Colorado's most prominent place with a name connected to a racist past is probably Stapleton -- a growing neighborhood of Denver
Its namesake is former Denver mayor Benjamin Stapleton who had connections to the KKK.
Aaron Johnson brought up the issue at a community meeting Tuesday night.
Almost everyone in the room knew about the history behind the name and agreed it’s painful.
Despite that, all didn’t agree changing the name is the right choice.
“Some people may say that’s history. The past is the past. We can’t change the past but we can very easily change name. You as the residents of Stapleton can change the name and it’s time we change that name,” said Johnson, adding he will call it a “KKKpleton” until another name is decided on.
That struck a nerve.
The president of the Stapleton United Neighbors, a neighborhood association, was in tears, saying especially after the violence in Charlottesville, the name was offense and didn’t represent her community.
A councilman also gave his perspective saying he doesn’t associate the name with the former mayor.
“As you think about this community, I believe it’s one where we embrace all people. We have transitioning homeless, we have a huge LGBTQ community; we have a huge Jewish community here,” said Councilman Christopher Herndon.
The councilman also said he’s not aware of any formal process to change a neighborhoods name but if that’s something the community wants will take more looking into.
