Letters to the Editor
VA Hospital On Steroids
Thank you Cara DeGette for bringing up the issues concerning the Globeville area and Interstate 70 reconstruction. The media wants to ignore this billion-dollar project. However a billion here and a billion there, and you’re talking about real money. After attending a recent I-70 corridor project by the Colorado Department of Transportation, residents should care. In the next seven years or less, Colorado will have one million new residents. That translates into 400,000 vehicles a day on I-70, mostly in the Globeville neighborhood just northwest of Park Hill. Former Denver City Auditor Dennis Gallagher called it a “boondoggle.” It’s more like the V.A. Hospital in Aurora project on steroids. It’s not too late for northeast Denver residents to speak up. I-70 needs to be rebuilt, but not at the expense of destroying northeast Denver.
Kevin Sampson, Bow Mar Heights
Nature In Our Lives
I feel strongly that renovations and scrapes to smaller homes in Park Hill cause irreparable harm to the neighborhood, not only because of the architectural changes, but the changes to yards. These new homes stretch to the limits of the property lines, trading lovely back and front yards for large homes and garages. Park Hill is known for its large trees and expansive yards. This is as much a reason to protect Park Hill homes, as the homes themselves. Families live in Park Hill, and children need nature in their lives for many reasons. Much has been written about this topic. Park Hill is host to a myriad of wildlife and birds because of backyards, front yards and older trees. No one will want to move to Park Hill 50 years from now if the smaller homes have been scraped and large homes with no yards or trees have replaced them. I live in a big home, but it was designed at the time it was built in the early 1930s to have a commensurate large yard. When I move to a smaller home, I still want to have an appropriately sized yard for children and grandchildren, wildlife and trees. That is what makes Park Hill great. Please send me some yard signs and let me know how else I can promote historic designation.
Julia Rath, Park Hill
Editor’s Note: Check out extensive past coverage of both the proposed Park Hill Historic District and the Interstate 70 widening plan at greaterparkhill.org. We love your letters, and give preference to those that address an issue that has been covered in the newspaper, or a topic that is Park Hill or Denver-specific. Please send letters to editor@greaterparkhill.org. Include your full name, and the neighborhood in which you live. Deadlines are the 15th of each month, for the following month’s issue.