Aurora City Council and Mayor Mike Coffman made the right decision on Monday not to ask voters for pay raises, but the question before them lingers over many growing cities across the state and deserves an honest answer and assessment. We know that many city […]
CartoonsGovernment leaders need to get off wrong side of history and gain new perspective In the book “Mark Twain” by Ron Chernow, I found the perfect explanation for why many people conformed to “the terrifying power of the environment to shape and distort human behavior.” […]
CartoonsToo fragile to understand our history? Re: “Signs posted seen as threats to ‘whitewash’ dark side of history,” June 28 news story The term “snowflake” is often used to insult political liberals. With the power invested in me as a U.S. citizen, I nominate President […]
CartoonsSSA is now a shill for Trump. Trust nothing. I woke Friday morning to an email from the Social Security Administration bragging about Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” and how it was advantageous to me as a Social Security recipient. I verified this was actually […]
CartoonsI woke Friday morning to an email from the Social Security Administration bragging about Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” and how it was advantageous to me as a Social Security recipient. I verified this was actually from the SSA.
I have endured five and a half months of bad news on immigration, cuts to agencies, cuts to benefits and programs, but this sent me over the edge. I can no longer believe anything the government tells me about the state of our country; the economy, employment, poverty, or health, and I fear even more about the coming elections and how they could be tainted.
Using the sanctity of the SSA to promote political ideology is beyond my comprehension in a free society. But we are no longer free, and this nailed it for me.
Mark Brown, Denver
Re: “Must e-bikes go all the same places as old-fashioned bikes?” July 3 commentary
The issue of e-bikes is not restricted to national parks. One of the nicest features of living in the Denver metro area is the network of pedestrian/bike trails. The faster e-bikes are now making these dangerous. An e-bike is a motorcycle, but it is a silent motorcycle. Walkers and conventional bikers can’t hear them coming. When a twenty-something flies past me without warning on a trail the width of a wide sidewalk, it is scary. Cities need to enforce the signs about no motorized vehicles.
Ray Harlan, Denver
Slim Woodruff’s commentary about e-bikes going everywhere “old-fashioned bikes” go, while humorous, also makes some broad assertions about us e-bike riders. I’ve had a class 1 e-bike for ten years and I’ve never ridden it where it isn’t allowed. There will always be irresponsible e-bike riders, just as there are irresponsible regular bike riders. I’ve nearly been run off the trail by regular riders who think they’re in the Tour de France. My 90-year-old mother was almost knocked over with her walker on a hospital sidewalk by a regular cyclist who was going so fast he could barely stop. Then he yelled at her for being in his way. Jerks will be jerks regardless of their chosen means of transportation.
Kari Epstein, Denver
Where is the enforcement when it comes to illegal fireworks in Colorado? Pretty basically, fireworks that explode or leave the ground are illegal.
The selfish actions of a few people are allowed to disrupt the quiet and serenity of our neighborhoods. The overwhelming majority of residents in my Westminster/Arvada neighborhood did not have a fireworks display in the street. About five residents within a four-block radius rained one explosion after another down on us through post-midnight hours.
Does anyone give any selfless thought to the war veteran who may be suffering P.T.S.D., or the pets that cower in fear at every burst of noise? What about the risks being taken? Annually there are news stories about a structure that burned, or a hand injury or a grass fire. Every careless act puts the safety of citizens, first responders and property at risk. What about those that just want to enjoy a quiet evening at home relishing the extra day off for the week? What about the people who had to work on the holiday and want to wind down quietly?
There are public displays all over the metro area. I enjoy a good fireworks show as much as anyone … at the baseball game, the rodeo, the fair or the park, but not in the neighborhoods.
Rich Linnebur, Westminster
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Owning Pride: Overcoming oppression and being true selves Re: “Keep government out of Pride, whether it’s Trump or Biden,” June 29 commentary Had I grown up with a legion of Krista Kafers as my parents and neighbors and teachers and schoolmates and doctors and shopkeepers, […]
CartoonsRe: “Keep government out of Pride, whether it’s Trump or Biden,” June 29 commentary
Had I grown up with a legion of Krista Kafers as my parents and neighbors and teachers and schoolmates and doctors and shopkeepers, I would likely think and feel as she does about gay “pride” — live and let live without judging or celebrating someone because of immutable characteristics like skin color or ethnic origin or sexual orientation or gender identity.
