A bill for an ordinance renaming Columbus Park located at 1501 West 38th Avenue as “La Raza Park”. Renames the park at West 38th Avenue and Navajo Street from Columbus Park to La Raza Park in Council District 1. The Committee approved filing this item at its meeting on 12-8-20.
We did also receive 16 letters of opposition, and I think many of those who were in opposition were concerned about the representation of the Italian-American community. And I and I, I wanted to really speak to that. This was not about the diminishment in any way of the Italian-American community, but really a lifting of this place of special importance to the the Latin X and Chicano community. So our Parks and Recreation Advisory Board voted unanimously after a public hearing that was held on November 16 to move this forward, and thus the recommendation and the ordinance request from Parks and Recreation. So on behalf of our department and really myself personally, I'm really delighted to recommend this renaming to you to preserve such an important part of Denver's history. Thank you, Madam President. I will. Thank you very much, Director Haines. We are appreciative of you joining us tonight. And we've got our second speaker up and we have his suit. So Frontier. But even in council I get here, I think Director Heinz did a great job of summarizing the outreach effort and what the department did. I'm just here to answer any questions that council may have after the public hearing about the process that was followed by the applicant, Councilman Sandoval, the community, and then the department to get to you all. Very good. Thank you for joining us. And next up, our next speaker is Richard Sabel. Mr. Sabel, you may. Oh, there you go. You're unmuted. Go ahead, sir. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Richard Sabel. I've lived down the road from Columbus Park most of my life, and I'm opposed to changing the name of Columbus Park. This is an extreme affront to the Italian-American community, and a direct attack against our heritage and history in the area is being imposed upon us against our will and until tonight, without dialog or participation on our part. It also highlights the disparity of civic assets allocated slabs dedicated to Hispanic figures over two dozen compared with only two, one of which is under attack dedicated and allocated to the Italian community. Currently, the only civic assets acknowledging the Italian-American community are Columbus Park in northwest Denver at John Cho Park, located in what is known as the Bottoms. While some landmarks still remain, such as the martial arts Cerrone's Grocery and of course the small Carmel Church, all are privately owned. Compare this with over two dozen civic assets acknowledging the Hispanic community. Cesar Chavez. Park Mestizo. Curtis Park. Paco Santos Park. Balboa. Lincoln Park. Val Verde Park. Paul Sandoval High School. Castro School. Panga. Vale of Art, etc. etc.. Based on this comparison alone, Denver City Council cannot in good conscience move forward with this proposal. Further, it is intrinsically unfair to take from one community and give to another. It is also unethical to diminish and erase the historical significance of the park to the Italian-American community and the consequent acknowledgment of the contributions of the Italian-Americans to the community at large. It is our position that there is no legitimate reason to change the name of Columbus Park. But in the interest of cooperation and community, if keeping the name Columbus is too much to ask, then we propose that the park remain allocated slash dedicated to the Italian-American community with a name that acknowledges such. Why not Da Vinci Park or Garibaldi Park? Or for a Colorado connection? Angelo, A.C., please help us preserve our heritage by protecting the legacy of our history. It should also be noted that there is a pyramid structure within Columbus Park that has a plaque affixed, dedicating it to La Raza that has been there many years. If nothing else, why not leave everything the way it is? The Italian-American community keeps their park. The Hispanic American community keeps their La Raza structure, and both communities benefit by continuing to share a public resource they have shared for many years. If this compromise is unacceptable to La Raza people, I suggest they purchase their own park and build their own park. Denver City Council cannot claim to support inclusion and diversity by taking away from and shaming one community in order to give to another. This is an example of cancel culture. Thank you, sir. Hence the time we have allotted. Next up, we have Senator Julie Gonzalez. Hi, everybody. I want to thank you all. So much for all of the work that you all do at the Denver City Council. And particularly, I'm here to ask you to vote yes in support of 20 Dash 1444. This is this is a special night. This is this is solstice. And it is a moment of transition. It is the shortest day in the longest year. This year itself. Has been a decade. And I want to acknowledge that this land has been a site of struggle for four generations. It's also been a site of transition and of transformation. And I think particularly in this year in which our community has navigated so much crisis, whether it has been the. Pandemic, whether it has been the economic devastation. Whether it has been the climate crisis or the racial reckoning. Denver And our our society, we've gone through a lot. This renaming of this land to affirm its name. That the community has always called it a La Raza park. It is a step towards healing. It is a step towards