by Mark Smiley | Oct 21, 2016 | Editorials
The intrepid and resourceful everyday citizens from Humboldt Street Neighborhood Association and Curtis Park Neighbors (some of which are pictured below) were, of course, greatly disappointed when the Denver Board of Adjustment for Zoning turned down their appeal of the decision from the Denver Planning Department by a 4-1 margin. The project will help destroy their neighborhoods by permitting high density micro apartments without any parking.
The vote was 4 to 1 rather than unanimous because the Board did not want to appear to be what they are — lackeys for the mayor and the real estate developers who control him. It is known in the trade as the “gentleman’s dissenting vote.”
What’s next? Well, they can exercise their rights as Americans and Coloradans and appeal the decision to the Denver District Court for the State of Colorado. The only problem is, of course, that the average Denver citizen never wins in the Denver District Court when suing the City and County of Denver when it relates to the destruction of their neighborhoods. Never, ever.
Just to review a few of the more egregious recent cases:
- Friends of Denver Parks v. the City and County of Denver et al. In September of 2013 Denver District Court Judge Herbert L. Stern III dismissed each and every claim of the citizens concerning the sale for development of a portion Hentzell Park in Denver.
- Residents of West Highland v. The Denver City Council et al. In September of 2013 Denver District Court Judge Robert C. McGahey dismissed each and every claim of the citizens regarding the rezoning of property in the Highlands area of Denver.
- Sloans Lake Neighborhood Association v. Denver City Council et al. In March of 2016 Judge J. Eric Eliff dismissed each and every claim on the rezoning of the former St. Anthony’s Central Hospital site.
- Residents of Crestmoor Park v. Denver City Council et al. In May of 2016 Denver District Court Judge Shelly I. Gilman not only dismissed each and every claim of the citizens over the rezoning of the Mt. Gilead Church property but she appeared to mock and taunt the citizens for even bothering to bring claims in her courtroom and made it abundantly clear that she would never rule in their favor.
Then there was the infamous case of Ballpark Neighborhood Association, Inc. v. City and County of Denver et al in September of 2015. There Denver District Court Judge R. Michael Mullins actually ruled, in a six page opinion, in favor of the citizens declaring that the City and County of Denver and the Board of Adjustment for Zoning had “abused their discretion and exceeded their jurisdiction in agreeing to allow the Denver Rescue Mission to expand.
Never accused of being the “brightest crayon in the box” Judge Mullins apparently had not been informed that the citizens of Denver are never allowed to win such cases. Calls were apparently made and Mullins was given, directly or indirectly, a talking to. Several weeks later Judge Mullins reversed himself and ruled in favor of the City and County of Denver on all claims. Judge Mullins, in disgrace, announced his retirement several months later.
There is a time honored idiom in American politics — “You Can’t Fight City Hall.” The saying is not “You Can’t Sue City Hall” because you clearly can. It means, inter alia, simply that you won’t win your lawsuit. Why? Because the concept of an “independent judiciary” is a myth, or more accurately, something of a cruel hoax as it pertains the Denver District Courts.
It is not that Denver judges are bribed. Why bother? Bribery would be so gauche and totally unnecessary. The 23 Denver District Court judges are, in reality, state government employees in black robes who plan to retire as state government employees on state government pension plans. They roam the hallways and eat in the cafeteria at the City and County Building with other government employees whether they are elected officials or government bureaucrats in the form of city attorneys and district attorneys, etc. They go to the same American Bar Association and Colorado Bar Association meetings. They attend the same parties and events. They were able to become judges in part because of their political connections and they do not intend to upset the applecart.
It is an unwritten rule in Denver whereby the unelected judges agree they will not play in the elected officials’ sandbox so long as elected officials don’t interfere with their spoils. Everybody in state and municipal government gets their healthy serving of the taxpayer funded pie all in the name of old fashioned “public service.”
So is all lost for Denver’s brave and intrepid neighborhood groups like the Humboldt Street Neighborhood Association and Curtis Park Neighbors? The answer is surprisingly, no, at least for the future. Of course the Mayor, the City Council, the Denver Planning Department, the Board of Adjustment, Barry Hirschfeld and the Denver District Court system will have raped and partially destroyed their neighborhoods for fun and profit, but things can and will continue to get worse and worse unless citizens start fighting for the future of their city.
