As We Say ‘Back to Home’: “Ten Pounds of Mud in a Five Pound Bag…”

I lived in Chicago for some years in the 60s, and have also lived in the Rockies and Sangre de Cristos for many years.

Here in the Rockies, down in Denver, there’s been a nest of meetings between Denver City Council Members and representatives of protest groups… regarding their spaces, durations, permits, etc., at Democratic National Convention scheduled for August 08.

The meetings, bristling at times, but needed to insure rights in all directions, have been going on for many weeks now, and are an under-reported or non-reported story, but an important one I think.

In part, because Denver is a very ‘small big city,’ and physically is not laid out to put ten pounds of mud into a five pound bag…

already hotels are reserved to bursting; there area no more rooms to let anywhere within easy driving/ light rail distance. Outlying small cities are trying to fill their hotels and use behemoth buses to drive congregants to the city miles away, each day.

Private parties are renting out their homes to strangers for high prices, and plan to beat it out of town to avoid what they imagine to be non-stop traffic gridlock, indeterminate group behavior, and essentially a cessation of citizens’ ability to enjoy their city for the duration.

Roping off will begin well in advance of the Convention, and it will likely take weeks and months afterward to repair the detritus of what such events of huge surges of humans, and vehicles, and all their waste materials alone, leave behind.

I witnessed personally what occurred mediawise at the Columbine massacre, and during Pope John Paul’s visit, and the Grand Prix race through Denver… how sudden enormous influxes of people and especially CNN, MSNBC, FoxNews, CBS and all other big media with their huge satellite trucks thudding all over hill and dale, tearing up the landscape with their wagons of equipment loaded out the kazoo… (city taxpayers footed the bill), destroying private and public structures (City taxpayers footed the huge after-bills) and preventing homeowners from accessing their own homes, and often from just having peace.

There appears to be disgruntlement from some of the protest groups, such as “Re-create 68,” for instance, amongst other things, that one of the small parks in downtown Denver, Civic Center Park, is reserved on at least one night for a celebration for attendees and citizens of Denver. Protesters are given other ground, as I understand, for that day.

City council members struggled to give wide berth to making room for protesters.

Was Denver a good choice for this kind of Convention?

You decide.

Denver is not an open city on one side, as was Chicago in 1968, with its wide open harbor on Lake Michigan running for miles with huge numbers of open parks along the shoreline…allowing for huge spillover as temporary populations burgeoned.

Denver is enclosed on all sides by residential districts and highways. Downtown, where the convening will take place is built up over the last decade, and before, by people who like straight up skyscrapers beginning right at the sidewalks with no setbacks. One of my Eastern European friends says, “like Communist architecture,” no style, meant to stack hens.” But, that’s neither here nor there

The point is, the modern build of Denver leaves the Queen City with endless concrete canyons, tower of Babel parking garages, narrow streets, and a pitiful dearth of parks,

…except Cheeseman Park which is at least a mile from the Convention in the midst of an upscale ‘views from the park’ condo ring; City Park at the zoo, also at least a mile from the Convention; and Washington Park, in an upscale neighborhood of kids, strollers, lacrosse moms and running dads… also at least a mile from the Convention.

Denver has no grand boulevards like Michigan Avenue in Chicago. It has no equivalent to Grant Park, open, as we said back then, so that those aspiring to be like Sherman, could march to the sea. Some wished them ‘into the sea,’ rather than ‘to the sea.’ But, that’s neither here nor there now.

The thing is, peace seems to me to be predicated in part, on the ideal of there being enough space for people to spread out; that the more contentious/irritated/aggrieved/ upset/concerned/ righteous some are, and the closer quarters they are pressed into, the more likely some will flash and spin out of control in any number of directions.

Was Denver, in its physical bones, an effective topography for a Convention at this place and in this time of such contentiousness by various?

I only know that if one keeps a volatile fluid in a vessel, its not a good idea to tighten both endcaps so pressure can build within instead of harmlessly and minutely evaporating into the atmosphere.

There are those, called provokers, who seek just such a tight set up with few outlets, because they are thrilled by encouraging temper fits and fire… and especially shattering… of ideals, of hope, of peace, of glass. Of any kind.

On the other hand, there are peace-holders. Those who have knowledge of provokers, and who are strongly committed to holding the line for peaceful assembly for all visitors to the city, not just a few.

We shall see.