A construction worker directs traffic at East Second Avenue and Josephine Street in Denver’s Cherry Creek neighborhood last summer. (Kathryn Scott Osler, Denver Post file)
Re: “Itap time to take our city back, Denver,” March 1 Perspective article.
Thank you, Greg Kerwin, for stating perhaps the most important issue for quality of life in Denver. I am also a Denver native, and plan to live here the rest of my life. The current City Council’s apparent philosophy, demonstrated by its votes, is that all development is good, and open space (in this land-locked city) should always be considered available for development.
The majority of Denver residents cannot routinely ride bikes or walk or take RTD to work, to child care, to shop, to visit friends and family. Cars and the need for street parking will not go away just because an idealized urban plan with denser development will bring in more tax revenue.
It is undemocratic for a body (Planning Board and City Council) to hold meetings supposedly to hear citizen input, and then routinely ignore it.
Cathy Wanstrath,Denver
This letter was published in the March 8 edition.Thanks for giving space to Greg Kerwin’s lucid critique of Denver’s misguided plunge into high-density development. The fiasco at Crestmoor Park that he cites doesn’t even qualify as “transit-oriented development.” Itap just mindless building that destabilizes one of Denver’s many “areas of stability.”
I recently met with a candidate for City Council. She noted that traffic/congestion is the issue she is hearing about most often when talking with voters.
Denver’s “city planners” don’t seem capable of grasping one simple fact: The Denver metro area is a city of wide open spaces and historically cheap land. RTD will never be able to provide the kind of cheap, efficient, reliable transportation enjoyed by citizens of compact cities like San Francisco or New York. Cars will continue to proliferate.
Developer after developer gets rubber-stamp approval from a Planning Board that won’t listen to citizens affected by high-density building and a City Council that doesn’t have the collective guts to find better solutions.
In the meantime, all we can do is look forward to the next city election and find those candidates who will listen to their constituents before jumping on the high-density bandwagon.
J. Allan Ferguson,Denver
This letter was published in the March 8 edition.In one generation, we have reversed flight to the suburbs and have reinvigorated our cities. The reality is growth is necessary, as stagnation or flight can be the death of a city.
Growth should be controlled and properly planned. The time is now for Denver to place linkages concerning transportation planning and revenue sources when reviewing or approving density increases. Unfortunately, Los Angeles and other post-war cities that experienced growth are now confronting the negative externalities of their boom and retroactively building transit and pedestrian improvements to service the increase in population.
Most urban planners would suggest increased density should not happen within a vacuum. As neighborhood residents, we should collectively demand that a nexus be incorporated between development and urban design including pedestrian orientation, mass transit and realizing while B-Cycles are in vogue, we are not Copenhagen. Density is not a negative, yet poor planning and reactive planning are costly, detrimental and overall poor judgment.
Joseph Sobin,Denver
This letter was published in the March 8 edition.What is Denver’s real blueprint goal? Apparently, to go vertical and crowd in another million people. By going vertical, we lose sunlight and change our vegetation, add pollution to a city already suffering from brown-cloud syndrome; we tax our resources and add stress on the roads.
I moved here because of the lifestyle, lovely seasons and outdoor amenities. In the past, leaders seemed interested in protecting the beauty of the state. No more. Itap all about money, so we densify at any cost to resources, sustainability, public safety, Colorado’s overall beauty — the things that made us want to live here.
The goal has become all about money, not the people or the beauty of the land.
Jane Lorimer,Denver
This letter was published in the March 8 edition.Greg Kerwin documents many of the unfortunate situations in which Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, the City Council, and the Planning Board have totally ignored the legitimate concerns of local citizens in favor of wealthy developers.
For example, try to walk or drive around the Cherry Creek North business district and see the extent of over-sized development. Try to get to the post office or go through the intersection of 1st and Steele. The once-visible mountains are now obscured from many locations and formerly sunny sidewalks are shady and ice-covered.
In many meetings between local residents of Cherry Creek and city officials, concerns were raised about the extent of the proposed developments, traffic and parking problems. However, our concerns were ignored.
Given that Mayor Hancock does not appear to have any serious opposition in his bid for re-election, it seems the only way for citizens to have any voice in what is occurring in their neighborhoods is to elect independent City Council members and not those who are, or would be, puppets of the mayor and his wealthy developer backers.
It is not too late to take back our city.
Gene and Polly Reetz,Denver
This letter was published in the March 8 edition.After rearing our family in the Cherry Creek North/Congress Park area for 30-plus years, we retired, moving to a more human-scale locale. When we return to visit Denver, we are horrified by the congested, dirty city it is becoming. A jewel is being trashed. It makes us very sad.
Mary Pepin,Longmont
This letter was published in the March 8 edition.Greg Kerwin outlines how Mayor Michael Hancock and his planning advisers have abandoned Denver neighborhoods in favor of satellite density and developers. We citizens, shadowed by disproportionate structures and stuck in traffic, are only now awakening to the permanent damage they have done.
For an encore, maybe Kerwin could tell us which candidates for City Council will restore reason to the process. Perhaps he can add the name of someone willing to take on our mayor in the upcoming election.
Bruce Ducker,Denver
This letter was published in the March 8 edition.
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