TEMPLE: Civic Center's reality not addressed

By John Temple, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Last Saturday this newspaper reported that Mayor John Hickenlooper believes the city is "fully prepared" for the Democratic National Convention.

Maybe he hasn't walked across the street from his office into Civic Center lately.

During a recent visit with our editorial board, the same mayor said he didn't want Denver's image during the convention to be that of a "ghost town," with residents staying away from downtown out of fear that it'll be a mess.

I didn't get a chance to ask him what he thought the national and international press would say about the park at the heart of the city.

If you haven't visited lately, and I can't imagine why you would, you might not know how neglected Civic Center feels.

That condition is the subject of a new series, "Civic Center Blues," by reporter James Meadow and photographer Darin McGregor. You'll find their observations every weekday in the Rocky through the convention.

The city is undergoing a high- minded process to come up with design guidelines for the restoration of the park. It's got millions to spend on repairs.

But somehow the day-to-day reality of the place never seems to get addressed. It's almost as if we're collectively saying, "We'll do that later when we've got everything fixed up."

I hope the work of James and Darin might change that.

City Hall touts a "broken windows" approach to neighborhood policing, where minor crimes are treated seriously to help build an attitude of respect and care in a community. But that approach is nowhere to be found in Civic Center, as was obvious from their first week of reports.

On the north side of the park sits downtown. On its south side are cultural magnets, the Denver Public Library, the Denver Art Museum and its new wing designed by Daniel Libeskind.

But to cross the park is to venture into a no-man's land. Why, a visitor might ask, are so many bird droppings allowed to build up on the steps of the Greek Theater that you have to watch where you put your feet? What other park at the center of a city uses a 45-gallon oil drum as a garbage can?

Why are the types of portable toilets found on construction sites strewn along the walkway across the park? Why does the view of the park from the steps of City Hall feature a dumpster, the type you find in Denver's alleys?

You'll learn more of the daily indignities of life in the park over the coming weeks. I hope "Civic Center Blues" makes you want to come downtown to see for yourself. Maybe then you'll wonder, as I do, how civic leaders can spend so much time talking about their dreams with so little to show for it.

The talk has been going on for years.

Meanwhile, so has something else, something far more real.

That reality is at the center of our series. My hope is that once the reality of the situation is understood, people will feel the need to take concrete steps to improve it.

That's the thing about journalism. Take this week's series, "Deadly denial," which revealed how sick nuclear weapons workers are getting the runaround from a government agency that has been ordered to help them.

What journalists are able to do when we do our job well is shine a light that makes people feel the need to act. I believe that's what reporter Laura Frank and photographer Javier Manzano did.

I think you've already started to see the same from James and Darin. All they're doing is taking seriously a place that the evidence shows is not getting the attention it deserves.

They're not going to stop. They're going to be in the park during the day. And at night. On weekdays and during the weekend.

What they experience, they'll share with you. Perhaps that way, the park will feel more like your own backyard. Perhaps that way the park will once again become the people's.

And Denver's heart won't be empty.

John Temple can be reached at editor@RockyMountainNews.com or by mail at 101 W. Colfax Ave., Suite 500, Denver, CO 80202.

• July 26, 2008

  12:39 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  SL10 writes:

  Get rid of the homeless bums and drug addicts/dealers would give the park a better image for starters.

• July 26, 2008

  3:52 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  superbad writes:

  Bums and junkies have to go somewhere. Better they hang out in Civic Center than a neighborhood park that people actually use. Even if they clean it up and spend millions of our dollars on ill-conceived "improvements," no sober people are ever going to use that park. It's surrounded by busy streets on all four sides, nobody lives near it, and it's not amenable to any sort of recreational use (tennis courts, running track, playgrounds, etc.).

  It was a useless Victorian folly meant to make Denver look like Paris. Take out the dumpster and oil drum so it looks nice driving by, and let the bums have the place.

• July 26, 2008

  8:33 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  SL10 writes:

  Let's see here. The bums can be put to work cleaning up the highways. The drug dealers go to jail. The addicts can be given more drugs so they can O.D. themselves and buried in pauper hill. Just some suggestions.

