Penfield Tate
In spring of 2011, the citizens of Denver in their infinite wisdom decided to elect the unintelligent but gregarious Michael Hancock who as The Denver Post stated, had a “feel good story” rising from poverty to become the plaything of Green Valley Ranch developer Pat Hamill who owns Hancock lock, stock, and barrel along with his fellow crony capitalists at Colorado Concern. Of course The Denver Post never revealed who was actually running Hancock as it had become, as the only major paper in the city, as corrupt as the city government itself.
Hancock barely made the 2011 runoff beating out James Mejia by only 1,491 votes for the last spot behind first round leader Chris Roemer. Just think only 1,491 votes and the race would have been between two highly qualified and experienced candidates either of whom would have run Denver a multitude of times better than Hancock. For the last eight years high density developers and the Brownstein law firm have run and raped the city for fun and profit while Hancock has spent his time working out in gyms and chasing skirts.
Four years ago everyone realized what an awful mayor Hancock was but no credible candidate arose to run against him due in large part to the massive fundraising advantage Hancock had over anyone who would run against him. For a while it looked like 2015 would repeat itself with Hancock running essentially unopposed.
But over the last 30 days two highly credible candidates, Penfield Tate and Lisa Calderon, have thrown their hats into the ring for office of mayor of the City and County of Denver which will give Denver real choices.
Penfield Tate III is 62-years-old and an attorney with the national law
Lisa Calderon
firm of Kutak Rock. He was a state representative from 1997 to 2001 and state senator from 2002 to 2003. He represented northeast Denver which is the base of power for Mayor Hancock. He knows what he is up against having run for mayor in 2002, getting beaten out by John Hickenlooper.
He correctly points out how the rapid growth of Denver has been grossly mismanaged by the Hancock administration. The last eight years with all the wealth pouring into the city should have been Denver’s Golden Age, instead it’s been an unmitigated disaster for everyone but developers.
Tate has declared: “Development is out of sync with neighborhoods, disrupting the quality of neighborhoods. It’s imperiling open space and having an impact on parks. It’s driving gentrification. It’s impacting small businesses that are . . . getting driven out of neighborhoods. It is impacting affordable housing.” We could not have articulated some of the major problems of the Hancock administration better.
Lisa Calderon is a longtime community activist from north Denver and presently the co-chair of the Colorado Latino Forum — Denver chapter. Her parents were an African-American and a Latino. She has a law degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder, as well as a doctorate in education from CU Denver.
She has been a advocate against the treatment of prisoners at the Denver jail. She has held rallies against Michael Hancock’s harassment of and lying about his relationship with Denver Police Detective Leslie Branch Wise. She recently sued the City and County of Denver for canceling a contract to run a re-entry program for former inmates based on, she alleges, her criticism of the mayor and his harassment of Leslie Branch Wise.
She believes that the city is at a critical juncture: “So, I kept waiting for the candidate to emerge that I would support, who represented my values and my concerns about affordable housing and women’s issues, and concerns about the cultural preservation in our city. And I realized, I was waiting for me.”
Her platform centers around affordable housing, “resident-led” development, decentralizing the mayor’s office, and women and workers.
When asked how affordable housing and “resident-led” development mesh she stated:”We need to look at what does each community need in their neighborhood,” she said. “I can tell you right now I don’t need a big behemoth building shadowing over all of the other units, but there is a way to build for density that still takes into account community.”
She went on to note: “There are ways to do density that really centers a community in it, rather than a developer’s idea about cramming so many people in there.”
Eighteenth century diplomat and philosopher Joseph de Maitre declared that “in a democracy people get the leaders they deserve.” It is hard to fathom that anybody deserves a sexual predator and corrupt mayor like Michael Hancock, but we will find out next spring. Hancock has raised $700,000 from the worst of the worst in Denver, but no amount of money can scrub clean the permanent stains he has made across the city. We will have a choice next year in Denver and it can only be hoped that we choose wisely.
- Editorial Board