Denver, Colorado

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Denver is the capital and largest city in Colorado, the seat of Denver Co., located in the north-central part of the state, 12 miles east of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Denver is also the name of the metropolitan area surrounding the city. The Metropolitan area of 4,531 square miles is the 17th largest in the nation; it includes Adams County, Arapahoe County, Boulder County, City and County of Broomfield, City and County of Denver, Douglas County, and Jefferson County

Denver will host the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

Geography

The city itself covers 107 square miles (277 sq km), 5,280 feet (1,610 meters) -- exactly one mile above sea level; it is called the Mile High City. Winding through Denver are the South Platte River and Cherry Creek. The Rockies provide a spectacular backdrop for the city, and they also protect it from high winds.

Denver is a spacious city of parks, tree-lined streets, broad avenues, old buildings, and modern skyscrapers. Its climate is mild and dry, primarily because the Rockies divert moisture-bearing winds away from the area. Formerly known for its clear sky, it was long a destination for people suffering from tuberculosis. Since 1950, however, exhaust fumes from automobiles and trucks has caused serious air pollution. The average temperature in July, the warmest month, is 73°F (23°C.), and the average temperature in January, the coldest month, is 28.5°F. (-2°C.). Annual precipitation is only 15 inches (380 mm), and the city has an average of 250 clear or partly cloudy days a year. The sunshine makes it a very popular tourist destination.

Demography

The metropolitan area had a population of 2,663,000 in 2006 in 1,034,000 households; the median age was 34.4 years. The labor force was 1,442,000, of whom 1,303,000 were employed at an average annual wage of $45,629. The growth rate 1996-2006 was 2.1% per year, with a special attraction for young college graduates who enjoy the moderately expensive, informal, upscale life style, and the outdoor opportunities. The Phoenix metropolitan area is the chief competitor for these migrants.

The city's population was 567,000 in 2006. Minority communities in Denver include a rapidly growing Latino population chiefly of Mexican ancestry

Suburban Aurora, founded in 1891, exploded in population after 1990, reaching 300,000 in 2006, with 102,000 people employed in its 10,400 businesses, and others commuting to jobs in Denver or at the airport.

The first Chinese settlers arrived in 1869; two Chinatowns emerged, one a commercial area, the other a residential ghetto. The Chinese population peaked at 1000 in, then declined to 100 in 1940. In the 1950s urban renewal projects demolished the Chinatowns. A new wave of 15,000 highly educated Chinese arrived after 1965, but they were widely dispersed in the metro area.

Economy

Metro Denver is a major manufacturing center of the western United States. It is also a major market for the ranch products (especially beef) of the surrounding area and a gateway for skiers headed to the nearby Rockies.

Semiconductors is the top export category, growing 70% (statewide) from $763 million in 2005, to $1.3 billion in 2006. Other top exports are Computers and Peripherals ($937 million), and Office Machine Components ($657 million). The state's exports were $8.0 billion in 2006; the largest trading partners were Canada ($1.85 billion), Mexico ($1.02 billion), China ($800 million), Taiwan ($707 million), and Japan ($400 million). Denver is home to 32 foreign consulates. Six are staffed by career diplomats from the countries of Guatemala, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Canada and the United Kingdom. The consulates provide information and service regarding international trade promotion, tourism, and cultural exchange.

Employment growth in Metro Denver has outpaced the nation since January 2005. Metro Denver added 26,000 jobs in 2006 for an estimated gain of 1.9%; growth in 2007 will be about 1.6%. All sectors added jobs in 2006 except for the Information sector, which has struggled with losses for six consecutive years. The largest increases were in Natural Resources, Mining & Construction (+4.6%), Transportation, Warehousing & Utilities (+3.2%), and Professional & Business Services (+3.1%) sectors.

