All the News About Denver’s Best Residential Community Since 1961 • Volume 56, Issue No. 11 • November 2017
park hill character | Cara DeGette
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A Likely Love Story
Inside This Issue Highlights Of A Productive Year At GPHC, Inc.
Harold And Claudia Fields On Race, Justice, and Building Bridges
Fairfax Park Land Swap Heats Up
November Filled With Local Art, Pottery and Gift Markets
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Inc. on Oct. 5, she received the registered neighborhood organization’s highest accolades: Claudia is this year’s recipient of the Babbs Award, honoring the legacy of former Park Hill United Methodist Pastor, J. Carlton Babbs, who was a force for integration in Park Hill 50 years ago. Claudia’s efforts have been long and sustained in Park Hill. Her most recent project is founder and coordinator of the Weekend Food Program, which provides thousands of meals every year to young students in the neighborhood who likely would otherwise go hungry on days when school is not in session. In addition to her GPHC volunteer work, she works with Denver’s Youth Violence Prevention Center and the Northeast Park Hill community board. The plaque that Claudia was presented with stands on her small desk, in an alcove just off the kitchen. That’s where she says she does her work. In truth, for both Harold and Claudia, most of the work they do is conducted beyond the walls of their home, throughout the neighborhood, the city and the nation. Over the past 10 years, Claudia says, their work seems to have taken on more urgency,
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The sculpture that was handed to Harold Fields stands discretely on a bookshelf. It’s in the corner of the dining room, in the tidy Park Hill bungalow he shares with his wife, Claudia. It joins several other statuettes, testaments to Harold’s decades-long quest for racial and social justice. In late September, Fields was honored by the ACLU of Colorado, presented with the organization’s highest honor. Named for founder Carle Whitehead, the award is bestowed annually to a person whose life has reflected unswerving devotion to the cause of human justice. (Notable past recipients include former Mayor Wellington Webb, former state Sen. Penfield Tate, DPS board member and civil rights trailblazer Rachel Noel and Tattered Cover founder Joyce Meskis.) ACLU board member Carolyn Love explained: “[Harold] advances civil rights by creating spaces for people to understand the effects of hierarchy, separation, and injustice of all kinds and the resulting consequences. [He] facilitates the healing of wounds resulting from a history of racial intolerance and injustice.” Exactly a week after the ACLU banquet, it was Claudia’s turn. At the annual meeting of the Greater Park Hill Community,
East High Soccer No 1 and No 1 Turkey Alert: Help 300 Neighbors Celebrate Thanksgiving
Upcoming GPHC Meetings Thursday, Nov. 2, beginning at 6:30 p.m. at 2823 Fairfax St. All are welcome to attend. There is no meeting in December.
DPS Board Candidates Respond To East High Cheerleading Firestorm Reponses Range From Calls For Transparency To Hands Off By Lynn Kalinauskas GPHC Education Chair
In an October editorial, the Greater Park Hill News weighed in on the events that led to the retirement of East High School Principal Andy Mendelsberg and the resignation of athletic director Lisa Porter. Their departures followed the cheerleading forced splits event that swept through East High School this fall. In the editorial, we highlighted several missing pieces in the investigation report, which was produced by the law firm Davis Graham & Stubbs. Rather than serving as an “independent” inquiry – as Superintendent Tom Boasberg has claimed – the details strongly suggested otherwise. Since Boasberg’s housecleaning at East, District Attorney Beth McCann has announced no criminal charges would be filed over the incident. On Oct. 16, Mendelsberg appeared in an emotional on-camera interview with Channel 7. Mendelsberg said that one of DPS’s in-house lawyers, Michael Hickman – who was part of the inquiry but has been restored to his position – had never asked
More DPS Election News Inside: Dark Money Floods Races See Page 5
Mendelsberg for the video of the cheerleading forced splits incident. That statement contradicts the DGS report claimed the DPS lawyer had claimed that “he asked Mr. Mendelsberg about the video, and Mr. Mendelsberg indicated he did not have it.” Mendelsberg’s attorney, Tom Kresl, issued the following public statement: “While we have faith in and trust the investigation completed by the District Attorney and Denver Police Department, we believe the investigation commissioned by DPS was neither independent nor representative of Mr. Mendelesberg’s actions in addressing the incident. We look forward to the entire story being made public in the near future.” Given this extraordinary series of events at East High, we asked eight DPS board candidates running for office, whose districts includes a portion or all of Park Hill, to weigh in. At-Large candidates Barbara O’Brien and Robert Speth did not respond. Here are the other replies:
Carrie Olson – Running for District 3 “Our number one priority should be to provide a safe and healthy environment for the students under our care. When this doesn’t happen, we have to ask why and how. Former continued on page 17
Tree’s Final Autumn: A golfer enjoys one of the last days at the City Park Golf Course
before it closes Nov. 1 for as long as two years while Denver reconfigures the course to add a stormwater detention pond at the site. The tree behind the golfer is tagged with yellow tape, one of 261 trees that will be chopped down as part of the project. A legal effort to stop the city failed in late October. See story on page 4. Photo by Cara DeGette