I grew up as a closeted gay person. From my earliest awareness of attraction to other boys, I was acutely aware that most of those people would judge and perhaps harm me for who I was.
I read in school books, newspapers and my church bulletins that I was “sick” and “perverted.” In Sunday school I was literally told I would be “damned to hell forever.” When, finally, in my early 20s, I told my parents I was gay, my father said, “You disgust me and are no son of mine”, and my mother shut the tiny door of any affection she ever gave me. I am not “proud” because I am gay. I am proud because somehow I found in the depths of my being, against all these realities of my young life, the courage to simply be and live openly as the gay person I am.
Actually I prefer the term “queer” because it gives me a sense of solidarity with all the others whose rainbow of attributes led to living under similar oppression. I appreciate Krista for not judging me and other queer people. I encourage her to consider that celebrating gay pride is about something we have accomplished and our healing from oppression.
Wayne Thrash, Denver
I take issue with the commentary. Specifically, Krista Kafer tells us her definition of “pride.” In her opinion, gay folks do not use the word correctly.
“It’s understandable that people who feel unaccepted because of their sexuality use the word ‘pride’ in this way. The trouble with identitarian usage, however, is that only some people are allowed to apply it that way. One can be proud to be a woman but not a man, proud to be Black or Hispanic but not white, proud to be gay but not straight,” Kafer writes.
Sounds fishy to me. I can state that I am proud of myself. No person should take issue with the usage of pride in that sentence, contrary to what Kafer says.
Kafer fails to recount the root cause and the beginning of Pride Day. Being gay used to be something people tried to hide in many cases. We need to look no further than the story of Matthew Shepard to see how it could be deadly to be outed as gay, not to mention the risk of job loss or other societal privilege. I think of Pride Day as a day to be proud of who you are with no qualifications. Let my friends in the gay community have their day.
Byron Bergman, Denver
While I believe Krista Kafer had good intentions in writing her column on pride flags and use of the word “pride,” I think she misses a couple of points about folks who aren’t white or straight, those who she says “aren’t allowed” to use the word “pride” in a positive context.
First, complaining that straight white people aren’t allowed to use a particular word is like a child not wanting to share any of their toys with the other kids. You don’t have to win everything; let other people claim a word if they want.
Second, at the end of her column, Kafer states that she doesn’t take “pride” in being white and straight because she didn’t get to choose those identities. I can assure you that the vast, vast majority of gay and trans-related folks don’t feel they had a choice, either.
D. Laughren, Golden
Re: ” Trump bill: Senators launch weekend of work,” June 29 news story
After reading how cuts are going to affect real people, not imaginary ones, I think Congress members and the White House occupants should immediately lose their government health insurance and any housing allowance they get to live in the DC area. If they are getting cancer treatment, it should stop, and any experimental treatment or hormone meds should stop.
If it’s OK for them to take health care away, food supplements away, housing assistance, veterans’ care, educational assistance from the American public, there’s got to be some reality check.
Try paying your meds without insurance, Congress; try paying your own rent and your own transportation.
In addition, their pay should stop immediately and they should see how the rest of the real world lives for once. If it is OK for Congress to make deep cuts, how about it directly impacting them?
These actions are akin to what Hitler did in Germany: send away anyone of color or a different religion, starve people, and put people in camps. It sounds familiar. Is that the America we want? I think not.
Cheryl Brungardt, Wheat Ridge
Re: “Trump’s ICE is deliberately targeting noncriminals,” June 29 editorial
I’m in absolute agreement with The Denver Post Editorial Board on this subject. What President Donald Trump is doing sure looks and feels like what’s been done in fascist states: targeting specific ethnic nationalities, ignoring the rule of law, and adopting the methods of historical dictators. What’s being done in our country, our democracy, is outrageous and is definitely not making our country great.
Jeannie Dunham, Denver
Re: “Court limits nationwide injunctions,” June 28 news story
A few years from now, a future president will declare a national gun violence emergency and issue an executive order declaring it illegal to own a gun, saying that today’s gun owners are not part of a “well-regulated Militia.” Of course, there will be cries of “that’s unconstitutional!” and lawsuits by people trying to get their guns back.
Thanks to Friday’s Supreme Court decision to kick the teeth out of the lower federal courts, the only people getting their guns back would be the individual plaintiffs. The president wouldn’t care, knowing that most Americans don’t have the time and resources to sue.
