Denver Slips To 29th Place In National Park Ranking; City
Pays $5.1 Million For Park Property; Pair Launches New Trust
by Glen Richardson
Denver parks have skidded to 29th place in the latest
national ranking of 100 big city parks. That is for a city that hovered just
beneath the top 10 at number 13 in the park hierarchy in 2015, just four years
earlier.
Useful Greenhouse: The 0.63-acre greenhouse space on newly purchased city park site is likely to be used by Parks & Recreation to support department’s main greenhouse at City Park.
This year’s Trust for Public Land ParkScore® released May 7
reveals just how fast and far Mayor Michael Hancock and Denver Parks &
Recreation Director Happy Haynes have dragged down Denver, once known as the
city within a park. As the administration sells or gives away park space to
developers, the amount of Denver’s city land used for parks has dwindled to 8%
compared to this year’s national median of 15%.
The city’s acreage average is rated 52.5 out of 100 with
investments rated slightly higher at 60 out of 100. The only thing that buoyed
Denver’s ranking was the wide distribution of its 314 parks, giving the city an
access score of 82.5 out of 100.
Trust, Park Purchase
Park Rank Plunges: Rated nation’s 13th best city for parks just four years ago, Denver has dropped to 29th place in latest national park ranking.
The dramatic drop in Denver’s city park ranking comes as the
launch of a new nonprofit known as the “Denver Park Trust” was announced. It is
a joint venture by Denver City Councilwoman Kendra Black and Frank Rowe, a
member of the Parks & Recreation Advisory Board.
It joins the ranks of cities such as Portland and
Minneapolis that have park foundations that help raise money and keep an eye on
public parks. According to Black and Rowe the trust will have an annual budget
of $250,000. The trust will provide added revenue to the funds raised by voter
passage of Measure 2A that added a .25% tax increase for park projects and land
acquisition. Black says even that increase can’t support Denver’s parks system.
“That’s where Denver Public Trust comes in,” she explains.
Coincidently the Denver City Council has approved a
resolution for the $5,100,000 purchase of property at 4301-4307 E. Iliff Ave.
in Black’s district for future use as city park land using 2A funds. It is the
2.26-acre site of Groundcovers Greenhouse located two blocks south of Evans
Ave. and three blocks east of Colorado Blvd. The retail-wholesale
nursery-greenhouse owned by Alison Tyler and Gary Luster closed at the end of
July. It is the first piece of land purchased using revenue from the 2A park
sales tax.
Greenhouse Site
Kendra Black
Nestled in a quiet residential neighborhood just east of
Colorado Blvd., the property operated as a greenhouse for nearly 40 years. The
city approached greenhouse owner Gary Luster with an offer. “As many of you
have heard, our property is being purchased by the city of Denver and will be
turned into a park within a couple of years,” he reported on Groundcovers’
website.
Luster told area news outlets he had never put the building
up for sale and had vowed that he never would. In the past decade he reportedly
turned down at least a dozen offers. “But we got the right offer for the right
reasons,” he concluded.
Councilwoman Black and Parks & Recreation officials say
they had been scouting the neighborhood for a park location for the last seven
years. “Additional park access in the University Hills North neighborhood is
critical to supporting an active, healthy lifestyle for the residents who live
there,” says Black. The closest parks in the neighborhood are Observatory Park,
Eisenhower Park, McWilliams Park and Prairie Park. All would require a 20 to
30-minute walk.
Few Year Project
While there are parks near University Hills such as Mamie D.
Eisenhower Park, the goal of 2A is to have parks within walking distance of all
residents. Many residents in University Hills also had to cross major streets
like East Yale Ave. This is something many parents are hesitant to let their
children do, according to Black.
Black says it will be a few years before a park is built.
First, the city will look at logistics and clear any buildings that won’t be
used. Parks & Recreation’s Gordon Robertson says the city may keep the
0.63-acre greenhouse space to support the department’s main greenhouse at City
Park. Any garden equipment left behind also may be repurposed.
The new park will then go through a public process. Either
late this year or early next year, the city will host an open house with
residents to determine what amenities they would like on the two-acre space,
which is a decent size for a typical park with a playground, according to
Robertson.
Vision For Trust
Frank Rowe
According to Frank Rowe — the only staff member and
executive director of the new Denver Park Trust — “Our vision is to acquire
land for new parks in high-density and high-need neighborhoods. We’ll also work
on providing ‘gap funding’ for projects within parks.”
