All the News About Denver’s Best Residential Community Since 1960 • Volume 61, Issue No. 1 • January 2022
News In Brief
Compiled by Cara DeGette, Editor, GPHN
Denver Museum Of Nature & Science ‘Amazed’ With EndOf-Year Gift Of $25 Million
Tuxedo Dreams
A combination of factors, including climate change, overfishing and oil spills, have led to a dramatic decline in African Penguin populations. The Denver Zoo, just west of Park Hill, collaborates with groups around the world to save these winsome creatures. A new African Penguin habitat opened at the zoo in the fall, designed to replicate the their natural habitat of coastal Southern Africa. See page 4 for the story and more penguin photos by Reid Neureiter.
In late December, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science received a gift like never before: $25 million from an anonymous donor. It it the largest in the institution’s 121-year history. “We are amazed by the donor’s generosity and vision,” said George Sparks, Museum President & CEO in a press release. “The support will vastly expand the museum’s capacity for collections conservation.” Stephen E. Nash, the Museum Director of Anthropology and Senior Curator of Archaeology, said the bulk of the $25 million donation — 90 percent — will establish an endowed fund at the DMNS Foundation. Annual distributions from the endowment will support the museum’s ongoing conservation work. The remaining 10 percent — $2.5 million — will go directly to the museum for initial staffing, equipment and launch activities. None of the money will be used for any physical expansion of the museum, which added a new wing in 2014. “Collections are treasures held in the public trust,” Nash said. “Preserving them and making them accessible to source communities, scientists and the public has long been an institutional priority. “This unprecedented gift will take our
work to another level, with the expertise and state-of-the-art analytical equipment needed to advance the field and train the next generation of conservation professionals from a wide range of backgrounds. It will position the Museum as a leader in culturally-inclusive object conservation in the Rocky Mountain region, nationally and internationally.” The Museum’s Science Division collects and cares for a world-class natural history collection composed of 4.3 million artifacts and specimens. Its collections contain scientifically and culturally significant objects in archaeology, ethnology, geology, paleontology, health sciences, zoology and archives. The Museum’s scientific collections are used by scholars, source communities, artists, students and other groups around the globe to answer questions about our natural world. They are also made available to the public through traveling and permanent exhibitions and programming for audiences of all kinds. In late December, Nash told the Greater Park Hill News that the donor, who wishes to remain anonymous, has been very supportive of arts in the Rocky Mountain region and nationally for years. Officials say in an average year, the museum fields 350 external research requests, consults with dozens of tribal nation representatives, makes 160 loans consisting of more than 11,000 collection objects, and continued on page 8
Inside This Issue
Park Hill Character
GPHC Board Member Dishes on Open Space, Flower Beds, Guerilla Newspaper Deliveries
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Maria Flora’s Victory Lap
Open Book: What Park Hill’s Safe Outdoor Space Taught Me
Story and photos by Cara DeGette
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National Western Stock Show, MLK Jr. Marade Return In January
News: Denver Mayoral Appointees Make A Beeline For The Exit
Patrolling The Mountain With Keaghan Dunn-Rhodes
PAGE 10 PAGE 11
At some point a couple years back, Maria Flora decided that there isn’t much, really, that she could do about the state of international affairs, or the tumult of national politics and what’s happening in Washington. “But I can have an impact on my immediate environment,” Flora says, “and that’s why I decided to throw myself into the Park Hill Golf Course issue and out of that, [became] interested in serving on the Greater Park Hill Community board.” And so in retrospect, 2021 for Flora was one fabulous year. All activities culminated in a defining moment on Nov. 2, election night. After months of foot-soldiering across Denver with other pro-park and open space campaigners, Flora walked into the Abbey Tavern on Colfax. The bar was the official Initiative 301 campaign party headquarters. It was 8 p.m., just an hour after the polls had closed.The electricity in the room housing the underdog effort was at high buzz. Initiative 301 — which provides additional protections for the conservation easement on the Park Hill Golf Course property — was kicking butt. In a landslide. And, Initiative 302 — the high-dollar counter-effort funded by the developer Westside Investment Partners in an effort to confuse voters and nullify 301 — was losing. In a landslide. “It was jaw-dropping for me,” Flora says. “I did think we would win, because when we were dropping literature all over the city and delivering signs and copies of the Greater Park Hill News, I got good vibes
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GPHN Editor
Maria Flora, at home in Park Hill, thinks globally and acts locally.
from everybody about 301, and the need to protect that land. But I didn’t think we would win 2-to-1. You can imagine how happy that made me feel.” “It’s just so big I can hardly get my brain wrapped around it.”
Ebb and flow Flora is an attorney, now retired. As a bankruptcy expert, she traveled a career path through the ebb and flow of Denver’s
boom and bust economy, and, of course, life. As a young lawyer, she envisioned herself focused on women’s rights and criminal defense. But when she and her husband, Hank Bootz, arrived in Denver in 1975, the city was in bust cycle, and she was happy to land a government job with the Small Business Administration. From there she joined a small private law firm, and then became continued on page 12
East High Constitutional Scholars Headed To Nationals, Again
Upcoming GPHC Meetings Community meetings are conducted virtually on the first Thursday of each month. The next meetings are Jan. 6 and Feb. 3 at 6:30 p.m. Link to attend at greaterparkhill.org/ join-us/community-meetings/