Reader: "All people deserve a basic level of human dignity"

I am writing in response to Alan Prendergast's "Party in the Park." I am a longtime resident and homeowner in the La Alma neighborhood. I have a very different feeling about the neighborhood than Jim Schneck, who does not live in the neighborhood. I have played with my four-year-old son at Lincoln Park since the day he was born, and I have developed serious concerns about the growing gentrification that is affecting my neighborhood. For as long as I have lived in the area, homeless people have been part of the neighborhood, and I am very uncomfortable with the idea of driving them out for the purpose of making recently arrived, middle-class white residents more comfortable.

There is a mindset, akin to manifest destiny, in the way that people think that they may move into a place where they have no ties and immediately go about trying to change things. I want my neighborhood to improve, but not at the cost of forcing people out of their homes and persecuting homeless people who find themselves increasingly under attack in a Denver that is trying to sweep them under the rug. All people deserve a basic level of human dignity regardless of who they are, and Denver, through the camping ban, has denied that to them. To run them out of Lincoln Park is adding insult to injury.

The new apartments being built in La Alma are pricing the original residents out of the neighborhood. I do not want to see my neighborhood transformed for the profits of Mr. Schneck at the expense of the homeless and the original residents.
Jesse Sandschaper
Denver

I see what Jim Schneck is saying, but why has he not tried to help the homeless instead of judge them? Maybe help them find a home or even a place where they can drink in peace? He has no problem bitching about what he sees — what has he done to fix the problem? I have been on the streets in a much worse place, but it took one person to help me, to give that word, that hug of help.

Colorado, stop bitching and try helping.
Chris Truesdell
Northglenn

Gretchen Kurtz's description of some of the "lapses in the front of the house" reflects the experiences a friend and I have had at Palettes. The attitudes and refusal to accommodate reasonable guest requests have resulted in my decision to never go to any Kevin Taylor restaurant again. My friend made a simple and reasonable request at Palettes, which was refused by her server. That attitude so much upset her that she simply left without ordering (and will not go there again).

We will walk blocks from the Denver Art Museum to find restaurants where we are treated as valued guests.  There is no excuse for insolent behavior and none for management rules and attitudes that insult guests.
Barbara
Denver