Jefferson Park United Neighbors

Jefferson Park Formally Writes To The City : Re $1.2 Million

Dec 23, 2001

On November 8, 2001 the following letter was sent to Myrna Hipp, BJ Brooks and Monica Perales of Denver?’s Housing & Neighborhood Development Services, proposing expenditures for the $1.2 Million. We will keep you updated as final decisions are made.

In response to H&NDS?’ request to present recommended improvements for our neighborhood, Jefferson Park, we hope you will utilize our findings when dispersing the $1.2 million Stadium District improvement funds.

The stadium provided the $1.2 million for improvements to our neighborhood due to the direct impact of the Stadium on Jefferson Park. Our neighborhood, while only given a fraction of the moneys provided by the Stadium, is a neighborhood in transition. We are aware of some of the social problems associated with the neighborhood but feel that there is a real positive movement among residents to revitalize the neighborhood.

Nevertheless, the effects of the stadium linger, with game day and event traffic, noise, air traffic overhead, parking problems, littering, ?“tailgating?” in our front yards, and the occasional fan urinating on our property. The attendees of the games are guests in our neighborhood, but at times do not understand that responsibility. On a whole, few Jefferson Park residents benefit from the stadium and are often penalized for living in the neighborhood. In the August 24, 2001 Denver Post article New stadium, age-old gripes Neighbors fear same noise, trash, Julie Park wisely states: ?“The city may no longer own the stadium, but the Mayor can?’t ignore us. I don?’t think he wants residents moving out and slumlords moving in. It?’s a quality-of-life issues that could hurt the whole city.?” We understand the Mayor would like to keep his Focus Initiative Neighborhoods on the road to capital, visible improvements that the entire neighborhood could benefit from.

Jefferson Park has many issues, one being a horrible trash problem, in the streets and alleys. This problem is enhanced by the traffic that comes through the neighborhood from the stadium. For every Bronco game and stadium event we pick up the trash, beer and pop cans, sandwich wraps, etc?… that is left in our front yard and flowerpots from attendees of the game. As a result, we are excited to have this money to offset the damage that is caused by the stadium.

When we heard about the $1.2 million that the neighborhood was receiving from the stadium, we were thrilled that there could be opportunities to improve the long overdue problems in the neighborhood. We had questioned since early spring 2001 when we would find out more about the money, and it hasn?’t been until the last 6 weeks that a lot of the information has been released. We have been encouraged by H&NDS, and more directly by B.J. Brooks, to allocate some of our $1.2 million to our local daycare center, Family Star. Family Star, however, had never been in conversation for funding by the neighborhood?’s $1.2 million in the past. We had been asked to rate, in order of importance, the key items from the H&NDS action plan. The action plan was taken directly from key issues brought forth in Manolo Gonzalez-Estay?’s City & County of Denver?’s Research/Survey.

Our neighborhood consists of primarily low-income and middle-income individuals. Karen Sorenson, a Jefferson park neighbor, educator and mother, explains, ?“The children that could qualify for Family Star Daycare Center generally stay at home with their mothers while the children?’s fathers work. If a Jefferson Park mother does work, generally they are not eligible for Family Star services. The Family Star Daycare Center is only for people receiving AFDC or other government programs that are designed for very low-income individuals. The large majority of residents of our neighborhood do not benefit from the services the center offers.?” Further, Family Star Daycare Center is one of the few neighborhood residents that does benefit from the stadium. They rent their parking lot for events.

We feel the services that Family Star provides are needed services to the Denver community. We realize the importance of a Headstart program, and know that the Mayor does too. That is why the City gave Family Star a $125,000 challenge grant to help Family Star buy their building. Others recognize Family Star?’s great work, most recently receiving further grant monies through the Post-News Charities Foundation. Upon discussion of giving Family Star money for improvements, many valid concerns were raised. For one, we know there are many financial grant programs available for Family Star. However, there are few, if not no other, financial programs that are available for our neighborhood improvements such as alleys or curbs which are not covered under grants such as the limited block beautification program. In addition, it is unfair to long-time residents and businesses in Jefferson Park who have been victim to the impact of the stadium for decades, versus a new neighborhood resident business, who hasn?’t had to endure the years of hardship.

We are, of course, concerned about the well-being and safety of all of our children who play in our weed infested, crime ridden dirt alleys (that are laden with broken glass, trash, and hazardous materials). Our goal is to reach as many children, families and individuals with our funding as to benefit all in the neighborhood, not just the select few that may attend Family Star. Furthermore, those children from our neighborhood who attend Family Star will also benefit from neighborhood wide improvements. The money should be able to affect the most residents possible, through visible, tangible, long-term improvements.

After handing out reminder flyers and survey response forms, in both English and Spanish, to all homes and apartments in our neighborhood, we had a meeting to discuss this topic on November 6, 2001. Neighbors who could not attend the meeting were given the opportunity to fill out the survey and drop it off at JPUN?’s Vice President?’s home. Each survey was counted. We gave two votes to surveys with two names. The following prioritized items (one being most important) from the action plan were recorded (see attached excel spreadsheet and surveys ?– which will be mailed directly to H&NDS for documentation):

Streets, sidewalks & alleys
Abandoned homes and unkempt yards
Trash and dumpsters
Condition of housing
Business improvement district
Youth gang activity/vandalism
Illegal activity in alleys
Teens with nothing to do
Community Center/child care
Cost of housing

As a result of our integration with H&NDS and our neighbors, we are formally recommending 5 main improvements. Some details need to be worked out, but due to H&NDS time crunch, the general guidelines are there.

Spend our money on the top 3 action items, which will include the following (and overlap some issues):

1. Pave the lowest rated alleys (focusing on the dirt alleys) in the neighborhood ($1 million)
2. Repair/replace lowest rated curbs in the neighborhood ($150K)
3. Provide every house in the neighborhood with a 50-gallon rollout trash bin (500 homes x $60 each = $30K)
4. Provide a paint supply fund including materials for resident owner-occupied lower income homes, where volunteer organizations provide painting services in keeping with historical color schemes (50 houses at $500 each = $25K)
5. Provide industrial quality, attractive trash receptacles in key community areas such as the 25th Avenue business district, around the park, near bus stops, and other key areas to be determined by Jefferson Park neighbors ($18K) *work with Parks and Rec. and Solid Waste to ensure trash bins will be emptied in a timely fashion. If Solid Waste needs further moneys allocated for trash pick up throughout neighborhood public areas not covered under Parks and Rec., this will be discussed when details are finalized.

In the event there is surplus money after purchasing items 1-5, the surplus will be allocated towards additional alleys, curbs and/or trash receptacles.

It is our determination that making the above improvements to the appearance of our neighborhood will address many issues discussed in the action plan. Due to Jefferson Park?’s city crime rating, community policing studies show that second to adding strong law enforcement, cleaning up the physical environment of a neighborhood significantly decreases crime. It is with this information that we have made the determination that these improvements supersede any other proposal.

H&NDS has informed us that they plan on surveying members of our neighborhood too. While we encourage this process, we do not want to duplicate the surveying already completed by our neighborhood. As mentioned, all neighbors were given the opportunity to respond between November 3 ?– 7th. With this in mind, we would like a formal report upon completion of the H&NDS survey, including names and addresses of the members of the community surveyed, along with their results. In kind, we are submitting the same to the H&NDS. This audit process will ensure that duplication and outside pressures will not affect our process.

In closing, we look forward to creating a synergy with H&NDS to implement and expedite the above action improvements. Please let us know when this process will be finalized.

If you have further input for H&NDS, please contact Monica Perales directly at 720-913-1569.