveland

Creative Use of Space by DU at the Solar Decathlon

The mandate of the recent international Solar Decathlon held in Denver was to focus on homes designed to be “affordable, innovative and highly energy efficient.” One of the ways that the student-led partnership between the University of Denver and UC Berkeley showed their creativity was by using Murphy Wall Beds. Part of their bedroom design included moving walls on tracks so that during the day, not only did the vertical beds close up against the wall, but the actual walls moved in toward the beds, allowing over 350 more cubic feet for the communal living area. (The attached photo shows the moving walls on ceiling tracks that ran in the November Front Porch article, “Innovations at the Solar Decathlon.”)

DU/UC Berkeley ended up third out of 13 in the competition, narrowly beaten out of second place by the University of Maryland. Their house is going to Denver Habitat for Humanity, which plans to install the project on a temporary lot while they prepare a permanent lot for the house. After installation on its permanent lot, the home will be sold to a family in need. Smart Spaces, a local family-owned business, donated the Murphy Beds and cabinetry and gave some hands-on instruction to the students on woodworking, adding a skill to the many they learned throughout their two-yearlong project.

—Deb Beckmann, owner, Smart Spaces, Murphy & Wall Beds