CAL2005: Friday Keynote

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper

• He was raised by a single mother who grew up during the Depression and was a life-long reader.
• They went to the local public library every week as a child.
• “My mother read trash. Mystery after mystery after mystery”
• She’d look at the card in the back of the book to see if she’d checked it out before
• Never owned a book due to her frugality from the depression
• Joyce Meskis, owner of the Tattered Cover, let him in on the first day of her new employee training course
• “The more books in people’s hands, the better the world is” – Joyce Meskis
• Libraries help fulfill that vision
• Libraries are a foundation that keep us from sinking down
• Never expected to run for mayor
• Was “goaded into it”
• Decided never to do a negative ad
• People thought he was crazy
• The quirky adds got attention
• Did a lot of “library-like” research
• Poll: jumped from 4% to 33%
• Wife: “You never told me you were going to win”
• Never imagined himself in the mayor’s office
• Hired many people who knew how to run the large bureaucracies
• Did an ad for “Referendum C” jumping out of an airplane
• Said no when it was first suggested
• Wanted to dramatize an economy in “free fall” if it didn’t pass
• Finally said yes
• Will never do it again
• Shared the story of the filming
• Shadows across his face on the first take
• Didn’t want to do it again
• Ok, finally agreed to do it again
• They’d already paid for two jumps without telling him in advance
• Ref C will benefit every library in the state and on educating our kids
• People around the country can’t believe what we’ve accomplished in Denver when it comes to agreeing on important issues.
• “Collaboration”
• “Libraries were something that I grew up with”
• He and his wife were co-chairs of the Booklovers Ball
• Hosted at the library
• On every floor
• Kudos to Rich Ashton, retiring Denver PL librarian
• First DPL librarian: the library is “the center of public happiness”
• You never really know who will use the library at any moment and what will become of that
• When he had decided to open his brewpub many years ago he used the library to find a book on how to write a business plan
• If he hadn’t had that book they would have been able to convince themselves or others to take him seriously and get to where he is today.