transformation. And it is a step towards unity. And so with that council, I want to appreciate everything that you all do on the. Daily, but particularly. Appreciate the work that the council member, Sandoval and so many others have had that have brought in acknowledging the name of this, that this park has always come by through community. And with that, I do ask for your support in naming and affirm. Make La Raza Park. Thank you very much, Senator Gonzalez. Our next speaker is Arturo Rodriguez. Natale. You're going to have to amuse. Hello, everyone. Can you hear me? Mm hmm. Go ahead, sir. Okay. Good evening. Thank you very much for your time. Congratulation, counsel and everybody, for taking on this historic task. I know the part very well. I was the organizer of the initial protests 50 years ago, so I have lived the history and made the history as a retired Chicano studies professor. I have taught this history for 50 years. University of Colorado. Boulder. Denver Community College. Metro State College this fall. Do you people are interested in the history of L.A. Apart? It's a fascinating history of the entire park. Growing up with the rebels and other Italian-Americans in the neighborhood. I know their story and this has never been about them in us. It's been about the reality, the truth about Christopher Columbus. Under the guidelines of naming a park of Christopher, Columbus does not meet the qualifications for that. Mexican Chicanos as indigenous peoples have suffered genocide over 500 years. We live with that trauma. We continue to live with that trauma. In 1981, when we were gassed at the park, for a lot of us, the park day that we held for ten years in conjunction with the pool staff, it was a beautiful event and it turned into a riot. We live with that trauma, so we now have an opportunity to move forward. We have an opportunity to move into the 21st century. We have new residents in this neighborhood now. There's not a day that I walk in that park when I see a person who I know did not grow up in that neighborhood and I educate them about the history and the beauty of the park. And they think and I think that's the message that we want to give every year. I congratulate you for your work and let us make history. Let us. The park should be also not a nominated and be a historic park. Thank you very much for your time. Oh, well, very good. Thank you, sir. Next up, we have Representative Sarina Gonzalez Gutierrez. But evening, everyone. My name is Serena Gonzalez Gutierrez. I want to thank Councilwoman Amanda Sandoval for bringing this forward. And I'm here in support of naming the park to let us the park. I'm a proud third generation North Sider, and my husband and I are raising the fourth generation right here in the same community in North Denver . I have many memories dating back to when I was my kid's age, playing on the playground, running up and down those steps of the pyramid, performing there with my grandmother. And now I've had the opportunity to watch my daughters perform on the very steps of the pyramid. And I've watched several, as well as at the local graduations that have taken place right on that kiosk. Those. There are memories that also precede me, of course, memories from my family. My mom had her first job at the pool when she was 14 years old. LaRosa Park is a symbol of unity in our communities. And without those that became that came before us, we would not be here continuing to fight for what has been a part of our community, our memories, and what we want to pass on to the next generation. Just this year, we celebrated Mother Cabrini Day to celebrate the Italian heritage and someone that made significant contributions to our communities. Columbus is not someone to be celebrated. La Raza is a word of unity and about celebrating community. And I have always known this to be Let us park. Lastly, I'm going to quote my late grandfather, Rodolfo Corky Gonzalez, who led the Crusade for justice and opened a school esquina Tlatelolco. Over 47 years ago. Land is the base on which our cultural values are created. That is what led us the park is to the Chicano, Latino and the Northside community. It is the land that holds our values to come together, to fight injustices and to celebrate our cultures. Thank you so much for allowing the time and I hope that everyone is in support of this renaming. It is well, long overdue. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, we have Cameron Selvin. Everyone, thank you so much. So I'm actually a resident of District one. I lived directly on the park on Osage Street, but I don't want to speak to you as a resident today. I actually want to talk to you in a professional capacity. I'm a professor of history at the University of Colorado, Denver. And I'm just seeing the panic in your eyes as you're envisioning me starting to launch into a long, boring lecture an hour three of the city council meeting. What I will not do, I promise. But I do just want to say that over the past year or two, I found myself answering the same question again and again as Confederate statues and monuments come down across the country. And that question is if we remove a statue, right? If we rename a school or a neighborhood. Doesn't that mean we're raising history? And my response is always the same. No. We're not. And I tell my students this all the time, history is a choice. We choose to remember and celebrate certain things and not others. And those choices say a lot more about the values of the society that is making those choices than the things that are being remembered. So stuff like monuments, memorials, the