Denver, Colorado - Future Host of the Democratic National Convention and the Queen City

Dear visitor, transplant, tourist, explorer, conventioneer, protester, mountaineer, insider, outlaw, sun people, snow people, and regular people too,

Welcome to Denver. On behalf of the Queen City, I extend hearty greetings and a heartfelt desire that your stay will be beautiful and pleasant. Whether you are here for just a short time, enjoying Denver's exquisite parks, summer festivals, or perhaps the Democratic Convention, I would like to offer you some advice about spending time in my city. I speak for Denver. I don't mean that I speak for the people of Denver, who are a culturally diverse and complex tapestry of human beings with their own viewpoints, opinions, and expertise. I speak for the spirit of Denver, and I have something to say.

First, let me explain why I am qualified to be this voice. My great grandfather brought his young daughter from tiny Del Norte, Colorado to Denver in the early 20^th century. He was a District Attorney and my grandmother went to Catholic school here, learning how to smoke cigarettes and play Bridge. Later, she attended nursing school at Mercy Medical Center, which is now a slightly garish, too-tall collection of pricey lofts overlooking City Park. My grandmother met my grandfather in the military while stationed in Texas during WWII. He suffered from ulcers and she was his nurse. She kidnapped him out of his hospital bed one evening to take him for a drive and they were together almost 50 years. After the War, when it was time to build a family, they settled in Denver in a quaint Denver square, instead of New York, where my grandfather was from. They had 2 boys. My father grew up in the house next door to the house I grew up in. It is also a quaint Denver square, and my mother still lives there.

My mom is a New Yorker, lured to Denver with the promise of adventure and opportunity in her wanderlust youth. She is a microbiologist by training, who spent nearly 20 years working in Denver's Hospitals. She started at University Hospital on Colorado Boulevard, soon to be torn down, and then served at Children's Hospital Downtown for the majority of her career. That building is vanishing too.