Blockworker Beat: Tom Jensen at 26th and Fairfax

By, Erin Vanderberg
Editor

Tom Jensen might just rank among North Park Hill’s neighborliest people. He doesn’t just know his neighbors names, he keeps a living spreadsheet of who lives in the houses on his block and the blocks east and west of him. It evolved, he says, from his duties as a blockworker.

“I felt was important that I should start to learn names. The map was my cheat sheet,” said Tom. “It’s a way to keep communication between neighbors because that’s what I love about Park Hill: we’re close to our neighbors, we interact, we hang out, we never get our yard work done because once we’re outside, we’re talking to someone, and then we’re drinking wine on the porch.”

A native of Fowler, Colorado, Jensen first moved to Park Hill in 1979 after traveling near and far. He graduated from the University of Denver, then set out on a journey to Ethiopia with the Peace Corps, and returned to Southern California to work as a travel agent. When he decided to return to his native home state, he had a cousin who lived in Park Hill, but he was also drawn in by the way his old boss at DU’s Office of Admissions use to regale him with stories of Park Hill neighborliness. He rented a small alley house in South Park Hill – the Dahl House, which has since been torn down – before he bought his craftsman home at 26th and Fairfax. These days, in the winter, you can find Tom working in and out of the Visit Denver tour center at 16th and California, and during the summers, working as a tour director at National Park Tours of the West.

In the 1990s, Tom’s position as blockworker morphed him into a community organizer.

“I took it upon myself to get more people involved and representing the neighborhood at meetings at Greater Park Hill Community and with District 2,” said Tom.

Tom participated in the Elm Street marches that regularly took place on Wednesday evenings in the summers during the early 1990s.

“Our objective was to let the good neighbors know they had support – that the neighborhood was behind cleaning it up,” said Tom. “We also let those people who were not good neighbors know that their days were limited.”

The signs they marched with on those evenings said things like, “No Guns, No Drugs, in Park Hill.” The marchers, organized by the GPHC, did not have a parade permit for these weekly marches, so they would walk along the sidewalks. Tom remembers that when they would get to street crossings, the police would be there offering their support by helping to stop traffic so the marchers could pass.

When asked how the neighborhood has changed, Tom has noticed, especially in the last two years, more and more children coming into the neighborhood, which he considers really exciting after so many years of so few young people around.

Another big change he has seen in the neighborhood was the closing of Stapleton. Being in the travel business, Tom was frequently at the airport. When Stapleton was on Quebec, he says, he could leave his house, park in the outlying parking lot on Smith Road and be at the gate in 30 minutes. Still, it was too close for comfort most days with the traffic overhead. Tom once threatened to paint a big yellow arrow in his driveway and pretend that it was put there by the FAA to point the way to the airport.

“I remember the day it closed; I went outside and it was quiet,” Tom said. It wasn’t just the end of the flights overhead, Tom had never realized the hum the airport operations had caused the area even though the airport was a mile away.
“(Stapleton’s closing) gave this area a shot of adrenaline,” said Tom.

The blockworker beat highlights “blockworkers” – residents who volunteer to deliver the Greater Park Hill News to their neighbors each month. There are currently around 370 blockworkers delivering to 408 of the 516 residential blocks that comprise Greater Park Hill. If your block isn’t receiving the newspaper, consider volunteering.
For more information, contact Bernadette Kelly at newspaper@greaterparkhill.org.

How to be Neighborly
Ideas and suggestions from Tom Jensen

On inviting people:
“To invite people, put flyers on each door. Invite everyone, even those you think are not interested. I had one neighbor come to the porch parties that hadn’t been social with the neighbors in years. She brought good appetizers too!”

• Host a B.Y.O. Porch Party – you don’t have to prepare anything or even clean the house.
• Create a code – a pink flamingo put up in the yard, for example, means bring a dish, something to drink and come over to hang out.
• Create a list of neighbors that includes names of all kids and pets and contact information. Distribute paper copies or electronically using Google Drive so that it can be updated more frequently.
• Create an email distribution list for your block so that people can communicate issues like a lost pet or a lost bike when they need to.
• Have progressive dinners around the holidays – a progressive dinner is where each participant prepares just one dish, and the guests progress from house to house to eat all the dishes.
• Get everyone on the block to participate in an alley clean-up day.
• Set up a Ghost Post during Halloween at the end of your block.
• Work with neighbors to plan a block or multi-block party – bounce houses and live bands make them extra fun.
• Volunteer for the Garden or Home Tour

And remember:
“Be a neighbor. Stop and welcome those new to the neighborhood or people you haven’t met. A plate of cookies help too – but I haven’t done that. Some people moving from the ‘burbs or other towns don’t really understand being what being a neighbor is. Take that first step.”