names of schools or buildings or parks, these say a lot more about the society that builds them , the society that names them than they say about the thing that's being commemorated. So I think the real question facing the city council right now is what kind of community do we want to be today in 2020? What kind of values do we want to celebrate today? And I don't envy any of you. You've had to make some extremely tough decisions over this extremely tough past year. But this one, this is not one of those tough decisions. I say this again in a professional capacity as a historian, changing the name of this park from Columbus Park to LA Rosa Park is actually pretty straightforward . This change would go from celebrating. What I see is some of the absolute worst parts of this country's history to celebrating some of the very best parts of this country's history. So for those reasons, I am fully in support of this name change and just want to thank you for your willingness to consider taking this step. Thank you. Our next speaker is Jesse Paris. We need more members of the council, those watching at home. My name is just Perez and I'm representing for Denver homestyle restaurants and mobile for self as the vessel promotes the social change as well as the Unity Party of Colorado and Mile High. No, and I will be the next November 2023. I agree with everything that was said previous to me, minus the guy who didn't want to take the part of this. Is a fixture in the north side, is a community center on the city that the city is finally realizing that after all these years, that is a step in the right direction. We need to honor the cultural significance of this park and of this neighborhood that's dominantly brown and Chicano not. Now. I was known as the last the part. I am a native. I was born here in 1987. And this part has always been known since I've been living as the life of the party. So to hear the pushback of just simply taking the name from Columbus, who is not somebody that we should be honoring, especially in the age that we're in now. Post George Floyd protests and previous speakers for Confederate monuments coming down. Why in 2020, with the city of Denver still be honoring a criminal such as Chris of All Columbus? So I am very happy and pleased to hear the testimony of those that descend directly from the playmakers that started the Crusade for Justice in the 1960s and 1970s. Representative Selena Gutierrez. And Senator Julie Gonzalez. They understand the historical significance of this part and why it is so important that this world is also full of holes in the name of this park, like a famous estate. It's always been known as the Rosa Parks since I've been living with this 33 years. So with that being said, I'm glad to see that the city is actually taking the initiative to close and accept the cultural significance of our many diverse neighborhoods in the city and honoring the contribution that the level of community has given to the city of Denver. So with that being said, good job. You've got this of. All right. Thank you, Jesse. Our last speaker this evening is Emmanuel Martinez. We're going to need you to unmute, sir. There you go. We're going now. Mm hmm. Go ahead, please. Well, I try to be brief, which is what I have to say about this, because nearly 50, 50 years ago, after founding Rome, a recreation center, and I was its first director, and at that time, Joe Johnson was director, Parks and Recreation. And he agreed to my request to be a full time muralist for the city of Denver Parks and Rec. And after painting murals at Lama they wanted the Plaza Park was that was already being renamed by the staff there and wanted me to paint murals there so I did when I helped, I didn't have time to do that mural. So so while Roberto Lucero pretty much designed in my help him paint it and get the materials to do that. And during that time. There was some controversy later because at that time, the city council, Linda Damiano, who was also Italian-American, urged Joe Johns, who after we had painted a mural that was acceptable by the community and by the staff. He wanted me to paint over the mural because I was in the city, the city murals, and I refused to do that. And as a result of that, I got fired from my job. So I have a little history with. But let us apart. Going way back to 1970. And, you know, I would just like to urge the city council members to please support the name change of Columbus Park. A lot of support the size of it, besides a small number of Italian residents who identify with Columbus. Most of the residents of that area. I've been calling this park. But also park. And it just seems to me like this is is this a no brainer? I mean, is the vast majority of the community has been using that, not calling it that, you know, it's appropriate to do that. And anyway, it's important to realize that La Rosa Park was just the name. La. The site is a positive term. You know, it's you know, it it relates to people, you know, different cultures. It's not exclusively, you know, just for Chicanos or Latinos or Mexicans. So it's I think I think we will soon be. Thank you. So that's the time we have allocated to. Thank you. We appreciate it. Thank you. That concludes our speakers questions from members of Council on Council Bill 1444, Councilwoman Canete. Thank you. Madam President, I wanted to see whether perhaps Professor Rodriguez, if he is still here, or maybe the councilwoman, the sponsor, might want to speak a little more, or even Mr. Martinez, since he was about to talk about this, but about the the term. So so when I learn