Issue 65

Send in Halloween pictures of your child, you, or your family to The Stapletonion, and if we publish your submissions in our November 20th issue, you will receive a free Stapletonion tee shirt(s). The photos must be of you or your family and friends, can be anywhere, but we will not accept any photos of pets being dressed up. The Stapletonion does not take a stance on gun ownership or the death penalty, but on something as important as dressing up pets, we have to say NO. Please send photos to: Stapletonion@gmail.com, with the subject line “Halloween.” Thank you in advance for your submissions, and Happy Halloween!]]>

The Stapleton MCA shut down last week over a dispute with the City of Denver and Forest City. “We decided it wasn’t in the community’s best interests to have all these through streets to Aurora,” said MCA President Liza Kampstra. “We are aware that this decision was made well over a year ago, but we still don’t like it, and therefore, are going to do everything we can to prevent what has already happened from happening, if that makes sense.” Due to the MCA shutdown, pocket parks have not been mowed, flowers and plants in the town center have gone unkempt, and all markets and concerts are being canceled unless an agreement can take place. “We simply want the city to negotiate with us,” said Kampstra. “And by negotiate, I mean do exactly what we are asking, which is to close these through streets.” Kampstra and the MCA are hoping that the disturbance caused by its shutdown will urge Stapleton residents to contact city officials and let them know they no longer want the through streets. “This is pretty annoying,” said resident John Clifford. “I mean, no one really wanted the through streets in the first place, but it is part of progress, and we all knew it was happening over a year ago and have already mentally adjusted to it. I don’t know why the MCA is doing this.” Other residents agree. “If the MCA had a problem with the city on this, they should have dealt with it two years ago,” said Stacey Frazier. “And if they did, and nothing happened, too bad. You lost. We all need to move on. No need to have the great residents of Stapleton suffer.” Kampstra says that the shutdown will continue until they get their way, whether or not residents agree with it. “Residents must understand that we are doing this for them. It’s not about us, it is about the Stapleton residents. Sure, they have already adapted to the streets going through, but hopefully we can completely reverse this.” City officials have stated that they are not going to negotiate, and that the streets have been approved and been in motion for over two years. “The streets went through the proper approval method, and were physically built,” said city official Dan McCool. There is no going back at this point.” Stapleton residents will have to deal with the inconveniences, but potentially may look for different MCA leadership in the future. ]]>

Recently, Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan took exception to comments made by SUN President Mike Victoria, when Victoria said in an interview that, “Stapletonians are exceptional.” “No one should think they are exceptional,” stated a frustrated Hogan in in an interview with The Aurora Sentinel. “What makes Stapletonians any better than anyone else in the Denver Metro area? In particular, we Aurorans certainly are not impressed with Stapletonians. We don’t look up to them, so they certainly should not look down on us.” [Read more…] about Aurora Mayor Hogan to Stapleton: “No One Should Think They’re Exceptional”

The King Soopers gas station has had several struggles and its fair share of complaints over the years. With the opening of two 711’s, some of the congestion at the King Soopers gas station has subsided, but the organization and wait time still has a lot of work to do. A couple of years ago, King Soopers tried to help with the organization by painting some arrows to help customers getting in and out of the station. Problem is, either people don’t understand how arrows work, or they simply ignore these arrows. [Read more…] about King Soopers Gas Station Works to Make Direction Arrows More Meaningless

Recently, the 2013 DPS School Performance Framework Scores came out, and not surprising, McAuliffe Middle School passed with flying colors. In fact, McAuliffe is considered “Distinguished” in School Performance Framework, and “Exceeded Expectations” in both the Growth and Parent Satisfaction areas. “We were very pleased to see the scores, but are always looking to improve,” said McAuliffe Principal Vogel. “There are a lot of great schools in Northeast Denver, and it is nice to know that we are the greatest of those great schools.” [Read more…] about New McAuliffe Slogan: “When ‘Meets Expectations’ Just Isn’t Good Enough”

Whether or not you use Facebook, you get the general idea. People can let other people know about their lives and thoughts, and are able to stalk others to find out how their lives are going as well. Typically, personal Facebook users use Facebook for some of the following reasons:

• Those using Facebook as their personal Hallmark: These users use Facebook to tell close family and friends how much they love them. For example: “Thank you to the greatest wife in the world. Happy anniversary, Becky. Here’s to 15 more years!” or “Happy birthday to the most beautiful three year old in the world. We love you, Charlie.”
• People letting others know how great their life is: These users make sure to post pictures of their vacations, expensive purchases, and all around fun times with friends. They include job success stories as well as how great their relationships are. Essentially letting others know, “my life is perfect, so you should feel really, really bad about yourself.”
• Those updating all aspects of their life with an effort for a comedic twist: These users post every hour or so to update mundane details of their lives, almost like they are in a reality show that people care about. They mention their workouts, paying bills, waiting in lines, etc. To feel better about this obsession with believing everyone cares about their lives, they always attempt to make the update funny. Ex: “Just finished a five mile run. Excited to drink those calories right back tonight at The Berkshire!”

Resident Chad Druvenga has recently added a new category: Updating standard daily work tasks. Chad saw the other three types of Facebook users dominating the space and decided a new category needed to be added. “So many people would post things about work,” said Chad. “But none of the work posts I saw painted a true picture of office life. Being at the office rarely is funny, nor does it have self-fulfillment. So, I wanted to give a truer understanding of daily work life than what was being represented on Facebook.” Chad began posting in October, and friends and users are already enjoying his posts. “Of course, they are not interesting or funny,” said Facebook user Mike Gates. “But, I respect them because you know you are in the same boat with someone. I am a realist, and therefore, appreciate his posts.” Other users agree. “Misery loves company,” said Kristen Seery. “I get sick of reading people’s happy-go-lucky positive posts every day, so reading his posts actually make me feel better.” Here are some examples of Chad’s posts:

• “Just got done responding to angry client email. Had to be nice to them, but didn’t want to.”
• “Boss just showed up 10 minutes late to meeting he scheduled. I know I am not important, but have a little respect for my time.”
• “Review time. I have to spend the next four hours reviewing myself which will just go on file, and has no bearing at all on if I will get a raise.”
• “Just started responding to emails I have been completely ignoring for weeks. I hope there was nothing pressing in there. If there was they would have called, right?”
• “Every time I log into my system every morning I think to myself, “why am I here?”

Chad plans to continue to make his pointless work posts as long as people are reading them. “If people continue to like them, I will continue to post.” Chad has also started to see others making similar posts. “The idea is that I hopefully started a whole new category. Maybe it is not entertaining, but at least posts like these will let people know they are not alone in the world.” ]]>

As suspected for several years now, the bubble of elementary school-aged children is continuing to grow in the Stapleton community. We don’t mean growing in number of kids, but AGE of kids. What was once a simple concern over the number of seats in existing elementary school classrooms, is now becoming an alarming new reality: Our little ones are growing into teenagers. At the same time. “There’s no doubt about it.” said resident and parent of twin tweens, Mike Herold. “Our boys are indeed getting older. I just knew this was going to happen.” [Read more…] about Survey Shows Most Stapleton Parents in Denial about Growing Teen Bubble

If you have been on a walk on any of the wonderful Stapleton trails , or played at one of the many pocket parks in the early evening, you most likely have not enjoyed your experience. “The mosquitos have been unbelievable,” says resident Mitchell Schall. “My kids are getting eaten alive, and I spray them with bug spray. I don’t know what to do.” [Read more…] about Mosquito Problem Really Bugging Stapletonians