Transportation

Denver was at a disadvantage in the 19th century because the transcontinental routes ran 200 miles north of the city, through Cheyenne, Wyoming, which became the primary way station for wagon trains, stage lines, and rail lines passing through the northern Rockies. Pilots at first preferred Cheyenne, and it won the first round of competition when the US Post Office decided to fly mail through Wyoming in 1920. Denver business leaders never stopped competing, however, and struggled to get a share of the traffic. By the mid-1930s they convinced some passenger airlines to move their operations to Colorado. After World War II, Denver wrested full control of Rocky Mountain air traffic from Cheyenne, making the city's Stapleton airport the major regional hub.

Denver International Airport (DIA) is one of the world's ten busiest facilities and is the hub for United and Frontier airlines. DIA has four north-south runways and two east-west runways. The concourses and Jeppesen Terminal (with its Teflon-coated fiberglass roof) are in the center of the airfield. 95 airlines operated 1175 passenger flights daily in 2006, with 130,000 passengers a day. The airport is operating close to capacity and plans to spend $1 billion through 2013 on its concourses, concession areas, security checkpoints, parking lots and baggage system. There are numerous flights to Mexico and Canada, and three to Europe. 44% of the passengers are making connections in Denver; Los Angeles is the chief point of origin. DIA replaced inner-city Stapleton International Airport (1929-1995). Once open range country, the area near DIA is undergoing rapid construction of homes, hotels and warehouses.

In 2006 the $1.67 billion T-REX project widened Interstates 25 and I-225 and added 19 miles of light rail connecting Metro Denver's two largest employment centers: The Central Business District and the Denver Tech Center.

Downtown

At the center of downtown is the Denver Civic Center, a 40 acre (16-hectare) complex of parks and government buildings. At opposite ends of the Center are the City-County Building and the State Capitol. The Capitol is 272 feet (83 meters) high and has a dome covered with local gold. By the time the capitol was completed in 1900 (at 170% over budget) the building—a difficult-to-maintain hodgepodge of dirt-collecting nooks and crannies, grumblers said—was instantly too small. In the 21st century the debate is whether Colorado's aging yet "most important building" deserves a mere nip and tuck or an extreme makeover. Nearby are the Art Museum, and the Denver Public Library (which contains more than one million volumes, especially famous for its research collection in western history). The United States Mint makes half the nation's coins. Until the 1950s buildings in Denver could not be higher than 12 stories, but since then a number of skyscrapers more than 40 stories tall have been added to the city skyline, including the Arco Tower, Anaconda Tower, Great West Plaza, and the Amoco Building. During the 1970s an extensive urban renewal program was undertaken in downtown Denver, leading to the creation of a three-square block convention center and an elaborate theater complex, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

Medical

Across the western landscape of the United States, health was a natural resource, mined and sold by late-19th- and 20th-century town boosters and physicians to those afflicted with such chronic pulmonary illnesses as tuberculosis and asthma. Denver was especially important as a destination and the city became the largest medical center for the mountain states by 1900. Religious and ethnic groups established the most important hospitals. St. Luke's Hospital was established by the Episcopal Church in 1881; Presbyterian Hospital opened in 1926. Both operated nursing schools . In 1992 St. Luke's merged with Presbyterian Hospital, which subsequently merged with others to form the HealthONE hospital system. The Denver Homeopathic Hospital opened in 1894 to offer alternatives to the medical practices of "allopathic" medicine, the mainstream treatments of the day. Friction arose among the homeopathic physicians, and the hospital closed in 1909. The Swedish National Sanatorium was established in 1905 by the Swedish community, as a national tuberculosis sanatorium. It was reorganized in 1956 and later became the Swedish Medical Center. Seraphine Pisko was first woman to head a major Jewish hospital when she was appointed in 1911 as secretary of Denver's National Jewish Hospital for Consumptives, Pisko skillfully and efficiently managed the institution, while advancing a personalized and nurturing philosophy of charity in contrast to efforts to centralize fund-raising and administration. After World War II the Jewish National Home for Asthmatic Children became the Children's Asthma Research Institute and Hospital. To the dismay of the city of Denver, the University of Colorado Medical School and associated hospitals left the city in 2007, taking 30,000 high-paying jobs, for a huge new campus in Aurora centered on the former Fitzsimons Army Medical Center. It solidified the Denver Metro Area as the premier medical center in a thousand mile radius, but brought into debate the state's sharply reduced budget for medical education and higher education generally.