Besides, the president doesn’t have to appeal all the one-by-one rulings against the executive order.
I’m confident the Supreme Court will eventually overrule Trump’s blatantly unconstitutional executive order ending birthright citizenship. But what’s to stop him from issuing another order the next day? Don’t look for help from federal judges who are now stripped of the power of universal injunction.
Andrew Bartlett, Longmont
Re: “These families don’t forget damage done by diseases,” June 29 news story
Thank you for the Sunday article recounting the history of vaccines. Indeed, vaccines have saved millions of lives and prevented millions of debilitating illnesses and physical impairments. Robert Kennedy Jr.’s own family warned us that he was not a rational-thinking guy. One of my best friends from 60 years ago (I was 15) had a permanent limp from polio. History is clear: Vaccines are not a problem. How is it that “Teflon Trump” keeps getting away with absurdly bad management decisions?
Jim Rankin, Highlands Ranch
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A good day to remember our Declaration of Independence July 4th is much more than BBQs and beer, parades and horns. It celebrates the birth of our nation, as expressed in the Declaration of Independence, a statement of why our first patriots felt compelled to […]
CartoonsJuly 4th is much more than BBQs and beer, parades and horns. It celebrates the birth of our nation, as expressed in the Declaration of Independence, a statement of why our first patriots felt compelled to rebel against their king. Every American would do well to read it aloud at home and in their public spaces on this day — and to honor its contents. Some of the complaints sound familiar to our ears:
• [the King] “has obstructed the Administration of Justice;”
• he has “affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power;”
• he is “cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world” and “imposing Taxes without our Consent;”
• he is “depriving us in many cases of the benefits of Trial by Jury” and is “transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences;”
• he is “altering fundamentally the Forms of our governments;”
• “He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us.”
They declare,” A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.”
By this Declaration, Americans asserted their unwillingness to be serfs or vassals to an unaccountable ruler, but rather as free people who demand their leaders be answerable to them and to the laws they enact. Let us honor the true meaning of this national holiday.
Wendy Orley, Highlands Ranch
The current immigration policies are clouded in a blanket of hypocrisy. Many of our ancestors were once unwanted immigrants. And many were probably undocumented.
In the second half of the 19th century, the U.S. government broke numerous treaties with various indigenous people, all under the guise of manifest destiny. Two huge American figures at that time, Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant, opposed the Mexican-American War on moral grounds. Grant called it one of the worst examples of a strong country taking advantage of a weaker one. It was a shameful display of American greed and power.
Maybe we need more understanding and compassion when it comes to immigration and fewer ICE raids.
Chris Sandoval, Arvada
It is shameful to see the administration’s fraudulent approach to dealing with public broadcasting. Public radio stations receive on average 14% of their operating expenses from federal funds. That’s it. The rest is given through individual support. I have regularly supported public radio as the vital, independent source for news and music that it is.
Contrary to the false statements by President Donald Trump and his followers, public media is neither radical nor does it have an agenda other than to inform through independent journalism and provide a wide range of community-specific news and features, especially in rural areas. I suspect that at the core of his attacks, Trump does not like public media because it is fact-based reporting, and he is unable to control the narrative, and it is well known he despises any news entity that reports on him truthfully.
This administration froze funding to Radio Free Europe after a 70-year history of truthful reporting, reaching people suffering under authoritarian governments. Repressing all outside news is a pathetic attempt at budget cutting, and a boon to monsters like Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, Viktor Orban, and so on.
Thomas M. Holzfaster, Lakewood
Re: “Board tentatively OKs pursuing Front Range passenger rail between Denver, Fort Collins,” June 25 news story
When will people learn? They make jokes about the unreliability of Amtrak, and then folks expect to borrow freight track from Union Pacific, BNSF Railway, Canadian National or any other non-governmental host railroad for a cost and schedule that perfectly fits their plans. After almost 30 years in the industry, both railroad manufacturing and transit agencies, my answer is: Good luck with that!
The host railroad that profits primarily from freight operations will never prioritize passenger runs. Longer consist, fewer engineers, looser regulations, tighter schedules, and emphasis, I repeat emphasis, on cost containment all mean one thing: plan on Amtrak-like reliability for passenger trains. Accidents, repairs, and maintenance will all result in the same thing: “We gotta use the bus today.”
