Jun. 25, 2006 - 20:43 MDT

YOUNGER EYES

John Temple, editor of The Rocky Mountain News in his usual Saturday column "From The Publisher" on June 24, 06 talks about the changes for the good in Denver since he has been here. I will quote him here and there and make comments as I go.

"STROLLING IN A DENVER ALL GROWN UP

"When we moved to Denver my son was ready to start kindergarten."

"Now Ben is back home from his first year in college. On Sunday we walked the town together so I could show him how it had changed."

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So Ben was about 5 when they moved here, and is 19 years old now, maybe. A span of 14 years since the family's arrival here. That would make it about 1992.

The 16th Street Mall was already a going thing, including the shuttle up and down, a free ride for anyone in the downtown area. Larimer Square, between 14th and 15th Streets on Larimer was sitting there, its face lift in place and upscale everything going full blast. The stretch of the Platte River Valley behind the Union Station, devastated in the 1965 flood. Heh, the watermarks 6 foot up the walls were probably worn away by then, Chatfield Dam in existence for a long time to prevent a future flood from that watershed blasting through town.

John says further, "I believe all of us want to be part of something bigger than ourselvers, something that matters. For many of us, a city is that very thing. A city is an act of imagination, a vision in the process of becoming."

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And Mr. Temple is right.

He continues, "Today I'd like to praise Denver, the city. Not the mountains on the horizon. But the city itself. Like any city of course, Denver has its shadows and sorrow. But the Denver I come to celebrate is a place where people stake their claim to hope, to a better life."

Well said Mr. Temple, and I join in the celebration of the existence of my home town. Mr. Temple then goes on and mixes a bit of history in. Quote, "Let me start at Confluence Park where Cherry Creek meets the South Platte, where the city had its start and where, on Sunday children and dogs, men and women splashed in the waters and baked in the sun. The scene was a modern picnic on the grass in the heart of the city. Smoke drifted from barbecue grilles, bicyclists wheeled. Life seemed perfect."

"As we took in the view, we found ourselves at a plaque describing the role of William Byers, the founder of The Rocky Mountain News, in the creation of this city."

"Byers promoted the primitive hamlet as a great, civilized metropolis overflowing with opportunity. Appealing to readers back East, Byers often printed fictitious business news and exaggerated farm reports along with overblown descriptions of the area's good life."

"That was in 1859."

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From the history I have read through the years, in the early years Denver had more bars and houses of prostitution than schools and churches. Its history is that of the frontier really, I think, supporting mining endeavors more than ranching and farming.

Mr. Temple proceeds with his column. Quote, "In many ways, compared with the giant cities of our era, Denver remains a "hamlet."

"But there's no question, standing in the Central Platte Valley, that it's also become a "civilized metropolis overflowing with opportunity." Byers was making it up when he described the city. But it seems his vision has now come true."

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Mr. Temple is right, I think, Denver is becoming something beyond a thing the early settlers dreams could envision.

He goes on at length, Quote, "My son, who had spent the year in the crowded coastal corridor of Byer's "East Coast," was excited by what he found surrounding Commons Park, one of Mayor Wellington Webb's greatest contributions to the vision of what this city might become."

"The area was alive. And the buildings -- not all of them, but many -- suggested style and the possibility of being close to the action, of being connected. " A dream seemed to be coming alive. Townhouses and apartments looked over Cherry Creek. A sleek and soaring white bridge reached across the railroad tracks. A vacant dirt lot surrounded by stylish townhouses promised a new Museum of Contemporary Art.

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There Mr. Temple is talking about the development of the Platte River Valley west of the Union Depot. After Chatfield Dam was built and the danger of flooding pretty well quelled, that area which in my day was railyards, warehouses and places of business, now houses the Pepsi Center, Six Flags Amusement Park, Coors Field, Invesco Stadium and oodles and gobs of living quarters, condos, apartments, you name it - - they are springing up there like mad. there are streets back there that never were before. Gone are the days that it was busy with freight and passenger trains, then there were five railroads working in Denver. That was before the big rigs and semi-trailers began to take over the load of moving cargo. One wing of the Union Station had the postal facilities, any mail going out of Denver or coming into Denver came by rail and was sorted and dispateched in the postal terminal in the depot. Of course then came Air Mail. Railway Express had the other wing in the depot. Extremely valuable and precious goods came through them.

Even in my day there were abandoned warehouses and businesses back there, such is life in the world. Note the ruins that are tourist attractions throughout our world.

Mr. Temple continues, but I don't follow on from there.

He talkes about the improvements that he has seen. I remember when Speer Boulevard was only on one side of Cherry Creek and trees and shrubs were young yet along the way. I-25 was pretty well pushed through when the dream of the Valley Highway became real, that existed before we returned to Denver in 1960. Back in my day Downtown was actually down in altitude from the residential sections, but was the hub of business, both big and retail. About the only thing that wasn't downtown were car dealerships which flowed south on Broadway towards Englewood. The street car system stretched through town in all directions. As a child I remember seeing the street cars during rush hours pulling trailers needed to carry working people to or from work.

Back then the family automobile was more or less a weekend thing. Something to use to visit friends or relatives or go up to the hills or to picnics in the park. The street cars, ah, do I ever remember them, a sturdy steel frame with wheels the rest a wooden carriage. There was enough give in the vehicle that it would twist and sway as it went, it was a blast to sit in back and watch the front end tilt to the right as one would feel the rear end twist to the left.

The tramway system was civil transportation, there were even two routes from the Loop in Denver to Golden. The service was good, only thing was after midnight most routes would only run once an hour. World War Two taxed the tramway immensely and pretty well wore out its rolling stock. Of course during the war it was impossible to buy new anything and at war's end the auto industry fired up full tilt and things really began to change at a great rate.

Larimer Street in the early days was pretty well the main drag, but as the years passed and things built up Larimer became skid row. However, Daniels and Fishers department store which took up a whole city block and was the creme de la creme of retail shopping was only a block off of Larimer. Things changed, but slowly.

So Mr. Temple is right, only looking at Denver through YOUNGER EYES . . . . . . . . . . .

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