by Mark Smiley | Apr 24, 2015 | Editorials
The City of Glendale’s recent announcement of an entertainment district along Cherry Creek brings to fore a vision that has been in the making for almost 20 years. Who first envisioned the concept is a matter of minor dispute with the Publisher of this paper Chuck Bonniwell and the present Mayor of Glendale Mike Dunafon both claiming paternity. But as a practical matter, the far harder task is bringing the concept to reality. There is no question that without Mayor Dunafon’s persistent and forceful leadership the vision would never have happened.
The challenges to the project were enormous, including but not limited to, the necessity of providing ample parking which will make or break the project. The city is willing to spend approximately $75 million for parking and other improvements which is no small feat for a city whose total annual budget is less than $20 million.
The city is able to do that through the miracle of tax increment financing and the state tax provisions for urban renewal districts. The taxing provisions allow the city to pledge not only its own municipal sales and property taxes but any increase from a base year of property and sales tax revenue from other applicable entities, including Arapahoe County and Cherry Creek School District. That allows the sale of tens of millions in bonds with the bondholders knowing that the city will have more than sufficient revenues available to repay the bonds.
Glendale throughout much of its history has been a booming town by adopting whatever Denver rejects. At the beginning of the 20th century Denver regulated out of business many of its dairy operations which Glendale welcomed with such open arms that the city became known as Cow Town. Denver rejected fireworks and Glendale had various fireworks stores up and down Colorado Boulevard, including one run by then Glendale Mayor Fred Repp.
In the early 1970s just when the baby boomer generation was reaching adulthood and the legal drinking age was being dropped to 18, Denver decided to massively restrict new liquor licenses. Glendale therefore gave them out to any qualified person who sought one. It resulted in Glendale becoming a bar, restaurant and youth mecca. Along East Virginia, Colorado Boulevard, Leetsdale Drive and South Cherry Street there were the Colorado Mine Company, Cork ’N Cleaver, The Lift, Mr. Lucky’s, etc. etc. etc. The sales taxes to Glendale flourished.
In the 1990s, in a return gift to Denver, Mayors Steve Ward and Joe Rice began terminating as many liquor licenses as they could until only five were left, turning East Virginia into a wasteland. Mayor Ward was infamous for having a small toy cannon at his spot on the podium which he would playfully shoot off every time a liquor license was revoked. The recipient of this revenue largess was Denver’s LODO, which thanks to Coors Field, was experiencing an extraordinary renaissance.
But just as Glendale seeks to perform a back to the future miracle with Glendale 180, Denver once again appears to want to create a potential partial act of economic hari kari. Denver Councilman Albus Brooks, whose council district includes downtown, has declared that the city wants individuals to have to think twice about bringing an automobile downtown. The so-called Denver Planning Board and the city planners say that they are not allowed to consider the traffic and parking impacts on new projects it approves in Cherry Creek and elsewhere in Denver.
The net effect of this deliberate head in the sand approach will make it increasingly costly and time consuming to drive an automobile in the City and County of Denver and particularly unpleasant in the areas where bars, restaurants and entertainment venues are concentrated. One of two things will happen. One possibility is that people will continue to pour into Denver by alternative means of transportation including walking, bicycles, light rail, cabs or short-term car rentals like Uber and Car To Go. This is the prediction of the city planners who are in cahoots with real estate developers who in turn are happy to provide as little parking as they can get away with.
Alternatively, the lumpenproletariat from the suburbs may decide not to do what the central planners of Denver decree and instead simply in part stop coming to LODO and Cherry Creek North bars, restaurants and entertainment venues. They will instead take their cars and money to places like Glendale 180 which welcomes them by providing ample and inexpensive parking, guaranteeing Glendale’s latest success.
By 2017 when Glendale 180 is scheduled to be open for business, the effect of Denver’s deliberate decision to create parking and traffic nightmares for automobile users will truly become ever more evident. Glendale is betting that it will just have to say, once again, thank you to Denver as it has been happy to do for most of its storied history.
