New sister city: Baghdad

DENVER –When the White House announced this week that Denver’s new sister city was Baghdad, bus driver Michael Duran wondered whether he’d end up with an Iraqi pen pal.

His buddy, Gerardo de Herrera, wondered whether Baghdad would celebrate Cinco de Mayo, one of Denver’s biggest festivals.

Officials at City Hall just wondered: The prospect of sending humanitarian aid to the Iraqi capital came as a surprise to officials in Denver, which is facing a multimillion-dollar budget deficit next year.

“No proposal has been given to us,” said Lindy Eichenbaum Lent, a spokeswoman for Mayor John Hickenlooper.

The Denver Regional Council of Governments is considering joining the International Partners For Peace program, which is operated by Sister Cities International, said council chairwoman Lorraine Anderson.

Besides humanitarian aid, the program explores health care, education, technology and economic and business development.

But the council has only verbally asked to participate and has not formally applied, Anderson said. “I was surprised that people thought it was a done deal,” she said.

First lady Laura Bush announced sister city pairings on Wednesday. Other U.S.-Iraq pairings include Dallas with Kirkuk and Tucson, Ariz., with Sulaymaniyah. Unlike Denver, Dallas and Tucson had already known about their pairings.

Sister Cities International said Thursday that expressing interest was the first step to participation.

Joe Rice is a former mayor of suburban Glendale and an Army reservist who served as a liaison between Baghdad officials and U.S. forces last year. He came up with the idea of linking Baghdad with Denver.

Rice said official procedures and approvals were not important for sister city exchanges.

“That stuff doesn’t matter,” he said. “There were a lot of these (humanitarian) contacts already under way.”