Spanish, I, I know the way that I learned this term, La Raza. And we have some folks who've kind of, you know, I think looked at this term and and their risk of translating to literally. And so I wanted to just give you a moment, either as the sponsor or maybe the professors to speak a little bit to this term and what it encompasses and how hard it is to to kind of get it out of a dictionary, if you will. Councilman Sandoval Yeah, I'm happy to answer. Or if I did the Rodriguez, if he's still here, we can promote him and he would be able to answer. It's wonderful. We're going to see if we can get Mr. Rodriguez. Promoted back up. Yep. I see that we have him here and we'll ask him to unmute. Ah. Theodore, are you still with us? Can you unmute? All right. There you go, Mr. Rodriguez. And then I think Mr. Martinez would like to to speak as well. But Mr. Rodriguez, go ahead, please. The term the word. The word La Raza means the people. During the Chicano movement and during the civil rights movement. We empowered ourself. We said Bieber, La Raza. We as a people encompass a world, a culture. We are predominantly native peoples. A group of people also will inevitably develop customs culture. And if you're asking about the definition of does it mean the race? No, it does not mean the race. That was a negative, negative experience, backlash, if you will, from the general public, because they didn't understand that. When I teach Chicano studies, that's one of the first lessons, is the terminology and what it really means to be La Raza and what it means to be La Raza means to be the people. So when we selected that term in a public meeting in 1970 in the community when we were developing this protest, we looked at the name and we said, You know, what we really want to do here is develop a people's spark. We were actually inspired by the People's Park in San Francisco, you know, the hippies and the people that were developing this new world culture. And so we were inspired by the civil rights movement that they were involved in. And so with the Cesar Chavez movement and the other civil rights movement, it became a term to empower us, to educate people about who we are. We are most of all. Good question. Thank you very. Did you want to add something? Yes, I would like to. Can you hear. Me? Go ahead, sir. Well, you know, the the concept of La Raza actually created by the Save Our School Sailors, who was a philosopher in Mexico City and also the minister of culture. And during the third 1930s. And that as his minister of culture, he was probably, you know, the president, Diego Rivera and Siqueiros and Orozco, the great muralist. He was responsible for getting that work done. But the point I'm getting at is that as as a philosopher, he came up with that term, and it has been popular in Latin America and it is very inclusive in terms of all races. And it's relative to our to our race because we are a mixture of race. We are citizens, which is Europe and and and indigenous people. So it's important to realize that this term is that negative. It's all encompassing of a mixture of races in people. So I think people should understand that this is not just a Chicano full term, you know, and it wasn't created by the father movement or what was goes wrong extensively on the concept of La Raza. And so you may you want to you may want to research and if you want more information on that concept. Thank you. Madam President, I just thought it was important. Languages are living, and any one of us could look up an English word in the Oxford Dictionary and know that that's not how we use the word today. And I think that I just wanted to really underscore the idea that you have to look to how the word is used, not to what you find in some Wikipedia site. Thank you. Wonderful. Thank you so much, Councilwoman Canete. Next up, we have Councilman Flynn. Thank you, Madam President. I don't know if maybe Director Haines or Hastings could respond to this question, but I just want to clarify for everybody listening that it is not unprecedented to change the name of a park that already has been named officially. And so a renaming is something that has been done before. So Director James raises Hazel. She want to answer that. So in the rules and regs for the naming policy of different parks and recreation, they do allow for renaming, right? Parks there have been parks that have been renamed or portions of parks have been remain renamed by by members of this council and previous groups that that have renamed parks that previously had a name. Great. Thank you. I just want to let bring that out so that folks know that this is true. And to build upon what Councilwoman Kennedy said, history is also a living thing and it can be viewed from many perspectives through many generations and viewed differently. