Activists opposed to issues ranging from a drainage project that will eliminate more than 200 trees at City Park Golf Course to the Interstate 70 expansion through northeast Denver called on Sunday for political action to unseat the mayor and City Council.

Speakers at the protest outside the golf course on York Avenue said the gentrification of the city’s low-income neighborhoods is the fault of politicians who push the plans of developers who fund their campaigns and ignore the needs of residents.

Mayor Michael Hancock and City Council member Albus Brooks, whose district includes Globeville, Five Points, and other gentrifying neighborhoods, received the largest share of the criticism. “The mayor and Albus Brooks have continued to sell this city out,” said Auontai (Tay) Anderson, who was an 18-year old student at Manual High School when he launched a unsuccessful bid for a seat on the Denver school board this year.

“It is our time to get a City Council and a mayor that will represent” all residents, said Anderson, who came in last in the three-way race for District 4 in the Nov. 7 election.

The golf course drainage project is part of the city’s Platte to Park Hill plan to improve storm water drainage in parts of east and northeast Denver. It includes the removal of about 260 trees that will be replaced by new ones that will take decades to mature.

The city and the Colorado Department of Transportation struck a deal to share some of the costs of the drainage project and I-70 rebuilding.

Opponents view the drainage project as a step in the I-70 rebuild, while the city insists the projects are separate. It says the drainage work would continue with or without I-70.

Opponents have filed a legal challenge to the expansion of I-70 based in part on its connection to the Platte to Park Hill project.

The lawsuit in U.S. District Court says both projects will harm nearby lower-income and majority-Latino neighborhoods, disturb contaminated soils and pollute the South Platte River.

Former Denver Auditor Dennis Gallagher, who spoke at the rally, said neighborhoods that will feel the impact of the projects have long been ignored by city leaders.

Hancock, who grew up poor in Park Hill has a good story to tell when he woos voters, said Lisa Calderón, co-chair of the Colorado Latino Forum. But he has lost touch with those who still live in poverty.

“It makes a good story for him to say he came out of poverty. I applaud that, because I did, too. But it has been quite awhile since our mayor came from the ‘hood.

“We have to reclaim our city issue by issue,” Calderón said.







