News Update: A Letter from the Editor
Another development at the GPHN, my new junior editor, Greta, born this August.
Hello readers!
One year ago last February, I took over as the editor of the Greater Park Hill News. Over the course of 12 issues, I have enjoyed the opportunity to report on the many facets of this neighborhood. We’ve covered a lot in this first year. To mark the anniversary, I’ve made a, well, pretty comprehensive list of the topics.
We paid close attention to Park Hill’s many community events, including the Greater Park Hill Community’s Garden Walk and Home Tour(sounds like one event), as well as the 4th of July Parade, Park Hill Family Bike Rides, Viva Streets, Spinelli’s Annual Family Picnic in the Park, the inaugural Daddy-Daughter Dance, and the fifth annual Park Hill Alley Art Competition.
The GPHC welcomed a new Executive Director, and elected new board members at the annual meeting in October. Over the summer, board member Shannon O’Connell oversaw the planting of a community garden. During the holiday season, GPHC conducted successful food basket and coat drives. We thanked Ann Long for nearly ten years of service as the Blockworker Coordinator, the volunteer organizer of neighbor newspaper deliveries, and welcomed Phil Carlson in her stead.
We featured several local businesses and organizations in 2012, including: The Garden restaurant, Sacred i Yoga, Dardano’s, Colorado Contemporary Dance Arts, Goodwill Industries Outlet World, and the Park Hill Community Bookstore. Also, Dancing the Soul, Cake Crumbs, Three Week Kitchens & Baths in a Week, Ace on the Fax, Dancer’s Advantage, Allegra’s Pizza, Haven Outdoor Design, Eis Gelato, the Bike Depot, Lewi Gault Fitness, and Soar Outdoor.
We also looked to many new developments: Sprouts on Colfax, the tax increment financed redevelopment at 9th and Colorado redevelopment, the Education & Collections facility at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, the opening of the Holly Peace Mural Park courts, and the groundbreaking of the Anschutz Center.
At City Park, we covered Reimagine Play’s plans to turn the Dustin Redd playground into City Loop; another County Fair and Ice Cream Social; the bench dedication to District 8’s dearly departed Carla Madison; another season of City Park Jazz; and 100 years of the City Park Golf Course.
In the greater environs, we covered Sand Creek Regional Greenway’s 10th anniversary, Bluff Lake Nature Center, last year’s Stage 1 drought, the 500% increase in usage at City of Axum park since 2010 renovations, Great Outdoors Colorado’s grant to the River Corridor Initiative, and area watersheds revealed through Brian Hyde’s monthly column. We also tracked local wildlife: foxes in the streets, hawks in 17th Avenue birdbaths, and a bald eagle in City Park.
We covered health issues in the neighborhood, and the groups working to tackle them: the Sunshine Project’s Workers Cooperative Grocery Store; Stapleton Foundation’s be well program and Healthy Living Centers; Healthy Park Hill Partnership between the Bike Depot, Park Hill Family Health Center and Johnson & Wales University; and Colorado HealthStory.
We covered some hot topics: Darren Spreeuw’s resolution around Perk Hill’s eviction, for one. We followed the gang violence flare up in late May and early June that culminated in the death of Officer Celena Hollis, and saw the neighborhood come together to make peace tiles for the park in her honor. And we continue to cover the phasing out of Smiley Middle School.
We tapped into neighborhood history with our story on the Park Hill airport lawsuit. A few good histories came out on the neighborhood: Historic Denver reprinted their Park Hill Neighborhood Guide, and historian Phil Goodstein debuted his nearly 600 page tome, Park Hill Promise: The Quest for an Idyllic Denver Neighborhood.
Our community marked the passing of some great community leaders: Linda Elliott, longtime Garden Walk chair; Art Branscombe, founding GPHC member; and Al Rue of the North City Park Neighborhood Association.
