The Decentralization of Post–World War II Denver

Abstract

Abstract Planning For Automobility In Denver In 1945, the Denver metropolitan area counted twice as many motor vehicles as in 1930, but the city’s streets were ill equipped to handle the traffic. Parking, which had traditionally been free on all Denver streets, was a particular problem. Mayor Stapleton was voted out of office before he could address the issue, but his successor, Quig Newton, launched three simultaneous initiatives to foster increased automobility. He established a traffic engineering department, built off-street parking facilities, and created the Denver Planning Office (DPO). Newton brought in Henry Barnes from Flint, Michigan, to run this new traffic engineering department. Barnes widened streets, often at the expense of lawns, sidewalks, and many of Mayor Speer’s trees, hailed as civic improvements by previous generations. His efforts continued those of George Cranmer, Mayor Stapleton’s manager of Parks and Improvements, who had considered tree-lined streets a maintenance and streetcleaning hindrance. Under Cranmer’s tenure, streetside trees all over Denver had been cut down. Barnes also made downtown streets one way and installed traffic lights throughout the city (previously, there had been only a handful of traffic lights, managed by the fire department). Soon celebrated nationwide for his work, Barnes became a leader in his field, working next in Baltimore and then in New York City, where he died from a heart attack at the age of sixty-one.