The first official piece of the Denver mosaic comes from Ginger Schlote. The first piece of the mosaic could, in fact, be Ginger Schlote. She’s a fixture in her neighborhood of Mar Lee.
In August, Schlote and her husband walked from West Colfax to Hampden avenues and back along Federal Boulevard documenting graffiti. They photographed 600 tags and handed the addresses to the Public Works Department, and the city scrubbed them clean. They didn’t stay that way, but Schlote is a woman of perseverance.
“I logged 33 tags today, and that’s just driving home on one street,” she told me Thursday.
Schlote has lived in southwest Denver for 40 years. Her husband has lived in the neighborhood 62 years. I could devote a column to her, but that’s not why she called.
I recently asked you for your part of the mosaic of this city. Who or what anchors your corner of Denver and gives it its personality, vibrancy and cohesiveness? I received some terrific responses. Keep them coming. Schlote sent me a whole list of her neighborhood touchstones.
First upon it: Denver Police District 4 Cmdr. Rudy Sandoval’s twice-monthly community meetings.
Sandoval took command of District 4 on Dec. 1, 1993. He holds the department record for the longest tenure as captain or commander of a single police district. His badge number is 70017. For us laypeople, that means he went on the job in 1970 and was the 17th officer hired that year. He now has more seniority than anyone else on the force. He’s marking the number of days to retirement on his office calendar. On Friday, it was 106. He’s not eager to leave, but in May, he’ll turn 65, the mandated retirement age.
“Welcome to the first meeting of the new year,” Sandoval says to a crowded room. “Happy new year.”
He’s sitting in a folding chair at the front of the briefing/office supply/mail room of the station on South Clay Street just south of West Evans Avenue. About 20 neighborhood residents sit behind narrow tables. The back of the room is crowded with police officers, neighborhood-inspection officers and representatives of the three City Council members who have territory in District 4, which stretches from Sixth Avenue south to the city limits and from Downing Street west to the city limits.
“Let’s get started,” Sandoval says. “Sector 1.”
For the next half-hour, officers from three sectors and the department graffiti unit talk about arrests, their recent radar-gun training and a household of taggers. There’s a presentation on a gang-intervention pilot project. City Councilman Paul Lopez gives an update on the regulation of medical-marijuana dispensaries.
“Delfino, are you back there?” Sandoval calls out. “What do we got going with neighborhood inspections? We keeping up?”
“We’re trying to,” inspector Delfino Rodriguez says.
The commander turns to the residents. One by one, he calls them by name.
“Anything to report?”
They tell him of a home with “I don’t know how many” bicycles in the backyard; that the Bear Valley cop shop has seen a spike in reported identity thefts; that a convicted felon is out of jail again. They want to know whether officers know who was shooting out car windows with a BB-gun and about a spate of burglaries.
I’m sitting next to Fern Veasman and Roberta Case, both of whom have lived in their homes for more than 50 years. The core group tends to be older residents or retired folks, but people cycle in and out, and they share in common a passion for the betterment of their neighborhoods.
“Everyone who comes to the meetings does so because they are convinced it makes a difference,” says resident Wendy Faustin. “If you come, if you get involved, you will be taken seriously.”
Sandoval started the meetings in 1994. They were the first such regular gatherings among police and residents and are still the most frequent.
“We, as police, want the big cases, stick- ups, the homicides, the robberies,” he tells me, “but what we’ve learned is that the issues that are important to our residents are the graffiti, the street narcotics, the traffic problems, neighbor-to-neighbor problems. A lot of times, these weren’t being addressed.”
During the meeting, Schlote reports that on Jan. 2 at 11 p.m., she spotted a vehicle speeding and weaving in and out of traffic with no blinkers. “I got the license plate,” she says, pausing. “Unfortunately, it was a police vehicle.”
“It was a police cruiser?” Sandoval asks. “Let me have the number.”
Later that day, he will have a conversation with a sergeant who will have a conversation with an officer who will be reminded to use lights and sirens when responding to a call.
The meeting lasts more than an hour. “Thank you all for coming,” Sandoval says. “The next meeting is on the 27th.”
The crowd dissipates quickly. Between now and then, they all have work to do.
Tina Griego writes Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Reach her at 303-954-2699 or tgriego@denverpost.com.