The election system in Denver is, in fact, not rigged unlike some large cities in the United States. There is no Daley machine or a modern day Tammany Hall in Denver. Regular citizens can and have won elections if they are willing to fight hard enough, as demonstrated by the victories of City Auditor O’Brien and Councilmen New, Kashmann and Espinoza. You can even beat incumbents like Councilwoman Susan K. Shepherd.
Do citizens need to wait until the next municipal election finally rolls around? Of course not. Progressives in the early 20th century knew the only way to hold elected officials actually accountable was for citizens to be able to recall them, and provided for such in the Colorado Constitution and the Denver City Charter. Progressives in the 21st century are somehow extremely squeamish about holding elected officials, and therefore the entire system, accountable by filing recall petitions. Fill one petition against one of the numerous real estate developer owned City Council persons and suddenly — win, lose or draw — the whole political landscape changes and the citizens of Denver can now in fact “fight Denver City Hall.”
The time is a-wasting. Let us begin the fight to take back the City and County of Denver from real estate developers like Pat Hamill and his crony capitalist enablers at the loathsome Colorado Concern organization. You owe it to your children and grandchildren.
— Editorial Board
by Mark Smiley | Oct 21, 2016 | Feature Story Middle Left
by Danny Foster, Esq.
[I want to be clear the opinions expressed in this article are my personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the view(s) of other people at FGMC. Good and reasonable people can and do have significantly divergent perspectives and opinions on social justice issues. However, what cannot be denied is that this is an important issue — and I believe it needs to be addressed. In my view, to remain silent is not an option and people who know me know I simply can’t keep silent. That said, we must engage in a respectful dialogue and keep working on these issues for the sake of our community and country].
Any Jewish man or woman who graduates law school is inevitably provided a framed picture with these important words emblazoned upon the parchment: Justice, Justice Shall You Pursue. Usually it is also written in Hebrew: Tzedeck, Tzedeck, Tirdorf. This passage comes from the book of Deuteronomy from the Old Testament. It is a reminder to baby lawyers, and even seasoned lawyers, that our highest calling in life is to pursue justice. Justice for the oppressed. Justice for the wronged. Justice for the needy. And I believe most lawyers and non-lawyers alike try and pursue justice. It’s the right way to live one’s life. However in today’s complex world it seems much more complicated, because so many people have different opinions of what “justice” actually means. And when people have opposing views on what justice means, then we obviously have different thoughts on how to pursue it. It’s similar to driving a car. If two people grab the wheel and try to steer they will inevitably drive it off the road. That doesn’t benefit anyone. And today, more than ever, it seems like we have lots of people trying to steer the car toward their own version of justice.
While I primarily practice in the field of personal injury law, pursuing justice for the injured, I have also had the privilege of representing law enforcement — usually members of the Denver Sheriff’s Department, but sometimes Denver Police as well. So as you read this article you may suspect where my inclinations lie. But I was also raised by a father who was heavily involved in the civil rights movement and even marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma. So my opinion is based on a mixture of life experiences. I have been very troubled by the events of the past few years where so many good, hard-working law enforcement officers have suffered at the hands of so many ill-informed citizens and reporters. I have also been troubled when any person, regardless of race, has been killed by police when the encounter should have been routine. Police officers have the most dangerous job in America and need to make split second decisions. Life or death decisions for themselves, their partners, the suspect, and the community. How many life or death encounters do you face on a daily basis?
There have been many police officers (in our state and across the country) who have been attacked, threatened, and sometimes killed because of the groundswell of anti-police rhetoric fueled by 24-hour media cycles and non-stop social media. At least six officers were murdered across this country during the three days I wrote this article. Law enforcement deaths in the line of duty are the highest in U.S. history. That is a horrifying fact. Many of these attacks specifically targeted police due in large part to a backlash against alleged police misconduct (i.e. Dallas). Have there been police officers who have done wrong? Of course. Should they be fired or prosecuted if they break the law? Of course. Have there been valid excessive use of force complaints made? Yes, and these cases must be investigated thoroughly and with as much transparency as possible.
As it turns out the majority of excessive force complaints are found to be unsubstantiated after investigation by independent Internal Affairs (“IA”) departments. The fact is, just because someone is unarmed does not mean they do not pose a lethal threat. I have sat through innumerable IA interviews and watched police officers be thoroughly investigated. At no point in my 18 years of representing law enforcement have I ever seen an IA investigator give a pass to an officer accused of excessive force. I have represented many law enforcement officers who have been suspended or terminated due to even minor allegations of excessive force. Some discipline was justified, some was not. But the point is that most of the time law enforcement does a good job of removing bad apples. Are they perfect? No. But the belief that cops get a free pass from other cops is a gross mischaracterization of the facts (in my opinion).
