Public Amenities Committee - Regular Meeting

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Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Mayor Council. Thank you so much for joining us. We don't have a general session this morning. We do have some opening announcements. Then we do have an executive session to follow. And so we will start with introductions and announcements from all of our distinguished members that are here. Where better to begin than the distinguished gentleman to my right?

Thank you very much. Paul Cashman, South Denver District 6, pleased as punch to be here.

Amanda Sawyer, District 5.

Good morning, Serena Gonzalez Gutierrez, one of your council members at large.

In Denver, Chris Hines, Denver's perfect 10.

Kevin Flynn, Southwest Denver's District 2.

Laura Alvidrez, Lucky District 7.

Jamie Torres, West Denver District 3.

Good morning. Diana Romero-Campbell, Southeast Denver District 4.

Wonderful. Great to see you all. Happy Tuesday. Thanks for joining us. Open with announcements. Are there any announcements that council members would like to make for fellow members and or the public at large? Councilwoman Alvidrez.

Thank you. I would like to share that we will be continuing our Constitution Book Club this week. You can join us tomorrow at 5 p.m. at the Habitat for Humanity headquarters at 430 South Navajo Street. We'll be reading Amendments 5 through 9. It's been a lot of fun to have these conversations in the community. Another fun community event coming up this Saturday is the Porch Fest lineup. Second drop will be happening, and it's also a fundraiser for the Baker Neighborhood Urban Garden. They're at risk of losing their food garden in Baker Neighborhood, and so come support. You get to listen to great music, find out about the lineup for Porch Fest, and you'll also get to support a great cause. And then after that, we have yet another event on Saturday, which we are celebrating the Broadway Bark Dog Park that is now going to continue for the next while. So come down to the Broadway Bark at 6 p.m. on Saturday, and we'll celebrate with our furry friends with hot dogs and real dogs. Thank you.

And never the two shall mix. A lot of partying happening in District 7.

What can you do to match that, Councilman Watson? We cannot match it at all, but I want to say tonight we're having in Define District 9, the Welcome Next Steps Community Advisory Group, our fifth community meeting to discuss multimodal options for the L line. And so that will be from 4.30 to 6.30 p.m. at the Blair Caldwell Library. And I shared last night a little kind of fun this weekend on Saturday the 22nd from 5 to about 9 p.m. If you're really going to party hard, it goes longer than that. Cleo Parker Robinson Dance has their number one fundraiser of the year. It's the Dancing with the Denver Stars. Last year, I had a few friends at the table here came and watched as the mayor and I showed up and showed out for Dancing with the Stars. This year, we won't be performing, but we'll be there to support Cleo Parker Robinson Dance. So come on out and support Cleo this weekend. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Councilman. I believe it was only a year ago.

All right. Next up, I have Councilman Cashman and then Flynn and then the president and then Councilman Sawyer. Are you in as well? I am.

I'm in.

All right. Ready. Councilman Cashman. Kept that in order. I appreciate it.

Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Those of you who have been paying attention. The Alameda Avenue lane reduction project, the much debated, long debated project, is pretty much in place from about Pearl Street to Franklin. And the idea being they've reduced traffic capacity from two lanes each direction to one lane with center lane turn options to try to get people turning left more safely. And so if you're driving that way, let us know what you think of how the lane reduction is going. Obviously, the big concern from neighbors is if traffic ends up backing up and ends up cutting through the neighborhoods. So that'll be a big metric that we'll be looking at. A lot of it is in my colleague, Councilman Alvidrez.

They could send emails that way. That is perfectly fine.

We'll be building a wall at Downing Street. I just want to hear from folks on their thoughts on how the lane reduction is actually working out.

Thank you so much, Councilman Cash. I'd love to hear that as well. Councilman Flynn.

Thank you, Mayor. Apparently, mayors who are looking for food in the mountains through the wildfires and the drought have discovered that we've named a neighborhood in Denver after them. They're coming down on Bear Creek. There is at least one mama and her cub perched in a tree right now in Harvard Park South near Bear Creek. So I just want to let folks know wildlife officers are actively monitoring them. They are not planning to... trap them to relocate because, according to wildlife officers, relocated bears have a lower survival rate. So they are trying to find ways to encourage them to go back upstream and back toward the mountains. But in the meantime, folks should watch their pets. The kids should be careful. Don't go near them. Don't corner them. And basically stay away from them. If you have bird feeders out, bring them in and help us help you get the bears back to their natural habitat that used to be here, but we're living here now. So thank you.