— Editorial Board
by Mark Smiley | Mar 27, 2015 | General Featured
by Charles C. Bonniwell
At its early spring meeting held at the Westin Hotel in downtown Denver, The Economic Club of Colorado honored the leaders of three companies known for being outstanding places to work. The Economic Club of Colorado describes itself as the leading forum in the Rocky Mountain West for world leaders in business, government and policy to meet the business leaders of the region.
The three featured panelists were: Monty Moran, co-CEO of Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurants, a Denver-based fast food chain with over 1,783 restaurants worldwide; David Palmer, Denver Managing Shareholder of the international law firm of Greenberg Traurig, LLC which has 1,800 lawyers and governmental affairs professionals worldwide; and Paul Purcell, Chairman and CEO of financial services firm RW Baird, which has over 100 offices on three continents including one in Cherry Creek.
What was extraordinary concerning the panel was that the businesses in their respective industries they lead are generally known for low employee morale. Large law firms and financial service companies provide high pay but often have difficult and highly stressful work environments. Fast food restaurants in turn are known at the local level for low pay and minimum career advancement opportunities.
Palmer, who has worked as an attorney in Denver for various prestigious firms his entire professional career, emphasized that Greenberg Traurig seeks to create an atmosphere where all different types of individuals can thrive and noted that his Miami-based firm was founded on diversity and diversity is imprinted in its corporate DNA.
Moran shared that when he became co-CEO only a relatively small number of individuals who worked in a local restaurant were ever promoted to lead manager. Over time he created a policy that requires 100 percent of the local managers be hired from within so that the employees have a stake in their own future. Under the designated restaurateur program hourly crew members can become managers earning over $100,000 a year. He emphasized that simply doing your job well was not enough and Chipotle only promoted individuals who also made everyone around them better.
RW Baird, which has offices in Colorado in Cherry Creek (Denver) and Boulder, was ranked fifth in the entire country in Fortune magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” in line with such nationally known firms such as Google and St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. Paul Purcell has headed up the company for over 21 years.
The investment advisor firm has $120 billion in client assets and Purcell is quoted in Fortune as attributing its success to one rule: “no a**holes.” That is perhaps a highly unusual rule for a company in an industry that is known for having a very high percentage of the same.
In an exclusive interview with the Chronicle Purcell expanded on why such a rule was so critical to Baird’s success. “You want your advisors concentrating on helping their clients become financially better off and not fighting and backstabbing each other. At Baird our only real product is our employees. Trust is everything in our business and very few people actually want to trust an ‘a**hole’ nor should they.”
Baird was founded in 1919 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and is privately owned. Approximately two-thirds of its associates are shareholders in the company. Due to conservative investing policies and little or no debt Baird weathered the disastrous 2008 financial downturn in remarkably good shape and has grown significantly over the last five to seven years with many of its competitors downsizing or going out of business.
Purcell at age 67 has not slowed down one iota but has begun the process of gradually handing over the reins of the company to his designated successor, Steve Booth, whom he named company president at the beginning of last year.
Baird’s mission statement totals one sentence: “To provide the best financial advice and service to our clients and be the best place to work for our associates.” It is unique for an investment advisor firm to have as one of its two principle goals being “the best place to work for our associates.” However, Baird apparently takes its mission statement very seriously as evidenced by the fact that the firm was rated by Fortune magazine to be in the top five companies in the entire country to work for. Locally Baird appears to be also making a major impact and was voted this year by the Greater Glendale Chamber of Commerce to be the “Business of the Year” highlighted by the firm’s Palm Group in the private wealth management field.
For Purcell, building and preserving a unique corporate culture at RW Baird has been a driving desire and goal. Purcell was a once proud partner in the investment firm of Kidder, Peabody & Co. In the 1980s he watched as that company’s corporate culture changed after its acquisition of General Electric in 1986. The culminating event occurred in 1987 when its star banker Marty Siegel became the center of the Ivan Boesky scandal and the firm paying $26 million in fines as part of settlement with then-U.S. attorney Rudy Giuliani. Purcell left the firm when he felt he could not save it from itself.
