The city of Denver has taken a proactive step toward helping to prevent suicide attempts at the parking lot that serves the Denver Performing Arts Complex.

Denver’s Department of Arts & Venues recently contracted with Stone Security to outfit the eight-story parking garage on Arapahoe Street between 13th and 14th streets with different types of cameras on all levels for anti-theft purposes, as well as speakers that can be used to alert patrons of urgent announcements.

The project also included installing a groundbreaking new radar system on the top, open-air level of the garage where, over the years, a number of people have attempted or committed suicide by jumping.

“Unfortunately, the top level of the parking garage has been a consistent place in the city for people to take their own lives,” Stone Security technician Luke Goss said in a report on the project for securitysales.com. “We installed a radar system on the roof designed to alert security guards anytime movement is present.”

The radar system works in concert with new PTZ cameras – short for “pan, tilt and zoom,” so that security staff can remotely assess the situation as quickly as possible.

The goal, Goss told writer D. Craig MacCormack, “is to get a security guard up to the person who could potentially be wanting to cause themselves harm as soon as possible, and for a camera and guard to easily have eyes on that person the whole time the incident is taking place.”

It’s not clear how many people have attempted or committed suicide from the top floor of the parking garage, but Brian Kitts, director of communications for Denver Arts & Venues, which manages the Denver Performing Arts Complex, said there have been at least three incidents over the past eight years.

“The reality is that people in crisis have used the arts complex for that purpose before, so when new technology becomes available that can provide any sort of assistance, we generally take it.”

Kitts said the city’s security team is specifically trained to handle “intervention and de-escalation situations with people in crisis.”

Kitts said this is the first installation Stone has done anywhere in the city specifically as a suicide prevention resource. He could not say how much the upgrades cost Arts & Venues to install except they are pricey. “But if it saves one person,” he said, “it is worth it.”

Goss is a 39-year-old former firefighter who joined Stone Security as a technician after a dozen years of putting out fires, rescuing cats from trees and responding to life-threatening situations.

“Being able to install a system like this that is designed to save human lives parallels my last career of serving others in need, and it’s just as fulfilling,” he told MacCormack. “I love that I’m still able to serve my community in this capacity.”

Follow that story: Speaking of that garage

We’ve been telling you the rather grim but necessary news that patron access to that very same parking garage at the downtown arts complex has been halved until May for access upgrades that will eventually make getting in and out at peak hours much easier. In the meantime, patrons have been advised to allow for 90 minutes just to navigate parking.

But in the first few weeks, the worst-case scenario has not yet materialized. That’s in part because SP Plus, the security company Arts & Venues contracts with to work the parking garage, is adding (at its own expense) flaggers inside the lot to help keep traffic moving. And, on weekends and other peak parking times, Arts & Venues is adding (at its own expense) temporary off-duty police officers to help navigate cars outside the lot and to manipulate key traffic signals to get everyone on their way as quickly as possible.

Kitts did not have cost figures immediately available for the added labor expense, but said Arts & Venues is absorbing it – not tenants like the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

 Vintage Theatre buys its building (again!)

Here’s a story you don’t see every day: Vintage Theatre, which in 2012 bought the building it moved into at 1468 Dayton St. in Aurora back in 2012, is buying it all over again in 2024.

That’s because, in 2014, the Vintage team sold the building to the city of Aurora to give it some needed financial breathing room. “Then, in 2017, we began discussions with them to buy it back,” said Artistic Director Bernie Cardell.

Then came COVID, which delayed the already unusual transaction for a few more years. But this week, Vintage announced that it has signed the final documents to purchase the building, ensuring that the space will be its forever home in the Aurora Cultural Arts District or at least for the next 20 years.

Cardell said the purchase price was $880,000, but the city of Aurora will carry the mortgage for the next 10 years, and in return will require of Vintage a monthly payment of only $2,500 – or $30,000 a year. Cardell believes that is a sweetheart deal for Vintage, which drew about 15,000 patrons to its three performing spaces in 2023.

“We owe a lot to the city of Aurora,” Cardell said. “They have done so much for us over the years.”

Vintage also announced the simultaneous launching of its first-ever capital campaign, with a goal of $1 million. Proceeds will go toward speeding up owning the property outright, replacing the existing roof and replacing all of the seats in the mainstage Nickelson Auditorium.

Cardell believes Vintage is perfectly situated to make this deal work out over the long run.

“For all of the talk about attendance and donations and sponsors and grants being way down, that has just not been our experience,” Cardell said. “It is both daunting and exciting to be in a position that, at some point, we will be able to own this building outright and secure the future of this organization for years to come.”

Next up at Vintage: “The Legend of Georgia McBride,” Feb. 16-March 24.

Briefly …

Local music fans were thrown for a loop this week when all but one upcoming concert scheduled for the Soiled Dove Underground were canceled, accompanied only by a cryptic notice that all shows are off “until litigation around a company restructure is complete.” Frank Schultz, owner of The Tavern Group, which includes the Soiled Dove, was sued a year ago by his mother, Terry Papay, over charges of financial mismanagement. Denver Gazette media partner 9News has more on the story at denvergazette.com …

MCA Denver’s “Cowboy” will go down as one of its most impactful exhibitions, but it closes Sunday. It’s comprised of works by 27 Asian American, Latinx and Native artists. Its aim is to shift the narrative of perhaps the most culturally significant icon of the American West to be both more historically accurate and creatively imaginative. Info at mcadenver.org …

The DCPA Theatre Company has extended the runs of its concurrent world-premiere plays  “Cebollas” and “Rubicon” through March 17 …

The ninth annual Colorado Dragon Boat Film Festival, which celebrates Asian and Asian American film, will open March 14 with “Happy Sandwich,” which explores Okinawa cuisine and culture through a blend of documentary and fiction. The closing film will be the sci-fi comedy “Moon Man,” about an astronaut who becomes stranded on the moon after an asteroid wipes out life on Earth. The fest is a partnership between Denver Film and Colorado Dragon Boat. Full festival passes are $65-$75 with individual screenings $12-15 at denverfilm.org.

And finally …

There are shoutouts, and then there is getting mentioned on one of the most popular sit-coms on network TV. Chalkbeat, a nonprofit journalism initiative that began in Colorado and now delivers top-notch education reporting in eight cities across the country, got called out last week on ABC’s “Abbott Elementary.”

“You read Chalkbeat?” creator and star Quinta Brunson says to a fellow school-district employee. When he responds in the affirmative, she says, “ I basically live in the comments section …”

As you might imagine, “Our phones immediately lit up from readers across the country,” said Chalkbeat Colorado’s Sarah Darville. “The Chalkbeat staff was, to put it mildly, freaking out in the best way.”