Parker: Denver whups 'em all for third straight year as area for singles

By Penny Parker, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published July 26, 2006 at midnight

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Think it's tough being single in Denver? Just thank your astrological sign that you're not living in Greensboro, N.C. For the third year straight, Forbes.com has named the Denver-Boulder area "Best City For Singles"; Greensboro came in dead last.

Forbes.com made a list of 40 large metro areas and ranked them in seven categories: "nightlife, culture, job growth, number of other singles, cost of living alone, coolness and, for the first time, online dating activity."

Now you could argue until the cowtown comes home whether this is a happenin' sassy scene for singles, but the really rib-tickling part of the story is that Forbes.com chose the very married Mayor John Hickenlooper as official Denver spokesman for singles.

How many of you recall way back in 1994 when The Looper, then just a mild-mannered brewpub owner, appeared on the Phil Donahue talk show because pal Ken Gart had put a bridal bounty on Hick's head?

When they taped the show, Hick had been dating local lovely Devany McNeill for three months, and the deal was if they tied the proverbial knot, Gart would donate $5,000 in Hick's name to charity. A Hickenlooper-McNeill marriage never materialized, but both have been lucky in love by happily marrying other people.

DEVELOPER DIVA: According to one tongue wagger who worked for Denver developer diva Dana Crawford, "The devil wears Ferragamo: size 11 AAAA."

The remark, and many others that followed during Crawford's 75th birthday celebration Saturday at the Oxford Hotel, was uttered lovingly about the visionary who put Larimer Square on the map.

Mayor Hickenlooper declared the date Dana Crawford Day, and former Mayor Wellington Webb sent along a note (neither hiz honors could be there).

Westword founder and editor Patty Calhoun, who doubles as a Channel 12 regular, gently roasted and toasted her longtime pal. "We're all here because at some point, Dana looked at our sagging, horrific edifices and saw potential," Calhoun quipped.

Walter Isenberg, whose company Sage Hospitality is the majority owner of the Oxford, emceed the event that also included gentle jabs from Tom Congdon, friend and Larimer Square investor; Tom "Dr. Colorado" Noel; father and son Joe and Jeff Shoemaker (who broke into song); and former Comedy Works yuckster and Roseanne show writer Ed Yeager.

Dana's boys, Jack, Tom, Peter and Duke also helped mom usher in the big three- quarter-century mark.

STAR-SPANGLED SPROUT: Jake Schroeder, Avalanche home game National Anthem singer, lead singer in Opie Gone Bad and Denver City Council candidate, and his wife, Rachel, welcomed their first wee warbler into the world at 5 p.m. July 14. Quinn Rebecca, was named after a girl in Belize. "We loved the name," Jake said. The Mighty Quinn weighed in at 7 pounds, 1 ounce.

WEDDING BELLS: The wedding of Colorado cowboy-turned-Boulder-real-estate broker Justin Wade Miller to CitiFinancial account exec Regina Marie Bellesheim made the pages of the New York Times' July 23 edition.

She's East Coast born and bred from Bronxville, N.Y.; he grew up on a Meeker ranch "riding horses, mending fences and competing in rodeos," according to the story.

The two met at the Celtic Tavern, and ended up leaving together after a fight broke out. They were married in the Hamptons and will make their home in Lafayette.

EAVESDROPPING on a man at Sketch: "I'd rather fire people than hire people."

Penny Parker's column appears Tuesday through Saturday. Listen to her on the Caplis and Silverman radio show between 4 and 5 p.m. Fridays on KHOW-AM (630). Call her at 303-892-5224 or e-mail parkerp@RockyMountainNews.com.

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