“Once you have watched something special be destroyed and lost, you treasure it all the more. You also realize that your goal is never totally achieved. What you have built can be wasted in a relatively short period of time unless you remain aware and appreciative of what you have and ever vigilant not to let it diminish,” Purcell noted.
Purcell is also very much a believer in the parable from Luke that “for unto whomever much is given, of him shall much be required.” He is a major contributor to charities in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and in Chicago, Illinois, where he resides. He sits on a myriad eleemosynary boards from Discovery World to the United Performing Arts Fund. Purcell requires that wherever the company does business it gives back to the community in a major and important fashion.
Regarding RW Baird’s plans in Colorado, Purcell sees the Denver/Boulder market as one of the true hubs for the company in the western United States along with Austin, Texas; Seattle, Washington; and San Francisco, California. He also notes that some of the company’s top talent is joining the Cherry Creek office for many of differing reasons. Purcell concluded that Baird’s Cherry Creek office is growing at an extraordinary rate. But growth in and of itself has never been a goal of Baird, according to Purcell. Rather as the mission statement states it is “to provide the best financial advice and service to our clients” and those are not simply words but a true calling as is RW Baird’s commitment to its employees.
by Mark Smiley | Mar 27, 2015 | Glendale City News
by Brent New
Writer for and on behalf of the City of Glendale
It’s hard to imagine a championship lathered in more debate and criticism than the Glendale Raptors’ Women Premier League (WPL) title in 2014.
They wanted a championship from the movies, something so pure and untouchable — like it should be. But no matter how much they wanted it, how hard they wished it, it just wasn’t.
They lost to the Atlanta Harlequins in the WPL semifinals, yet moved on to the title game after the Harlequins knowingly played an ineligible player and were forced to forfeit their 13-7 win.
“It was tough for me personally because I was told before the kickoff that the Harlequins had forfeited, but they would appeal,” Raptors former coach Michael Fealey said. “It messed with my head.”
The forfeit held up and his team eventually beat the Twin Cities Amazons 16-15 in the title game and claimed the first WPL title in program history.
Players and coaches had to defend their gold medal soon after.
“Some people said we didn’t deserve it. It was frustrating. There were people hiding behind computers, telling us we didn’t deserve it. Saying there should be an asterisk,” Raptors club president Jeanna Beard said. “But we know we deserved it. We know the fight it took, we know we’re champions.”
She hopes the WPL Raptors’ spring season will help silence the critics.
Also known as the developmental season, it began with a tournament win at the Champagne Classic in San Diego, Calif. in late February and will go through late May.
The main purpose of the three-month season is to develop and work with players on an individual basis. Beard, however, said there will be a little extra motivation in every game after what happened in the fall.
“We want to prove to people we are champions,” Beard said. “We’ve heard some stuff about our gold medal and we are tired of hearing it. We just want to make (the critics) shut up a little bit.”
Despite the ballyhooed cries from critics on their unconventional run to a national championship in the fall, and the hasty departure of their coach, the Raptors appear to be unscathed in the early weeks of the spring season. Raptors director of rugby Mark Bullock is in as interim head coach, and former Raptors players Kitt Wagner and Jamie Burke are in as assistant coaches.
In a rematch unbefitting of a tense national championship game that ended 16-15, they made short work of the Twin Cities Amazons in the not-so exciting sequel on March 7.
Joanna Kitlinski scored twice and Rachel Ryan added another as the Raptors beat the Amazons 51-17 at Infinity Park.
First-time WPL players Denali Graham and Fatima Chavez also added scores in the win.
“We had good play by veterans and some new players to us,” Raptors coach Mark Bullock said. “You want to see what you have everywhere on our roster and I think we got a good idea.”
On the field, forward Rachel Ryan, flanker Joanna Kitlinski and Beard were big pieces during the title run. And so far, they are leading the Raptors during the developmental season. Veteran players and key components to the 2014 title run Hannah Stolba, Jessica Sexaur and Tina Nesberg, in the meantime, will not participate in the spring season.