We had so many wonderful neighbors to feature: Ami Desai and her book, The Educational Secret; Cure d’Ars’ Su Charles’ stab at American Idol fame; Pam Sweetser and her Colorado Heritage Camps for Adoptive Families; Jake Lohwater and his summit for Big City Mountaineers; WWII Veteran Bob Lowe and Tim Davis’ Greatest Generations Foundation; Georgia Garnsey, Mary Motian-Meadows and their Murals of Colorado book; Jen Pastalo Dacpano and her Urban Guitar Revolution; artists Reven Swanson and Jeffrey Keith;
Megan Nyce of My Teenage Angst, Gretchen Hammer and the Colorado Coalition for the Medically Underserved; recent honors for community members Dr. Robbie Bean and Tameka Montgomery; and Project Greer Street’s Ronald and Yvette Sally; Rob Cuthbertson, Jill McClure and Paula Marinelli of the Park Hill New Parents Group; Greg and Melissa Davis of Go Local Park Hill; Helen Wolcott’s art shows; and more, if you can believe it.
We kept up with our federal, state and city representation: U.S. Representative Diana DeGette, State Senator Mike Johnston, State Representatives Beth McCann and Angela Williams; City Council members Mary Beth Susman, Albus Brooks, Christopher Herndon, Robin Kniech and Debbie Ortega; and Mayor Michael B. Hancock.
We heard from the following schools: Montview Community Preschool & Kindergarten; Ashley, Park Hill, Smith, Stedman and Westerly Creek elementary schools; the Odyssey School; Smiley Middle School and Venture Prep; Denver School of the Arts and East High School; HOPE Online Learning, St. Elizabeth’s, and the Julia Greeley Academy.
In the faith community, Blessed Sacrament Church turned 100 and an interfaith Action Circle group began.
And the many community programs: the Urban Farm at Stapleton, Water Polo at Hiawatha Davis, Soccer for Success grants, the Old House Fair’s Park Hill connection, the Park Hill Art Club, Together Colorado, Project Lumina, the Art Garage, the Colfax Marathon, the Denver Energy Challenge, B-Cycle’s expansion, the Snow Buddy program, the Park People’s free tree program; MomTime at Montview, FoodWorks, CROP Hunger Walk, the new History Colorado museum, repairs to iconic Park Hill signage, Feast on the ‘Fax, and the Denver (now Sie) FilmCenter rooftop fetes, among them.
And a special thank you to the columnists who volunteer their time to this newspaper: the Park Hill Branch Librarians; Margot Vahrenwald, our Park Hill Vet; old house expert Elizabeth Wheeler and her Care and Feeding of Old Homes column; riparian expert Brian Hyde’s Creek Restoration Walks; long-time resident and GPHC volunteer Jack Farrar’s StreetWise and other contributions; GPHC’s Zoning Chair Bernadette Kelly’s Z&P 500; writer and photographer Kitty Migaki’s Alphabet Park Hill geocaching and poetry learning series for kids; the in-the-know on RNOs Dave Felice and his City Matters column; and, our newest columnist, garden writer Marne Norquist’s Park Hill Roots.
Our staff of three part-timers has come a long way in a short time. A big thank you to Cory Lamz for his year as our print and web designer and a warm welcome to the newspaper’s new designer and general manager, Bernadette Kelly. The newspaper wouldn’t be possible without the hard work of Kelly O’Connell, our advertisement sales representative, and the generous support of our advertisers. A thank you to the GPHC Executive Committee who guide the many pursuits of the GPHC with steady focus, including this newspaper. Finally, a special thank you to my partner Michael, who helps me to wrangle in and edit stories, take care of the household during the deadline, and who graciously puts up with the stressed-out, sleep-deprived person I become for a week or more every month.
What began as the Park Hill Actionnews neighborhood newsletter in 1961, is now a 24-page newspaper circulated to 15,000 homes and businesses in the Greater Park Hill community and down the Colfax corridor. We’re proud to have taken the newspaper a step further this year, on to the social networks and a new website.
Here is to another year of getting to know you better, Park Hill!
Erin
Editor Erin Vanderberg can be reached at evanderberg@greaterparkhill.org, through facebook.com/greaterparkhillnews or @parkhillnews on Twitter.