Looking beyond the warts
Despite problems, project chief sees what could be
By James B. Meadow, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published July 30, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.
Darin McGregor © The Rocky
John Kissingford, of the theater group No Holds Bard, plays MacBeth before a small audience at the Greek Theater.
Photo by Darin McGregor/Rocky Mountain News
Helen Kuykendall said she sees great potential at Civic Center.
On the second-to-last day of her sort-of six-year reign, the Lady of The Park stands inside the shadows of the Colonnade of Civic Benefactors, looks out and sees 16 acres of beauty and potential even though others might also see something else.
"It's wonderful to walk through here at this time of year," says Helen Kuykendall, a tone that sounds suspiciously like exultation percolating in her voice. "The flowers are in full bloom, the grass is immaculate-green - it's beautiful," she adds, unbothered by the fact that come Thursday she will no longer be project manager of The Park, the place she calls, "the front yard of Denver."
Maybe she won't tell you her age ("Not old enough to retire, old enough to have gray hair"), but the half-Venezuelan, half- Wisconsinite will be glad to tell you how "tourists who come here are in awe of the place." She won't hesitate to stroll through The Park with Mark Bernstein, her successor, gaze west and point out the "phenomenal view" you get looking across the gardens, an area she refers to as a "colossal gathering place."
No, Kuykendall isn't an unrepentant Pollyanna. She knows The Park has "its problems," knows that its eastern fringe, the euphemistically monikered "Broadway Groves," is often populated by unsavory types and that there is a "hodgepodge" of paving atop its paths.
She knows that the benches and trash cans need to be a uniform color (and in the case of the trash cans, a uniform size and shape). She knows The Park needs more seating and some kiosks to persuade people to linger rather than commute right through. She knows the centuries-old Voorhies Memorial and the Greek Theater are showing both their age and the effects of vandalism.
"I'm a planner; I tend to envision more what it could be than what it is. I see all this potential."
So, while maybe you can't help but notice patches of brown lawn, she focuses on its immaculate greenness.
While maybe you wonder why there's $9.5 million available in public funding to make improvements in The Park and nothing seems to be happening, she insists the "Master Plan is not on a shelf gathering dust, it is being initiated, it's moving forward full force."
While maybe you scratch your head because it will be at least spring - and maybe summer - of 2009 before any of that dough is spent, she insists the reason for the timetable is that "We want the community involved in the planning process in a meaningful and thoughtful way. . . . We don't want anyone to think we're talking about a done deal without public input."
While you see pigeons roosting illegally in the Greek Theater's Colonnade of Civic Benefactors (and don't blame her for that name), she sees an area that has already had a $1 million rehab and looks forward to the day theater-in-the-park is a staple of The Park's smorgasbord of activities, instead of a hit-and-miss thing.
OK, Helen Kuykendall, before you head to the South with your husband and leave Denver's front yard behind, if you had a magic wand to wave over The Park, what's the first thing you'd try to improve?
"The McNichols Building would be this fantastic, wonderful, super-creative, must-see destination place," she says of the worn-out building at Colfax and Bannock. A brief pause to let fresh oxygen into her lungs and, "It would have to have coffee. And food. And a wonderful terrace overlooking Civic Center Park. It would be the major meeting place in Denver."
And, more than likely, it would be surrounded by grass that was immaculate-green.
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July 30, 2008
8:53 a.m.
Suggest removal
peter303 writes:
Denver parks are wonderful and relaxing when properly managed and policed. If they could only extend this to Civic Park.
July 30, 2008
8:53 a.m.
Suggest removal
woodwose writes:
Sounds like the 6 year term of the outgoing Civic Center Park Planning Director was a resounding success. After all she managed to collect a pay check for 6 whole years while the Park decayed further and further into decrepitude.
Civic Center Park should be a jewel. It has all the elements it needs. Clean it up! And maintain it! Get rid of the portable toilets. Fix the public restrooms and if you have to, hire attendants to keep them clean and maintain a police presence at all times until everyone knows that it's not a place to go to litter, drink, pee, smoke crack and tag public buildings.
You don't need a "planning session" or "community involvement" to figure that out.
But then again, you don't need a stupid, overpaid, worthless "Planning Director" either. You just need to roll up your sleeves and get to work!
July 30, 2008
9:16 a.m.
Suggest removal
CWW writes:
The last time I was at Civic Park was about 15 years ago, and it was bad then. I can only imagine what it's like today. That was about the time I quit going to the Denver Public Library downtown because of all the weirdos hanging around. Too bad.
July 30, 2008
9:30 a.m.
Suggest removal
CONATV writes:
To SuperBad: Check back with us in a few years. That "useless Victorian folly" might have taken on a different meaning. I, too, took the beauty of Denver for granted when growing up here, but now I know that value of the green oases that we have, and the importance of sustaining them.
I will not abandon the parks, either to the natural elements or to humans who do not respect them. We "take back" neighborhoods riddled with crime -- I will take back the parks. I will walk through them, enjoy them, support efforts to maintain them, and support efforts to rid ourselves of officials who "see potential" and completely miss reality.
As far as the professionally homeless: remember when Minneapolis was reported to be giving bus tickets to Denver to their vagrants? We have so many "homeless" because we make it attractive and easy to live a subsidized life in Denver. Re: putting them to work: I agree, but they (the panhandlers) report that they make about $20 tax-free dollars an hour. Think about that while you are idling in your gas-thirsty car at a stoplight and someone wants you to give him a piece of your income.
July 30, 2008
9:39 a.m.
Suggest removal
Darwin writes:
Bet it will be cleaned up and look like a "jewel" for several weeks in August.
July 30, 2008
10:27 a.m.
Suggest removal
skeeve writes:
I agree with Darin, I mean why do you think they are giving the "homeless" movie tickets and free trips to the zoo?
July 30, 2008
5:20 p.m.
Suggest removal
Scott writes:
Regarding the hiding of the bums, err I mean tending to the needs of the home impaired, how many of you really think that the bums aren't going to sell these tickets for some booze, err I mean food, money?
Scott