Rowe says the nonprofit will focus on communities where
there isn’t a park within a 10-minute walk. One of Trust’s first projects will
be raising gap funding for renovation of St. Charles Park in the Cole
neighborhood. Phase one is complete, but funds are lacking to begin phase two,
he explains. Another early project taken on by the nonprofit is the addition of
a shade structure at Lindsley Park in the Hale neighborhood.
Black believes donors feel more comfortable writing a check
to a nonprofit rather than a governmental body. The Trust also aims to garner
public support and awareness of the city’s parks, Rowe adds. “I think if you
talk to most folks, they love their parks. And a lot of people want to get
engaged in their parks, participate and give back, so we can be a conduit for
that.”
Pair’s Background
New Park Property: City has paid $5.1 million for the 2.26-acre Groundcovers Greenhouse site on E. Iliff Ave. Denver is using voter approved 2A funds to buy the property located two blocks south of Evans and three blocks east of Colorado Blvd.
Prior to launching the trust, Rowe worked for six years at
the nonprofit news outlet Chalkbeat. He was appointed to the Parks &
Recreation Board by Councilwoman Black when she was first elected to city
council in 2015. His wife Anne Rose represents southeast Denver on the Denver
School Board, just as does Parks & Recreation Director Happy Haynes. Anne
Rowe served as Vice President of the School Board from 2013 to 2015.
While pursuing a park in her district, Black has been less
aggressive in support for parks and open space citywide and is considered extreme
pro-development. She supported the controversial drainage project at Park Hill
Golf Course and along with two other councilmembers supported some development
at the golf course. Some bloggers have scolded her for voting to spend money to
tear up City Park.
A study commissioned by The Park People, Greenway Foundation
and Kaiser Permanente with Denver’s support, reveals city parks deliver $7.1
million of revenue to the city while increasing resident wealth by $48.7
million.
Court records obtained by Glendale Cherry Creek Chronicle
detail how Biological Resource Center (BRC), a willed body donation company
headquartered in Arizona, illegally brokered infected body parts for profit.
FBI Raid: A former Arizona body donation center is facing multiple lawsuits after an FBI raid revealed body parts piled on top of each other, a cooler filled with male body parts and a head sewn onto another body.
Four years ago, the families who donated their loved ones to
BRC filed a civil lawsuit alleging that BRC misled some customers to believe
that their deceased would be left intact after donation. Instead, BRC dismembered
the bodies and sold the parts across domestic and international borders. The
lawsuit is ready to stand trial in the Maricopa County Superior Court on
October 21.
One invoice recorded the sale of two heads for $500 apiece
to a medical school in Israel. On another, a pair of shoulders went to Athens,
Greece, for just $300. Someone’s arms made their way into a surgical workshop
for $750.
This happened to families in Arizona, Michigan, and
Illinois.
“It’s really body snatching without them having to dig up
the graves,” Michael Burg, a Denver-based attorney representing eight of the
plaintiffs, said in a press release about the case. “[BRC] lied to them.”
Background
The initial FBI investigation began in 2013 after officers
in Houston caught wind of International Biological, Inc. (IBI), a body
brokerage, shipping body parts across the southern border. State agencies
recovered thousands of bodies and dozens of boxes of records from IBI’s offices
in Michigan. Those records also implicated BRC and Anatomical Services, Inc.
(ASI) in the crime.
Body Parts: Agents found “infected heads,” a small woman’s head sewn onto a large male torso and hanging on a wall “like Frankenstein,” and body parts stacked on top of one another with no identification tags. (Courtesy of YouTube)
After a lengthy investigation, it was determined that the
three companies had been acting as one since at least 2008, when it began
selling body parts to international clientele.
As a brokerage, the business marketed itself as one that
didn’t sell infected parts. But, the investigation found that it made most of
their money from bodies of people who suffered from sepsis, hepatitis B, C, and
HIV, even when family death records explicitly stated so.
BRC’s warehousing process exposed much of its inventory to
cross-contamination. A deposition from one of the FBI officers who raided BRC’s
Arizona office revealed that body parts were often organiz-ed by limb after
they were dismembered with infected parts mixed with clean ones.
Customers were never given access to any of the death
certificates, medical records from donors, or medical social history
questionnaires administered by BRC among caregivers or next-of-kin. If a
customer found out the body they purchased was infected, BRC would offer to
sell the body at a discounted rate in order to ensure the sale.
This is not the first time BRC owners Stephen and Sally Gore
have been in a courtroom over their business practices. AZCentral reported that
Stephen Gore had pled guilty to federal charges for the illegal use and sale of
human body parts in 2014. He was sentenced to four years in prison, but served
no time because of good behavior.
