All the News About Denver’s Best Residential Community Since 1961 • Volume 56, Issue No. 8 • August 2017
NEWS ANALYSIS
Busing is our history; the problems it attempted to solve remain
“We believe that high-quality, integrated schools not only offer the best educational outcomes for our children but also serve a vital function in promoting and sustaining vibrant neighborhoods.” So says the Denver Public Schools’ Board of Education in a recently passed resolution launching the Strengthening Neighborhoods Initiative. The initiative established a citywide committee charged with evaluating the impact of Denver’s changing
STATE OF THE CITY Editor, GPHN
Donna Banks gestures to the roof of her house near 26th Avenue and Grape Street, where she spotted a huge raccoon. Photo by Cara DeGette
Donna Banks has lived in Park Hill for 40 years and she said she’s never seen anything like it. “It was in the attic and I heard a noise, and I thought, that can’t be a mouse, it must be a rat,” Banks said. “But then my husband went outside and looked up at the chimney and I went out there to see what he was looking at, and it just about scared me to death. It was so big – as big as a big dog, you know. “It was just laying across the roof like a big lion, like a big statue.” It wasn’t a mouse, or a rat, or a dog, or a lion. It was a raccoon, one of many that has been spotted all summer long, all over the neighborhood. The raccoon sightings have prompted a multitude of reports, including on social media – along with advice on how to avoid getting chickens grabbed and
Pauline Robinson: Freedom Fighter, Trailblazing Librarian Park Hill Character: Frank Sullivan, Uninterrupted
UPCOMING GPHC MEETINGS Thursday, Aug. 3 and Sept. 7 at 6:30 p.m. 2823 Fairfax St. All are welcome to attend
Ready, Set, Tudor Home Tour & Street Fair Sept. 10
The Year of the Raccoon By Cara DeGette
Letters To The Editor: The Mailbox Is Full This Month
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Hancock Brings City Hall To Park Hill, See Page 6
Not Everyone Loves The Bandit-Faced Hooligans
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Special to the GPHN
demographics on its neighborhood schools and making recommendations to the board that will “drive greater socio-economic integration in our schools.” I, along with about 40 other district, city, and community representatives, was appointed to serve on the committee. Now I am suffering from a serious case of déjà vu. It’s been nearly 22 years since federal district court Judge Richard Matsch ended two decades of court-ordered busing for desegregation in DPS. At the time of the Sept. 12, 1995 ruling, I was a newly elected member of the Board of Education. As a
Do You Know Your Denver Square From Your French Eclectic?
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By Laura Lefkowits
The decision to end busing was influenced by a brief filed in 1992 by thenDenver Mayor Wellington Webb. Webb claimed that busing had outlived its usefulness and minorities now had sufficient power to ensure fair treatment for their children, regardless of where they went to school. Vocal Denverites agreed and urged a return to neighborhood schools that promised to boost white enrollment and allow communities to take an active role in school improvement. It is ironic that, in 1995, both minority and white families viewed the “neighborhood school” policy that had caused the district to lose in court in 1973 as the so-
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Circa 1970, students standing in line waiting to board the bus as part of the Denver Public Schools desegregation busing system. Credit: Denver Public Library/Western History and Genealogy
Blockworking From Cradle To College
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The new reality
INSIDE THIS ISSUE PAGE 2
Coming Full Circle
Park Hill resident, I was very familiar with the Keyes v School District No. 1 desegregation suit brought in 1969 against DPS for its neighborhood school policy relegating African-American students to inequitable schools. The plaintiffs were able to show a deliberate and unlawful pattern of student assignment that resulted in the almost total isolation of black students in overcrowded, low-quality, under-resourced schools. The district argued that it was merely following the Board’s policy of assigning students to their neighborhood school, a “color-blind” policy with no intent to discriminate. After a long court battle, in 1973 the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the plaintiffs and ordered DPS to change its student assignment policy, which included the use of busing to desegregate the district’s schools. The response of the city was similar to many other cities that were ordered to desegregate in those years. By 1980, DPS had lost approximately 30,000, mostly white, students to the suburbs and private schools (the term coined to describe this phenomenon was “white flight”). By 1995, only 27 percent of DPS students were white.
eaten from backyard coops, dogs mauled, and even unwelcome late night kitchen raids via cat doors. Report: Two very brazen raccoons in the alley of 23rd and Glencoe, going through a trash can. Report: Three of them knocking over cans at 29th and Steele. Report: A family slinking out of the drainpipe at Dexter and 26th. Report: At 17th and Cherry, taking a bath in a backyard fountain. Report: Mama and four babies crossing the street at 26th and Dahlia. Report: Three of them standing just outside the patio door, looking in. Report: Two little monsters terrorizing in the alley at 33rd and Cherry. Other spottings have been reported this summer at 29th and Hudson, 22nd and continued on page 7
The 39th Annual Park Hill Home Tour & Street Fair is set for Sunday, Sept. 10, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tour eight homes in Denver’s most architecturally diverse neighborhood (this year’s tour homes include Colonial Revival, French Country, Mediterranean, and Tudor). After you’re finished touring the homes, enjoy a free street fair along the Forest Street Parkway between Montview and 19th Avenue, with more than 100 vendors, live music, food trucks, a wine & beer garden, and children’s activities. Home Tour ticket sales begin midAugust online, and Sept. 1 in retail locations. Prices are $20 for adults (13+) and $15 for seniors (65+) and children (7-12). Children 6 and under are free. Ticket prices increase by $5 on the day of the event so be sure to buy in advance! Visit parkhillhometour.org, and be sure to check out next month’s issue of the GPHN for the big annual spread about the homes featured on the tour. The Park Hill Home Tour & Street Fair benefits the Greater Park Hill Community, Inc. (GPHC), a nonprofit registered neighborhood organization that promotes the character and vibrancy of Park Hill, provides resources, information, and advocacy, and preserves quality of life and the history of the neighborhood.