Stapleton Residents Vote To Keep Name Of Their Neighborhood

DENVER (CBS4) - People in the Stapleton neighborhood voted against renaming the community on Monday. It's named after Benjamin Franklin Stapleton, a former mayor of Denver, who had ties to the Ku Klux Klan.

Results show 65% of those eligible to vote want to keep the name.

A group, Rename St*pleton for All, wanted to remove the name to make the community more inclusive.

Members of the Master Community Association, or MCA Stapleton, have been voting on the referendum with included multiple issues related to the potential name change.

Rename St*pleton for All says this vote will not proportionately include communities of color and completely shut out renters. But they still support the effort as step in the right direction.

"We are disappointed and saddened by these results, but we are not especially surprised. The Master Community Association (MCA) initiated and administered this referendum; Rename St*pleton for All did not. In fact, we had asked the MCA to delay sending ballots because we believed that more conversations to promote understanding and community outreach on the issue should have occurred for all residents--renters and owners alike--before members or delegates were asked to vote," the group said in a news release on Monday.

The group vowed to continue its mission and message.