West Side Recorder Volume 6 No 8

              WEST SIDE RECORDER
Volume 6—Number 8
Monthly Newspaper of the West Side, Denver, Colorado
December, 1969
Activities for All Age Groups—
Drop In at RFK Recreation Center
The heart of the recreation program at the RFK Center, 500 Kalamath St., is "drop-in" recreation. Fern Davis,
RFK director, says everyone who lives on the West Side is
invited to stop by the Center whenever they have free time
and want to relax.
Facilities for teen-agers and
adults include two pool tables,
a ping-pong table, weights, a
television set, and a juke box.
There also is a collection of
about 125 paperback books and
there are magazines from the
Denver Public Library.
For younger children there are
games such as Monopoly and
Twister. A craft program has
been started for this age group
by Rita Herrera of Neighborhood Youth Corps (NYC). Sometimes movies are shown on
Thursday or Friday.
The Center is open from 1 to 9
p.m. Monday through Friday
and from 1 to 5 p.m. on Saturday for all West Siders. School
children are not admitted until
3:30 p.m. during the week.
The RKF Center also sponsors
an open gym at Greenlee school
every Tuesday, Thursday, and
Friday from 6 to 9 p.m. for anyone who wants to play basketball.
Groups from the Center went
roller skating five times last fall,
but this program has been dropped temporarily because of lack
of interest. However, Miss Davis
will be glad to start it again if
people want to go skating. This
(Cont. on Page 5)
West BB League
Opens Jan. 5
With 8 Teams
Eight teams of West Side boys
are getting organized to be in
the West High School Basketball
League and will begin competition Monday, Jan. 5.
Team sponsors are First Bethany Lutheran Church, West Side
Action Center, Westside Action
Ministry, Inner City Parish, St.
Joseph's Catholic Church, First
Mennonite Church, RFK Recreation Center, and Centro Cultural. The Police Department may
enter a team but they will not
compete for awards.
Games will be played Mondays
and Wednesdays from 7 to 8 p.m.
at West High School. Practice
already has begun, and a basketball clinic is being held this
month for the team members.
Game officials will be one
West student and one VISTA
worker. Scorekeepers will be
work-study students from West.
The sponsors are providing
coaches and some uniforms.
The league is for West Side
boys who are not member of
school basketball squads.
Complete Officer Turnover
In Improvement Association
There was a complete turnover of officers in the West
Side Improvement Association during its annual election
Dec. 9. Waldo Benavidez of 1110 Mariposa St. is the president succeeding Mrs. Wilma Dabrowski of 1115 Inca St.,
who has served for two years.
The association voted to stop using the staff help provided by Auraria Community Center the last 20 months and
to be on its own. A new position of community coordinator
was proposed. Mrs. Leona Partney of 713 Delaware St. was
asked to accept it, but she declined.
Other officers elected for the     	
coming year are Henry Maestas
of 769 Elati St., vice president;
Father Jack Lang of 240 West
Fourth Ave., secretary; and the
Rev. James Hall of 463 Galapago St., treasurer.
Eight of the association's 11
districts have named directors
for the coming year, and three
directors remain temporarily
until elections are held in their
districts.
Those newly chosen in addition to the new officers are Ruben Leal of 64 Fox St. and Arthur Acevedo of 316 West First
Ave. Others elected recently are
Mrs. Pauline Trujillo of 709 Delaware St. and Irvin Craddock,
Sr., of 1345 Lipan St.
Serving temporarily are Mrs.
Dabrowski, Manuel Garcia and
Alberta Crespin.
Mr. Hall was elected to be one
of the two association representatives on the new Coalition for
the Betterment of the West Side.
The other will be named in the
near future.
The board voted unanimously
to donate $10 a month to the
West Side Recorder, the donation to be reconsidered each
month in line with the association's funds on hand.
A new committee to study the
by-laws was appointed, with Father Lang as chairman. Mrs.
Crespin and Mr. Acevedo were
named publicity chairmen.
CONTRIBUTIONS FOR
THIS ISSUE OF THE
WEST SIDE RECORDER
(BASIC COST, $535)
Colorado Printers  $10
First Bethany
Lutheran Church .... 10
First Mennonite
Church   10
Inner City Parish    10
Metropolitan Council
for Community
Service   10
St. Elizabeth's
Catholic Church   .... 10
St. Joseph's
Catholic Church   .... 10
Wesley United
Methodist Church .. 10
West Side Improvement
Association      10
Under $5:    Matt Charon.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Bill Baker & KR Graphics, Inc.;
Barbara Baker.
Pledges for this issue: First
Avenue Presbyterian
Church       10
St. John's Lutheran
Church   10
10 Groups Unite
New West Side Coalition
To Speak for Community
By Barbara Baker
The newest and most promising organization on the
West Side is the Coalition for Betterment of the West Side,
which will be incorporating soon. It is a combination of 10
groups that have agreed to unite in working on community
needs and programs for the people.
The ten groups in the Coalition at present are the
United Mexican-American Students (UMAS) of Metropolitan
State College, UMAS at the University of Colorado Denver
Center, Centro Cultural, the Committee To Preserve the
West Side, Inner City Parish, West Side Welfare Rights
Organization, West Side Action Council, Skyline Chapter of
the American G.I. Forum, West Side Improvement Association, and Westside Action Ministry.
