'Building Community Momentum': Stapleton Neighborhood Moves Forward With Name Change

DENVER (CBS4) - Community leaders say they hope to have a new name finalized for Denver's Stapleton neighborhood by August. That follows a decision by the Stapleton Master Community Association (MCA) to rename the neighborhood on Wednesday.

"I think everything that you see happening here is evidence of a wider movement and a shift in our understanding about the experiences of other people, and perhaps it's just an awakening of empathy that we need to have for each other," said Amanda Allshouse, President of Stapleton United Neighbors (SUN).

Allshouse says the name change is something the neighborhood group had been considering for some time; when area businesses began to remove the Stapleton name, SUN began to make plans.

"We saw different groups in the community changing their names away from using Stapleton in their name, but there wasn't a convergence around an alternative when they were doing that. Some were using the zip code, some were using Northeast Denver, some were using Central Park. Problematically, this community spans two different zip codes and also spans two different municipalities," Allshouse said. "Those approaches on their own don't resolve the underlying issue, so that's the role we sought to take first just sort of building community momentum around an alternative and for that, we were going to use that as a renaming process for ourselves."

Over the weekend Denver School Board Director and community activist, Tay Anderson, demanded Stapleton change its name and threatened to march through the neighborhood if it didn't comply within one week.

"We were never going to plan to do anything that was not peaceful. Peacefully march through the neighborhood to let them know black lives matter because I think a lot of people have gotten comfortable with saying 'that's downtown, I don't have to worry about a protest coming to my neighborhood.'But when it comes to their community, it's a little bit more personal and people want to take action faster," said Anderson.

He said whether it was his tweet that caused the community to take action, the bottom line, change is happening.

"As long as we're ending the summer with a new name of the community, I'm pleased with the way that we're moving forward."

Tuesday night, Allshouse said SUN outlined two processes it will go through before it reaches a final name.

"Everything that we've discussed involves a committee, that's not just members of SUN but also members of different organizations in the community. They'll help us take this large list of names and select a subset for the community to vote on," she said.

The goal for a final name is August 1. A tight deadline, but one she says is feasible with support from the MCA and the city of Denver.

"We haven't committed to that, but I think internally, that's really what we're striving for."

For Anderson, the name change is symbolic and won't stop with Stapleton.

"This is just a small fight. Next is talking about let's start renaming Speer Boulevard and Evans (Avenue). We have to be able to build on this momentum and not let this die," said Anderson.