Volume 53, Issue No. 5
A Greater Park Hill Community, Inc. Publication
May 2014
Spinellis Moving On; Moutzouris Moving In New Owners Vow To Keep The Old Traditions Alive By Erin Vanderberg On April 12, Mary Ellen and Jerry Spinelli stepped down from the helm at Spinelli’s Market after 20 years. While the sale is bittersweet for the Park Hill icons, they are confident that their market is in good hands with brothers John and Ted Moutzouris, who grew up in the grocery business at their family store, Pete’s Fruits and Vegetables in the Hilltop neighborhood south of Park Hill. Mary Ellen and Jerry keep telling the many customers who have come to say their goodbyes, “It’s all good.”
The Beginning “Instead of buying a Harley Davidson for our mid-life crisis, we bought a grocery store.” – Mary Ellen Spinelli In 1994, when the Spinellis bought the Park Hill Super Market and Deli at 4621 E. 23rd Ave., Mary Ellen and Jerry were in their mid-40s. Their two children, Adrienne and Edward, were teenagers. Their idea was to create a place similar to those from the nearby Kearney Street of Mary Ellen’s youth — a place where neighbors could come together, talk and make memories.
Mary Ellen and Jerry Spinelli, in front of their 23rd Street market. Photo: Erin Vanderberg
But turning that vision into a reality was real work. Mary Ellen first saw the store on a Memorial Day weekend. It was oppressively hot inside — no blinds, no air conditioning, the scarce chocolate in stock melting on the shelves. Outside, there were bars on the window and a woman using the payphone out front to call the police to make
a complaint about the owner. “I’m thinking to myself, ‘Hello! What are we going to do here?’” says Mary Ellen. Jerry says, graciously, that the previous owners didn’t know much about rotating stock. Mary Ellen is more to the point: “It was a haven for nefarious activities.” In the continued on page 8
Susman Accepts Challenge: Go Carless for a Week Denver Council President’s Travelogue on The Trials & Travails Of Mass Transit By Mary Beth Susman The editor of this newspaper calls me up and says she’s got an idea. Last month, the Greater Park Hill News published a story on the pressures of increased traffic in the neighborhood – a direct result of Denver’s surrounding population growth. There is denser development and more traffic. Urban planners say we have to get out of our cars and opt for multimodal transportation. Yours truly has been an advocate of doing just that, and creating village concepts in new developments. We have those (sort of) at nearby Stapleton and Lowry. These are projects that have denser housing, and some retail. So dwellers can live, play, buy, and (for some) work without having to use their cars. All well and good for neighborhoods and for other cities that have transit infrastructure such as subways or elevated trains. And certainly our region is a national model for our gigantic investment in light rail. Problem is, not only is light rail not within walking/biking distance from me, it doesn’t go anywhere I want to go even if I could get to it. Ditto for much of Park Hill, part of which I represent on the Denver City Council.
Many Council District 5 neighborhoods were built as 1900’s mid-century or slightly earlier suburbs. They were places to get away from the hubbub of the city, built when the automobile companies successfully lobbied to dismantle our electric streetcar system. The later burbs (1960 and 70’s) were even built without sidewalks because someone must have thought we were never going to walk again. So onto the call from the editor. She suggests that I stow my car for a week and get around my daily business without it. My first inclination is to say, “Let me look at my calendar.” But on re-consideration I said, “I’ll do it” – without knowing what kind of a week it was going to be. It turned out to be a doozy. I have to admit to being a little frightened. My calendar was planned with the expectation of personal car travel, so lag times are
Bookstore icon Joyce Meskis shares 43 years of memories
PaGe 18
PaGe 4
InsIde ThIs Issue
City Matters: Brad Buchanan appointment sparks controversy
OMG, as the text messengers say. I try to register for Car2Go, a new company that allows you to use MixMaster- size cars whenever and wherever they happen to be. This turns out to be impossible because: • You need an app for that. • You need a Smartphone. I have a 2007 Blackberry. It might as well have been assembled in 1907. I try to download the app. “Not available on my device.” Apps will work on my PC Computer (though kind of klugey), but how am I goncontinued on page 14
A preview of the twelve stunning gardens featured in this year’s Garden Tour to welcome summer
Council District 5 has a “last mile” problem. It’s the problem of insufficient transit to get us where we want to go within the perimeter of surrounding transit.
PaGe 3
May 2014
Time to ditch the Blackberry
Park Hill Garden Walk: June 14th
The Last Mile
Credit Cara DeGette
short. But no excuses: it’s time to see exactly what the transit challenges are. The challenge began on Monday, April 14. I had accepted it just two days before, on Saturday. I jumped to prepare.
Park Hill Roots: Annuals can be jewelry of the landscape
nexT GPhC MeeTInG Thursday, May 1 at 6:30 p.m. 2823 Fairfax St., Denver
This newspaper is made possible through the support of our advertisers and members. If you are not already a member, please consider joining the Greater Park Hill Community, Inc.