The mission is to give a lot of the younger and less experienced players on the Raptors women’s team a bigger role in the spring.
In the March 7 rematch, Ryan clobbered through the Amazons defense and put Glendale up 15-10 in the opening minutes of the second half.
Molly Kinsella and Graham scored on back-to-back possessions to push the lead to 37-17. And Kitlinski scored her second try of the day to give the Raptors the 44-17 advantage soon after.
“We played with good intensity and started playing the way we’ve practiced,” Bullock said. “It was good to see.”
When asked though if the Raptors will take a page out of the NFL and minimize the importance of games themselves during their noncompetitive season, Bullock scoffed.
“You must not know me too well if you think that,” he laughed. “We are going to approach every game to win. That’s the point of playing. We want to have competitive games and treat it no different than we ever do.”
While some things never change, the Raptors’ WPL team has done nothing but since they won the national championship. And the life of a champion, no matter who the critics, certainly has its perks.
Moving On Up . . .
The city of Glendale and the Raptors recently agreed that the WPL team will play three, maybe four home games in the stadium at Infinity Park in the fall.
The San Diego Surfers (Sept. 12), Oregon Sports Union (Oct. 10) and Berkeley All Blues (Oct. 24) are all scheduled to be played in the stadium, and the city said they have asked the Raptors to get one more quality opponent onto the regular season schedule to make a total of four home games.
The city also said via email that they are putting together a proposal to host the WPL National Championships on Nov. 13 and 15.
“I think everyone is looking to get back in the stadium,” Stolba said. “We look forward to getting back on the big stage.”
The Raptors are also hoping to use this momentum to start a Division I or Division II team to go alongside their WPL team.
An expansion to the women’s rugby side is imminent.
As of now, the Raptors just have a B-side, which is okay, but they’d rather have a non-elite team that plays consistent competitive games throughout the year.
“It’s hard for the B-side to play in a lot of competitive games,” Bullock said. “That’s the challenge when you start looking at levels below elite (in rugby).”
A D-I or D-II would allow for more competitive games and a more meaningful season for non-elite players.
The process is in the early stages.
“I’d love to say we could have it in 3-5 years,” Beard said. “But maybe that’s optimistic.”
You can keep up with all your Raptors news at GlendaleRaptors.com.
by Mark Smiley | Mar 27, 2015 | Editorials
An election for the mayor of Denver and the entire City Council will be held on May 5, 2015, much to the surprise of many Denver residents. Part of the reason for the lack of publicity of the election is the strange form of democracy we have going on here in Denver. Our municipality has informally adopted what they call the “one and done” rule sometimes seen in third world kleptocracies, i.e., once you are elected you never face another competitive election ever again. Unfortunately for city officeholders there are term limits in the municipality or they would never have to leave office except feet first as they go on to their heavenly reward.
By way of illustrative example, Mayor Michael Hancock has been incredibly inept in everything he has handled from the Sheriff’s Department scandals to the police protest debacle to the disastrous development policies. Succeeding two very strong mayors in Wellington Webb and John Hickenlooper, Hancock is an incredibly feckless and weak character, although highly personable.
Our mayor was at one time a mascot for the Denver Broncos football team and in office he has continued that role as the official team mascot for the greediest of real estate developers and most corrupt of union bosses. Yet he runs for a second term virtually unopposed.
Turning to the City Council, we are still attempting to determine when the last time was that an incumbent Denver City Council member lost in an election. Most incumbents never even have an opponent after their first election.
Timothy O’Brien
The reason, of course, is not that we love our incumbents so much here in Denver, but rather money — the mother’s milk of politics. To attempt to beat an incumbent in a city council district race costs at least $100,000; $500,000 for a city-wide position other than mayor; and for mayor at least $1,000,000. The only people who will provide you such sums to run for city office are real estate developers and labor unions, but they already own the incumbents and so why would anyone provide money for any putative challengers. Of course, if you are very wealthy you could self fund, but you may have noticed wealthy people do not want to run for municipal office in Denver other than perhaps mayor. The rich will consider running for governor, or senator or even congressman, but not a spot on the Denver City Council. This is why Denver City Council members are always voting themselves never-ending raises, i.e., they need the money.