History

Denver was started during the turbulent Pikes Peak gold rush of 1859-1860, when thousands walked across the plains in search of wealth. Two small settlements, Denver City and Auraria, were consolidated in 1860; the city was named after the governor of Kansas. Population reached 4700 in 1860 and remained the same a decade later. The first city hall was built on stilts in the middle of a stream. Boom and bust characterized the early years, 1859-1870. In 1863 a fire destroyed much of Denver, and the next year a flash flood destroyed the precariously built city hall on stilts.

In 1861 Colorado became a territory, with a governor appointed by President Abraham Lincoln. In 1867 Denver became the capital. The major obstacles to the city's growth were its isolation from the East and the Midwest and the lack of a stable income-producing economy. The Indian wars on the plains and heavy winter snowstorms east of the city were a constant threat to the connections with Kansas and points eastward. In 1863 the telegraph arrived. The coming of the railroads integrated the city further with the rest of the nation. In 1870 the Denver Pacific Railroad north to Cheyenne, Wyoming, linked into the transcontinental Union Pacific Railroad, while the Kansas Pacific Railroad linked across the plains to Kansas City. The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad south to Pueblo opened in 1871, thus making Denver the hub of all mining and ranching areas in Colorado; the population hit 36,000 in 1880.

The city provided lavishly for the lusts of the rich miners visiting the city. There was a range of bawdy houses to fit every pocketbook, from the sumptuous quarters of renowned madams such as Mattie Silks and Jenny Rogers to the most squalid "cribs" located a few blocks farther north along Market Street. Gambling flourished as sharp-eyed bunco artists exploited every chance to separate miners from their hard-earned gold. Edward Chase ran scrupulously honest games in several elegant establishments and regularly entertained many of Denver's most influential leaders. By 1880 Denver's vice district ranked only slightly behind San Francisco's Barbary Coast and New Orleans's Storyville. Most of the city's seamiest attractions were within a few steps of Union Station, but newsstands sold guidebooks that provided additional addresses. Sin was good for business; visitors spent lavishly, then left town. As long as madams conducted their business discreetly, and "crib girls" did not advertise their availability too crudely, authorities took their bribes and looked the other way. Occasional cleanups and cracked downs satisfied the demands for reform.

In legitimate entertainment, music stood high, beginning with the Apollo Hall in 1859. The Denver Theatre, home of the city's first opera performance in 1864, the Tabor Grand Opera House (1881)and the Broadway Theatre (1890-1955) brought in internationally renown performers. Many other theaters were built, most of which did not last very long. Denver churches were also important venues for music performances in the last half of the 19th century.

In the 1880s silver was discovered in the nearby mountains, leading Denver to a new surge of gaudiness and opulence, typified by Tabor's fancy opera house. The silver madness was as economically unstable as the gold rush 20 years before. The 10-story Brown Palace Hotel in 1893, designed by noted local architect Frank Edbrooke. In 1893 financial panic swept the nation, and the silver boom collapsed. By this time, however, the city's economy had a more stable base rooted in the agriculture of the surrounding area. Between 1870 and 1890 the city's population increased from less than 5,000 to over 100,000.

Progressive era

Denver's Myron W. Reed was the leading Christian socialist in the American West in the last two decades of the nineteenth century. He came to the city in 1884 as pastor of the affluent First Congregational Church. Christian socialism, for Reed, meant that the state should manage production and instill cooperation to provide what he called "the comfortable life" for all. He was a leader in the city's Charity Organization Society, even while questioning that organization's efforts to distinguish the "worthy" from the "unworthy" poor. Reed spoke out for the rights of labor unions and was voted out of his pulpit during the bitter 1894 strike at Cripple Creek. He ran for Congress as a Democrat in 1886 and worked for Colorado's Populist party in the 1890s. A former abolitionist Reed spoke out for African American and Native American rights while denouncing Chinese and eastern European immigrants as dependent tools of corporations who were lowering "American" standards of living.

