TALK BY MICHAEL HENRY TO THE ANNUAL INTER-NEIGHBORHOOD COOPERATION ANNUAL DINNER – JANUARY 23, 2019

This will be a very quick outline of the ideas and activities of many Denver neighborhoods and Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation in the past. However, I hope it will also be a look to and will provide lessons for the future. As the wonderful character in John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, Ma Joad, said – “Without our past, how will we know it’s us?”

Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation was founded in 1975, soon after neighborhoods in many parts of the country began to form the grass-roots “neighborhood movement.” The dinner program describes me as “founder of INC,” but I want to make clear that I was only one of several neighborhood activists from around Denver who founded Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation. Bernie Jones and I were past presidents of Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods; Dave Gibbons and Dave Mathews were from South Central Improvement Association; Tom Morris was from South City Park and Kathie Cheever and Michael Smith were from Greater Park Hill. Bernie Jones was the main organizer and several meetings were held in his home. We all realized that the city government at that time under Mayor Bill McNichols, was not paying attention to neighborhoods and the quality of life in neighborhoods and we insisted that our voices be heard. Late in 1975, INC was first incorporated.

Lesson for the future, as INC’s slogan says – Neighborhoods work best when working together.

The constant theme of INC and other neighborhood groups has always been: Government should always inform and listen to neighborhoods about things that affect the quality of life in neighborhoods, instead of just doing things to us or planning things for us. The most important word in that sentence is LISTEN.

In 1979 we had what I think has been INC’s major accomplishment. We persuaded City Council to pass and Mayor McNichols to sign the Neighborhood Registration and Notification Ordinance. This year is the 40th anniversary of that accomplishment.

Here is a whirlwind tour of many of the accomplishments of INC and/or individual neighborhood organizations in the past that have had significant impacts on the entire city of Denver:

• In the 1960s until today, the mission of Greater Park Hill Community has been to maintain a racially integrated neighborhood.

• In the 1980s, Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods and South-Central Improvement Association (now known as West Washington Park Neighborhood Association) pushed the city into reversing several one-way streets that harmed the safety and quality of life in neighborhoods. That effort continued forward until 2018, when the Public Works Department reversed East 19th and 20th Avenues into 2-way streets.

• In 1982, South City Park Neighborhood Association began what Tom Morris called “guerilla zoning” by getting City Council to approve the downzoning of a few blocks to prevent high-rise construction.

• In the 1980s and 90s, Park Hill, Montclair and Capitol Hill all had many battles with bad bars and liquor stores, where several killings occurred, and persuaded Excise and Licenses to revoke some licenses.

• In 1988, when Doug Linkhart was the chair of INC, we persuaded City Council to significantly restrict the placement of billboards in Denver, in alliance with Historic Denver, the League of Women Voters and the American Institute of Architects. This is another lesson for the future – form partnerships with other like-minded organizations.

• In the 1990s, Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods shaped our neighborhood by persuading the Denver Landmark Commission and City Council to establish several landmark districts to preserve the history, architecture and scale of certain areas. In addition, the Curtis Park Block Council, the Baker Historic Neighborhood Association and the Alamo Placita Neighborhood Association accomplished the designation of their entire neighborhoods as historic districts. This continued in other neighborhoods recently when Gertie Grant and other neighbors formed a historic district on South Lincoln Street, neighbors in northwest Denver formed the Packard’s Hill District and neighbors and Councilman Paul Kashmann formed the Krisanta Park Conservation District in the Virginia Village neighborhood.

• During the full decade of the 1990s, the Overland Park Neighborhood Association battled the Shattuck Chemical Corporation and the federal EPA to force the final removal of radioactive, cancer-causing waste from their neighborhood. That was a first-in-the country success.