As a result there is no real race for the mayor’s position or a majority of the council seats which is why the public is paying little or no attention to the election. You never saw the Russian public get real excited either about essentially non-elections in the old Soviet Union.
But that does leave elections for six open council seats as well as city auditor. These competitive races include Council Districts 4, 6 and 10 which the Glendale Cherry Creek Chronicle serves in whole or in part.
Wayne New
But who should one vote for in these races? It’s actually pretty easy. Go to www.den vergov.org/elections and download the financial disclosure statements of the candidates. In each race there will be one candidate that has raised an incredible amount of money. In their disclosure statements you will see the lawyer lobbyists from CRL Associates and Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP as well as endless developers and real estate investors. You well also see a smattering of unions such the Teamsters Local 17 PAC. These candidates have already been acquired by those who control and own Mayor Michael Hancock.
Sadly, but understandably, another name you should be on the lookout for is the Greater Glendale Chamber of Commerce. Our publisher, Chuck Bonniwell, is a co-founder of that organization and sits on its Board of Directors but, of course, only has but one vote. Glendale since its founding in 1859, and particularly after its incorporation in 1952, has had to fight Denver tooth and nail for its very existence. Starting in the 1990s, thanks to mayors Wellington Webb and John Hickenlooper and the Glendale powers that be, there has been a rapprochement. As a result there has been the fire department merger, the beautification of Cherry Creek South and the building of the Infinity Park complex among other positive projects that have benefited both cities.
Glendale, as well as its business chamber therefore, seeks to have a positive relationship with the powers that be in Denver, which today is Mayor Michael Hancock and the people who control him. On page 24 you will locate the Glendale Chamber’s endorsements and you can judge for yourself how convincing you find its logic and rationale.
The unions, the developers and the Glendale Chamber suggest you support Kendra Black in Council District 4; Liz Adams in Council District 6; Anna Jones in Council District 10; as well as Chris Nevitt for City Auditor.
If you want more 30-story Broe Towers eliminating the view of the mountains for all of Cherry Creek and the Country Club area, along with more massive apartment buildings blocking sunlight from ever reaching certain streets in Cherry Creek North, these are your candidates. If you think that the endless traffic jams along Colorado Boulevard and 1st Avenue and the rest of the city are not long enough and can be made even worse, these are your candidates. If you want to see a corrupt and unethical Planning Board with no consideration ever for the parking and traffic concerns continue, these are your candidates. These candidates will religiously follow the political Golden Rule, i.e., he who has the gold rules, and that is not the average everyday citizen or voter.
Paul Kashmann
That is not to say Black, Adams and Jones are not pleasant people, but so is Hancock. On a personal basis, we particularly like Anna Jones who has an infectious laugh and wonderful wit. But she served on the mayor’s Planning Board for several years and that is a disqualifier for us.
Concerning the auditor’s race Chris Nevitt is their choice. He is the councilman from District 7 who brought you the hideous twin 30-story Broe Towers. Unlike their other candidates, Chris Nevitt is most definitely not a nice person. He is best known, by most, for his screaming rants at citizens who came to City Council to oppose projects Nevitt’s money men backed. One longtime Denver resident and politico, whose opinion we respect, said of Nevitt, “He is the worst human being I have ever met on the Denver City Council and that is saying something as there have been some real doozies.” Nevitt at one time was simply a union shill on City Council but in recent years he has expanded to prostituting himself out to every developer in Denver he could find. He has no background in, or experience, auditing and wants to use the office as a stepping stone, God forbid, for a run for mayor after Hancock is term limited. He is the weakest and least qualified candidate for any office in Denver in many a year, which no doubt explains why he is undoubtedly the favorite in the race.
