My friend Jennifer Moulton referred to them as random neuron firings. For me they are the miscellany emerging from the dog days of summer – when it’s too hot to focus hard on any single thing.
Following are observations about our city, ranging from streetscapes to regulatory rigmarole to naming opportunities.
Denver’s Department of public works has – finally – widened Quebec Street, north of Evans Avenue. But despite our City Beautiful tradition of landscaped parkways and the mayor’s commitment to sustainable building practices, the new medians are huge concrete barriers. The lack of trees and plantings – amenities that characterize the landscaped medians further north on Quebec – is a missed opportunity.
Let’s hope this myopic, cost-saving approach doesn’t reflect a broader administration policy regarding public right-of-way investments. It’s a terrible message as the city prepares to ask voters for more than $500 million in infrastructure improvements.
And speaking of streetscape, why does the pedestrian path on the east side of University Boulevard between Alameda and Exposition remain unpaved? This public right-of-way looks like a poorly maintained country path – despite the presence of a busy RTD bus stop. Homeowners in the adjacent upscale, gated Polo Club are replacing old wooden fencing with tall brick barrier walls. Should the city require sidewalk improvements at the same time?
It was discouraging to watch the City Council’s public hearing on the $550 million bond Denver voters will be asked to approve this November. Blueprint Denver, the city’s first-ever integrated land use and transportation plan, calls for public infrastructure improvements as key to stimulating private investment in areas where the city is trying to direct population growth. These important areas of change include former industrial districts: downtown’s River North, transit sites such as Colorado Station at Interstate 25 and Colorado Boulevard, and new residential neighborhoods – Lowry and Stapleton for example.
Queried by council members about why the bond package doesn’t include improvements for RiNo’s Brighton Boulevard or a bike and pedestrian bridge for the new transit village at Colorado Station or money to address the congested stretch of Quebec connecting Lowry and Stapleton, administration responses were pathetically weak.
It’s another lost opportunity that the upcoming bond initiative isn’t directly tied to the values and priorities of Blueprint Denver. The city should start walking its talk.
And on the subject of transportation, there are numerous emerging issues that the city’s arcane regulatory system is ill-prepared to address.
With transit-oriented and urban infill dominating Denver’s development, requirements for open space and enforcement of federal water quality regulations pose major barriers to timely and rational development.
City zoning requires open space amenities that look like a park and smell like a park but are neither owned nor maintained by the city. Controlled by the developer, special district or homeowners association, what rules apply to this private public space? Can the public assemble on the land? Hold protests? How does the First Amendment apply? These are questions Denver will face.
Finally, the name game. Hard to imagine, but the mayor has assembled yet another task force to consider what to name Denver’s new downtown justice center. Why not consider who paid for and will use the complex? Let’s emulate the 1932 inscription on the capstone of the nearby Denver City and County Building:
“Erected by the People of the City and County of Denver.”
Susan Barnes-Gelt (bs13@qwest.net) served eight years on the Denver City Council and was an aide to former Denver Mayor Federico Peña. Her column appears on alternate Sundays.
