A new Senator with Middletown ties

The New York Times is reporting that Denver's Superintendent of Schools and Wesleyan grad Michael Bennet, son of former Wesleyan president Doug Bennet will become Senator from Colorado replacing Ken Salazar who has been recruited by the Obama administration to head the Department of the Interior.

Bennet previously served as chief of staff for Denver mayor John Hickenlooper, also a former Middletown resident and Wesleyan grad. Hickenlooper was also on the short list to replace Salazar.

An historic evening

I've never before considered getting together with friends and neighbors to watch the acceptance speech of a Presidential candidate. I'm sure such things have happened before, with political junkies and party insiders, but I think the kind of event I attended last night was happening all over the country (I know for a fact that Middletown's Democratic Town Committee hosted an event at Wesleyan's USDAN center for students - an event, which many say, would not have occured when Doug Bennett was president).

I was fortunate enough to be invited to Bob and Maria Holzberg's house in Middletown, along with a group of like-minded supporters of Barack Obama. I found myself, along with the people in the room, applauding the TV screen after the speeches.

We had regular phone reports from Jen Alexander, who was in Mile High Stadium in Denver (though she was actually outside Mile High Stadium for three hours with ten thousand people in line, waiting to get into the packed arena, and eventually got in before Obama spoke), and her phone calls were giddy with the excitement of being in the mayor's suite (Denver mayor John Hickenlooper, formerly a Wesleyan student and Middletown resident), with her family, witnessing the historic event.

For his part, Obama gave the speech of a lifetime, shedding the dreadful history of the past eight years, and looking toward the future.

I left the Holzberg's with an Obama bumper sticker which I immediately placed over the Impeach sticker which has been on the car for three years.

Reflections on Denver

Doings in Denver, Part 4



Photo: Listening to Bill Clinton at the Pepsi Center

Back in 1988, when I was 22 years old, I went to the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, GA. For those who were in Middletown at the time, you might remember the 39% of the local vote that went to Jesse Jackson -- which led to Mark (my spouse) being a delegate for Jackson from our region.

Here's what I remember from the 1988 DNC -- it was a circus of special interest groups, with everyone wearing their labor union or political cause on their sleeve -- literally -- and the sense that the real business of the event was the trading of turf and chits between these groups. It felt like state politics and local issues -- potholes if you will -- were the main issue at hand.

Things couldn't be more different in Denver in 2008. Instead I feel a sense of hopefulness and energy from the crowd -- there is a feeling that we are here to exercise our creativity and intelligence, and that the stakes are very high for the future of our country. I'm sure it must look a little trivial from a distance, but the focus on transit, recycling, and alternative energy have awakened a conscience that is anything but cynical among the participants in Denver. It feels like we are proving to ourselves that we are not the hapless victims of a declining America. It feels like things could actually change, idea by idea.

I should say that in reality, I'm very much on the edges of things here, since I've been spending more time with our family friends than in the politial scene. But anytime you set foot in the downtown, the sense of purpose and debate is tangible and very interesting.

One of the things that makes this convention so substantial is the series of roundtables that have brought together innovators from various fields -- Mark got to help with a few of these, on the topics of energy, international relations and philanthropy. So it's more than just funny hats and rah-rah slogans. There is real connection happening here.



And there are plenty of opportunities to appreciate the creativity of Denver -- like the parking meters that encourage people to give their spare change not to the panhandlers (there are some) but to social service programs.





I have a whole slew of photos and ideas to bring home -- maybe I'll get them up on flickr so that I don't overly tax the Middletown Eye!

Inside the Pepsi Center

"Doings in Denver" Part 3



After two days of stuffing envelopes and running errands in the back rooms of Denver's Convention machine, some of my family members got to see the front of the house during a VIP sneak peak at the Pepsi Center, where the convention will actually take place.

As far as I can tell from their photos, it's classic democratic blue, with enough sound and video technology to power 5 rock concerts.

There are lots of spaces for the press, both inside and out. Workers are still putting the finishing touches on most areas.










They found the Connecticut seats, stage right and about half-way up. Here's Maggie standing at the microphone where our state's delegates will cast their vote for Obama.









Our hotel is pulling out all the stops. They just stopped by and replaced all the multi-colored candies with red-white-and-blue. Tootsie Roll anyone?

How Green is Your Convention

Part Two of "Doings in Denver".

I knew that Denver had announced their intention to make the Democratic National Convention the first "Green" convention in history...so I was expecting the recycling bins on every corner. I was expecting the local produce at catered events. But I was not expecting a wooden hotel room key, instead of plastic.



As far as I can tell, the local commitment to the environment is more than skin deep. Judging by the earnest lawn signs throughout town, wasteful watering of the grass is akin to parking your beat-up jalopy on the front lawn back east. And I'll post on another day about the incredible mass transit and the number of bikes and vespas on city streets. It's nice to see.

I confess that I'm a sucker for their pro-Downtown Denver campaigns. They've got one for the general public called "Elevate Your Urban", their pitch that life is more fun downtown (One poster promises "5 pm Salsa Dance Lessons, 7 pm Oysters on the Half Shell, 9 pm Cabaret and a nightcap"). And they have a website to encourage people to move to one of the 11 residential neighborhoods of downtown, called "Center Yourself".

They do make living downtown look fun. Here's a house that I spotted on a street similar to Grand Street in Middletown.


As far as politics go, the city is worked up into nearly a fever pitch as early convention events begin. A few of my family members were at a book signing with Nancy Pelosi when a group of boisterous protesters were ejected for suggesting that she should go back to Washington and impeach President Bush.

I, however, as a devotee of local rather than national politics,
was most excited about the meeting we caught on cable access TV which detailed the work of the local graffiti task force. Some issues are truly universal.

Doings in Denver

I'm writing from the 12th floor overlooking downtown Denver -- this is our family vacation this year, gate-crashing the Democratic National Convention. It doesn't begin until next Monday, but we're here to watch the run-up, and I'll be writing about the "Doings in Denver" now and then for the Eye. Strangely, I haven't yet received my press creditials from the DNC for the convention itself, but I'm sure that's in the mail.

The city is beautiful and relatively quiet today, but we did see our first two signs of public demonstration.


First we saw a modest Anti-Choice protest set up at a major crossroads in the Cherry Creek section of Denver. This was just a few signs, but they're gearing up, I'm sure, for a more robust presence next week.

The other demonstration was more of an enviro-art installation -- this says "Missing: This much water all from one lousy running toilet in just one month. Buy a new flapper and call off the search. www.useonlywhatyouneed.org" [update: turns out this is a witty Denver water conservation movement - check out the website to see their videos of soused garden flowers demonstrating the dangers of drinking too much.]

In other news, they don't seem to have heard about the recession out here, and this post might more accurately be named "Cranes over Denver", since we saw more new construction here than I've seen back east in a Long Time.

More later.

Hick's got his hands full

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper spent some of his young adult years on the Wesleyan campus, and later, hanging in the nearby neighborhoods of Middletown.

Hickenlooper rand for mayor as a renegade, fighting the old boy network of Denver city politics, and he has changed the face of Denver, and won the acclaim of the city's residents. Some of his old Middletown pals have visited during campaign season to drum up votes.

In September, Denver hosts an underfunded Democratic National Convention, and Hickenlooper and his city will have his hands full. First there's the issue of thousands of conventioneers with highballs in one hand, campaign signs in the other, and wearing silly hats. Then there's the issue of political protesters, and the first amendment. Hickenlooper is granting protestors a parade route that many claim is far from free access to the convention center.

Maybe some of Hick's friends can get us some first-hand impressions of the challenges he's facing.