Freeway fighting is no easy feat. Beginning in 2006, the neighborhoods worked tirelessly asking the city to listen to their feedback and to stop the I-25/Broadway interchange reconstruction project that introduced significant safety and community impacts. The city refused to listen. Fifteen years later, in 2020, Brittany Spinner and Amy Kenreich caught wind of funding confirmed and construction soon happening on the “sleeping giant” of a project that most of the neighborhood had forgotten about or never knew about at all. The plans included demolition of nine missing middle incomes homes that were long term residences of low-income, retirees and minorities. One home belonged to a teacher at the local elementary school.
Upon reviewing the plans that the city had for this project, Amy and Brittany knew that this would forever decrease the safety and walkability and further divide the neighborhood. The project stated it was multi-modal but it prioritized cars, and created numerous unsafe walking conditions for everyone who used this space (including forcing pedestrians to walk across 19 lanes of traffic and 4 highway on/off ramps just to get to the RTD light rail station just .3 miles away). They knew they had to do something.
Everytime they asked for help from city agencies or spoke about the project they were met with statements like “It’s too late”, or, “We are not able to change anything”. Every city agency pointed fingers to another agency. For more than two years, Amy and Brittany each worked nearly 20 hours a week (on top of their regular jobs, and raising families), to dive deep and detangle the incredibly complicated web that entangled this project. They asked professionals for education on terms and processes around the project that they were completely unfamiliar with. They asked for advice from fellow advocates and those within the city government. They came to the city with solutions and realistic changes instead of only voicing concerns. This proved to be critical and offered a way to be seen as a partner with DOTI instead of the typical angry citizens. However, after two years of non-stop efforts, the project still wasn’t budging. Some of their efforts included:
– Created surveys to gather feedback from the West Wash Park neighborhood regarding the project.
– Presenting a proposal of changes they wanted to make on the project and presenting it to DOTI
– Gained six different letters of support from RNO’s, Council people, and organizations
– Created a petition which gained 800 signatures in only three weeks
– Provided numerous walking tours of the project site to city council and mayoral candidates
– Met and collaborated with CDOT and DOTI to find answers to questions
– Spoke out in numerous public forums including the DOTI advisory Committee
– Helped create several news articles, media reports, and blogs.
Finally, in December of 2022, good news came and their efforts paid off when the CDOT, DOTI and the Federal Highway Administration committed to making some of the changes that the neighborhood had proposed that was outlined in Amy and Brittany’s plan! The result? DOTI and CDOT committed to pursuing the abandonment of the final phase of the project that would tear down the nine homes! They also committed to integrated more multi-modal designs and safety measures to help ensure the safety of our neighbors.
For twenty years, the neighborhood tried to get this project to change at all and for any of their feedback heard, and Amy and Brittany were the ones who finally made it happen. To everyone who knows the project, the fact that any changes are happening at all is extraordinary. The huge safety changes that Amy and Brittany proposed actually affecting the project and saving the homes from demolition? This is a miracle that no one ever thought would happen! For this, they truly deserve a Neighborhood Star award. They have helped save our neighborhood from being a victim of Denver’s car-focused past and helped build a future where we can begin to walk safely down Lincoln Street and Broadway.
In addition to the note above, Brittany Spinner is the co-founder and Vice-President of the Lincoln/Broadway Corridor RNO At the time, Amy Kenreich was the president of WWPNA (West Wash Park Neighborhood Association).
