Stapleton, Aug. 29, 2019. (Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite)
Public voting is underway to find Stapleton’s new neighborhood name after the group tasked with finding a new moniker narrowed the list of more than 300 suggestions to nine.
The advisory board cut the list after meeting three times last week, according to information posted on the Stapleton United Neighbors website. SUN is the registered neighborhood association and was chosen by Stapleton’s Master Community Association community delegates, which represent different parts of the neighborhood, to work with the MCA to come up with a new name. Community delegates voted last month to change the neighborhood’s name based on its ties to a former Denver mayor who was a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
Voting for the first round started Monday and will end on Saturday at 2 p.m. The online voting will be rank-choice and allow people to pick three names in order of preference. After this round, SUN President Amanda Allshouse said the group will cut the list to four names.
Once the four finalists are chosen, the public will get a chance to vote on those from July 20 to July 24.
The finalists include historical figures and general directional names:
- Mosley – after John Mosley, a Tuskegee Airman from Denver who attended Manual High School, and his family.
- Meadowlark – after the bird species.
- Concourse – reimagining the word so it suggests “a coming together of people, where paths meet and rebuild”.
- Peterson – after Helen Peterson, a Cheyenne-Lakota activist and lobbyist who worked at the University of Denver.
- Central Park – after the park in the neighborhood.
- Skyview – after the natural beauty surrounding the neighborhood.
- Randolph – after Daddy Bruce Randolph, a Denverite and cook who helped provide free meals for the community.
- Park Central – after Central Park.
- Tailwinds – for “moving forward”.
The group wants to have a new name by August 1. Denver and Aurora residents who own homes or rent in Stapleton will be eligible to vote. (Allshouse said two blocks near the southeast corner of Stapleton that overlap into the City of Aurora, which is why Aurora voters are eligible.)
