Jefferson Park United Neighbors

Washington came first and Jefferson followed, in textbooks...

Jul 11, 2002

By Rin Kelly
Jefferson Park, a former city landfill that was seeded and landscaped in the early 1900s, was named in honor of the 3rd American president?—and as a complement to Washington Park, the 155-acre greenbelt which had been established only a few years before. The surrounding neighborhoods took the names of their respective parks but diverged in most other aspects: Washington has become a relatively affluent area, while Jefferson has grown into a working-class one. The average household income in Washington Park is over twice that of Jefferson Park. Washington Park remains an area of stability, while Jefferson Park is undergoing dramatic change. And when the two convened on April 22 to argue the fate of their neighborhoods before City Council, it was the residents of Jefferson Park who walked away dissatisfied.
?“Right from the start, when I went into that council meeting, it was a sham as far as I was concerned,?” says Robert Caskey, a Jefferson Park resident who spoke at the public hearing for the redistricting process. Caskey and ten other people from northwest Denver?—including representatives of Sloan?’s Lake, Highlands, and Sun Valley?—attended the hearing to advocate the adoption of an amendment by District 9 Councilwoman Debbie Ortega. The amendment would have placed Jefferson Park and Invesco Field in District 9 rather than moving them to District 1. Council voted eight to five against the Ortega amendment, approving the district shift despite having no support from residents in attendance. When it came time to vote on the fate of Washington Park, however, council ceded to the wishes of the residents and voted unanimously to keep the neighborhood in its current district.
?“It was a huge political move,?” says Christine Potter, president of Jefferson Park United Neighbors. ?“It isn?’t about the neighborhoods. All the neighborhood organizations opposed it, and the City Council didn?’t listen to us. Then Washington Park spoke out against their redistricting, and City Council cowered to them. It had to do with who the demographic is in our neighborhood.?”
Jefferson Park is 82.6 percent Latino, with an average household income of a little less than $27,000 a year. The average home sale price in Jefferson Park is about $163,000, compared to nearly $373,000 in Washington Park and $287,000 in Washington Park West. ?“We have a really high population of Spanish-only speakers, we?’re working-class, and we?’re an affordable housing neighborhood,?” says Potter. ?“I think they want development here, and they figured they didn?’t have to listen to us.?”
Councilman Dennis Gallagher, who has represented District 1 since 1995, is angered at suggestions that he and the other seven councilpeople who voted against the Ortega amendment had a hidden agenda. ?“I am extremely offended,?” he says, maintaining that the redistricting of Jefferson Park and Invesco was necessary to adequately address the stadium?’s effect on Sloan?’s Lake. ?“That neighborhood is impacted very heavily by the stadium, from drunken revelers after the game to parking problems,?” he says. When the new district lines take effect in May of next year?—with a new councilperson in Gallagher?’s seat?—a united Invesco, Jefferson Park, and Sloan?’s Lake will ?“give much more status to the district and the neighborhoods, and then hopefully the new councilperson will be able to negotiate some effective solutions to all those problems,?” he explains.
But Jefferson Park, say residents, is impacted by much more than the stadium. Perched on the edge of one of the most coveted spots in the city?—and designated an ?“area of change?” by Blueprint Denver?—the neighborhood faces a precarious future. Much of the area?’s residential core is zoned R-3, allowing essentially unlimited height for new development. Because it is a renter neighborhood?—only 22 percent of housing is owner-occupied?—the threat of displacement looms larger in Jefferson Park than in other areas. ?“What I?’m worried about is that this neighborhood already has a label on it,?” says longtime resident Andrew Martinez. ?“That this is?… one of those disposable neighborhoods where people have been displaced in the past, so one more displacement isn?’t going to upset anything because there?’s already a precedent there. And if anything, the redistricting is going to make it more inviting for development.?” As optimistic as residents of the area try to remain, they are aware that their best hope for preserving the neighborhood?’s single-family fabric lies in rezoning?—and that rezoning spins the argument back to City Council.
The neighborhood?’s opposition to the new council map stems from fears of inadequate representation in District 1?—fears that their interests in rezoning and regulating development are not shared by their neighbors in Sloan?’s Lake and West Highland. ?“There really is a unique difference between the stable neighborhoods on the west side of Federal from all the changes that are going on in Jefferson Park, stuff happening along Federal down in Sun Valley, and even some of the changes that abut the highway in the Highland neighborhood,?” says Ortega. The demographic makeup of Jefferson Park differs significantly from Sloan?’s Lake and West Highland, which are higher-income areas with fewer Spanish speakers and more than half of the housing owner-occupied. Jefferson Park neighbors fear that the voices of their approximately 3,330 residents will be inaudible in a more residentially stable, affluent district?—and that this could stall their rezoning efforts or even encourage big development.
But Gallagher points to Ortega?’s district, which includes the cement-and-cranes landscape of the loft-happy Platte Valley, as the city?’s current heart of big development. A move to District 1, he says, ?“puts Jefferson Park, which has pressure for commercial development, into a residential district. To me, that?’s good.?” And though demographic concerns are important in the redistricting
process, he says, it is equally important for citizens to learn to cooperate with their neighbors. ?“It bothers me to hear these neighborhood leaders?…saying that we have nothing in common,?” he says of Jefferson Park and his constituents west of Federal. ?“I don?’t understand why we can?’t work together.?”
But Jefferson Park residents remain dubious of the council?’s redistricting decision. At a recent JPUN meeting, a number of residents questioned the relationship between Gallagher and developer Jim Sullivan, who in June 2000 proposed a large development project that was highly unpopular with the neighborhood?—so unpopular, in fact, that it spurred the creation of JPUN itself. Sullivan?—as well as Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen and Broncos coach Mike Shanahan?—sits on the board of the Irish Community Center, in which Gallagher is involved as a committee representative of the James Joyce Reading Society.
Gallagher denies that his relationship with Sullivan is worth all the buzz. ?“I have not spoken with Mr. Sullivan in a long time and I never have talked to him about reapportionment, the redistricting,?” he says, adding that he has long been fighting the problems Mile High and now Invesco Field have wrought in Jefferson Park. ?“I?’m one of the two (councilpeople) that didn?’t vote for the stadium subsidy of $450 million,?” he says. And when Sullivan was interested in developing the area, Gallagher told him he was ?“going to have to go through those neighbors out there,?” as is customary with any potential development deal.
Gallagher will not seek another term, and so it will be up to a new councilperson in District 1 to help decide the fate of Jefferson Park. ?“I expect a lot more changes in the neighborhood,?” says Potter. ?“We need to create some sort of environment where we can get neighbors to talk to each other so that we are keeping in touch, making sure that we know what?’s going on in the neighborhood.?”

Reprinted with permission. ?© North Denver Tribune May 30, 2002