Rocky: City should hold Tent State to all conditions for park permit

Paper attempts backbone injection:

Denver needs to take a firm stand in negotiations with the anti-war group Tent State University.

The student-run organization recently received a conditional assembly permit to bring potentially thousands of protesters to Denver and set up a tent city in a corner of City Park during the Democratic National Convention. But one of their leaders seems less than thoroughly committed to abiding by the terms of the deal.

How many protesters might participate isn't clear. The permit sets aside space to accommodate 20,000, but Tent State organizer Adam Jung says he wants to bring 50,000 here. Such talk may be nothing more than PR, but that's why as negotiations move forward, "conditional" is the term to remember.

The city expects - as it should - the Tent Staters to abide by all 11 conditions set forth by the Parks and Recreation Department in an order it issued June 20.

Among them: No camping. No alcohol. Get the approval of neighborhood associations, the Denver Zoo and the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. Make sure PA systems for music and other performances don't disturb the neighbors. Provide portable toilets, drinking water and trash collection for the site.

In other words, satisfy the same expectations any group hoping to bring a large number of people to occupy a major portion of a Denver park would have to meet.

Good luck with that.