They at least read the signs and went to the park that they thought that they were in. It's Bear Creek Park. They're welcome there. It would be better. I feel like they're giving their best shot. Alrighty, next up, Councilman Sawyer.

Um, 3 quick announcements number 1, we did a proclamation last night 30th anniversary of Mayfair park this weekend 5 to 8 PM come and join the Denver municipal band food trucks, bring a blanket, come and enjoy the beautiful weather and your neighbors. Mayfair Park is on 9th and Jersey and apparently I just learned yesterday that East High School Jazz Band is also going to be playing at the park that night. So kind of an exciting thing. Obviously I'm partial to George but still excited that East High School will be there. So that's number one. Number two, just flagging for all District 5 residents, start checking your mailboxes in early September. Our annual survey is out. You will get a postcard. This happens every year and this is how when I sit in committee and I say, I can tell you with 95% confidence and a 2.4% margin of error that the residents of District 5 think, whatever they think. That's because this survey gets filled out by our residents, goes to over 25,000 households in District 5. It is very valuable information for the council office to be able to use to advocate on behalf of the residents. So look in your mailboxes if you're in District 5 starting in September and please feel free to fill that out and join us.

And then finally,

District 5 community cleanup day is going to be Sunday, September 27th. I will be very tired that morning because I have tickets to Bruno Mars. And it's in Colorado Springs. So wish me good luck on that one. I know. I know.

Let's follow up on that.

Teenage girls, it's a thing. So please join us on Sunday morning, September 27th, 8.30 a.m. at Montclair Rec Center. You could, excuse me, you come, you get some breakfast, you join us, you get your supplies, and then head out to our parks and bus stops, which we clean up twice a year. So join us for that.

And then one last teeny thing.

For those of you who have kids who are going back to school, For those of you who have kids who are leaving for college this week, for those of you who have kids who are applying to college this week, a process which makes me want to put lemons in my eyes. I wish you all the best in a fantastic school year because it is kicking off this week and next. So that's it.

behalf of one of those people. Thank you. I need all the love and prayers I can get. All right. Next up, I have the president and then President Pro Tem.

Great. And thank you. Real quick. Last Saturday, we had a big concert in the park that was canceled. But thank you to everybody who was so flexible. We it was fantastic. It was raining, and there was lightning, and we said, rain or shine, we would dance in the rain, but not in lightning. So, thank you to everyone that you were so accommodating and working with us. But we will have another concert in the park. And this one's in September. On Saturday, September 19th, Eisenhower Park, Denver City Jazz Orchestra will be there, and the TJ Orchestra will be opening for them. It'll be a lot of fun, so please come join us. We will have vendors there. People will be tabling with nonprofits and city agencies there as well. That's in September. But this Wednesday, you are doing the conversations about child care with the Office of Children's Affairs at Eisenhower Park. 5.30 to 7. So I just invite the people out in Southeast Denver to come out and give your input of the future of childcare and your thoughts. And that's about it. I'm really excited about your spandex coming back out. I'm going to give you a hard time about this all the time because it was...

The mayor also had spandex.

You also had quite a bit.

Cheetah pants.

You had cheetah pants. You're like, what are you talking about? It was absolutely fantastic. And so we're going to ride that till this Saturday. But it was really fantastic.

For the record, leopard print, but not.

Not cheetah? They were cheetah. No, okay. Leopard. Leopard. Okay. It's fantastic.

Can you postpone the exec session?

We're going to do a live viewing. We will not do any re-screenings. Wonderful. Madam Vice President, please save us.

Yeah.

Yes, this is very different. But also, speaking of George Washington High School, North High School will be playing GW today at their very new, brand new softball field, the girls softball field. I bring this up for a couple of reasons. One, yes, my kids go to North, but the bigger issue here is that the softball field at North has been finally... It's been over 20 years since the girls softball field has actually seen any kind of care or maintenance from DPS. And so in the bond, parents and community members came together and asked for these repairs and renovation to be put in the 2025 bond. And now we are seeing that be delivered today. So there's a ribbon cutting ceremony at 3 p.m. at the school, followed by their home opener at 4 p.m. And they were the city champs last year, the DPS League champs. So just wanted to put that out there. Thanks.

Anyone else for announcements we didn't get to? Okay, wonderful. Well, with that, thank you so much for joining. We do have an executive session this morning, so I will now entertain a motion to move us into an executive session pursuant to DRMC 234A, Sections 3, 4, and 6 for the purpose of receiving legal advice regarding the negotiation of contracts and discussing the use of real estate by the city. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Great. With that, we will enter into executive session. Thank you so much for joining us. We'll see you at all those great events this week and weekend. Have a great week.