In 1991, Alan Brown, Jim Chrisman, Tom Gougeon and Beth Conover (and others) met at the Stapleton Redevelopment Foundation office (in the Equitable Building, downtown Denver) to begin compiling the ideas and strategies needed to transform the Stapleton International Airport property into a sustainable and diverse residential neighborhood. None of them really had experience in turning an old airport into a thriving new neighborhood, but it gave all of them the freedom to dream really big. In 1995, their collective vision was published as the Stapleton Development Plan - more commonly known as The Green Book.

In 2011, Robin Chotzinoff started to record the oral histories of the many characters who were involved with the Stapleton redevelopment process. With painstaking skill and effort, Chotzinoff was able to extract interesting anecdotes and pithy asides, and then reassemble the quotes in chronological order to create her own book, Stapleton: An Oral History. In 2012, Chotzinoff asked me (a regionally infamous former cartoonist) to design the book. My complete lack of experience in book design for an urban renewal project seemed oddly similar to the the naiveté of the original drafters of the "Green Book," and therefore made me perfect for the job.

Robin Chotzinoff and I completed Stapleton: An Oral History in March of 2015, exactly twenty years to the date of the original Green Book.

Stapleton: An Oral History has been published and is now available for purchase from the Stapleton Foundation. For sales, please contact Leslie Joseph at:

Ljoseph@stapletonfoundation