Letters To The Editor March 2024
Dear Westside: Let It Go
In April 2023 Denver voters overwhelmingly voted to maintain a conservation easement over the Park Hill Golf Course. This was the third ballot initiative lost by Westside Development Partners and its principal partner, Kenneth Ho (ballots 301 and 302 being the others).
Additionally, Westside and Ho agreed that if the easement remains, they would have three years to either sell the property or return it to a golf course. Currently, Westside and Ho are in violation of that contract. I strongly urge the Denver City Council and Mayor Mike Johnston to either purchase the property for Parks and Recreation or sue Westside and Ho for breach of contract.
I also recommend that Westside and Ho heed the words of Elsa in the film Frozen and, “Let It Go.”
Brian R. Kelly, Park Hill
Denver Health Crisis Is Real
Denver Health is not only the state’s best trauma center, but a health safety net for all our residents. And that safety net is perilously fraying from the heavy financial weight of rising labor and drug costs, as well as providing care for the Medicaid and growing numbers of uninsured and unprecedented influx of immigrants.
What happens if that safety net, which provided care to more than 300,000 patients in 2023, breaks? I’m asking everyone — including the city, the state, and business leaders — to help mend and strengthen Denver Health because its survival is critical.
I’m not a member of the hospital board, but when I read the numbers I know this crisis is real. In 2023, Denver Health provided $136 million in uncompensated care, compared to $60 million in 2020. Without additional support, Denver Health will not be able to invest in its workforce or essential enhancements to its services.
The city allocates $30.8 million a year to the hospital, which is the largest provider of inpatient mental health and substance use in the state. Yet, the city’s support of the hospital has essentially remained the same since 2006, while Denver Health has grown to a $1.4 billion enterprise.
Denver Health’s financial crisis has not been ignored. Last year it received financial assistance from the state, Kaiser Permanente Colorado, and private donors, which totaled $20 million. Still, the continuing financial weight grows.
My family has a long history with the hospital. Formerly known as Denver General, my wife, Wilma Webb, was born there and my brother, Joe, was treated for a knife wound there as a Denver police sergeant. I also have a personal connection to Denver Health as the amazing doctors and nurses have helped me address my own health.
As mayor, I opposed a move by some city council members wanting to sell the hospital. I wanted to preserve the hospital’s mission to serve everyone and Dr. Patty Gabow helped restructure and create the Denver Health Authority. The city paid off the hospital’s $38 million deficit, and that intervention helped the hospital build up a $60 million surplus.
The hospital has continued to serve the entire community with its patient population of 53 percent Hispanic, 25 percent Caucasian, 13 percent Black, 4 percent Asian (others comprise the remaining 5 percent). Nearly 50 percent of the patients are on Medicaid. Denver Health also delivers one out of every three babies born in Denver — more than 3,800 last year.
Let us all take part in mending Denver Health’s safety net so that the current and future health needs for all our residents have a safe landing.
Hon. Wellington Webb, Whittier
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. Send letters to editor@greaterparkhill.org, and include your full name, and the neighborhood in which you live. Deadlines are the 15th of each month, for the following month’s issue.