The long goodbye: Westword editor Patricia Calhoun enters the next era

Yesterday, I climbed the staircase at the Denver City & Council Building to the just-renovated Denver City Council chambers on the fourth floor. When I first made this trek (a lot more nimbly), Bill McNichols occupied the Mayor’s Office and city council consisted mostly of good old boys, who’d enjoy schmoozing over cigars and Scotch after meetings. Today, the council looks much more like Denver — the majority of the members are women, many of them Latina, who’re progressive as heck and enjoy chatting with constituents after meetings.

There are even two journalists on council, Paul Kashmann (RIP, Washington Park Profile) and Kevin Flynn (RIP, Rocky Mountain News). Flynn had called me after he learned that I was retiring on July 1 as editor-in-chief of Westword, the paper I co-founded in 1977, and said that he wanted to present a proclamation honoring my 49 years at Westword. Flynn has called me before: The first time, he was a Rocky reporter who wanted to know if I was the same Patricia Calhoun whose name appeared on the city’s notorious boot list, as a parking scofflaw eligible to be booted. Guilty as charged: In the early days of Westword, I spent a lot more time in City Hall fighting parking tickets acquired in the course of doing business than I did interviewing officials. Also paying off those tickets after I’d been visited by the Denver boot, one of this city’s most infamous inventions.

This time, I walked over from the Westword office to hear the promised proclamation, and to think about all the people who’ve climbed those steps as they worked to make this city a better place, whether as a public official…or as a journalist pestering public officials. (Or as both, like the late Sandy Widener, a co-founder of Westword — along with Rob Simon — who went on to become a press secretary for Mayor Federico Pena and a great citizen of this city who, along with husband John Parr, is remembered with the Parr-Widener Community Room, where council often meets.)

My work as a pesterer isn’t done; as editor emeritus, I’m “returning to ‘causing a little trouble” and writing those stories she’s had simmering,” the proclamation promises, “leaving the operational issues in the hands of a capable team.”

And what a team. You’ve met them all in our print pages, on our website, in newsletters and on social media: staff writers Hannah Metzger and Sage Kelley, as well as a host of longtime contributors; Food Editor Antony Bruno; Music Editor Emily Ferguson; Culture Editor Kristen Fiore; Social Media Editor Katrina Leibee (once a Westword college intern), and Thomas Mitchell, who started here over a decade ago as our marijuana intern and will now become Senior Editor, News. They’ll be working with Audience Strategist Lauren Antonoff Hart, with the newsroom overseen by Voice Media Group National Editor Sam Eifling and Executive Editor Chelsey Dequaine-Jerabek.

And then there’s Publisher Scott Tobias, who started out at Westword as a salesman, and Associate Publisher Tracy Kontrelos, Production Manager Michael Wilson, Receptionist Cindy Perez, and everyone else who’s had a hand in making “Westword more than an alternative newspaper,” as the proclamation notes, “but rather an institution that matters to the people of Denver.”

That matters enough that more than a thousand people have stepped up to become members of Westword. We’ve always believed that access to information should be free, but independent journalism doesn’t come cheap. So, as the media landscape changes and print advertising dwindles, our membership program is more important than ever, raising money to bolster our newsroom.

Before voting on the proclamation, many councilmembers acknowledged the work of that newsroom. Council President Amanda Sandoval remembered when I’d interviewed her father, an institution on the Northside. Councilmember Darrell Watson busted me for meeting with secret sources at La Fiesta. Councilmembers Chris Hinds and Diana Romero Campbell joined in the embarrassing revelations. One councilmember, who didn’t appreciate a recent Westword story, was conspicuous in her absence when it came time to vote on the proclamation. But then, as I said to the appreciation of the packed house (there for a public hearing on sentencing, not for me), Westword’s goal has always been to cover what’s good about the city — and uncover what is not.

That’s the independent journalism that our membership program supports, and we’ll be thanking those members, along with our readers and so many others who’ve supported Westword through the years, at a gathering at the end of September that will kick off our 50th anniversary year. Watch for details — and in the meantime, if you’re not already a member, I urge you to become one.

By the way, although I’m certain my car will be immobilized many more times before I’m done, I haven’t been booted from this publication. As editor emeritus, I’ll be penning trouble-making columns and, in September, starting a 50-part series looking at the last 50 years in Denver, following some of our most significant stories through to the present day.

Yes, there will be many more stories to come. But for now, just a few last words as Westword editor:

Thanks. It’s been an honor.