Denver's walking mayor - Wellington E. Webb

Ebony, Dec, 1993 by Lynn Norment

At 9 a.m. on a crisp Monday morning, after eating pancakes with West Denver residents, Mayor Wellington E. Webb walks through the Tennyson business district, greeting the predominately Hispanic and Italian residents, shaking hands, accepting praise and listening to problems with the same down-to-earth demeanor the endeared him to Denver residents during the grueling 1991 mayoral race. Now, as during the campaign, he wears his trademark athletic shoes as he visits high schools, recreational centers and neighborhood businesses.

On todayhs walking agenda are a City Council briefing at Stapleton Airport, lunch with West Denver residents, a press conference on the budget at Woodbury Library, and then greeting senoir bowlers at a neighborhood bowling alley. This evening, he and wife Wilma head to Mile High Stadium where The Denver Broncos football team takes on th Los Angeles Raiders.

Two and a half years after he literally walked his way into the mayor's office, Webb, 52. is still demonstrating that tenacity, shoe leather and earthy style are more important to constituents than glitz and glamor. Three weeks before the 1991 mayoral primary, the former city auditor and state legislator was a distant third in the pools, having climbed to 15 percent from 7 percent. With little time and even fewer campaign dollars, he started walking the neighborhoods of the Mile High City. Over 39 consecutive days he walked more than 300 mile and lost 25 ponuds, not once going home or getting into a car. He had his wife spent the nights with neighorhood residents, sometines sleeping in housing projects or homeless shelters.

With old-fashioned legwork, Webb trampled former district attorney Norm Barly in the runoff election by winning with 57 percent of the vote.

It was a significant victory for a man who had been ridiculed by the media, so-called friends and former political allies for staying in a race the said he couldn't win. But equally as remarkable, Webb forced a runoff between two Black candidates in an overwhelmingly White city. Only 12 percent of Denver's 500,000 residents are Black.

On election night, a weary but jubilant Wellington Webb vowed to walk 21 days each year. "Walking allows me to have constant contact with my base, the people," he says while walking and shaking hands on downtown's 16th Street Mall. "I don't excercise or play much basketball these days, but I do more walking than most people. That's my style of governing. It allows me to get out of the office and deal with people in the streets and communities and neighborhoods. And whatever is on people's minds, they bring it to me. Walking keeps me in touch with people."

But he has found the pace even quicker and the critism more vicious as chief executive of the picturesque Rocky Mountain city. Webb has wrestled with some significant sucesses. In 1992, Denver was ranked No.2 for "sound fiscal management and health" by City and State Magazine, and in 1993 the mayor announced that an eight-year, $30 million-plus deficit at Denver General Hospital had been erased.

Webb has earned a reputation for championing the atrs and the rights of minorities, women and the "average man," for revitalizing downtown Denver and enhancing the quality of life overall, and for effectively tackling tough issues. And he's noted for "doing things right." For example:

** Last August, the mayor hosted Pope John Paul II, President Bill Clinton and the 500,000 people who descended on Denver for the Roman Catholic Church's World Youth Day.

** The Colorado Rockies baseball team had an astounding 1993 debut season with attendance soaring to more than 4.5 million. The Rockies' new home, Coors Field, is one of several major projects now under construction.

** In the fall Denver hosted the largest air show in North America. More than 350,000 people attended.

** The major established the Denver Art, Culture and Film Commission, which has completed 15 public art projects and has another 26 under way. First lady Wilma Webb has served as chair and remains a member.

** Most significantly, the city is putting finishing touches on the $3 billion state-of-the-art Denver International Airport that is touted as the largest airport in the world. Construction on the controversial project was started in 1989 under former major Fredico Pena, who is now U.S. secretary of transportation. "He's the original architect; I'm the engineer, contractor and builder," says Webb, who after intense negotations signed United Airlines to a 30-year lease and Continential Airlines to a 20-year lease.

Throughout all of this, Majo Webb has weathered considerable criticism from the local media due to an increase in violent crime in the city, the airport project and the prominent role of Mrs. Webb, who was a respected member of the State Assembly for more than 12 years. For the first time, the city not only has a Black mayor, but also an active first lady, one whoi is influential and popular in her own right.

In addition, Colorado has been the focus of bitter controversy since November 1992, when voters passed constitutional Amendments 2, which would erase gay anti-discrimination laws in Denver, Boulder and Aspen, and prevent the passage of local ordinances to protect gays from discrimination. While the bill awaits its fate in court, Webb continues to emphasize that Denver, with its more sophisticated citizenry, voted against the amendment. Nevertheless, the city has lost more than $30 million in convention revenues due to boycotts of the state.