All the News About Denver’s Best Residential Community Since 1961 • Volume 57, Issue No. 3 • March 2018
EDUCATION UPDATE | Lynn Kalinauskas
Park Hill Neighbors for Equity in Education Forms To Tackle The Big Issues
Araceli Velasquez Marks Seven Months In Sanctuary In Park Hill
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ful and respectful. One could feel, in the large gym, the energy that was waiting to be channeled into potential solutions that would strengthen the neighborhood.
Self-interest and segregation The meeting opened with presentations by three featured speakers. Alan Gottlieb, the first speaker, owns a
Barnstorming Over Park Hill
Barnstorming, in which pilots performed loopthe-loops and acrobatic stunts like the one shown here, gained popularity during the Roaring 20s. During the post-World War I era, flying circuses were all the rage after thousands of surplus biplanes (called Jennys) were sold at bargain prices to private owners, helping to awaken America to civil aviation. Charles Lindbergh reportedly got his start as a barnstormer, and some of the most famous daredevils were women, including Katherine Stinson and BesPhoto credit: The Tom Noel Collection sie Coleman, an African-American woman who also fought segregation. This photo of a daring air feat was sent in by Park Hill architect Marc Applebaum. The shot was taken over Treat Hall at the former Colorado Women’s College (now Johnson & Wales) marking the far southeast boundaries of Park Hill. The view is to the southwest, showing Park Hill, Montclair and Aurora beyond.” Pretty much wide-open prairie land,” noted Applebaum. “Oneida Street and Montview are evident, as well as the historic residences. St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and Stanley School can be seen at 13th and Quebec.” Just a few years shy of 100 years later, the landscape has certainly changed dramatically – a reminder of the ramped up development that continues its onward (and upward) march. Colorado historians Stephen Leonard and Tom Noel provided additional insight. “The original Lowry Field was located near 48th and Dahlia in the 1920s. My guess is that the plane flew from there,” Leonard said. Noel says he originally got the photo from an old timer, now gone. – Cara DeGette
communications consulting firm and is co-founder of Chalkbeat, a national news nonprofit focused on PreK-12 education. He listed the many benefits of diversity, including a synergy that occurs when people from different backgrounds work together. He noted that the best colleges and the best employers look for people who are able to continued on page 10
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If, on the morning of Jan. 27, you didn’t make your way to McAuliffe to participate in the community meeting organized by Park Hill Neighbors for Equity in Education, you missed something big. This was by far the most positive discussion on education I’ve attended in a decade. PHNEE is a group of parents and community members who have organized to bring attention to the current state of segregation in Greater Park Hill schools. More than 150 people attended the meeting, which was headlined Park Hill Past to Present: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Just over half the attendees came from within the Greater Park Hill boundary. A fair number of people from other neighborhoods were also attracted, curious for information and hungry for authentic conversation. A handful of Denver Public Schools employees also came, including downtown administrators as well as principals and teachers from the neighborhood’s schools. Board members Jennifer Bacon and Carrie Olson, who both represent Park Hill, listened and participated. Although the discussions were about serious challenges in Park Hill and Denver’s educational landscape, the fact that such a crowd came together was in itself uplifting. Conversations were informative, insight-
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A Force To Be Reckoned With
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
18 Degrees And … Rugby
Springtime, Rockies Style: Extreme Skiing An Hour From Park Hill Support Democracy: Go To The Library
Future Of Park Hill Golf Course Uncertain: Meeting Set For March 10
UPCOMING GPHC MEETINGS Thursday, March 1 and Thursday, April 5, beginning at 6:30 p.m. at 2823 Fairfax St. All are welcome to attend.
‘There Is No Deal’
City Shelves Fairfax Land Swap, Cites Lack Of Public Process By Cara DeGette Editor, GPHN
Denver Parks and Recreation Director Happy Haynes has announced her department has backed away from supporting a controversial land swap between the city and a private developer for a pocket park on Fairfax Street. The proposed deal, which was crafted without public input, would have given developer Ben Maxwell of HM Capital the former Xcel Energy substation property on the west side of Fairfax between 28th and 29th avenues for future development. In exchange, Maxwell agreed to build a park on the east side of the street inside his blocklong residential and commercial project, called Park Hill Commons. During a Feb. 22 meeting at Stedman Elementary School, Haynes confirmed that the city did not follow correct procedure. “I want to apologize to the community for not following the same process we often do … to determine what the community needs and desires with regard to developing a park site,” said Haynes. “We put the cart before the horse.” The city obtained the former substation, which is about one-third of an acre, for $50,000 in 2016. Parks and Recreation deputy director Scott Gilmore announced plans for a modest park, possibly a dog park. Later that year, the developer met privately with Councilman Chris Herndon, whose district includes Park Hill. HM Capital offered to pay for and build the park as long as it was on the east side of the street, inside the development project. Gilmore has since maintained that it could be seven years or more before the city could afford to build the park in its original loca-
tion. For more than a year, both Gilmore and Herndon have appeared with the developer in public forums, expressing enthusiastic support for the deal. Asked during the Feb. 22 meeting whether the city’s support for the land swap was being rescinded, Haynes noted that she could not speak for Councilman Herndon. But, she underscored, “There is no deal.” Herndon, who was in attendance, did not address the group. He left shortly after Haynes finished speaking. Haynes’s comments came several weeks after the board of Greater Park Hill Community, Inc. wrote to her and to Herndon, asking them to clarify the city’s plans. The letter also noted that the Park Hill Neighborhood Plan, which was adopted in 2000, specifies that, “Changes to parks and open space should be decided in a neighborhood forum.” “Our purpose is to ensure that the adjacent neighbors’ priorities and wishes for the features of a pocket park in their neighborhood are heard, documented, and published.” The letter, which was approved unanimously at the Feb. 1 GPHC community meeting was signed by 26 board members of the Registered Neighborhood Organization. (The full letter can be read at greaterparkhill.org.) GPHC has also hosted several community meetings to discuss developing the pocket park at its original proposed site on the west side of the street. Many longtime residents living nearby are African American and working class. Many have expressed concerns that they would not feel welcome in a park on the east side that would be surrounded by the developer’s upscale restaurants, retail shops and townhomes. continued on page 5