Sometimes It's Those Good Friends In Low Places Who Have The Answers
by Paul Kashmann

So here’s the deal. For the past few years, I have been hearing from various corners of the Registered Neighborhood Organization community that this mayor and this administration are simply not as friendly toward
Denver’s neighborhoods as previous administrations have been.

I could deny the conversations, and say I haven’t heard the complaints that I’ve heard, but the truth is – I have.
I could say I’ve heard the same gripes about previous administrations in the same way they’ve been presented in recent years, but the truth is – I haven’t.

The 217 RNOs that currently reside on the Planning Office roster work tirelessly and – most frequently, but not always – selflessly to see that the pressures that keep pushing Denver forward don’t cause the neighborhoods in which we live to implode.

The thought commonly put forth by those whose complaints I refer to is that Mayor Hickenlooper is born of the business community, thinks like a businessman, and is more focused on righting our city’s financial ship than protecting the neighborhood way of life that has made Denver such a great place to raise a family.

Tangentially, the belief is, this tilt toward development has been passed on to the Office of Community Planning and Development, and other city agencies as well.

Let me interject at this point that I happen to think Mayor Hick has done himself, and his city, a pretty fair job since he sat himself behind the big desk downtown. The $70-million debt that was inherited from the Webb years has been basically erased; his support was instrumental in the passage of the FasTracks transit package that will bring over 100 miles of new rail and high speed bus service to the metro area; and he went successfully out on a limb for the massive bond issue voters approved, which will
improve and maintain civic assets all across our city for years to come.

He has been a vocal supporter of Denver Public Schools, and has established valuable alliances with Governor Ritter, and Owens before him, as well as the administrations of numerous Front Range cities.

This is a good mayor.

And, I think he has his eye locked more intently on growing our economy than he does on empowering the average citizen of Denver to take an active role in self-governance – an active role in shaping Denver 2030, 40 or 50.

He has been shouldering so much of the effort himself, and relying so much on the team of professionals he has assembled, that he appears to have lost sight of the fact, as Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation chair Karen Cuthbertson says, “RNOs have contributed untold tens of thousands of hours of voluntary service to the city ... (and) one of the key pieces everyone needs to understand is, this is a volunteer army the city could put to better use.”

In order to get a bit more of a grip on how deep this chink in the Mayor’s armor might be, we sent out a survey to a broad base of Denver RNOs, asking basically what they thought of Hizzoner and his administration. We got about 30 surveys returned.

I am hearing no drumbeat calling for impeachment. Far from it. There are no crosses burning on park lawns nor banners hanging from bridges over I-25.

But there are those who believe the winds have shifted from making Denver a great place to live, and are now puffing Denver up as a great place to build, and they think it’s time those winds calm down a bit.

There are those who credit the Mayor for going far and wide to assemble a fine team with which to right the ship of state, which had begun to list and nearly sink in the swirling economic tide, and now it’s time to return home to farm the skills that reside close by on the street where he lives, or down the block, or around the corner.

My intent here is not to chastise but to redirect.

It is unquestionably in our city’s best interest to have the strongest possible cadre of residents as intimately involved in the governance of this city as possible. They should sit proportionately at the table of civic debate, whenever that debate takes place.

There is not only a formal ordinance supporting that involvement (see the article on page 1), there is a decades-long legacy that should serve as a starting point for a new discussion.

It is time for a Neighborhood Empowerment Conference that will begin that new dialogue. This must be an open discussion free of previous agenda, pointing all sides to a common goal. A Constitutional Convention of sorts. The resource that is the talented, willing and able residents of Denver cannot be over-valued and should not be wasted.
It is time to shift our gaze back from the skyline to the clothesline.

There is probably much to learn from what others are doing, but don’t tell me what Washington, D.C. is doing to empower its neighborhoods. And don’t tell me what Portland is doing to empower its neighborhoods.
Tell me what Denver is doing to empower its neighborhoods.