“Placement” And “Matching”
BRC also told donor families that they treated the deceased
with dignity and respect. They offered services like the recovery of and
“placement” and “matching” of tissue with scientists and medical researchers to
unsuspecting customers. They printed details of these services in brochures and
pamphlets that were given out in their offices.
To an untrained ear, this language sounds as if the deceased
will be kept intact during transportation. But, as one customer who worked in
the non-profit organ donation industry noted in her deposition, the terms
“placement” and “matching” are code words for dismemberment.
“These words are meant to disguise the fact that BRC was
helping medical providers find organ donors even after body donors asked them
not to,” she said.
That customer’s mother came to be known as BRCIL-2013164.
Her whole body was sold to IBI for $5,000 because her body contained hepatitis
B. It was later dismembered and shipped on an international course.
Lawsuit Filed: A lawsuit has been filed around what Denver-based law firm Burg Simpson has long called the “body parts case,” involving families who unwillingly and unknowingly donated their loved ones to a body donation program set up by the Biological Resource Center, Inc. in the U.S. under the false pretense of furthering medical research.
Will Power
Typically, an individual’s last will and testament dictates
how their body will be disposed of after death. However, enforcing the power of
wills can be tricky because it falls under the broad domain of gift law.
According to the Clinical Journal of The American Society of
Nephrology, the primary law governing organ donation in the United States is
the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (UAGA). UAGA was enacted as a part of the
Uniform Codes, which are passed from state to state.
UAGA is “uniquely designed to support the system of
transplantation” in that it “excludes [transplantation] from the federal
prohibition, and because the donee of the anatomic gift is the transplant
recipient, such payments do not abrogate the legal construct of organ donation
as a gift.”
A key aspect of the law is consent, which differs from what
doctor’s refer to as “informed consent.” Organ donors must consent for their
organs to be harvested for transplants, which is as simple as having “ORGAN
DONOR” on your driver’s license.
On the other hand, doctors are required to gain informed
consent before treating a patient. Informed consent describes the process of
discussing the risks and benefits of all available means of treatment with a
patient. Since body donations don’t include the element of risk or benefit to
the deceased because the transaction occurs after death, therefore, informed
consent is not necessary.
BRC prepared questionnaires for customers asking if they
wanted the deceased’s body organs to be placed and matched. However, those
services didn’t only extend to those who marked “YES.”
Arizona has an especially lax enforcement system for these
laws, which helped make it one of the nation’s hotspots for whole body
donations. The entity in charge of overseeing these companies, Arizona’s State
Health Department, focused its resources on combatting the opioid crisis
instead of cracking down on illegal organ harvesting, according to an AZCentral
report.
In contrast, Colorado has strict laws governing the
operation of body donation companies and funeral homes, both of which are
regulated under the same statutes. For starters, someone who owns a funeral
home cannot simultaneously own a body donation company. Colorado also requires
owners of either company to maintain records of where human remains are
distributed.
Nearly 4,000 people — approximately seven percent of the
state’s population — are whole body donors. That is roughly five-times the
national average, the Illinois-based Cremation Association of North America
says.
This ecosystem helped BRC expand its territory across the
Atlantic.
BRC made little effort to conceal its business dealings,
according to the court documents. Potential customers would contact BRC’s
office in Illinois. If that location didn’t have the requested body parts, Gore
provided the body part from Arizona. Records for all of the transactions were
stored in each of the company’s offices.
To Burg and the other lawyers representing the plaintiffs,
the case does not question organ donation as a whole. It asks if the consent of
the dead matters as much as the will of the living.
“If someone says we’ll pay for expenses and cremation and
your loved one’s body will go to specific places (to help cure diseases), you
are pretty much going to say, ‘Sure, why not?’” Burg told AZCentral. “Am I
saying none of these places are legitimate? No. But there have been a sufficient
number of cases where misrepresentations have been made. There’s a price list
for everything from a head to a shoulder, like they are a side of beef. They
make money, absolutely, because there’s no cost in getting the bodies.”
Following a 17-year career, City Manager for the City of
Glendale Jerry Peters has announced his retirement effective October 31, 2019.
Peters was appointed by the Glendale City Council in 2004 after serving as
Deputy City Manager under then City Manager Cliff Dodge for two years. Peters
holds the record as longest tenured City Manager in Glendale history (15
years), surpassing Gary Sears (1985-1987) by three years. Peters has assisted
in overseeing big changes in the landscape of the city.
