Off Limits

"We had some changeover in staff, and what happened is the staff that took over that area wasn't aware that there was a neighborhood connection," explains Tiffany Moehring, spokeswoman for Parks and Rec (a job once held by Montero). "There was a general maintenance concern, and we had received a couple citizen concerns. It was a xeriscape garden, so it was designed by the neighbors so it wouldn't take a lot of maintenance, but the area did need some attention. After they cleaned it out, we got a call from Ray, and we were extremely apologetic. Had we had known a neighborhood group was involved, we would have managed it very differently."

Defa and company gave the department a list of the massacred plants with the assumption that come spring, everything would be replaced. Then they discovered that the neighborhood's arch-nemesis, Wal-Mart, would be part of the reclamation, since the plot was slated as a National Youth Service Day project and Wal-Mart helps support that effort.

"When I found out one of their co-sponsors was Wal-Mart, we couldn't be a part of it," says Defa. "I told them, 'Don't put a Wal-Mart banner at the site unless you want protesters.'" Citing the connection, Defa and the other gardeners refused to help with the planting.

But Moehring denies that Wal-Mart was ever involved with the northwest Denver project. "That's complete misinformation," she says. "The money they gave to us went to Montbello, and it went to buy paint. Wal-Mart gave us $500. We didn't even highlight Wal-Mart in our promotional materials."

As for the garden project, she adds, its sponsor was Clay Aiken. Yes, that Clay Aiken. The American Idol also-ran has set up a charitable foundation, and it gave local boy Richard Lorie a $2,000 "Able to Serve" award earmarked for Hands on Denver, the volunteer organization within the Parks and Rec department.

So while adults sat out on April 17, a bunch of kids helped replant the community garden. How it will continue to grow is uncertain, though: The city has asked the neighbors to sign a maintenance agreement, but Defa is hesitant to do so.

"We told them we'd revisit it after the garden was mature again, but we're not going to spend another four years getting it to where it was after six years," he says. "It was at a point that a little trash pickup and weed pulling was all it took, but now it will take a lot of maintenance."

Pass or fail: On May 3, the Colorado Board of Education is set to issue CSAP reading results for the state's third-graders -- but administrators of schools where a poor performance could lead to charter designation won't be the only ones nervously waiting to see their marks. So will editorial staffers at the Denver Post, who, starting that same day, will be judged on a regular basis by a stern taskmaster: editor Greg Moore.

In an April 23 e-mail addressed to his colleagues, Moore (who is out of town and unavailable for comment) announced that, in response to requests for feedback, "I plan to inaugurate a quick review of the Post every day...more for conversational purposes, but also as a guide to what I would like to see encouraged as well as rooted out. This is solely my view of our daily efforts." In a parenthetical aside, he added, "I suspect others will have different views, and they may occasionally be right."

Only occasionally? Like the blind pig that finds an acorn once in a great while?

"I hope to do these e-mails every day that I am in town," Moore continued. "I am not looking to start personal debates. People should not get euphoric or despondent based on what I say. I don't want anyone to take any specific criticism personally. Take lessons from it, sure. My intent is to be constructive. But this will be a meaningless exercise unless I am specific."

As for the format of these messages, Moore noted that they "will start out with a grade for the day's paper. Be aware I can be hard about this. Then I will address what I liked and didn't like. This will not be a list based on everything that was in the paper. But it will cover a wide range."

If the Post gets too many F's on Moore's report card, will it become a charter newspaper?