The belief that all, or even most, police are racist is also something we must dispel. I’ve always hated stereotyping people. Whenever we say “All (blanks) are (blank)” we create nothing but more divisiveness and bigotry. All police officers are racists. All African-American males are thugs. All Jewish people are cheap. I could go on and on. The reality is that most police officers are not racist, but some are. Most African-American males are not thugs, but some are. Most Jewish people are not cheap, but some are. When we take the easy way out and use stereotypes to attack others, we weaken our argument and make conversations impossible. Stereotyping creates animosity, distrust, and eventually violence. Why on earth would law enforcement want to sit down with a group of Black Lives Matter delegates if they both went into this discussion automatically assuming the other group was a bunch of lunatics?
The reality is that we need our police. Imagine our society without strong, efficient law enforcement. It’s truly frightening. Honest, seasoned police officers are leaving the profession in the highest numbers ever recorded. New cadet class sizes have plummeted. Who would want to join a profession where you are being screamed at, constantly surveyed by iPhones, second guessed by newspaper reporters, shot at, beaten up, sued, and very likely suspended or fired at some point in time due to some allegations of misconduct? Just recently, a Chicago police officer refused to use her firearm when she was being viciously beaten by a suspect high on PCP because she feared the media fallout — and she almost lost her life because of it. (See Washington Post Oct. 17, 2016: Ferguson Effect?). That should scare all law-abiding citizens, regardless of race.
We need to take a deep breath, stop looking at our Facebook feed every 10 seconds, start trying to engage each other and stop pointing fingers all the time. Each case should be decided on its own merits and we should stop reflexively taking sides. We all should wait for the evidence to come out before jumping to conclusions, investigate claims of racial bias diligently and correct injustice whenever it is found.
Danny is a managing partner of Foster, Graham, Milstein & Calisher (FGMC). His practice focuses on personal injury. The law firm of FGMC, located in Cherry Creek, is a full service law firm focusing on: criminal defense, personal injury, real estate, litigation, liquor licensing, construction law, tax/estate planning, bankruptcy and zoning. This article does not create an attorney-client relationship and is for informational use only (what do you expect from an attorney!)
by Mark Smiley | Oct 21, 2016 | Main Articles
Residents And Disability Activists Demand Change
by Megan Carthel
Twenty-four floors high in the sky, the 4550 Cherry Creek luxury apartments in Glendale, have stood tall, but for some residents, the building is falling short. The skyscraper apartment complex was built in 2002, as the first truly luxurious rental property in Glendale. Its massive outline dominates the skyline along Cherry Creek Drive and its height so chagrined Glendale residents that the city revised its Zoning Code to impose height limits.
Tall Prison
But now the 24-story building has at times become a virtual prison for some residents as its elevator system has become a nightmare. For those inside the elevators when they break down, it means waiting seemingly endless hours until the City of Glendale can come rescue them. For residents who are disabled with mobility challenges they are trapped in their apartments or simply cannot return to their apartment homes for hours on end.
Longtime residents say they can point to the day when all the problems began — January 12, 2011. On that day sprinkler lines on the 18th and 2nd floors broke, causing water to run down the elevator shafts, resulting in extensive damage.
The elevators have never been the same. Since that date there have been 13 calls to the Glendale Police and the Fire Department regarding people trapped in the elevators. From November 2014 to July of this year alone the City of Glendale has had to make seven rescues from the elevators at 4550.
Threatened Lawsuit
But it is not simply the residents trapped in the elevators themselves that are affected. Resident Jessica Peck has progressive vascular malformations and reflexive sympathetic dystrophy. In 2015, treatment led to extreme and sudden bone loss culminating in an amputation below the knee on her left leg. Peck said all four elevators were down when she came home one evening. Her two daughters, ages eight and 11, were in their unit, 11 flights up. Peck had to hop on one leg up 11 flights of stairs to reach her kids.
“I thought if I fall I’m dead,” Peck said. Only days later, Peck was in the hospital with inflammation of cartilage in the breast plate. In April of this year she was diagnosed with pulmonary embolisms.
“To me, as an attorney, as a disability activist, to be in a position where I am scared of retaliation and I am honestly hurt to my core. I have a thick skin, but living in this environment every day is being told that I don’t matter, that my children don’t matter, and they don’t care if I get injured,” Peck said.