So who should you vote for? Well, in the auditor and in District 6 races there are only single opponents. Luckily Timothy O’Brien in the auditor’s race and Paul Kashmann in District 6 are wonderful candidates who need no introduction to many voters. O’Brien, in fact, is a C.P.A. who is qualified and experienced in auditing, having served as the Colorado State Auditor. He is a resident of southeast Denver, and he and his wife are proud parents of three daughters. He is also truly independent and not beholden to anyone. While an argument can be made for endorsing an Anna Jones for City Council, no one with a straight face can claim that the morally repugnant Chris Nevitt deserves to be elected over the qualified, decent and honorable Timothy O’Brien. But this is politics in Denver and the normal rules of minimum decency simply do not apply.
Halisi Vinson
Kashmann is the longtime publisher of the Washington Park Profile who just recently sold his interest in that well-respected and beloved publication. A gentle and convivial soul, he prides himself in seeing an issue from many different sides. He even has a Colorado State Senate Commendation for 20 years of community service. He is not a believer in the political Golden Rule, but rather the original one of treating people as he would like to be treated himself. Kashmann would actually listen to citizens who would come before the City Council to make their case. Any municipal council, but in particular the Denver City Council, would benefit from having a Paul Kashmann.
In the other two races there are a myriad of candidates. In Council District 10 the person who has the greatest prospect of beating the money boys behind the mayor is Wayne New, the past long-term president of the Cherry Creek North Neighborhood Association, who has been fighting the good fight for decades. For our tastes we would prefer if New would have battled the greediest of the developers in Cherry Creek North even more fiercely, but that is not his personality. He wants to make things work for all involved.
Wayne New apparently has the money boys a little worried as they sent out the dirty tricks guys to gin up a phony ethics violation by the contemptible Colorado Ethics Watch. A neophyte at campaign financing, he forgot to add to some of his campaign literature the standard “Paid for by Wayne New for City Council” in microscopic print. Oh, No! The crooks behind the mayor are really, truly desperate to defeat Wayne New which in our book is all the more reason to vote for him.
Finally in District 4 the person putting up the best fight is Halisi Vinson who has the backing of major park advocates as well as Wellington Webb. Webb, like many Denverites, is desperate to have at least one park advocate on the City Council. When he wrote to the Friends of Denver Parks, “First they took our park and now they want to buy a council seat,” he was directly referring to Mayor Michael Hancock and his despicable developer friends. Webb’s daughter Stephanie O’Malley is Hancock’s Manager of Safety and his support for Vinson could cost his daughter that highly coveted job. We at the Chronicle agree with former Mayor Webb in this instance, that the only honorable thing to do is to stand with Ms. Vinson.
We ask you to consider the candidates in your District and vote for the ones who might actually make a difference at the City and County Building. In our mind the choices are clear.
— Editorial Board
by Mark Smiley | Feb 27, 2015 | Editorials
February 6, 2015
Dear Friends,
First they took our park, now they want to buy a council seat.
I joined the Friends of Denver Parks with an undying belief that no matter whom the foe that we as “citizens” — the most important title an American can hold — gives us the right to stand up against the rich and powerful. During my entire 12 years as mayor, I always looked for ways to maintain and acquire new park space. The parks we have are a contract we take out between us and the citizenry, and the legacy we leave for future generations.
I joined your effort publicly and financially because it is my belief that what happens in one part of the city will then be repeated in another part of the city. My message is a resounding: “Leave our park land alone.” Do your business deals on non-parkland. If they get away with this, the rich and powerful will try to take other parks and buy our council seats.
I believe this is already happening in Council District 4. The reason I so strongly support candidate Halisi Vinson for the Council District 4 seat is that the group who took the park are now supporting one of her opponents, a nice woman whose main interests really has been school issues.
What residents of District 4 need to be aware of is that Halisi’s opponent is taking thousands of dollars for her campaign from the people who took the park. They even rejected your signatures calling for a public vote on taking the park land, which has been officially called a park since 1955.
First they take your park, now they think they can buy your council seat.
