{"id":51816,"date":"2020-09-01T11:32:29","date_gmt":"2020-09-01T17:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-removes-black-lives-matter-memorial-at-buckley-park\/"},"modified":"2020-09-01T17:32:29","modified_gmt":"2020-09-01T17:32:29","slug":"durango-removes-black-lives-matter-memorial-at-buckley-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-removes-black-lives-matter-memorial-at-buckley-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango removes Black Lives Matter memorial at Buckley Park"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Norman
Norman Elizondo plays congas at the Black Live Matter memorial on Saturday at the corner of Buckley Park on Main Avenue. \u201cI do this using my privilege for a peaceful protest,\u201d said Elizondo, who continues to build up the memorial.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Since May, Black Lives Matter groups in Durango have steadily been adding candles, personal items, social justice signs and flowers to a memorial beside Buckley Park in Durango.<\/p>\n

The city of Durango removed that memorial last week because it was in violation of city code. In response, Black Lives Matter demonstrators quickly erected a new one.<\/p>\n

Kevin Hall, assistant city manager, confirmed that Durango Parks and Recreation and Code Enforcement staff members took down the memorial on Aug. 24. The memorial is partially in the public right of way and partially in Buckley Park, owned by Durango School District 9-R but leased by the city. City Council planned to discuss a variance allowing the new memorial to remain on the sidewalk during its regular council meeting Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a complicated matter, right? The fact that City Council is going to discuss it on Tuesday, in my opinion as one councilor, indicates the importance and the thought we want to give to this,\u201d said Councilor Barbara Noseworthy.<\/p>\n

Ben List, a regular demonstration attendee and Durango resident, said people had placed personal items, like a picture of a man\u2019s deceased father, in the memorial. For him, the memorial had been built with care and love, and it was \u201cheartbreaking\u201d that the city tore it down.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just really shocking. It seemed unnecessary,\u201d he said. \u201cThere weren\u2019t any warnings posted from what I know of.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The
The city of Durango took down the Black Lives Matter memorial at Buckley Park this week, citing city code violations. Hours later, demonstrators had created a new version of the memorial.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

It was unclear Saturday if city staff members were storing the items or had disposed of them.<\/p>\n

During a City Council retreat Friday, staff members asked councilors if they wanted to enforce the code and remove the new memorial or allow it to stay until the November elections, as requested by some community members.<\/p>\n

Others in the community have objected to the memorial\u2019s location, city staff members said. A safety officer with the Durango School District \u201cexpressed some dissatisfaction\u201d with the memorial and increased foot traffic on school property, staff members said.<\/p>\n

Councilors Kim Baxter and Chris Bettin supported the idea of the memorial but raised concern that some parts of the code are enforced more than others. Baxter suggested looking for an alternative legal, inclusive and functional place for it.<\/p>\n

The councilors also discussed establishing a place where any group could legally use its freedom of speech before scheduling further discussion at their meeting Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will continue to come up in our community: How we can allow freedom of expression in a designated place that goes through a process,\u201d said Councilor Melissa Youssef. \u201cIt\u2019s just the idea of creating a structure around expression.\u201d<\/p>\n

smullane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Demonstrators rebuilt it, but it still violates city code<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1175,1020,507,1086,28,4259,4023],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-51816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-civil-rights","tag-durango-city-council","tag-durango-city-officials","tag-durango-school-district-9-r","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter-sign-up","tag-social-issues-general"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51816"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=51816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}