Peck has retained one of Colorado’s most famous and feared litigators David Lane of Killmer, Lane & Newman, LLP who is investigating bringing suit under Federal statutes if the problems are not fixed.
“Under ADA they have to reasonably accommodate people with disabilities, meaning they have to provide access to people with disabilities — curb cuts are required by law, working elevators are required by law, handicapped access doors which can be opened by pushing a button have to be working by law, they have to have parking spots for disabled people by law, they do none of the above on a regular basis,” Lane said.
Lane and Peck would be filing suit under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Fair Housing Act and Warranty of Habitability.
Elevator Background
Mike Pattison, Denver branch manager for Kone, the company that installed and maintains the elevators, said his crew members are contracted to perform preventative maintenance weekly on the elevators.
“Our guys are out there all the time,” Pattison said.
Pattison said the elevators in 4550 are four-geared traction passenger cars with a mipromST control system. He said hundreds were installed in 2002 and 2003, but are no longer being currently installed. Pattison said to upgrade the elevator system, it would cost between $175,000 to $250,000 per elevator.
Chuck Line, Glendale Deputy City Manager, said usually elevators shut down because a safety feature responded to an error.
“From a safety point of view, every time we go, all the safety mechanisms are functioning perfectly and everything, but there’s a big difference between safety of an elevator and operationally if it’s reliable or not. Because if it’s unreliable, it means its safety mechanism has kicked in, but it means maybe they’re not maintaining it to the degree that they should,” Line said.
Upset Residents
Tina Roussin has had to walk up 17 flights of stairs with groceries when all four elevators were down, a frequent event according to her. She was once stuck in an elevator early in the morning after taking her dog outside. The elevator she was in does not have a call phone or button, and she did not have her phone on her. Roussin said she began kicking and yelling in hopes someone would hear she was trapped. Eventually the elevator returned to the first floor. When Roussin brought her incident to management, she said she received a less than satisfactory answer.
“I was told you need to make sure you have your phone on you when you go on the elevator,” Roussin said.
Elevators are inspected twice a year. Randy Pabst, elevator inspector with Colorado Consulting Code, said a two-way communication system is required that can dial a 24-hour service such as the elevator maintenance contractor, 9-1-1 or an answering service for security company.
This is not Roussin’s only run-in with the elevators. Her dog’s leash got caught in the elevator doors and was suspended from the top of the elevator, hanging there until the leash broke while Roussin tried to free her dog, Chloe. Another resident who is afraid of retaliation from the complex in the form of rent price raises who wanted to keep her identity private, said the elevators are a major issue.
“This is supposed to be a luxury building, it’s not inexpensive to live here and we should have a reasonable expectation that we can go up and down 24 floors on at least one elevator all the time,” the resident said. “I lived in Manhattan for a long time and these are the kinds of issues that come up with slumlords in New York.”
The residents said in general they like living at 4550 and praise concierge and front office workers in general but many have a problem with the management company Monogram Apartment Collection. The owner of the building, according to the real estate records of Arapahoe County, is Behringer Harvard Cherry Creek out of Dallas, Texas, who acquired the building in 2010 for $52 million. The seller Sentinel lost $26 million on the sale from its purchase price of $78 million in 2005.
Resident Kandie Landers told the Chronicle, “When a building has 24 floors, having the elevators down as frequently as they do is inexcusable . . . . Other than the elevator issue, I have been extremely pleased with the community.” She notes, however, that “the management really needs to invest in getting the elevators fixed and/or replaced.”
Management Response
According to Peck and her attorney David Lane, the time for 4550 to voluntarily perform the needed work may be running out.
In an email statement sent to the Chronicle, the management company Monogram Apartment Collection stated, “At [4550] Cherry Creek, we’re committed to providing the highest quality service for our residents. When a resident has a concern, we maintain a culture of transparency by communicating how we are remedying the situation. Our residents shared feedback around the need to update our elevators, so we are in the process of replacing the mechanical systems in all four elevators. We anticipate starting work very soon and are doing everything we can to ensure that this long and complex process is as painless as possible.”
by Mark Smiley | Oct 21, 2016 | Main Articles
Tapes Caught Her Allegedly Dissembling In Front Of City Council
by Mark Smiley
Jeanne Price often sits next to Mohammad Ali Kheirkhahi, principal of M.A.K. Investments
Denver resident Jeanne Price, who many allege to be a paid operative for Mohammad Ali Kheirkhahi of M.A.K. Investment Group, LLC (M.A.K.), has been seen as a highly unpleasant fixture at Glendale City Council meetings ever since the dispute arose over M.A.K.’s desire to build a massive apartment complex on Colorado Boulevard. The City Council finally decided at the August 16, 2016, meeting to begin to expose Price for who they believe she really is.