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Councilman Flynn. And I thought we had another hand raised, and so I'll wait for a second. All right. Seeing no others. The courtesy public hearing for Council Bill 20 Dash 1444 is closed. Comments by members of Council. Councilwoman Sandoval. Thank you, Madam President. I'd like to begin with a little time and a little history. In 1848, the treaty of his Hidalgo was signed into law, and this was when Mexico ceded 5050 5% of its land. And this is part of present day Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Nevada and Utah to the United States. Growing up, I was taught an important thing. We didn't cross the border. The border crossed us. Christopher Columbus did not discover America. It was already inhabited by our indigenous brothers and sisters. What Christopher Columbus did was genocide. He raped and pillaged our native people. And it is time we stop celebrating Columbus and recognize the people. Or, as we say in this part. Let us ask, as district one resident was quoted in the Northstar local newspaper, Judy Diaz from Acquisti in North Denver, resident who identifies as Latin Next and is married into an Italian family. She said she respects the role the name and park had for the early Italian residents. Many used Columbus as an icon to gain acceptance at a time when Italians were heavily discriminated against. Despite that, today, she supports the change to La Raza. It needs to be a building to embrace community and humanity, said friend from Acquisti. People are going to find it controversial if they want to find something to controversy, if they want to find controversy. Growing up in the North Side, I had only known the park to be named. Let us the park. I have celebrated many events there graduations, kids. And yet at the end of summer follows the summer solstice. And my community feels it is time for the park to be named not as a park. I would like to thank those who came before me who fought in the crusade for justice. Art Do the bones. Rodriguez The Chicano movement and the many Latin, black, Latino, black and Latino elected leaders who came before me group to help them. The Gonzalez Family. Senator Julie Gonzalez. Representative Sydnor Gonzalez Gutierrez. The Chicano Pride Rides Councilwoman Ortega, who brought this forward in her term in District nine and was shy one vote. And all those community members who came out during a pandemic to sign over 400 plus signatures to rename this park. I will end with one of my favorite poems as I know it is relevant tonight. Joyce Johnson Rose. Said, I am standing on the shoulders of the ones who came before me. I am stronger for their courage. I am wiser for their words. I am lifted by their longing for a fairer and brighter future. I am grateful for their vision, for their time on this earth. We are standing on the shoulders of the ones who came before us. They are giants and humans and angels. They are friends. We can see beyond the struggles and the troubles and the challenges when we know that by their efforts things will be better. In the end, they lift me higher than I could ever fly. Carrying my burdens away. I imagine our world. If they hadn't tried, we wouldn't be here celebrating today. I am standing on the shoulders of those who came before me. I am honored by their passion for our liberty. I will stand a little taller. I will. I will work a little longer. And my shoulders will be there to hold the ones who follow me. They lift me higher than I could ever fly. Carrying my burdens away. I imagine our world. If they hadn't tried, we wouldn't be so very blessed today. I am standing on the shoulders of those. The ones who come before me. I am humbled by their passion for our liberty. I stand a little taller. I work a little longer. And my shoulders will be there to hold the ones who follow me. I humbly ask my fellow colleagues. To support this long overdue. Name change and Cuba us. Thank you. Thank you. Councilwoman Sandoval, we appreciate your comments. And I want to pause for a second. Councilwoman Ortega, she had tried to carry forward a name change quite a few years ago. And so I would ask my colleagues if they wouldn't mind allowing Councilwoman Ortega to go next and share her thoughts on this. Thank you, Madam President. I really appreciate it. And I just want to extend my apologies to my colleagues in the audience for not having here for the previous votes. I had to leave for an eye doctor appointment and just got back. So I want to thank Councilwoman Sandoval for bringing this forward and for putting all the legwork. It is not easy to do a park name change. Sorry, I'm getting. Oh, we just want. Yeah, there you go. My screen just. I figured. You'd want. Your video on. Go ahead, Councilwoman. But it was on and then it turned off. That was kind of weird. But anyway. As I was saying, it's a lot of work to do a park name change. It requires, you know, the signature gathering, pulling together the historical information and and lining up the votes with your colleagues. And I just want to thank you, Councilwoman Sandoval, for all of your work to bring this forward. As as you know, I attempted to do this in my time as a district council person that had a lot of support within it. And everybody from the community has always called it led us apart. And what I was successful doing was getting the the it's not a gazebo. What do you call the. The structure in the park named as Plaza de la Raza. But that was not that was only sort of in exchange for. You know, having let us name officially on the park. And, you know, there's a lot of history in this park that I believe you already covered. I just got back. So I didn't get a chance to hear that part of the presentation. But I did see the information that Councilwoman Sandoval had provided to all of us. And, you know, the demographics of many of our neighborhoods have have changed over time. And this is an example where at one time this was predominantly an Italian community. And, you know, and then at one point it was predominantly Latino. And now the demographics have changed even once again. There's still a lot of Latino families in the community. But, you know, it's it's a gentrified neighborhood. And if you were a renter, most renters are gone that were Hispanic because a lot of those properties have been redeveloped. And so I think this is a great opportunity to reflect the