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By Shepard Nevel

My wife and I have been struggling the past few months with whether to stay in Denver.

This possible move from a community we love dearly is animated by a narrow but compelling consideration. Our beautiful and enchanting middle daughter, who is severely autistic, will likely require intensive support for her entire life. Colorado, despite our state’s high per capita income, is near bottom in national rankings for services and funding for disabled adults. We learned from a friend who specializes in disability law that “countless families have left Colorado for the same reason.”

But life has a way of teaching unexpected lessons. As my wife and I immersed ourselves in other cities — visiting schools and special education programs, scouting houses and neighborhoods, speaking to families with special-needs children — we learned a lot about how other states treat their disabled. And we learned a thing or two about our hometown as well.

Our first lesson was that other parts of the country, particularly on the East Coast, do a much better job than Colorado in providing public support for severely disabled individuals and their families. According to a comprehensive report by the University of Colorado’s Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities, Colorado performs poorly in most categories measuring public resources for the disabled, ranking an abysmal 46th in overall family support.

Our second lesson (notwithstanding this first lesson) is that Denver is a tremendously difficult place to leave. During three months of countless visits to and intensive research of other great metropolitan regions, such as Boston, Washington, D.C., and Miami, my wife and I found ourselves being continually reminded of things that make Denver so special. So here is this road-worn traveler’s Top Five Reasons to Like Denver:

1. The People. We found nice people in all the cities we visited. But Denverites are distinctively friendly and unpretentious. Even the “rich, powerful, and famous” in Denver are for the most part very approachable and down-to-earth. Perhaps it’s the altitude. There’s little tolerance for people who have airs about them.

2. The Politics. In most central cities, politics is a bare-knuckled sport, requiring years of in-the-trenches gamesmanship. Our city and state politics in contrast is uncommonly cerebral, accessible and pristine. Call it the Revenge of the Policy Wonks.

Our mayor is a geologist-turned-restaurant entrepreneur who began his long-shot campaign by studiously visiting 15 cities and taking notes on best municipal practices. Colorado’s speaker of the House and state treasurer both ran for state office as highly respected public policy professionals and our lieutenant governor jumped straight from leading a child advocacy organization to the state’s second-highest office. And it’s hard to wax too partisan, even in a heavily Democratic town like Denver, when Bruce Benson, the Uber-Republican oil and gas guy, has been at the forefront for years of major efforts in town to improve the public education system for Colorado’s most disadvantaged kids.

3. The Business Community. Other regions can boast of civic-minded business leadership. And the business community, it is always important to note, contributes mightily to every metropolitan area in our nation as the primary source of opportunity, creativity and dynamism.

But Denver’s top business advocates are a special breed with a refreshingly broad and inclusive agenda. An illustrative example is Joe Blake, CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, who can be heard rhapsodizing about the strategies of Saul Alinsky, the legendary and radical community organizer.

4. The Grass-roots Community. If the business leaders in our state often sound like community organizers and social activists, the opposite is true as well. Colorado’s nonprofit and advocacy organizations are led by strategic individuals who are temperamentally inclined toward finding solutions and framing even emphatic criticism within civil discourse. “You don’t see the anger and conflict that exist in other cities,” commented Fred Siegel, the renowned urban affairs writer, during one visit to Denver.

Metro Organizations for People, encompassing more than 30,000 families in low-income neighborhoods, is a national model. Their meetings attract several hundred residents, they politely and resolutely exact specific commitments from Denver’s top political leaders to their agenda (which currently includes education, health care and public safety), and they always follow up.

5. Tolerance. Denver’s history of tolerance and fairness is a priceless spiritual asset. Sixty years ago, Denver’s Mayor Quigg Newton established the city’s Commitee on Human Relations to acknowledge and address racial and ethnic discrimination. Newton also advocated for fair housing decades before it was on the mainstream political agenda. “Denverites give everyone a chance,” former Mayor Wellington Webb says, “regardless of their skin color.”

Denver can boast of many other attributes that make it an attractive place to live, work, and raise a family. All of this unfortunately does not offset entirely our state’s relative shortcomings in creating a supportive environment for the disabled and the families who care for them. But there is reason to hope that a region as blessed as ours is with human and natural assets, the birthplace of our nation’s largest charity, the United Way, will one day be a city of mile-high inspiration as well for our most vulnerable residents.

Shepard Nevel, an attorney, lives in Denver.

READER COMMENTS

Why can't Mr. Nevels daughter be helped?

Illegal aliens pop out anchor babies everyday..at your expense..why not give a helping hand to an American citizen?

They all get free medical and surgies when needed, and that's nothing to sneeze at. That's a pretty pennie! Not to mention all other gov. benefits!

It appears, from most of the above comments, that Social Darwinism is thriving in Colorado. Methinks this state, which is so full of itself anyway, needs a new motto: "Colorado, where the scenery is pretty and the people are ugly."

The first part of your letter touched my heart, however numbers 2 and 5 made me laugh. I believe that there are 3 kinds of people receiving public assistence. 1. Those who will need to be taken care of during the course of their life. (severely disabled mentally and or physically) 2. Those who need a hand up. (Temporary) 3. Those who are too lazy to work and are social leeches.

Colorado does have programs that are national models (Community Options in Montrose). But I agree that we can and should do better for the most helpless among us.

This letter is the lawyer-ly equivalent of standing on a street corner, with a cardboard sign that reads, "Hungery Vet, Please Help". Mr. Nevel, it seems, does not have the stomach to beg for money directly, he wants the Denver city council to take our money and then give it to him. Mr. Nevel's appraoch beats standing on a street corner.

Well, Have a nice trip. I am sure the east coast taxpayers will love to have you.

It is interesting with Colorado wanting to have a blue ribbon socialist welfare health care, the powers that be cannot see this happening in reverse.... All I have to do for free health care is move to Colorado... and the scenery is nice too!

So, I am sorry your daughter is disabled. I hope you have planned for her future. For if the .gov is her future... then she is doomed.

You want to enhance Denver's allure? Start by rounding-up and clearing-out the bums, hobos, tramps and stinking, filthy, street urchins infesting the Civic Center; these cockroaches gotta' go!

Mr. Nevel: I am sorry that your daughter is disabled. I am sure that she is blessed with two loving parents who will do the best they can for her.
But I can't afford to care for her, and that is what you are really asking for when you talk about public support. I do donate to the United Way; perhaps you culd ask them for help?
So good luck wherever you end up

"...the birthplace of our nation’s largest charity, the United Way..."

Where the money never reaches the target. "The buck stops here, so get lost."

Crooks.

Many of us refuse to live in Denver for the very "generosity" that this writer claims Denver needs even more of! The refusal to control spending and maintain a positive environment for the people paying the bills has driven thousands from the central city! The traffic ticket problem was one of the many things the current Denver mayor ran against; as a business owner he knew the Denver practice of balancing the books on the backs of visitors was driving away the city's customers. Like many, I try to ensure I never spend any money within the city limits of Denver - part of my greater belief in never financing the people who oppose you!

Someone explain to me the difference between this guy and Ted Haggard's plight. If the east coast provides more public funding for your daughter then pack it up and head east. At least Haggard is heading south to the Phoenix Dream Center for help.

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