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War erupts over Speer Bo~a~d~!~~ere . · I t~~Y ee~Tho~as c~mp~~~~~· ~~a~ ~o -
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by Sal Ruibal
On a spring day in 1860, the
~::r~:c:~~ g~~~~ersei~:dn~h~~ feud Over
Auraria officials thought had a firm idea of what was gomg to happen along their eastern bC?rder. In 1978, of haggling, a comprormse solution for tbhe area out Aurana etwe~n had been hammered downtown interests and
~fter ye~s
Cherry Creek by J. oining together as one city in a ceremony ff 'al held on the Larimer Street bridge. / Today, 120 years later, a dispute o ~~a/~olution, the brainchild of over the location of traffic along the late William Chafee, then the creek threatens to renew that executive director of Do~ntown feud. Denver, Inc., and Richard The first rumblings began in Oc- Thomas, city engineer, proposed tober 1979, when Donald R. the elevation of the Speer roadi: Seawell, publisher of the Denver ways with a continuous park to be Post, began an effort to reopen created beneath and between the consideration of city development streets. Speer would remain in its plans for the area along Cherry present configuration, with Creek between Larimer Street and pedestrian access below the street Colfax Avenue. An ii:nport~nt level. ¥ aspect of this reconsideration A great deal of the presen~ concalled for the relocation of all troversy centers on the legitrmacy northbound traffic on Speer of what is now known as the Boulevard to the west bank.. Chafee-Thomas compromise. As it happens, Seawell is also Auraria officials claim that the chairman of the board for the current city plan to straighten an • Denver Center for the Performing awkward curve in n?rthb01.~nd Arts (DCPA), the most notab~e Speer at BI.ake Street i~ the frrst tenant on the east bank. There is step in the implementatio~ of the only one property on the west si.de: Chafee-Thomas compromise. The the Auraria Higher Education state legislature has approved their Center. $151,900 request for landscaping The prospect of having ten ~an~s on land that would become conof high-density auto traff~c m crete and asphalt if Speer were . close proximity to the Sciei:ice relocated. not the only thmg Seawell refuses to reco~ize the Building is bothering west side partisans. But
Chaf recent mterview, e Ic i Do~ntown Denver, nc. was forthe accepd th. ey wout they felt opposition te is excep was up to the 16th Street Ma11 , ,,
ce~.~~o a1~~~~::·have
making progress in their talks with (Auraria Board chairman) Dean Punke and they felt that they had something very unpalatable forced on them. They were not at con't. on page 3
MSC• UCD merger n1•xe d ' by· cCff£ $ f Ud y by Steve Raabe
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Metropolitan State College and the University of ColoradoDenver should not be merged, according to the fi~a! study br the Colorado Comrmssion on Higher Education (CCHE). The CCHE submitted the recommendation Jan. 8 to the joint education committees of the Colorado General Assembly. The study was in response to la~t year's House Bill 1498 ordenng . the CCHE to make rec?~en~ations concerning the admm1stratlve and governance structure of the Auraria campus. The commission's report con- . sidered three separate. models of governance for Aurana. Two of these would have merged MSC and UCD _one plan calling for the University of Colorado Board of
Regents to ~~vern the. schools, the other reqmrmg an m~ependent governing board. The t~ir~ model, accepted by the comnussion on a 6-1 vote, called for the rete~tion ~f the three Aurari~ sc~ools m their present form with mdependent governing boards. The CCHE ci~ed the co~solidation of various academic departments between M~C and UCD as a major justification f?r continuing the present Aurar~a structure. The report s~1d cooperatoin betw~~I?- !~e lllstitutions h~d been sigmf1cantly advanced" m the past year and had gone "far beyond what was originally believed possib~e." The commission also called ~ttention to long-range changes m faculty orientation that would be created by merging the schools. cont. on page 19