In each edition The Profile dedicates editorial space to area Registered Neighborhood Organizations and nonprofits with timely news to share. The Profile believes in community building and hopes readers find this information relevant and important. Want to see your organization featured here? Email editor@denvermetromedia.com.
Register now for Denver Days 2017
City waives park permit fees and provides free barricades
Time is running out to participate in this year’s fifth annual Denver Days celebration—and Washington Park needs you!
Mayor Michael B. Hancock launched Denver Days in 2012 to help create stronger communities. He encouraged neighbors to get to know each other so they feel safer and more connected to the communities they call home.
Now’s your chance to get to know your Wash Park neighbors better, and let the city pick up the tab for fees and barricades.
Denver Days takes place this year Aug. 5-13. During that week, the City and County of Denver waives park permit fees and provides street barricades free of charge for your block party. All you have to do is register.
Last year, Denver residents hosted nearly 250 events in neighborhoods all over Denver, from an Extreme Community Makeover Project to Zumba in the Park, hosted by the Cleo Parker Robinson dance company.
There’s still time to plan a picnic or block party for your neighbors, but you should act now.
For information on how to apply for a block party permit visit: denvergov.org and search “block party requirements.”
For more information or to register, visit denvergov.org/denverdays. For questions, email jessica.jorgensen@denvergov.org.
South by Southeast Community Festival coming to Bible Park
Southeast Denver residents in Councilwoman Kendra Black’s District 4 want more for their community. They want local restaurants, arts and culture, a beer garden and a “main street.” And they want to be able to walk and bike to these amenities. On August 19, the South by Southeast festival will create exactly what community members want. Inspired by the people who live in the district, and playing off the SXSW festival in Austin, South by Southeast will feature seven local bands, food trucks and craft beer vendors, a community art project, mobility enhancements, pop-up dog park, activities for kids and more.
Last fall, nearly 2,000 people participated in Southeast Denver visioning workshops and surveys. Community members were very clear about what they love: strong, stable neighborhoods, beautiful parks and trails, and the central location allowing easy access to downtown and the suburbs. They also agreed on what needs to be improved in southeast Denver: while much of Denver is experiencing a renaissance with improved walkability and bustling new gathering places, southeast Denver remains car-oriented and lacks community-oriented spaces like a “main street,” local restaurants and arts and culture.
"We love our family-oriented neighborhoods and our beautiful parks and trails, but we’re missing so much. People really want to walk to transit and restaurants, but we’re lacking local restaurants and walking just isn’t safe. We’re so excited to incorporate these features in the festival."
The South by Southeast festival will temporarily fill this void through a people-powered demonstration that shows what happens when residents proactively plan for the future of their community. The festival challenges residents and city planners to reimagine the underutilized public spaces in the district. “We love our family-oriented neighborhoods and our beautiful parks and trails, but we’re missing so much. People really want to walk to transit and restaurants, but we’re lacking local restaurants and walking just isn’t safe. We’re so excited to incorporate these features in the festival,” said Councilwoman Black. The Council office is working with neighbors, businesses and volunteers to create this certifiably green, one-day event in the hope that it will spur interest in long term improvements in southeast Denver.
The free festival will be held on Saturday, Aug. 19 from 10:00a.m.-8:00p.m. in Bible Park. Neighbors, kids and dogs are invited to the fun! For more information, visit denvergov.org/district4.
University Park News & Views
By Diana Helper
The UP-DU connection is alive and growing. UP folks can/should attend a meeting Wednesday, Aug. 16 from 6:00p.m.-8:00p.m. about DU plans that affect UP. It’s at the Chambers Building at the NE corner of Asbury Avenue/South High Street. Check du.edu/communityvisitors or call 303-871-4778 for details/free parking info.
DU’s 10-year Campus Plan reaches into UP. Many completed its survey and included comments. A DU goal is to be a “union station/buzz of activity” for us all. We’d welcome development of nice housing for professors, staff and serious grad students in UP, as this has been a great tradition and addition for the neighborhood since its founding in 1886. (A suggestion is a site at East Asbury Avenue/South Columbine Street, amid other stable homes on that street and already more density on Josephine Street than might handle a larger influx). The Chancellor’s Buchtel House is just a block away!
The GO Bond doesn’t include a specific item about safety/mobility improvements for Buchtel Boulevard Parkway and the Buchtel/South University Boulevard intersection, but the Buchtel/South Colorado Boulevard intersection is listed. We hope other work is included in general categories, i.e. pedestrian crossings at Monroe and Clayton streets.
We alerted DPR that wooden boxes for dog-bags need replacing along the Trail. Thanks to Linda, Geri and All alert UP volunteers! NOW we need volunteers who can make bag holders out of PVC pipe—anyone? And thanks to DPR’s helpful Cincere Eades for this info.
There’s no UC sponsored annual “Band in the Park” this August since a gathering for all (food trucks and entertainment) is scheduled by another sponsor at Accelerated Schools, on the lawn, Thursday, Aug. 24 at 5:30p.m. Bring a picnic if you like. New apartment renters—this is a chance to get to know UP! Please know your neighborhood association is University Park Community Council (not Observatory Park). Visit upcc.us or contact UPCC President Debbie Harrington at 720-2252-3500. If you have UP news, please contact Diana Helper, chapinhelper@gmail.com or call 303-733-4902.
Neighborhood Q&A
By Diana Helper
What’s with these vacant lots?
A former Wash Park resident recently visited here and marveled at the number of vacant lots where houses had been razed but nothing has been built. He was not the first to ask, so we asked folks in construction, real estate, architecture, etc., and we gleaned many answers. Lots may sell better without the house on it. It just takes a long time to get plans, sales, permits, etc. in place. A deal was in progress but fell through. Waiting for the right time. Shortage of construction workers. The one we never heard: planning to make it into a nice pocket park for a neighborhood with little open space. So, dear Profile reader in Iowa, and everyone else, there is the story.
Is this a Silent Spring?
Rachel Carson warned of this years ago. Now, some neighborhood areas are experiencing it. “Where have the songbirds gone?” You used to wake up to birds chirping and warbling … now silence. We asked birdwatchers, tree experts and people in other parts of the neighborhood (plenty of songs there!) and even sent our question to the Audubon folks: could it be the adjacent demolition of a block of all living things—huge trees, shrubs, gardens and dirt, replaced with a large, solid structure, several years a-building? Audubon never replied—thought we were nuts, or already had the answer? A sad side effect of densification. Seems not to be sick trees or birds, but lack of a bird’s needs for housing, water, food, anything to sing about. Will their quality of life ever reappear here? And that of the folks bereft of birdsong? Maybe. (Hark! Was that a woodpecker? The percussion section may have arrived. Send in the chorus, please!)
How can we start a community garden?
Great question, easy answer! Contact Denver Urban Gardens (DUG) for lots of info and advice, even a starter kit. Visit dug.org/start-a-new-community-garden.
If a neighborhood agrees to have a pot shop in its boundaries, can the RNO get the tax money for its community projects?
NO. It goes to the State and City, some for safety and education, the rest into the general fund. Dandy question, however.
Send your neighborhood questions (or answers!) to Diana Helper at chapinhelper@gmail.com or call 303-733-4902.