• July 26, 2008

  10:13 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  rwmorrisonjr writes:

  SL10, I agree, I love the idea of rounding up the homeless and putting them to work doing useful work for the state and city in work camps and crews. They're not contributing much to the society that has to take care of them, so this would be a great way for them to pay back that charity.

  Sadly, when they're rousted from Civic Center, all they do is go across the street to Lincoln Park and hang out there, bothering people. Luckily the State Patrol patrols the area and keeps them pushed to the edges, so all they do then is sit along the wall, forcing decent folks to run a gauntlet while walking along Broadway. What a great image for the "Queen City of the Plains".

• July 27, 2008

  3:10 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  arby writes:

  If you think Civic Center is bad drive by the "Jesus saves" mission on Park Ave and Lawrence. The street and little park across from the mission are crawling with the vermin. The poor old mission has been fighting a losing battle since as long as I can remember. And that is a long time. They are really losing ground lately though. Due to all of the new drugs and druggies around.

• July 27, 2008

  3:14 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  arby writes:

  Also, putting the bums to work is not a great idea. Why do you think they are bums? You would have to have a supervisor for every bum and the supervisor would wind up doing the work just to get off shift.
  Sending them to the dog pound and treating them like strays is a better idea.

• July 27, 2008

  7:29 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  RealDenverite writes:

  I'm apalled at the attitudes a lot of you posters present towards the homeless and societal victims that take refuge in civic center park. These folks are real people and deserving of compassion and care from a society adrift in the wealth we have in Americal. Shame on you all that call them vermin and would have them herded like cattle out of your way. The problems we have in the park are perhaps not the people that suffer there, but those that think they're above them. You're not, maybe a little more fortunate, but no better. People are people even if they have drug problems and no home to go to.

• July 27, 2008

  11:36 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  SL10 writes:

  RealDenverite, are you kidding me? Alot of those so-called "victims of society" as you call them have criminally intentions. Yes they are people true. But they, not all homeless, are criminals like doing drugs or stealing. Many homeless that are true victims are the ones in Windsor or Katrina. Those folks do need help. The homeless that resided downtown Denver are homeless by choice. If you are sooo worried about these folks why not let them stay at your home? And post back on your experience. That is if they do not rob or kill ya first.

• July 27, 2008

  3:23 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  yaakovwatkins writes:

  What are you advocating?

  In the 60s we stopped institutionalizing weirdos who were not hurting anyone else. This resulted in more people on the street who almost fit into society. Many of them want help and many don't. I am all for helping the ones who want it. But the ones who don't want to change have rights.

  We pushed them out of residential areas. We pushed them out of industrial areas. We pushed them out of parks. We tried to push them out of downtown. Do we push them out of Civic Center Park? Do we physically force them to conform to our minimum standards for a decent citizen? Do we jail them? Do we dump them in mental institutions?

  What Denver seems to want to do is push them to places that nobody uses. Which is why they are in Civic Center Park.

  Personally I think that Civic Center Park is perfect. It is between the library and art museum on one side, the state capital building on another side, city hall on the third side, and the Rocky Mountain News, Denver Post on the fourth. That keeps them squarely in view of the people who run this city and this state. It keeps them squarely in the view of those who are responsible for making Denver and Colorado work for everyone. It also keeps them one block from police headquarters.

• July 27, 2008

  5:08 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  anya writes:

  Let's give each one a free bus ride to Texas or California. Those states have sent us a huge number of pretty low-class people every year for a very long time, so let's return the favor.

  We used the Light Rail to go downtown to visit the Art Museum a couple of weeks ago. Afterwards, we walked around and through Civic Center Park. While we were in the Greek Theater, we clearly saw and overheard drugs being sold. Just what I needed the family to see on a sunny day. You have to wonder why the Denver Police Department doesn't have a stronger presence there.

• July 31, 2008

  3:17 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Who_Me writes:

  What do you mean? Those were cops! Where do you think they get their drugs?