Photo: Levitt Pavilion at Ruby Hill Park | By Kyle Harris, Denverite | Standing in her yard, Brandy Moe looks down at Ruby Hill Park, and she couldn’t be happier. People pour in from all over Denver for concerts at the massive four-year-old amphitheater, Levitt Pavilion. An older man, with a walker, ambles through a parking lot that has been shut off to traffic. Parents teach their children to ride their bikes in the empty lot; once they know how, they might join the daredevils zipping around the dirt mountain-bike course in warmer months. Skiers and sledders slide down the massive slope when it snows, kids play at the playground, and green thumbs from Moe’s southwest Denver neighborhood tend the community garden, growing new friendships along with plants.
Things couldn’t be more different than when she moved in just over a decade ago. Back then, she recalls, the park “was a place where people go to be naughty.”
“In the 11 years that I’ve lived right next to the park, it has changed so much,” says Moe, the co-president of the Ruby Hill Neighbors organization. “I remember the first summer I bought that house. Oh my goodness, there were kids just tagging all the trees in the park. And it was mind blowing. But now there are so many different ways to utilize that park in a positive manner, whether it be Levitt or the bike park. The community garden was built within the time I’ve lived here. There’s so many reasons now for people to go to the park for positive use.”
And over the past few years, people from around Denver have shown up in droves.
With all the growth in the park came worries from some neighbors. As a community leader, Moe’s fielded her share of complaints.
Before Levitt Pavilion opened in 2017, many fretted about drunk concertgoers wandering the neighborhood or gobbling up parking spots. Others feared loud music would keep them awake. But the staff at Levitt Pavilion managed to largely ease neighbors’ worries by showing up to community meetings and facing concerns directly.
Read the whole story here:
https://denverite.com/2021/10/07/a-toxic-history-massive-concerts-and-neighborhood-pressure-bring-parking-problems-to-ruby-hill-park/
October 14, 2021| Music-Related Business| Barb Dye