The city's effort to rename parks that have possibly problematic names has been halted.
Heidi Rodriguez, a spokesperson with the Denver Agency for Human Rights and Community Partnerships, said the Renaming Denver Parks project has been paused as the city reevaluates the process.
Led by the HRCP, the project sought to identify city-owned properties or monuments with names that had "complex histories related to any racial groups or ideologies." The idea for the project came about after the 2020 murder of George Floyd by law enforcement and the social unrest and demand for justice that stemmed from the incident.
HRCP put together a renaming committee to focus on park names and, in total, 20 parks were initially identified. Through required additional research and vetting, six parks were ultimately chosen: Jefferson Park, La Alma-Lincoln Park, Jefferson Square Park in the Southmoor Park neighborhood, S.R. DeBoer Park in the University neighborhood, Pasquinel's Landing in the Overland neighborhood and Grant Frontier Park in the College View-South Platte neighborhood.
HRCP planned to host several community meetings for each park so that community members could weigh in on the decision.
Rodriguez previously said that depending on how community members felt, the parks may not be renamed, they could be reframed or left entirely alone, but one of the goals of the project was to educate residents.
So far one meeting was held for S.R. DeBoer Park. Rodriguez said initial feedback from the community "indicated a desire to retain the current name, therefore no additional steps will be pursued regarding this park's name at this time."
Meetings for Jefferson Park and La Alma-Lincoln were next on the list, but those have been canceled.
Rodriguez said the agency intends to "reevaluate resources" that would "allow for a fair and equitable community engagement process."