Retiring: Jerry Peters, City Manager of Glendale, announced his retirement effective October 31, 2019. Peters has been with the city since 2002.
The completion of Infinity Park along with the addition of a
professional rugby team; the construction and opening of the Glendale Sports
Center; Glendale CitySet; the expansion of Glendale’s Super Target as well as
the massive remodel in 2019; redevelopment of King Soopers; and the
extraordinary beautification of Cherry Creek Drive South, are a just few of the
major projects that occurred during his tenure.
“Jerry has played an important role in what I call the
Vatican of Freedom,” said Glendale Mayor Mike Dunafon. “His influence in
helping to build this city to what it is today is something we will be forever
grateful.”
Peters has also seen tragedy under his watch. Two fires, 11
years apart, are among them. One person perished in the fire at Spanish Gate
apartment complex in December 2003. The other fire was at Solana Apartments
(now Amli) in 2014, which only generated minor injuries. “Jerry’s handling had
a sense of calm and a steady and professional approach to both situations,”
said former Glendale City Councilmember Ricky King. “He was able to deal with
the media, the residents, and the business community with poise and grace.”
BBB: Jerry Peters cuts the ribbon for the Bed Bath and Beyond store that moved from Cherry Creek North into Glendale in 2017. Peters was witness to much change during his 15 years as City Manager of Glendale.
Peters’ relationship with current Mayor Mike Dunafon dates
back to Dunafon’s high school days at Golden High School where Peters was his
football coach. “I’ve known Jerry essentially my entire life,” said Dunafon.
“The life lessons I learned from him while I played football for him in high
school are still applicable today.” Little did Dunafon know as a high school
teenager in the early ’70s, they would be working together as Mayor and City
Manager decades later.
Mayor & Manager: Jerry Peters, pictured with Mayor Mike Dunafon, shortly after Peters became City Manager of Glendale. Peters and Dunafon’s relationship dates back to when Dunafon played football at Golden High School.
Peters’ history with Glendale predates his days as Deputy
City Manager and City Manager. He helped launch the Greater Glendale Chamber of
Commerce in 1999, operating out of the attic of the old Loews Hotel. He fondly
remembers meeting with prospective members in the lobby of the hotel or in
Tuscany, the restaurant off the lobby.
In addition to his duties as the first Executive Director of
the Chamber, he was the production assistant for the Glendale News. “In the
early days of the Glendale Cherry Creek Chronicle (then Glendale News), Jerry
was of great help in transforming the publication from a four-page black and
white limited circulation paper, to what would become the dominant voice in the
Cherry Creek Valley,” said Charles Bonniwell, Publisher of the Glendale Cherry
Creek Chronicle. “All of us will miss his steadying hand in the growth and
prosperity of Glendale.”
Chamber Executives: Jerry Peters, right, is pictured with Mark Smiley, far left, and Jeff Allen. All three have served as executives with the Greater Glendale Chamber of Commerce.
Dating back further, Peters helped put together the Denver
Broncos broadcasts on KOA Radio from 1978 to 2003. Peters grew up in Ogallala,
Nebraska, and graduated from University of Northern Colorado in 1967. He then
became a teacher and football coach at Golden High School until 1972, when he
became the Director of Public Relations for Colorado School of Mines.
Peters served as a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Air Force
during the Vietnam era. He was stationed at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, from
the early to mid-’60s.
Linda Cassaday, who has been Deputy City Manager under
Peters, was named Acting City Manager by the City Council and she will assume
Peters’ duties on November 1, 2019. “Jerry has been an incredible mentor to me
during my time with Glendale,” said Cassaday. “He displays compassionate
leadership every day in his dealings with City employees, City Council, and the
public; and he will truly be missed by us all.”
Manager & Police Chief: Jerry Peters hired Joe Haskins as Police Chief in 2013.
Chuck Line, who will continue his role as Deputy City
Manager and Community Development Director, has worked with Peters the longest.
“Jerry’s leadership over the past 15 years implementing Mayor Dunafon’s vision,
has ushered in an era with Infinity Park, a thriving commercial environment,
and a revitalization of our housing stock,” said Line. “His presence will be
missed, but his accomplishments will not.”
Riding Off Into The Sunset: Jerry Peters and wife Liz plan to travel and spend time doing the things they have been unable to do while Peters was City Manager.
Peters and wife Liz plan to enjoy retirement to its fullest
by traveling and doing things he has been unable to do while serving as City
Manager.
