(Photo by Havey Productions)
The Top Ten Accomplishments of my First Term
10. Police Strength and Neighborhood Inspection Services
- Negotiated overtime forpolice officers for traffic corridors in 2005 budget
- Supported hiring of 19 more officers in 2006 budget
- Purchased bike for police patrol in 2006
9. Constituent Services - my office responded to 9600 calls and numerous e-mails in the first 3 years
8. Capitol Hill Crime Task Force - Safer on the Hill
7. Drive-Thru Ordinance - restricted hours for drive-thrus closer than 85' to neighbors
6. Panhandling Ordinance - made it illegal to step into a traffic lane, putting Denver on par with surrounding jurisdictions
5. Historic Preservation - created the Demolition Task Force, leading to a demolition review ordinance to help make sure our historic treasures are not lost
4. Fillmore Plaza - planning for Cherry Creek's Town Square
3. Cheesman Park Master Plan Process
2. Denver Justice Center - commitment to a legacy project
1. Colfax Revitalization!!
Or as I wrote for the Glendale/Cherry Creek Chronicle
"The Chronicle asked me to write about my accomplishments as District 10* Councilperson. But these are not my accomplishments. They belong to the pushers and prodders, the visionairies and the doers who live in and care about the district. They belong to my colleagues on Council and to hard-working city employees. Nothing happens without teamwork and together we’re quite a team.
So here’s what we did the last four years.
Safety is the basic ingredient of quality of life, so Council worked on that by negotiating more police overtime hours on traffic corridors in the 2005 budget and supporting the hiring of 19 more officers in the 2006 budget. Councilman Charlie Brown and I pooled our district resources to purchase a bike for patrol in 2006.
Early in my term, Capitol Hill residents and I met with Mayor Hickenlooper arguing for a coordinated approach to crime and disorder problems on Capitol Hill particularly from Downing to Grant, 13th to Colfax. “Over a year later, the Mayor responded in a big way, contracting with George Kelling, expert in community crime prevention, to identify problems and find solutions with all stakeholders on Capitol Hill.
The outcry of District 10 residents abou panhandling motivated my involvement and appointment to the Mayor’s Commission to End Homelessness. I got more than I bargained for and became a strong supporter of the Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness and was one of the first to argue for real change, not spare change , I was able to strengthen Denver’s panhandling ordinance making it illegal for panhandlers to step into the street. In the firsttwo months of this year, police cited 23 panhandlers under this ordinance and concrrently made two arrests for possession of injection devices.
With neighborhood concurrence, we were able to provide an emergency overnight facility for the homeless in the former Permit Center at 201 W. 14th Ave this winter. As a result, we are working to prohibit camping on the grounds of the City and County Building for those homelss folks who do not want to come inside.
District 10 voters strongly supported the bond issue for the new Justice Center just west of the Denver Mint and City and County Building. Our jail and court system were and are overcrowded and unsafe, but locating this facility just west of today’s Civic Center meant we needed a legacy project. With Golden Triangle residents, I argued that we must have a master urban design architect to lay the groundwork for a legacy project and then later, when the signature architect, Stephen Holl, was dismissed, we argued successfully for a peer review panel to review all designs. The citizen advisory committee has been essential to ensuring that design and program work together for a legacy project.
The Justice Center is a perfect example of connecting basic safety programs with a sense of place - as is the Capitol Hill pilot project on crime. Safe places have a diversity of people present. They connect community to community – Civic Center to downtown and the neighborhoods south of Colfax to those north of Colfax. Streetscape and building form encourage pedestrian activity. Safe places, quality of life in neighborhoods, and economic development go hand in hand.
That’s why we worked with the Colorado Restaurant Association on an ordinance to strengthen standards for drive-through restaurants next to residential neighborhoods. And that’s why we formed a task force of council members, developers, and neighborhoods to be sure that our demolition process remains efficient while notifiying neighbors and catching potentially historic properties.
The importance of place generated a public process for enhancing Fillmore Plaza and facilitating pedestrian activity between Cherry Creek Mall, the fine shops of Cherry Creek North and the neighborhoods. Studies have shown that a large percentage of neighborhood shoppers walk to Cherry Creek.
Similarly, the importance of open space generated the Cheesman Park Master Plan process, funded by the City of Denver and the Colorado Historical Fund. The two most important recommendations include traffic calming with raised pedestrian crossings and improvements to the Cheesman Gate to the Botanic Gardens. Also, the way that Park Avenue connects Colfax voa Franklin Street to Cheesman Park, WIlliams Parkway, and finally Washington Park cannot be ignored.
The greatest change in District 10 is the revitalization of Colfax as Denver’s Main Street , including pedestrian –friendly rezoning and street guidelines – an effort supported by the entire Council. Councilwoman Carol Boigon and I focused on the redevelopment of the Lowenstein property and miraculously in four short years, we have this new, great project across from East High School.
So thanks for the memories…but I’d rather focus on the future. In the next four years, we need to work on Denver’s gang problem and graffiti (partially but not necessarily related), the fact that the burden of proof for out-of-character and out-of – compliance structures in neighborhoods rests on neighbors not builders, the update of the zoning code to create a predictable, desirable environment and most pressingly, how we maintain our public infrastructure.
The legacy the next council and administration will leave relies on how well we finance huge needs for deferred and future maintenance as well as on how we create a responsible fiscal policy for financing expanded services. That means how our parks and streets are maintained as well as how our library, recreational, and cultural facilities are expanded and maintained. These changes will include the fact that the Parker-Leetsdale-Alameda-Steele-First Ave-Speer Corridor will be ranked first or second highest incongestion and the crying need for a recreational center in District 10.
I’m ready to take these challenges on – with your help!"