Halisi Vinson supports District 4 residents and the city’s parks. I urge you and your friends to support Vinson because she is the candidate whose only interest is District 4.
I am engaged is this race because I don’t like any business deal that takes our parks. I will never forget in 1991 you stood up against big money to support a man in tennis shoes for your mayor.
Let’s do it again, and donate today. Remember they first took our park now they want to buy a council seat.
To learn more about Halisi and how you can help her campaign visit: http://halisivinson.com/
Or contact her at: halisi@halisivinson.com
303-550-1247 (cell)
Donate Today
Wellington E. Webb
by Mark Smiley | Feb 27, 2015 | General Featured
Patsy Brown Takes The Reins
by Charles C. Bonniwell
The 114-year-old University Club of Denver elected its first female president Patsy Brown, a broker associate with Kentwood Real Estate-Cherry Creek. Founded in 1891, the Club was based on the Athenaeum Club in London and the University Club of New York and required having a degree from a university, college or similar institution of higher learning which was not common in the 19th century. Of course, there have always been exceptions.
One of its earliest members was Henry Wolcott who helped found the Denver Club and the Denver Country Club. He was one of the most powerful businessmen and politicians in Colorado in the 1890s but never even graduated from high school. An honorary degree from a local college was arranged to meet the degree requirement.
The Club’s present home at 1673 Sherman Street is a neo-classical mansion that was built in 1895 in what was then a residential neighborhood of Capitol Hill. Major additions were added in 1923, 1957 and 1980. Today it is part of upper downtown abutting the towering Lincoln Center Office Building. The mansion has eight banquet rooms including the famous College Room ballroom designed by Temple Buell with stained glass windows containing painted glass medallions of college shields. The facilities make it a unique destination for weddings, holiday parties, dinners and other events.
The mansion also contains a fitness area, billiard tables as well as singles and doubles squash courts along with a reading library. Members also have access to over 100 reciprocal clubs both in the United States and abroad.
The University Club of Denver is probably best known for its annual Twelfth Night celebration going back over 100 years. The event is often attended by many of Colorado’s best known politicians. The musical revue lampoons the top events and individuals both locally and nationally.
Brown’s election to the Club’s presidency represents the culmination of over a
half century battle over female membership. The University Club was founded as an all male institution and seen in part like a fraternity for adult men. The concept of accepting female members was first raised in the early 1940s when World War II cut membership by two-thirds.
By the late 1980s, based on a United States Supreme Court ruling, the government of the City and County of Denver threatened to revoke city licenses, including the Club’s liquor license, unless women were admitted and the dispute made the local news. After various votes which failed to amend the bylaws to admit women, a vote of 374 to 26 was taken to approve the change in the membership requirements from “a man” to “a person” effective January 1, 1991.
The Club just established a new membership category for individuals who have been members for 50 years or more and there are 25 such individuals. Today approximately 25 percent of the members are female along with, of course, wives of male members.
One of those longtime members stated, “Having a coed club is neither better nor worse than an all male one, just different. For me some of the camaraderie and uproarious fun has been lost but there has been a great civilizing effect by mixing the sexes in membership and that makes going to the club on an everyday basis far more enjoyable.”
The new president joined the University Club in 2004. A Denver native, she went to Kent School for Girls after attending Morey Middle School and then on to the University of Colorado at Boulder. She married and moved to the small town of Eldora, Illinois, where her husband was a bank president and she taught at local public and private schools which she thoroughly enjoyed. Moving back to Colorado at the start of the century she decided to go into the real estate field.
As president of the University Club, she notes that one of her main goals is to get the word out about the Club so that it isn’t necessarily the best kept secret in Denver. She loves showing off the Club to people who may have never heard about it. When she asks members what they like best about the University Club they note it is a place for friends to meet and socialize. They tell her that it is a chance to mix and mingle with distinguished individuals from all different fields of endeavor and all different ages. She adds that the Club seems to attract by nature individuals who are witty and fun.
Individuals interested in inquiring about possible membership in the University Club can go to the Club’s website www. uclubdenver.org.
