.
Denver
Mayor Candidates Get Neighborly at
Community Forum
by
Judah Ken Freed
Washington
Park neighborood forum reveals as much
about local politics as the candidates
themselves.
.
Nine
of the fourteen Denver mayoral candidates
gathered on-stage last Monday, March 3,
for a neighborhood forum in an historic
Denver community church.
The evening revealed
as much as much about the candidates as
the state of Denver politics.
The red brick First
Reformed Presbyterian Church, built from
Denver clay in 1893, stands on the
southwest corner of Virginia Avenue and
Pearl Street near Washington Park. The
church is now the Christian Indian
Center.
On the grass at the
corner outside the church was a covered
card table staffed by volunteers for state
legislator Penfield Tate. They were
passing out hot "Penfield Taters," baked
potatoes to counter the night chill.
Thus began the
gauntlet to the front door through
volunteers from the other candidates, but
they were only offering pieces of printed
paper.
Inside the double
doors was a literature table. Another
literature table awaited in the back of
the church near the long tables bearing a
modest assortment of cookies and bottled
water. Ari Zavaras stand near the
refreshments table, saying he's looking
for coffee, not more hands to
shake.
There were more
people outside than inside as the clock
neared the 6:30 start time for the
community forum. Commencing late while
people arrived, perhaps a hundred people
loosely filled most of the pews as the
candidates took a seat on stage. Perhaps a
quarter of them wore the badges marking
active supporters of one candidate or
another.
All the major
candidates were on hand, the eight-pack:
former Denver city councilwoman Susan
Casey, Wynkoop Brewery and metro
restaurant owner John Hickenlooper, Denver
Auditor Donald Mares, former Democratic
Party chair Philip Perington, former
Historic Denver president Elizabeth
Schlosser, Computer Associates
International VP Jeremy Stefanek, Colorado
Senator Penfield Tate, III, and recently
resigned Denver Manager of Safety
Aristedes "Ari" Zavaras. Also making an
appearance was homeless activist and
former reserve deputy sheriff Dwight
Henson.
These nine sat on
stage in a long row flanked stage-left by
an artificial Christmas tree, unlit. On
the other side of the tree sat host Anne
McGihon, board member of the West
Washington Park Neighborhood Association.
A local and state Democratic party
activist, she organized this evening's
event.
Invited to attend
the community forum that evening were
members of the West and East Washington
Park neighborhood, plus the Cory-Merrill
neighborhood.
These three
city-recognized associations represent a
geographic voting block bounded by Speer
and Alameda on the north. Colorado
Boulevard on the east, I-25 on the south,
and Broadway on the north. Less than a
thousandth of one percent of the voters in
this area attended the March 3 mayoral
forum.
The low turnout was
not for a lack of public issues. All three
neighborhoods are being effected by the
"T-Rex" construction along I-25. West
Washington Park will be effected by the
new construction planned along Broadway
where the Gates factory now stands. West
Washington Park also is effected by the
one-way streets like Washington and
Emerson running through the middle.
McGihon opened the
forum by asking how many there were from
each neighborhood. Roughly 90 percent of
the raised hands claimed West Washington
park as home.
The evening would
get boring if all nine candidates were
asked the same nine questions again and
again, she said, so the candidates had
been arbitrarily divided into rotating
groups of five and four.
In each round of
questions, the two groups would receive a
different question under related themes.
An additional 14 questions were in a paper
sack she held up, and nine of these
questions would be pulled out at the end,
one for each candidate.
All answers would be
limited to one minute. A timer with a stop
watch and countdown placards sat in the
front row.
The structure
permitted no interaction among the
candidates beyond banter, no debate or
cross-examination. There would be no
direct interaction between the candidates
and the audience.
Opening statements
would be one minute.
Jeremy Stefanek
said, "People don't vote because they
don't feel they can make a difference. I'm
fed up with negative campaigns, and I'm
here to show a young businessman can make
a contribution. I've raised $900 so far.
My image consultant is my mother. My
girlfriend is handling public relations."
He wore a white shirt with a loosened
necktie.
Susan Casey cited
six years in city council. "At the end of
the day," she asked, "who do you think
will get things done?" She named her top
issues as the police department, early
childhood development and city government
ethics.
Ari Zavaras asked if
there was a better place to live than
Denver? Then he spoke of himself in third
person, promising that his campaign will
lay out specific written positions on all
issues. "When I get done, the people will
know exactly where Ari Zavaras stands on
water."
Don Mares cited his
experience as city auditor and in the
state legislature representing Washington
Park. "I want children who live in Denver
to grow up in a city where they can get a
good job."
With the first group
of four candidates done, the second groups
of five candidates offered their opening
pitch.
Philip Perington
said he's mostly lived in West Washington
Park. He remarked about the problem of
"those with experience in solutions that
do not work."
Dwight Henson said
he would be Denver's "homeless mayor." His
top issues are dealing with the drought
and "wasteful spending on the homeless
that does not get them into
homes."
Elizabeth Schlosser
pointed out that she's a first-time
candidate for anything, then cites here
record dealing with the city to preserve
Union Station, the Paramount Theater, "and
sunlight on the 16th Street
Mall."
John Hickenlooper
said his efforts to redevelop lower
downtown are now a national model of how
to improve a poor economy, proving what's
possible because "I've done
it."
Penfield Tate said
people need jobs and community services.
His administration would "think
differently" about housing and
neighborhoods. He would partner with
Denver Public Schools and put do things
like putting public libraries into public
schools.
Now began the rounds
of questions. The first question was city
budget crisis.
Hickenlooper said no
business would be run the way the city
operates, so he'd meet with top leaders to
set priorities.
