COLORADO
As befits his plain-Jane name, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper is a beige kind of guy, more comfortable in blue jeans than a suit. These days he’s running hard as the Democratic candidate for Colorado governor. After 12 days on the campaign trail in rural western Colorado, he happily reported to Telluride Watch that “sometimes you can go a couple of days without seeing a necktie.” Given his modest tastes, it isn’t surprising that Hickenlooper and his wife would balk at living in a mauve mayoral mansion that boasts 88 television sets, a pink baby grand piano, a tanning bed, a 1,102 square-foot swimming pool, a 12-foot fire pole in the master bedroom, bathrooms sporting photos of scantily clad babes, and, oddly, “mini-condominiums for squirrels.” Of course, the city of Denver didn’t build the house on Shangri-La Drive for its mayor. Dubbed “Cableland,” it was designed for the cable-television magnate Bill Daniels, who died in 1990, and left it — along with a $4 million endowment for upkeep — to the city. Now, reports The New York Times, Hickenlooper wants to sell the mansion to raise scholarship money for needy students who graduate from the city’s public high schools. But although Daniels’ private foundation, the Daniels Fund, supports the sale, city council member Charlie Brown isn’t so sure: “The mayor’s wife hated the house, so what? Maybe another first spouse will like it. I think it’s cool.”
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