Ride quality is another issue. Cargo containers can sway pretty wildly before triggering any shock watch. Unless RTD wants to trigger plenty of passengers, they’d better plan on paying billions to upgrade freight track – concrete sleepers, continuous rail, at grade crossings becoming bridges, PTC upgrades, etc, etc, and all at taxpayer expense, as none of these upgrades would be necessary to continue those freight operations.
Either pay to double-track that right-of-way, buy it outright, or forget about ever meeting cost or schedule… or the expectations of the commuting public.
Dave Knutson, Arvada
As we consider transport along the Front Range, let’s ensure we explore the benefits of Maglev high-speed trains (look up China’s CRRC 600 or Central Japan Railway Company – JR Central – L0 Series). Maglev also has the promise of being able to handle 10-degree inclines, making it a natural extension to our mountain resort communities, relieving traffic on I-70.
Other alternatives worth considering: Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) and Automated Transit Network (ATN) where small transport pods, propelled by maglev, would move four to six people with no (or very limited) intermediate stops — the total station to station transport time may be even better than maglev trains and the cost to construct/maintain is a fraction of a tradition rail system with large stations.
Depending upon projected volumes (passengers/cargo), electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft may have even better cost and benefits (lower land purchases, infrastructure, maintenance).
Rather than building more than a century-old rail technology and implementing obsolete technology, let’s consider Maglev, ATN/PRT and eVTOL.
Michael MacLauchlan, Denver
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Don’t cry wolf without the facts Re: “Tie should go to the ranchers,” June 20 letter to the editor A recent letter suggests that if a wolf might be involved in a livestock death, the “tie should go to the rancher.” But with fewer than […]
CartoonsRe: “Tie should go to the ranchers,” June 20 letter to the editor
A recent letter suggests that if a wolf might be involved in a livestock death, the “tie should go to the rancher.” But with fewer than 30 wolves in Colorado-and tens of thousands of coyotes and over 17,000 black bears — that’s not a tie. That’s a statistical mismatch.
Colorado’s livestock compensation program already heavily favors ranchers. It pays 100% market value for confirmed wolf kills and even reimburses for “indirect losses,” like missing livestock, with just a 50.1% likelihood. That’s the most generous predator compensation program in the country.
What’s missing in this conversation is accountability. In a recent public hearing, Colorado Parks and Wildlife staff confirmed that 15 livestock losses formed the basis of a large compensation claim, but didn’t clarify how many occurred before the producer implemented basic deterrents, like burying an open carcass pit. Public records show that once deterrents were in place, losses dropped dramatically.
That’s not a coincidence. That’s science, and it’s what Proposition 114 called for when voters approved wolf reintroduction in 2020.
Instead of lowering the bar further, we should strengthen the system: require nonlethal conflict prevention as a condition of compensation, and ensure public funds support those committed to coexistence, not those who invite conflict and demand a check.
Let’s be fair to ranchers, but also to Colorado’s native wildlife and the voters who supported their return.
Shane Brown, Colorado Springs
Re: “First images show pedestrian walkway,” May 23 news story
The governor’s “Bridge to Nowhere” is an expensive and ill-conceived project that does more harm than good. At a time when Colorado faces pressing infrastructure and housing needs, spending tens of millions on a bridge through Denver’s Lincoln Veterans Memorial Park is fiscally irresponsible and negatively impacts the integrity of our historic public space.
The park is a landmark with deep roots in Denver’s history. Scarring that space with a bridge few people will use undermines its legacy and limits the space as a gathering location for public advocacy and demonstrations. Worse yet, the project offers little mobility value: It’s disconnected from transit lines, poorly integrated with pedestrian and bike infrastructure, and serves no meaningful transportation demand.
We need smarter investments. Denver has mobility and transportation needs. If there’s a budget available to spend on critical infrastructure, then spend it on critical infrastructure. A bridge to nowhere is a dead end for Denver.
Erik Clarke, Denver
Seven months ago, I got a new electric vehicle (EV), MSRP less than $30,000. Edmunds says its range is 140 miles on a full charge, but I always exceed 240 miles.
My cost for maintenance during this time? Zero. I live within walking distance of a park that has free charging. So, my fuel cost so far? Zero. Even if I were paying for home electricity to recharge, 40 miles of driving would cost well under $2. Try getting that kind of mileage with gasoline. No matter what the politicians do, the EVs are here and spreading. Most of us will still be alive when they are the majority of our cars.
