Councilwoman Kendra Black has been advocating for Denver’s District 4 long before she ran for City Council. A southeast Denver resident her whole life, Black has spent three decades fighting for the area’s schools, students, neighborhoods and parks.

Now, after being elected in 2015, Black has elevated her community service, chairing two council committees, serving on the Denver Park Trust Board, Colorado Municipal League Executive Board, High Line Canal Conservancy, Regional Air Quality Council, Denver South TMA Board, Transportation Solutions Board and much, much more.

Black uses her position and passion to keep Denver moving forward, while not allowing District 4 to be left behind.

Halfway through her second term, Black sat down with The Denver Gazette to discuss her accomplishments and plans for District 4 – comprised of the Hampden, Hampden South, Wellshire, University Hills, Goldsmith, Southmoor Park and Kennedy neighborhoods.

What made you want to become your district’s city council representative?

I ran for city council because I really wanted to advocate for this part of town. It’s not a super sexy part of town, but it’s a great part of town and I felt like it wasn’t getting the attention it deserved.

It’s not something that I planned on. It was really inspired by the early 2000s when Denver started to change from a medium-sized, ordinary city to all of a sudden growing. Exciting things were happening, I was seeing a lot of changes and I was seeing what was happening and not happening down here in southeast Denver. I just wanted to think of a way that I could get involved and make a difference.

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My district didn’t change for a long time. It was still very car-oriented, we have very suburban style neighborhoods and, with people aging and younger people getting married and having kids, we’re seeing a turnover in the kind of people living down here. The younger people would like to see things different around here, they don’t just want drive-thru restaurants and strip malls. They want to be able to walk places, they want beer gardens and locally-owned restaurants, so my top issues when I first ran were around mobility.

How has your experience as a council member been so far?

I’ve learned a lot about how cities run. I’ve met so many wonderful people that work for the city and county of Denver who care deeply about our city. I’ve met some of the smartest people you’ll ever meet in your life and they work for our city. And they work for our city because they want it to be the best city it can be for all the people who live here. That has been really great to see.

I think being on the city council is like going to grad school and getting five master’s degrees at the same time. You have so much you have to learn and you have to learn about different topics. In order for us to make policy and to vote on things, you really have to understand it. It’s a lot of work, takes a lot of brain power and I’ve really enjoyed everything that I’ve learned.

As a council person, a low moment that comes to mind is the murder of George Floyd and how peaceful protests turned violent and destructive, and how some of the law enforcement responses were inappropriate and unacceptable. Of course, those events have transformed our nation and I am hopeful there will be long-lasting changes making us a more welcoming, equitable and inclusive society. I’m also hopeful about some small things we can do down here in southeast Denver.

Last June, residents in my district planned a BLM Solidarity Walk. Thousands of people gathered in Southmoor Park and walked to Rosamond Park where organizers said a few words and then we all knelt and observed 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence. It was incredibly moving. That was a high point — to see that thousands of southeast Denver residents participated in solidarity with BLM. That is what inspired us to create our Race and Social Justice Work Group, to maintain this momentum and ensure that residents are informed, engaged, welcoming, inclusive and aware.

As a council member, what are your priorities for the future?

We have a number of light rail stations around here but it’s really very car-oriented. This part of town was not made for walking and biking, it was really made for cars. So, one of my priorities is to make it more pleasant and safe for pedestrians and cyclists to get around and to get people to use transit. I’ve done a ton of work around mobility and particularly safety issues.

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In my district on Quincey and Syracuse, there are two Denver Housing Authority developments, one is for families and one is for seniors and people with disabilities. I have been trying for years to get a signal and a crosswalk for them. The people who live there need to be able to cross the street safely to get to parks, to get to schools, to get to transit.

In addition to mobility, my other district priority is parks and trails. We have a lot of nice parks down here and the High Line Canal Trail, which is something really important to the people who live here. I’m very involved with getting improvements down that trail. In a month or two, we’re going to see the opening of two tunnels going under Colorado Boulevard and Hampden, connecting the Denver part of the canal to Cherry Hills. And I’m working on other improvements including safer crossing at other intersections and a storm water pilot project.

One of the things I’m most proud of is, a couple years ago, the city purchased a small property in the University Hills North neighborhood that’s going to be a two-acre park. That neighborhood is super dense with development and there’s no parks. It will take a few years before the park is built but I’m super excited about that for our community. I also co-founded a nonprofit called the Denver Park Trust, which is supporting Denver Parks and Recreation and raising money for land acquisition for new parks and capital projects for parks in Denver.

City-wide, I’m working on sustainability issues. I was the sponsor of the bring your own bag ordinance that we’re going to be kicking off in July. I also have a bill that I’m bringing forward in a few weeks that will require restaurants and third-party delivery companies to ask if customers want cutlery, straws and condiments, rather than automatically providing them. As a city, we’re working on other efforts to reduce waste. We’ll be hearing more about that later this year.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.