Casey would promote
"smart gov" on the Baltimore model, such
as a "311" phone number for all
non-emergency city services.
Tate cite Joint
Budget Committee experience, promising he
would rework the city patterns of
"spending and investing." so city council,
city departments and the neighborhood
could agree.
McGihon started to
skip Perington and go on to the second
group, but he spoke up for himself,
quipping, "We ran against each other for
the state party chair, and I'm glad to see
she finally got over it." His solution
would be a "Blueprint for Denver"
involving all city agency managers in
"zero-based budgeting, starting from zero
each year."
McGihon now asked
the second group about neighborhood auto
traffic.
Zavaras said he
would not take a "cookie cutter approach,"
but would work with each
neighborhood.
Schlosser talked
about successfully lobbying for night
parking on 8th Avenue, said she favors
turning one-way streets back into two-way
streets, including California, Stout and
Champa downtown.
Mares talked about
bike paths, staying connected to the
neighborhoods, and the need to involved
both public works and the police in
traffic planning
Stefanek said he
lives just south of Buchtel, that the
tried to get a sound wall to block out
T-Rex construction, "but your neighborhood
yelled louder." He promised to work with
all neighborhoods, not just those who
yelled the loudest.
Henson said, "Every
hour is rush hour in Denver. I'd attack
growth and work with the people. You tell
me what you want, I'd work for you
guys."
Next, city bond
financing and redevelopment of the Gates
property.
Perington lamented
the tearing down of the Bredan Butter
building on Broadway, said he wants retail
at the gates site, promised more
neighborhood involvement, and pledged the
city would not let developers walk away
from projects by using performance
bonds.
Zavaras said he
would want to build in all directions from
the Gates site, not just the infill
between Broadway and Santa Fe. But he
would ask for community feedback, like on
Brighton Boulevard. "You don't make good
decisions unless you have everyone
participating."
Henson said, "I
support development that befits the whole
city. If it benefits your group, that
makes me happy."
Tate observed that
he does finance and development for a
living. He advocated mixed use for the
Gates site with transit and affordable
housing. "We need to leverage this
opportunity to set standards, so our
neighborhoods are business
friendly."
Schlosser said the
Gates site should have mid-sized buildings
in keeping with the character of the
community. "The Planning director I'll
appoint will be critical," she said. "We
need to make sure the city is as strongly
represented as the developers."
The next group was
asked about redevelopment of Ruby Hill as
part of the Gates project.
Stefanek recalled
sledding on Ruby Hill, said he'd want to
clean up the "stench" from the South
Platte River, "so parents would bring
their children to that park
again."
Casey said City
Council has to be more involved with the
parks and recreation department in
neighborhood projects.
Hickenlooper said
he'd already asked Gates about swapping
out the land it owns near Ruby Hill. His
goal would be to make it "a world class
park" he called the South Platte a
"cesspool" unsafe for the skin to touch,
promising to clean up the river, which
elicited one of the evening's few
outbursts of audience applause.
Mares said the city
needs to thinks ahead about planning, such
as at Lowry, where homes were built too
close to narrow Quebec Street to allow for
the widening needed to handle the
traffic.
The next round of
questions on liquor licensing produced a
echo of all candidates agreeing neighbors
deserve a greater say.
A subsequent round
of questions on water conservation
produced universal support for the
concept. Schlosser, Mares, Hickenlooper,
Casey, and Tate came out for xeriscaping.
Perington said he opposed cutting down
cooling trees to accommodate the Grand
Prix.
Finally, questions
were pulled from the paper bag by each
candidate.
Stefanek drew a slip
of paper asking what should be city policy
on "same sex" relationships. he said
private business can respond as they wish,
but the city itself should not
discriminate.
Casey pulled an
query on neighborhood involvement, and she
described attending neighborhood meetings
almost every weeknight for six
years.
Zavaras pulled a
question on campaign spending limits,
which he read aloud to audience titters.
He has the largest war chest in the race.
"This is really a great question," he
said, then declared support for publicly
funded elections as "the long-term
answer."
Mares read his
question about the need for neighborhood
impact statements on large projects. "The
impact of any project is always wider than
one neighborhood," he said. "So the number
one priority must be pre-planning, getting
ahead of the curve."
Perington was asked
about Denver-based businesses receiving
preference in city contracts. He initially
said no, because everyone deserves an
opportunity to bid, but then retrenched
and said he'd favor a modified
"affirmative action" policy for Denver
ventures.
Henson removed from
the sack a question about creating a more
skilled workforce in Denver. He'd put
people back to work by offering incentives
to attract more businesses to the
city.
Schlosser responded
to a question on recycling and free city
dumpsters. She wants recycling to increase
for 40 percent of the households to 100
percent. She favors keeping residential
dumpsters free, but paid collection
services for some businesses and for large
items may slow the exhaustion of available
landfills.
Hickenlooper,
amazingly, pulled a question about the
proposed ban on smoking in bars and
restaurants. Saying 70 percent of his
employees smoke, he proposed requirements
for better air filtering systems with bans
only where cleaner air was not
possible.
Tate pulled the
final question on performance
accountability for all city employees. The
system in place for long time has many
problems, he said, "so it may be time to
rework civil service."
McGihon then called
for one-minute closing statements, and the
candidates essentially repeated their
opening statements. The two memorable
exceptions were Hickenlooper and
Casey.
"Mayor Peña
asked you to imagine a great city. Mayor
Webb has built a great city. Now I'm
asking you to be a great city."
But the former city
council member found the words that all
the other candidates where trying to
voice. "My name is Susan Casey, she said,
"and I'd love to be your
mayor."
Orginally
written for The Colorado
Statesman.
March 2003
(c) 2003 by Judah Ken Freed
|
