Things that make you go hmm: City of Brest Park
There are many oddities along Colorado Boulevard. Take, for instance, the proliferation of two-story shopping complexes. Or the many oddly-shaped and/or colored office buildings. Or a store dedicated solely to batteries. These are all strange and I just don’t have explanations . . . YET. But I am here to make you one promise: I WILL get to the bottom of these bizarre mysteries. Starting right now.
Today, we tackle one of these mysteries, which happens to be one of the many city parks in Denver, and one of at least four that front Colorado Boulevard (not even including City Park), thereby placing it squarely within my jurisdiction. Join me as we turn our penetrating gaze to the heart of one of CB’s most tangled stretches - the intersection of Colorado and Cherry Creek Drive South. That, friends, is where you can find City of Brest Park, the subject of this post. Oh, City of Brest - the favorite park of every adolescent boy in Denver.
The oddness is not in the park itself - City of Brest Park is in fact a very nice slice of greenery that breaks up the concrete jungle that is CB. You are close to the Cherry Creek bike path , and the lack of any playground or improvements means that it is never crowded. It’s also a good place to catch the Glendale fireworks show on the 4th. It used to host soccer fields (I myself played many a game there) but now they have filled in the fields with trees that are valiantly trying to grow.
No, the oddness is in the name. I mean, c’mon. BREST. Why are we naming parks after boobs? And entire CITIES of boobs at that? And why is it spelled wrong on top of that? It’s all so very . . . odd. You could say that it makes you go hmmmm. But don’t worry, I have answers! Or at least, I have the answer to this particular question!
This may seem like a non sequitur, but: did you know that Denver has 10 international Sister Cities and three Friendship Cities? Our Sister Cities are Axum, Ethiopia, Brest, France, Chennai, India, Cuernavaca, Mexico, Karmiel, Israel, Kunming, China, Nairobi, Kenya, , Potenza, Italy, Takayama, Japan, and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Our Friendship Cities are Akureyri, Iceland, Ramat HaNegev, Israel, and Panama City, Panama. A Sister City, per Denver Sister City International, is formal affiliation when communities in different nations decide to learn more about one another, and to develop friendly meaningful exchanges. A Friendship City is a city with whom we have a relationship, but not yet a formal relationship. We haven’t had “The Talk,” if you will. We are still dating, maybe seeing other Friendship Cities at the same time. You know, it’s casual. But we have totally been upfront with them regarding the fact that we just aren’t looking for anything serious right now! All jokes aside, though, Sister City International is a cool international non-profit program that frankly deserves more than this short explanation here. But, let’s not kid ourselves, this blog ain’t about lofty goals of international support and friendship. No, it’s about CB, and this post is about the oddly named City of Brest Park that graces its curbs.
So, onward. Brest, France is Denver’s oldest Sister City (and the US’s second oldest Sister City). Again per Denver Sister City International, the relationship was formalized in 1948 after Denver school children, led by an East High School teacher, raised $32,000 in change to help rebuild the war-ravaged city of Brest. The money was allocated for the children’s wing of the Brest hospital, and the gift led to the development of an ongoing Denver-Brest Sister City program.
Now here comes the long-awaited tie in: Denver honors our Sister Cities by dedicating a city park to each one. These include City of Pozenza Park, City of Cuernavaca Park, City of Axum Park, City of Takayama Park (which flanks the North side of Cherry Creek and also fronts Colorado) and, you guessed it, City of Brest Park.
And there you have it, dear readers (all three of you). City of Brest Park is not, after all, a misspelled celebration of breasts. No, it is a commemoration of our oldest Sister City relationship! So pull your filthy mind out of the gutter and treat this park with the respect it so richly deserves.
Until next time, CB 4-Eva!