Groups get permits for DNC protests

DENVER – There was plenty of optimism as employees and applicants went to the Webb Building on Thursday for the lottery.

At stake were permits to hold demonstrations and protests during the Democratic National Convention this August at the Pepsi Center.

Thursday's lottery was actually a continuation of the process. Authorities had to stop two days ago because of a system glitch.

Mark Cohen got there early. He's with Recreate '68 and wanted to make sure everything went smoothly because the group was left out on Tuesday due to a problem with the sorting process.

"We did come early to double check because the last time, the city said they had safeguards in place," said Cohen.

"We did about 18 hours of work with the swat team looking for improvements and trying to pinpoint the mistake, which we found," said Chantal Unfug with the city of Denver. "We're excited about today, we feel that it's going to go smoothly."

In all, the city received more than 800 requests from groups who wanted their claim at some 12 parks around Denver for the DNC.

"We're hoping to get Civic Center Park for all the days that we applied for," said Cohen.

About an hour into the lottery, the process appeared to be working as intended, but it didn't all go Recreate '68's way.

The group wanted to hold all of its demonstrations at Civic Center Park since it has the largest capacity, but the luck of the draw only granted them half of their requests.

"That's the problem with this process is a group brings tens of thousands of people and you have somebody who doesn't have an audience who wants to show there art somewhere and they are getting the same amount of space in the city," said Glenn Spagnuolo, also with Recreate '68.

The city says it is willing to work with applicants who didn't get their first pick.

"This was the first time for us to look at multiple requests for the same parks and figuring out a system that would be fair and transparent and equitable to allow the most opportunity for the most groups to participate," said Unfug.

Recreate '68 says it's been patient and it is going to make a statement, permit or not.

The city estimated that only 50 percent of the dates available would be filled today due to the number of applicants so groups could have a shot at different sites and dates than what they originally requested.