The Chronicle reported on her activities in the February 2016 issue (“Persian Rug Merchants Have Denverite Jeanne Price Digging Hard for Dirt”).
What outraged many of the members of Glendale City Council was that fact that she approaches the podium to speak at most City Council meetings and makes what they believe at times outrageous and scurrilous allegations about City Council members and city employees during the “Public Comments” section of the meetings.
Glendale Mayor Mike Dunafon stated, “The ‘Public Comment’ section of every meeting is supposed to allow for everyday citizens to be able to present their thoughts on the city and issues of concern to them. It is not for a paid operative from Denver to libel the city and everyone in it with outrageous allegations.”
Among the accusations by Price that the City Council believe to be false and libelous are, that (1) the City Council had met in “Executive Session” over half the time in the last four or five years; (2) the City Council had refused to state what matters the Executive Sessions concerned; (3) in violation of the Colorado Open Records Act, Price had been denied access to the minutes of the City Council over the last several years; and (4) the City Clerk had willfully misrepresented what she had said in prior Council meetings.
It is illegal under Colorado law for a city council to meet in executive session e
xcept for a very limited number of instances such as personnel matters or to receive legal advice concerning pending or ongoing litigation. It is also illegal not to state what subjects are to be discussed at an executive session. Finally, it is illegal under the Colorado Open Records Act to refuse to supply copies of records clearly in the public domain including minutes of public meetings.
At the August 16, 2016, meeting when Price approached the lectern to harangue the Council, the mayor indicated he wanted the City Clerk to read her exact accusation at a prior Council meeting concerning the Council convening in Executive Session over 50 percent of the time. Price quickly denied she had ever made such an allegation declaring, “I said I’d been here over the last seven or eight months and it seemed to me you spent a lot of time in Executive Session. I did not say in the last five years.”
The City Clerk then read from a transcript the recording of the meeting of what Price had, in fact, said which was, “More importantly, it’s just my observation having read four or five years of your minutes, that this Council spends more than half of its time in Executive Session, and that is a unique situation in my experience.”
Caught in what would appear to be a direct lie did not appear to phase Price. She declared, “I have a recording of what I said and what I said was ‘this Council’ with great emphasis meaning the people sitting up there last September were spending a lot of time in Executive Session, compared to other times. I have the recording. I am happy to share it with anybody.”
At the City Council meeting on September 6, 2016, the deputy city manager played the actual tape in which Price declared exactly what the City Clerk had read and not what was alleged by Price. She then told an incredulous audience that what was played was just 20 seconds of a three-minute statement. The mayor indicated the city would play the entire three minutes at the next city council meeting which would show that Price was lying once again but Price had no response.
As to the actual Executive Session allegation itself, the city clerk reported that in the last five years the City Council had met for a total of 9,660 minutes and only 395 minutes were in Executive Session or 4 percent of the time. The City stated that almost all such Executive Sessions regarded receiving legal advice concerning lawsuits filed against the city by Price’s alleged employer M.A.K. and Mohammad Ali Kheirkhahi. Moreover, in contradiction of her allegation the City Council did, in fact, state what subjects were to be discussed in Executive Session each and every time.
Finally, as to Price’s allegation she was illegally denied access to copies of Council minutes, the City Clerk noted that all the minutes from 2013 forward were, in fact, up on the city website for anyone to look at and moreover pursuant to Price’s CORA request she was provided the minutes going back to 2002, as well as the actual recordings in many instances.
Councilman Scott Brock
Mayor Mike Dunafon indicated that “it was important for the public to see who and what Jeanne Price really is, but even I did not expect to see her incredible sad pathologies so fully on display.”
“Jeanne Price’s wild accusations have become tiresome,” said Councilmember Scott Brock. “The public needs to know that these allegations are obvious lies. She has lost all credibility with this Council and she digs herself and M.A.K. a deeper hole every time she gets up to speak.”
When inquiries were made to Jeanne Price soliciting a response on her accusations and her conduct at the last several City Council meetings, she declared in an email to the Chronicle for attribution that “I love October.”
by Mark Smiley | Oct 5, 2016 | Editorials
With the daylight hours shortening and the leaves beginning to fall, the large group of young so-called “travelers” will begin their annual migration to cities with warmer weather, leaving the 16th Street Mall to Denver’s more “traditional” homeless who are older and, generally speaking, a great deal less violent with marijuana and alcohol being the drugs of choice rather than the heroin and meth preferred by some of the young travelers.