• In 1998, Mayor Wellington Webb set aside approximately $100 million in a first and only Neighborhood Bond Project as part of a larger bond issue. The neighborhood projects were vetted and decided by a steering committee of neighborhood activists. These activists were not only invited to sit at the table or, as in Hamilton, to be “in the room where it happened,” but they were the actual decision-makers about neighborhood projects. For the 2017 bond projects, several neighborhood leaders also participated, including INC Chair J.J. Niemann, who was a member of the Bond Executive Committee.

• In 2003 INC and many neighborhood folks were active in establishing several changes to the zoning code known as Quick Wins 2 to reduce the allowable mass and scale of new homes in single-family neighborhoods. Many out-of- scale new homes, known as McMansions, or massive additions to existing homes were constructed before the ordinance passed.

• Also in the early 2000s, Congress Park Neighbors, led by John Van Sciver, right-zoned several sections of their neighborhood.

• In 2005, the Baker Historic Neighborhood Association led the successful election fight against a nearby proposed new inmate detention center and, when the location was moved to where it is now, the Golden Triangle Neighborhood Association helped to develop architectural design guidelines and mitigate neighborhood impacts.

• In approximately 2008, INC, under Karen Cuthbertson’s leadership, successfully persuaded the City Council and the Mayor to add funds to the annual city budget for several additional police officers to protect neighborhood safety.

• For almost 20 years, under the leadership of Steve Nissen, INC sponsored the Dollar Dictionary Drive, which provided dictionaries to every third-grader in Denver Public Schools. Lesson for the future – charitable efforts and work with children and neighborhood schools are very important.

• INC and neighborhood groups in all parts of the city participated actively with the city to prepare the Denver Comprehensive Plan in 2000, Blueprint Denver in 2002 and the Zoning Code Update from 2005 to 2010. Currently, many neighborhood leaders are attending meetings and serving on steering committees for the massive Denverright planning process. Lesson for the future: Neighbors must actively participate in public policy discussions and not just react after the policies have been decided.

• Beginning about 2010, INC’s Parks and Recreation Committee, Zoning and Planning Committee and Transportation Committee all developed platforms with long-term policy recommendations which have been influential in shaping city decisions – including the emphasis on safe sidewalks, designating city-owned open space as parks and developing or updating neighborhood plans for all Denver neighborhoods.

• In 2013, when Larry Ambrose was president, INC joined several neighbors in going to court to seek an injunction to prevent the city from trading 10 acres of open space known as Hentzell Park in far southeast Denver for use as a school. Although the trade was allowed to occur, the legal action pushed the city to work with INC’s Parks and Recreation Committee officially to designate many parcels of open space throughout the city as parks, which means they cannot be sold or traded without a vote of the people.

• For 20 years, INC has partnered with the Denver League of Women Voters and Channel 8 TV to produce and televise fair election forums for city, state and school board elections.

• In the last few years, several neighborhood groups and leaders in Globeville, Elyria and Swansea have battled the expansion and routing and environmental hazards of Interstate 70. Although the expansion project is proceeding, the neighbors have mitigated the project in several significant ways. Lesson for the future – All neighborhoods should work together for neighborhood equity for less affluent parts of town.

• Also in the last few years, several neighborhoods, under the leadership of Margie Valdez and George Mayl, worked with the city to develop rules and regulations for Air B&B and other short-term rentals. George started his journey as a neighborhood leader because a house next door was rented out frequently to noisy sports clubs. He enjoyed that battle so much that he is now the Chair of INC.

• Many neighborhood leaders, also led by Margie Valdez, worked with the city to regulate the marijuana industry and develop rules for common consumption areas.

• INC or other neighborhood groups have also trained several members to be future City Council members, including Cathy Donohue, Doug Linkhart, Carla Madison, Jeanne Robb, Wayne New and Rafael Espinoza.

• INC has also provided several members of the Denver Planning Board, including Bernie Jones, Fred Corn, David Webster and the current very capable Chair of the Planning Board, Joel Noble.

In summary, since 1975, neighborhood organizations and Inter-Neighborhood Cooperation have affected and shaped the City of Denver, its government, its principles and its people in major ways and will continue to do so in the future.