Posted on 12/21/2006 8:31:19 AM PST by freedomdefender
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper is in his office, dialing talk radio stations for interviews and defending the work of the city's snowplow fleet during Wednesday's blizzard.
He's about to head out for another trip around the city to check out the road conditions himself, but first he wants to see if someone can donate some sleds. Fast.
Hickenlooper wants to sponsor sledding at four parks around the city Thursday, serving hot chocolate and offering sleds to anyone who doesn't have them.
Wednesday's blizzard stranded thousands of travelers on highways and at the airport, virtually shut down government, businesses and shopping five days before Christmas and had the National Guard patrolling suburban highways in Humvees rescuing stranded motorists.
But the mayor doesn't want people to see the storm just as catastrophe. He's hoping that stories of people having fun in the snow will spread around the city.
Hickenlooper asks a staffer to contact the CEO of a large retailer he thinks might be willing to donate sleds. Then he dons a baseball hat and a wool dress coat over his suit before heading downstairs to his hybrid SUV.
"We should find where there's a silver lining," says Hickenlooper, an offbeat Democrat who got his start in public life as a brew-pub entrepreneur.
Denver political legend has it that at least one mayor -- Bill McNichols -- was booted from office for his slow response to a Christmas Eve blizzard in 1982. A successor, Mayor Wellington Webb, was blasted for failing to keep the airport roads clear in an 1997 snowstorm.
But Hickenlooper doesn't appear worried the sled strategy will backfire. The city's snowplows are going full-tilt, he says.
"We can't do any more than what we're doing on the streets. But for a few hundred dollars, not a lot of resources, I think we can let people have a chuckle," he says.
Hickenlooper has built his brief political partly on chuckles.
In his first try for public office in 2003, he made his mark with TV ads making light of the city's unpopularly high parking meter fees. Later, backing a bipartisan ballot initiative on the state budget, he appeared in an ad skydiving in a business suit.
Out on the streets Wednesday night, it's a little more serious. The mayor's Ford Escape slides a little trying to stop at some red lights. Main thoroughfares like Speer and Federal boulevards are still snowpacked but passable in four-wheel drive vehicles.
Then the mayor spots two teenage boys at the top of a steep hill. One is sledding and the other is riding a snowboard and he tells his driver to stop.
Hickenlooper gets out and talks to the boys about the conditions. Then he suggests they make some money by shoveling but he runs into more skepticism.
"When it stops snowing," one of the boys quips.
"It will stop snowing," the mayor said before heading back to his SUV.
The city's residential streets are in worse shape but Hickenlooper says the city can't get to them until the main streets are cleared, something he conceded probably wouldn't happen until Thursday, when the storm is forecast to slacken.
He vows to do what it takes, even if it means millions of dollars in overtime, to clear the streets on Thursday and Friday so businesses dependent on holiday shoppers can get back to normal.
"We have to make sure that the impact on small businesses is minimized," he said.
At a news conference later announcing the sled event, Hickenlooper defends the snow-clearing effort.
"We could have three times the number of snow plows and it wouldn't make any difference," he says. "This is nature throwing a full left hook to your chin and you've got to pull back and deal with it."
Now you have the opportunity to enjoy the same kind of service that other major metropolitian cities run by liberal pols.
The Kansas City (Missouri, that is) side of the metro, their last few mayors wait for a warm up to clear their streets.
It has been quite a blizzard. My car is completely caked with snow and I can barely trace its outline...LOL. Got quite a bit of cleaning to do tomorrow.
Everything is shut and I know people who are stranded in their offices (since yesterday).
"Oooops... This is Denver, not LA."
Same percantage of native Californians in both cities. In LA, they are just from another country.
We just kept driving East until we thought most CA's wouldn't follow. They're coming anyways to Indiana.
Yeah, that's what they said at the beginning of the last Ice Age. They were right, it did stop snowing after 10,000 years.
Well, they are from somewhere other than here. Every Coloradan I know who has been here for a while knows enough to have a 4WD SUV that they can use in weather like this, or not try to drive at all - and that cuts clear across the economic strata. Even store clerks don't try to drive to work in little sedans.
No mail service here today, either. Still snowing slightly, but traffic is moving now.
Oh...sure, he is a DEM Mayor, he can get away with blaming the weather.
But, Pres. Bush is TOTALLY responsible for all damage, and inconvenience due to Katrina...
NOW I understand.
Maybe Pres. Bush should have told all of the kids in Louisiana to bring their toy boats down to New Orleans for races!!!
Hickenlooper wants to sponsor sledding at four parks around the city Thursday, serving hot chocolate and offering sleds to anyone who doesn't have them.
When life gives you lemons, make hot chocolate.
Come on, its diversity Denver style.
LOL..I wonder if we will RastaMan pulling a sled full of beer!!
PING,!!!
I grew up in Boulder...and I learned to drive in the snow...I lived outside of the city limits on Baseline Road...I never once depended on a snow plow to clear the road...and I never once missed a day of school because of snow...
Things sure have changed...
Yeah, those trees.
They ran over all the 4 legged wildlife in Denver years ago.
Now, as to the two legged wildlife...
Live internet coverage:
LOL!
Internet feed shows snow still coming down hard.
John should go back to his brewpub.
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