Wake-Up Call: Buy local, think local December 1-7

Buy local week continues through December 5. And while, with Barack Obama's appointments announcement today, it doesn't look like many Coloradans will be heading to D.C., there's plenty to do here at home.

Nothing gets the home fires burning like neighborhood fights, and Denver's Neighborhood Stabilization Program -- created by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 -- will send its draft action plan to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today, outlining how it would use $6.1 million to redevelop foreclosed properties. To read the plan, go to www.mile.high.com. To complain about it, find your councilperson, fast.

Those councilpeople will be busy tonight, considering a one-year contract with Denver Health that calls for a new way to measure ambulance response time -- as Jared Jacang Maher reported in "Delayed Emergency Response" in June, Denver paramedics were responding far more slowly than official reports indicated. And when council reps get into stickier neighborhood issues -- including rezoning in West Washington Park -- two weeks from now, they may need to call the paramedics as citizens start hyperventilating.

As longtime businesses retrench, Denverites are looking at new opportunities. At 5:30 Wednesday, December 3, Mi Casa Resource Center will hold a seminar to help small business owners and entrepreneurs; for details, call 303-539-5657. And at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, December 4, the Denver Office of Economic Development will host a business financing forum. Call 720-913-1660 to learn more.

More building for the future: On Tuesday, December 2, the Denver Landmark Commission will consider the possibility of preserving two circa '60s buildings at the old University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. At 7:30 p.m. December 4, the LoDo Tattered Cover will host a book-signing in regard to Built for Learning, the new book on the architecture of the University of Denver. That's the same day Denver will consider plans for another monument-in-the-making, the replacement for Boettcher Hall. And at 8 a.m. Friday, December 5, Senator Ken Salazar's 2008 Health Care tour culminates with the 2008 Colorado Health Care Summit, with Tom Daschle -- Obama's choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services -- as the keynote speaker. Additional information can be found at www.salazar.senate.gov.

Also on Friday, the Denver Broncos host Football 201 for advanced female fans at the Dove Creek training center. With the home team almost certainly heading for playoffs, it could be time to brush up on your cheering skills. For details, go to www.DenverBroncos.com/NFL201. At the very least, you should stock up on alcoholic beverages for all those game-watching parties -- and just in time, the new Argonaut will open on Wednesday, December 3, right next door to the old Argonaut.

Look national, be local: Finally, the city's hoping to attract a crowd to Union Station at 5 a.m. Friday morning, when ABC will be doing a live remote to coincide with Mayor John Hickenlooper's appearance in New York, where he will unveil Denver's promotional Times Square window on Good Morning America. All aboard! -- Patricia Calhoun