It has been an in-teresting summer down at the Mall which was originally envisioned as a mecca for tourists coming to Colorado, and in particular Denver. Walking down the Mall this summer one could enjoy the fresh, pungent odor of urine while being accosted by highly aggressive young panhandlers and even physically assaulted by individuals carrying pipes. If you were eating on one of the patios or restaurants adjoining the Mall you stood a chance of your food literally being taken off your plate by a traveler. It got so bad that even the older Denver homeless were demanding that Denver do “something” about the chaotic situation.
The situation got worse and worse until some of the violence was captured by a KDVR camera crew and a reporter and broadcast on the nightly local news. Other news outlets soon began covering the story and a call went out to the mayor of Denver (who was on a mission in Rio De Janeiro to find out about what was involved in holding the Olympics) to tell him trouble was brewing back in River City.
To his credit when Mayor Hancock returned he held a press conference at which he made it clear that he found the situation untenable and he intended to take action. No wonder. The problem has been festering for a long time on the 16th Street Mall.
In 2015 the Denver City Council was presented with a report from Visit Denver, the official marketing arm of The Convention & Visitors Bureau, which noted how visitors complained about the “homeless, youth, panhandling, safety, cleanliness, and drugs, including marijuana consumption.” In one communication to the bureau a visitor noted: “I’m sorry but I would never consider putting attendees in danger by holding a convention in your city. We were staying at Embassy Suites downtown on 16th and last night witnessed a group of about 30 teenagers attack a man walking along 16th Street.”
Part of the problem are the somewhat spineless downtown business groups such as the Downtown Partnership whose spokeswoman asserted amazingly to a television reporter that the violence and assaults on the Mall are part of the wonderful “urban experience” that Denver provides to visitors.
The mayor did significantly increase the police presence on the 16th Street Mall which caused many of the travelers to move to the Cherry Creek bike path resulting in a massive increase of used heroin needles on the bike path. Denver Parks and Recreation issued a temporary directive allowing police to give 90-day suspensions from park use for persons caught dealing or using drugs in the parks, but suspensions could be appealed.
Even that tepid response was, of course, too much for the highly sensitive Editorial Board of The Denver Post whose main job is to make as Denver thoroughly miserable as possible for the residents, while generally being in the back pocket of the Administration and the high density real estate developers that control the city. (See The Denver Post September 7, 2016 lead editorial.)
The dispute highlights a decayed society that no longer can protect itself or its children. Parasites like John Parvensky, President of the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless since 1986, have exploited the massively government funded Coalition for his own enrichment, with the goal appearing to be to attract as many homeless to Denver as physically possible in order to increase the funding for the Coalition and Parvensky’s scandalous salary.
Visitors to Denver are often shocked by the number of panhandlers and beggars throughout the city. You often hear city officials assert that begging is a constitutional right for which they can do nothing. In actual fact the United States Supreme Court has never asserted that public panhandling is somehow protected by the 1st Amendment but simply that governments cannot prevent organized charities from soliciting funds as stated in Riley v. National Federation of the Blind of Carolina.
Of course the ACLU will sue Denver if it even attempts to prevent even aggressive panhandling, but Denver gets sued all the time anyway. The ACLU is infamous for cowering when government actually attempts to quash citizens’ real 1st Amendment and other rights as when Roosevelt issued an executive order interning Japanese-American citizens during World War II or when the U.S. government in the 1950s went after individuals for simply being a member of or having been a member of the Communist Party of America. The ACLU is a gutless organization when the rubber really meets the road, but in in the meantime it’s great for suing small municipalities with limited budgets for having inoffensive Christmas displays.
In between the endless ACLU lawsuits, the young heroin chic travelers would stop coming to Denver as they look for cities with great weather that are easy marks. Stop being an easy mark and they go away. But, of course, Denver would risk, as the spokeswoman for the Downtown Partnership indicated, visitors being deprived of the wonderful “urban experience” of being physically assaulted on the 16th Street Mall and the opportunity of starting their own collection of used heroin needles from the Cherry Creek bike path. But as the old saying goes “you can’t have it all.” Will Denver muster the courage to fight the good fight? Don’t count on it. The Administration is too busy destroying neighborhoods with excessive density and no parking.
— Editorial Board
