Wake-Up Call: Denver's Y2K flop

On the Latest Word, we've been counting down some of Denver's best moments over the past decade. But this city did not start 2000 with a bang. In fact, while the rest of the world threw a huge party to welcome the millennium, Denver officials -- with visions of Y2K...

By Patricia Calhoun

December 28, 2009

Audio By Carbonatix

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On the Latest Word, we've been counting down some of Denver's best moments over the past decade. But this city did not start 2000 with a bang. In fact, while the rest of the world threw a huge party to welcome the millennium, Denver officials -- with visions of Y2K disasters dancing in their heads -- locked this town down tight. All the fun drained out of the city on December 31, 1999-- just like those emergency bathtub water supplies we were told to store in case of trouble.

It was Denver's first big flop of the decade, and it would not be the last. Have a favorite flub or flop from the past ten years? Post it below, and we might add it to the list of the Ten Top Flops we'll unveil before the year ends.

Patricia Calhoun is editor-in-chief of Westword, the alt-weekly she co-founded in September 1977. She’s been inducted into the Colorado Press Association Hall of Fame, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Hall of Fame and the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame. She’s also received dozens of local, state and national awards for writing, including first place for feature writing and first place for column writing with the Society of Professional Journalists. Patricia is a weekly commentator on Colorado Inside Out, PBS 12's public affairs roundtable, which has won two Emmys.

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