Local boosters created the National Stock Growers Conventions in 1898 and 1899. The National Western Stock Show began in 1907 as an annual event attracting cattlemen from a wide region. The Progressive Era brought an Efficiency Movement, typified in 1902 when the city and Denver County were made coextensive; Denver pioneered the juvenile court movement under Judge Ben Lindsey (1869-1943), a nationally famous reformer. Mayor Robert Speer was a prominent progressive who gave the city world leadership in building parks. Boasting itself the "Queen City of the Plains," Denver hosted the Democratic National Convention in 1908, then waited 100 years for its return.

Women suffrage came early, in 1893, led by married middle class women who organized first for prohibition and then for suffrage, with the goal of upholding republican citizenship for women and purifying society. The Denver Fortnighly Club played a major role. Caroline Nichols Churchill, edited and published the Colorado Antelope, subsequently the Queen Bee, beginning in 1879 and boasted that she and her journal played a crucial role in the passage of the referendum in 1893 that granted the vote to women in Colorado. There was a strained relationship between the radical and eccentric Churchill and the mainstream women, as Churchill was a confrontational and outspoken proponent of the equal rights of minority ethnic groups.

The city doubled between 1900 and 1920, reaching 256,000 population. Growth slowed somewhat, as the total in 1940 was 322,000, with few suburbs as yet.

Up until World War II, Denver's economy was dependent mainly on the processing and shipping of minerals and ranch products, especially beef and lamb. During the war and in the years following, specialized industries were introduced into the city, making it a major manufacturing center. Population expanded rapidly, and many old buildings were torn down to make way for new housing projects. Many of Denver's finest buildings of the frontier era were demolished, such as the Tabor Opera House, as the city has expanded upward and outward and acquired new lands for buildings and parking lots.

Recent politics

Federico Peña (1983-1991) became the city's first Latino mayor in 1983. One of his central campaign messages was a promise of inclusiveness targeted at minorities. His promises of diverse minority appointments represented a stark contrast from prior administration policies.. Latino turnout reached 73% in 1983, a striking contrast to the usually low Latino rates elsewhere. In 1991, at a time the city was 12% Black and 20% Latino, Wellington Webb (1991-2003) won a stunning come-from-behind victory as the city's first black mayor. The Hispanic and Black minority communities supported each other's candidates at the 75-85% levels. Webb, who won 44% of the white vote, systematically reached out to the white business community, promoting downtown economic development and major projects such as the world class new airport, Coors Field, and a new convention center. During his administrations municipal employment, public schools, police accountability, and affordable housing worsened, for Denver's poor and working-class neighborhoods. Businessman John Hickenlooper was elected mayor in 2003 and reelected in 2007 with 87% of the vote.

Sports

In professional football the Denver Broncos have played in six super bowls and won two. Voters in 1998 raised $270 million in taxes to build the $360 million Invesco Field at Mile High, a new football stadium. In 2001 it joined Coors Field, which opened for Major League Baseball's Colorado Rockies in 1995, and the Pepsi Center, which opened as the new home of the NHL Colorado Avalanche and the NBA Denver Nuggets in October 1999. Denver's Lower Downtown district, close to the sports and culture venues, has been attracting new residents and businesses to the downtown area.

The first baseball park was Broadway Grounds, where baseball games were being played by 1862. Some early baseball parks were located in the middle of local horse racing tracks. Broadway Park was the home of Denver's first professional teams for about thirty years, into the 1910's. Merchants Park was built in 1922 as the home of the Denver Bears and of the Denver Post Baseball Tournament. When the Denver Bears team was revived after World War II, a replacement for the aging Merchants Park was needed, and Bears Stadium, later renamed Mile High Stadium, was built in 1948. Coors Field, opened in 1993, is the latest Denver baseball field.

External Links

• City and County of Denver
• World Travel Guide
• Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation

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