This month Judy’s office is hosting a couple of students from Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. Their names are Hayato Mochida and John Robbins; both are taking a course called Leadership Theory and Service. Since arriving last week, the two have gotten a taste of some of what Judy’s working on in the district — quite a broad range of issues, as this e-mail from John describes:
On Tuesday, April 30, we attended the Broken Windows program information meeting in the Capitol Hill nieghborhood and learned about the concerns with drug dealing and crimes that come from that. We also saw the some statistics coming from that.
On Thursday, I learned about the different issues going in the district and looked through the staff report for the upcoming City Council meeting. Haya went to areas in District 9 where there is a lot of graffiti to check on locations for graffiti removal.
On Friday, we both went to a meeting where council aides from the various districts got informed on the issues that would be addressed at the upcoming city council meeting. From there, I helped prepare notes for Councilwoman Montero. The councilwoman had a meeting with Mayor Hickenlooper, and I was fortunate enough to meet him. Then we had a meeting with the family of a child who drowned in the South Platte River last year.
Haya helped again with graffiti removal. On this day he witnessed a verbal exchange between the police and a couple of fellows who were planning on putting graffiti on a school wall. They convinced the guys not to paint the wall. The next day Haya met with an artist who will be helping out with graffiti issues, painting over graffiti on Santa Fe Drive.
This Tuesday I attended a meeting for the 1400 Wewatta building and learned a bit about the project and what they want to do with lighting on Wewatta and Wynkoop. They wish to light the two historical rail bridges there, maintaining their upkeep but tapping into the public electricity. Later that day we met with developer Susan Powers, who is doing several projects in the area, such as the new Fire Clay Lofts and some development in the Highlands area. We also toured these two areas.
Haya helped to gather some information information for the 100th anniversary of the 1908 Democratic National Convention, which will be held on July 25-26 at the Historic Turnhalle. He also began to help organize a community baseball game at Sonny Lawson Park for the Summer of Peace Community Festival. The game is entitled Baseball and Badges for Unity and will be sponsored by the Colorado Rockies. Haya and I and the rest of our class will be helping to put this on.
On Wednesday, I attended a session planning meeting about the process and potential areas for the commuter rail maintenance facility near the intersection of 40th St. and 40th Ave. They are considering many options around that area, some more probable than others. After that, we went and talked to the director at Project Angel Heart, which provides meals for terminally ill patients throughout Denver and Colorado Springs. They are looking to move their operations to the Globeville neighborhood to gain more room due to a large expansion in their service. Later that day, we went to the planning board meeting to listen to details on the Denver Union Station project.
Thursday I attended a meeting with several officials, Judy included, about the FasTracks project. They discussed the course of action the project will take in the upcoming weeks and months and the deadlines and decisions that need to be made and achieved. That evening, I attended a Denver Union Station Neighborhood Design informational discussion. They were seeking advice and opinions on how the design should incorporate the transit element vs. the designs in the Lodo District and the historical buildings or if the project should have its own identity altogether.
Again, that’s just a small slice of what’s happening in District 9 these days, seen through the eyes of a couple of college students. John and Hayato will be in town for the rest of this month, helping out and taking everything in — and occasionally weighin in on the blog.