The Coalition was formed ori-
LAS POSADAS DE
CENTRO CULTURAL
Dec. 21—1256 W. 10th Ave.
Dec. 22—557  Cherokee  St.
Dec. 23—Centro Cultural
935 W. 11th Ave.
8 p.m. each evening
Everyone invited.
Food at 601 Galapago
Mrs. Fred Lucero of 132 W. Archer PL receives a box
of food from Mary Stevens of 330 Acoma St., while Connie
Lucero looks on. The food is free and available to families
with children under six, pregnant mothers and those with
small babies. To get the food you have to have a certificate
from the Neighborhood Health Center or health stations.
New Action Council Organizes;
Names Eleven Additional Members
*}
The West Side Action
Council now has 32 members
and is getting its committees
set up for the coming year.
Officers are Tomas R.
Archuleta of 860 West Third
Ave., chairman; Manuel J.
Martinez of 1369 Navajo St.,
vice chairman; Vera Lucero
of 526 Kalamath St., secretary; and Fred Mestas of
1049 Santa Fe Dr., treasurer.
Training is being provided for
all council members in legal, organizational, operational and fiscal matters.
Manuel Martinez and Carlos
Perez of 1154 Kalamath St. will
represent the council on the Denver Opportunity Board of Directors. Sherewood Clark of 1022
Santa Fe Dr., Sally Martinez of
1369 Navajo St., Beatrice Martinez of 138 West 11th Ave., Paul
Martinez of 357 Delaware St.,
and Lupe Abad of 1031 West
Seventh Ave. will serve on the
West Side Health Board.
Five of the 26 members chosen in September and October by'
appointment (agency representatives) and election have been
challenged and removed or have
resigned. Eleven others have
been named by the council to fill
census tract vacancies or to serve
at large. One more agency person and a public official are yet
to be chosen by the council.
Those named to fill vacancies
are Father Peter E. Garcia of
1156 Ninth St., Tom Martinez
of 138 West 11th Ave., Josephine
Perez of 1154 Kalamath St., Ernest Vigil of 1241 10th St., and
Jean Ramirez from across Speer
Boulevard.
At-large members are Father
Craig Hart of the American
Friends Service Committee, Larry Lovato of 939 Navajo St.,
Gilbert and Carol Quintana of
1251 Lipan St., Lee Tafoya of
Operation SER, and Leo Valdez
of the Concentrated Employment Program (CEP).
John Doyle of Baker Junior
High School and Don Schierling
of the Westside Action Ministry
are the two agency representatives on the council.
Other members of the council,
elected in October, are Amelia
Alvarado of 1151 Galapago St..
Man' Benevidez of 1464 Navajo
St., Alberta Crespin of 1467 Navajo St., Wilma Dabrowski of
1115 Inca St., Mark Jaramillo of
239 Bannock St., Alfonso Mar-
quez of 833 Elati St., Vidilia Medrano of 1448 Navajo St.. Karen
Vigil of 1241 10th St.. and Leonard  Vigil   Of  1318 NV ajn  St.
ginally by groups that had opposed putting a higher education complex on the Auraria
site because of the threat it made
to the residential nature of the
West Side.
In the last month the Coalition has expanded its membership. It also has shifted from opposing something to becoming
a cooperative and constructive
force in community life.
The members have drawn up
a list of 30 demands they feel
are necessary for preserving and
bettering the Mexican community and the West Side. The most
important are the following:
• The Coalition will be the
primary bargaining and coordinating agent in all development affecting the West Side.
• Any expansion of the Auraria college facUity will be
to the north of the Auraria
site.
• If student and faculty
housing is built, it will be
north   of  the  Auraria  site.
• There wiU be no further
consideration of the West Side
as a possible site for some of
the housing accommodations
for visitors if the 1976 Olympics are held in Colorado.
• Financial and technical
assistance will be provided the
Coalition for the development
of rent-subsidy and coopera*-
five housing in locations
throughout the West Side.
• A comprehensive planning study of West Denver by
an independent consultant selected by the Coalition wUl be
funded immediately.
• Recreation facilities on
the West Side will be expanded.
• Support will be given to
re-zoning the West Side in order to meet the needs of a res-
sidential  community.
The first demand—that the
Coalition will be the primary
bargaining and coordinating a-
gent in all development affecting the West Side is very important.
It means that any groups
wanting to make changes on the
West Side must first consult
with the Coalition for its approval and aid in planning. This way
there can be no projects planned for the neighborhood without
the people having a say in what
is going to be done.
This demand has been agreed
to by Robert Giltner, director of
the Denver Planning Office, and
J. Robert Cameron, director of
the Denver Urban Renewal Authority   (DURA».
It also has been well received
bv Dr. Frank Abbott and Larry
Hamilton of the Colorado Commission on Higher Education;
Ed Lashman. former federal
housing authority and member
of Citizens' Committee for Aura*
ria: Lee Johnson of the Founda*
(font,  on  Paere  !5)