culture and the history that has existed within the community. I can remember growing up as a young high school student and in my, you know, early days as a young adult, spending time over at the park for some of the gatherings and opportunities for the Chicano community to come together and and just celebrate our culture. And so this is an opportunity to do that. I believe it does not take away from the contributions that the Italians in our community have made on the board of a nonprofit that has several of our buildings named after Italian leaders from the community. And this is just another way to recognize the long standing indigenous peoples who, you know, originated in this city, when the confluence of both the South Platte and Cherry Creek came together, which was the the early beginnings of our city. So just ask for support of our colleagues. And again, thank Councilwoman Sandoval and all of the people who assisted in getting the signatures and helping to bring this forward. Thank you. Madam President. Thank you, Councilman Ortega, and happy that you were able to get back and join us for this important event tonight. Councilman Cashman. I'll defer for a moment to Councilwoman Torres. All right. Sounds good. Councilwoman Torres. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you. Come to my house. Just a quick note of thanks. Just acknowledging and applauding Councilman Sandoval and everyone of the hundreds of people who came over two days during this year, which has been such a tough year to sign the petition and help make tonight happen. There was immediate reaction and enthusiasm and to have the political will and leadership to be able to do this right now is incredibly affirming and a powerful move. And it did not come without risks of threat and names and just real ugliness over something that I think. We have heard calls for four generations, Columbus statues around the country. Coming down and. People really hitting a limit, a tolerance for revisionist history. And so I really just want to thank Councilman Sandoval, Councilman Ortega before her for hearing the words of community for whom this is really important. And I look forward to voting yes. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Torres. Councilman Cashman? Yeah. Thank you, Madam President. I want to start. By congratulating my colleague, Councilman Sandoval. A great presentation, a great effort. And I am. Pleased. To wholeheartedly support this. Name, change and celebrate with you. And your staff and the Latin community on this just long overdue. Name change. And I need to take a moment of personal reflection. When I was growing up in New Jersey, my my best friend's name was. Don and his. Brother was Andy and his parents, Randy and Kaye. And their last name was Prezioso. And they were proud Italian-Americans. And I'm picturing myself. At their dinner table where I was many, many times, trying to explain to Mr. Prez what's going on here. And being a VA as he was, he would he'd have been difficult to convince. And so recognizing that, I just want to ask our Department of Parks and Recreation as they move forward with the. There are ongoing efforts. To add Parkland to our. System to see if they can't. Find a nice parcel and an appropriate parcel to consider a naming in honor of. Denver's Italian community. I think there are numerous heroes more appropriately. Suited to bear the moniker of a Denver park. And I appreciate the moment of perhaps inappropriate personal reflection. But in honor of Mr. and Mrs. President, I wanted to put that forward. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Cashman. Next up, we have Councilman Hines. Thank you, Madam President. We as Council, we are here to guide Denver's present and its future based on the values we want to have in our city. And and certainly we should look back at our history and and revel in our history. But, you know, once dinosaurs roamed the earth and now they just adorn sweaters. And so sometimes, you know, if we can just continue to to to only live in the past, just for the past sake. And. And so, Councilmember Sandoval, thank you so much for for bringing this forward. And this is obviously a tough conversation. I in District ten, we had a Christopher Columbus statue, as in it was actually named Christopher Columbus. And we reached out to the Italian American community. We reached out to the Italian consulate here in Denver. We reached out to people who identify as of Italian heritage in Denver and elsewhere. And and the the the conversations that I had were that the Italians in Denver want this. They want they want to celebrate the people and they want to celebrate the people's part. So so thank you again, Councilmember Sandoval. Thank you for all of the the current and former elected officials that you've had here to present, including my state senators, Senator Consultants, thank you for thank you for making the trip on the other side of of of veterans park and and visiting us in the local yokel end of Denver City Council. I'm I'm really excited and and happy to to be part of the support that helps get this across the finish line. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Councilman. Councilwoman, can each. Thank you, Madam President. Kvitova is very exciting. I just wanted to share some perspective about the renaming commission that the mayor seeded about six months ago that Councilwoman Ortega and I serve on. And I was trying to pull out the criteria. I couldn't quite find them fast enough, but. But it includes not just that the individual or term that's used has, you know, a historic harm associated with it. It's also about whether or not that harm is continuing into the future in terms of replicating or reinforcing messages or values that are contrary to the city's. And I think that's really important because, you know, I just first want to say Naomi did an amazing job, really great presentation. But I think what I took from her presentation is the way that colonization right. Replicated itself. And I think that's really important because the disparities that are still experienced by the Latino community and members of it. Right, is that replication of the harm. And so to honor the origins of that harm. Right, is a replication of it. And so I can't predict for you what would have happened, but I think it's pretty likely we would have been ended up here. Even if Councilwoman Sandoval never picked this up. She picked this up because she's a leader, because she knew there was this long standing need in this community. But I didn't want anyone to think that she's speaking only for herself. Right. That I think that there is clearly a movement and we're looking at all kinds of names. And so that that report won't be ready till next year. We're still we are so thoroughly debating it. Some of the most thoughtful, challenging conversation that I've been a part of in my time governing, thinking about the confluence right of history and the present, and inequities and harm and healing and all of that. So I just but I wanted to give that perspective because I think that as we do reckon with wanting to better understand the history and that the harms associated with names or terms of things in our city, I think that you are going to see that this might be one of the easier cases, right, as communities will be the next one. So this committee that councilman are taking on will basically take recommendations and give them back to communities to debate. And only after they debate it will it come to this council. But it's this this is an easier case than some that you may see through those processes. It clearly meets the criteria for a renaming that the Parks folks just described. And I just want to say that to the community who waited so long for this, your perseverance and your commitment and the contributions that you made sometimes in spite of our city. Right, are not to be forgotten. And so congratulations to the to the community and to Councilwoman Sandoval for helping to lead them. Thanks. Thank you, Councilman. Next up, we have Councilwoman CdeBaca. Thank you, Madam President. Just wanted to send a quick congratulations to Councilman Sandoval and all of the North Siders, the West Siders, the East Siders who were a part of the Chicano movement, but also all of our professors, our cultural workers, our community workers who really dedicated lifetimes to teaching people about race as a social construct. And how in order for us to get beyond a scenario where we use race to validate, to justify oppression, we have to start envisioning a world that doesn't exist with race. And I strongly encourage anyone who's curious about this renaming or who's frustrated by this renaming to really do a little bit of research on La Raza cosmic , because what it is really about is acknowledging that there is no pure race. There is no such thing anymore. And the the this idea of La Raza is about a new race of people without the labels applied to us based on color. So I again, congratulations. I'm very happy to see this. I'm very happy to be able to vote yes on this in my term and proud to to say that this is a community home. And I hope that beyond this symbolic fight, this symbolic win, we make sure that the Latino people, that La Raza is able to stay in this community and enjoy this park with this new name. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman. And I will go ahead and wrap up on comments. Congratulations, Councilwoman Sandoval. Councilwoman Ortega. And, you know, I loved it when Senator Gonzalez talked about the winter solstice and how significant this point in history today right now is. And I think of our grandmothers and our aunties and our mothers and all of the women in the community and and the men. But I like to concentrate on the women a little bit, because I know that there has been many grassroots efforts and and keeping that fight going over the years. And that I also would be very remiss if I didn't honor our elders, Mr. Rodriguez and Mr. Martinez, who joined us and the the many academics and teachers. I got my undergraduate at Regis at Metro and then my master's at Religious. And so that history is interwoven throughout the Denver metro area, but really within our state, because like my family came from the San Luis Valley and came to Denver for a better opportunity. And so I feel like our elders are smiling down on us and have been whispering for decades to make this change. And I just want to sincerely congratulate the community and Councilwoman Sandoval and Ortega and also Torres, because the preservation in your district as well continues on that strong Chicano Latin history of our city that is so important. And so, without further ado, Madam Secretary, roll call. Sandoval. I. Sawyer a. All right. I. Well, I. Peter Barca. I. Clark. I. When I. Herndon. I. Hi. I'm. Cashman. I. MH I. Ortega, I. Madam President. I am secretary. Please close the voting and announce the results. 13 I. 13 Eyes Council Bill 20 Dash 1444 has passed our pre adjournment announcement on Tuesday, July 19th, 2021. Council will hold a required public hearing on Council Bill 1414, changing the zoning classification for 3397 South Geneva Street in Hampton.