DENVER - A resident of Denver's Globeville neighborhood recently started a petition to turn a vacant lot owned by the Colorado Department of Transportation into a public park.
For nearly 30 years, Joseph Herrera said the property at 4601 Washington Street has not been maintained.
“This is a whole block, this isn’t a narrow property, this is a big property,” Herrera said
Herrera’s backyard backs up to the property, and he said the lot is becoming dangerous
“Broken glass, a lot of garbage, a lot of potholes.” Herrera said. “Especially at night, there’s no lighting so people just come and dump their garbage here.”
Herrera and his neighbors have been cleaning up the trash. But after finding out the land belongs to CDOT, Herrera started a petition asking the agency to turn the lot into something the community can use.
“We would like to see a public park with trees and grass to help filter out the smoke and to fix it,” Herrera said.
The petition only has a few signatures so far.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have Facebook, and I’m not on social media, but people are already starting to share and starting to realize this needs to be fix,” Herrera said. “Our taxes just went up, we are low-income community. We approved $1.2 billion down the street, and look we are being ignored. They are building a park down the street over the highway but we are being ignored.”
Herrera said he is also reaching out to Denver City Council members to ask for support for the creation of a park.
