Big Orange blues

Auraria hit hard on Super Sunday, during Broncos parade

By Jesse Stephenson
The Metropolitan

While the Broncos Super Bowl victory left smiles on the faces of orange-and-blue clad students, it took an ugly toll on Auraria.

Hundreds of post-Bowl partiers descended on campus Jan. 25, leaving behind a trail of smashed glass, graffiti and other damaged property. Two days later, hundreds more flocked to Auraria,  leaving nary a parking space as they trekked across campus  to the Broncosâ victory parade.

Auraria Police Chief Joe Ortiz said up to 300 people congregated on the Auraria Fields and elsewhere on campus after Denver police forced crowds down the 16th Street Mall to Larimer Square and, eventually, across Speer. Denver officers used tear gas and

pepper spray to move thousands of people out of LoDo after the Super Bowl.

ãIt was kind of scary seeing three or four hundred people who had been tear gassed and drinking and didnât want to go home,ä Ortiz said.

In anticipation of a wild Super Bowl Sunday, Auraria police beefed up the number of officers patrolling campus, but there were few police among the hundreds of other pedestrians on campus.

Thatâs because the Denver Police Department asked Auraria police to help direct traffic snarling streets near campus. Other campus police were directing cars  out of Auraria parking lots, Ortiz said.

While campus police concentrated on cars, people toppled concrete garbage containers, bent umbrellas on tables near the Tivoli, busted several student union and parking garage windows and etched their initials on the surface of others. In addition to more than 10 broken windows, at least 20 panes ended up scratched or cracked.

ãIt was a mess, a zoo,ä Ortiz said. ãWe were just trying to control the traffic.ä

Auraria police made few arrests, reports from that evening show.

Barb Weiske, director of the student union and campus auxiliaries, said damage to the campus shouldnât exceed $2,000 since most of the repair work, such as straightening out the umbrellas and turning over the trash containers, can be done by campus employees.

In addition to the Sunday night shenanigans, Weiske said Auraria felt Super Bowl aftershocks Jan. 27, the day an estimated 650,000 people congregated downtown for the Broncosâ victory parade. Weiske said Auraria parking lots filled in record time as fans clamored for parking spaces near the parade route.

ãThere was a sea of orange,ä Weiske said. ãThere were many more orange people than us. We were on the roof counting parking spaces and praying a lot.ä
 

Weiske said parking attendants and Auraria police tried to discourage parade-goers from parking here, but their efforts didnât work.

ãWe filled in like five minutes, it was a nightmare,ä Weiske said. ãI couldnât believe how rapidly the lots filled up on us.ä

Knowing that parking would be at a premium that day, students such as Susan Steighner, a Metro sophomore, opted to take the bus to school.

That plan backfired.

Steighner said she waited at the bus stop on Colfax and Downing for more than 20 minutes because the first bus to come by was too packed with Broncos fans.

ãAs far as the buses go, they should have planned for the transportation of more people,ä she said. ãI think itâs great that the city comes together for a victory like this, but they need to understand that some people still have obligations.ä