Bill Naylor, Denver
Re: “Trump’s courageous and correct decision,” June 29 commentary
It seems Bret Stephens has purposely forgotten history when claiming that, “For decades, a succession of American presidents pledged that they were willing to use force to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.” Did he forget about President Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that restricted Iran’s nuclear program? The one that President Donald Trump tore up? And now he says Trump was courageous? Laughable. If Trump had not withdrawn from the JCPOA, the bombing would not have been necessary.
Valorie Manzi, Lakewood
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The apprehension and two-week detention of Caroline Dias Goncalves was a waste of federal resources and a violation of human decency. Goncalves, a nursing student from the University of Utah, has not been charged with any crime, and because the activities of Trump’s immigration force […]
CartoonsThe apprehension and two-week detention of Caroline Dias Goncalves was a waste of federal resources and a violation of human decency.
Goncalves, a nursing student from the University of Utah, has not been charged with any crime, and because the activities of Trump’s immigration force are shrouded in secrecy, it is unclear whether she has any sort of immigration action pending either.
We do, however, have video of her initial contact with law enforcement because police officers in Colorado are required to wear and use body cameras.
The teen was pulled over on Interstate 70 as she drove through Grand Junction on her way to Denver. The Mesa County Sheriff’s deputy asked her to come sit in his car with him while he looked up her registration and insurance information, both of which were outdated. But before he let her go back to her car, he asked about her accent and where she was from. We hear absolutely zero accent on the video. “Born and raised or no?” he asked after she replied Utah. She explains she was born in Brazil.
The deputy let her off with a warning but then texted all of her information to federal agents on an encrypted Signal chat. Officials picked her up a short time later and brought her to Aurora, where she was held without due process for two weeks until a judge let her out on bail.
“And the moment they realized I spoke English, I saw a change,” Goncalves said in a statement issued. “Suddenly, I was treated better than others who didn’t speak English. That broke my heart. Because no one deserves to be treated like that. Not in a country that I’ve called home since I was 7 years old and is all I’ve ever known.”
In President Donald Trump’s America an undetectable accent and brown skin is enough to get an out-of-state teenager detained in one city, extradited across state without any hearing or due process, held for two weeks in a detention center full of criminals awaiting deportation, fed mushy food, and then let go without any public explanation or transparency.
We don’t know Gonclaves’ exact immigration status. According to The Denver Post and the Salt Lake City Tribune, she came as a child with her family on a tourist visa. That would mean she entered the United States sometime around 2013. Given that approximate date, she would not qualify for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, but her parents had filed for asylum, which almost always carries dependent children, too.
One thing is clear: Trump has ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to focus their time and efforts not on criminals who should be deported, but on people like Gonclaves, who are contributing members of our society that make America stronger. He’s come up with arbitrary quotas that we are certain drive this overly aggressive targeting of good people.
The Washington Post reported concerning data this week – since Trump’s inauguration, the percentage of detained individuals who are convicted or accused criminals has dropped. That means the Trump administration is amping up its efforts to deport people like Gonclaves, who are going to school or working hard.
Since Trump took the White House, an incredible 23% of those detained are noncriminals. In comparison between 2019 and January 2025, the average was 7%. That is made more concerning because the percentage increase occurred even as the total number of detainments increased. More good people than ever are getting snatched by ICE, often with no due process for several weeks – long enough for someone to lose a job, fail a class or miss an important life event like a family member’s wedding or the birth of a child.
The Washington Post’s columnist Philip Bump extrapolated that the detention of noncriminals had jumped 900% under Trump. These detentions and pending deportations are not making anyone safer. Indeed, we are less safe when Americans of color or who have accents are afraid of everyday interactions with police.
The deputy in Mesa County had no business asking Gonclaves about her nationality and likely violated a state law by forwarding the information to federal officials.
Colorado law enforcement should stay the course and not assist this administration’s cruel and ineffective pursuit of noncriminals for deportation.
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We are thrilled by rumors that the Broncos’ new owners are acquiring land to keep the football team in the heart of Denver, right where it belongs. A brand new, privately financed stadium on currently contaminated and abandoned land, Burnham Yard, is a vision we […]
CartoonsWe are thrilled by rumors that the Broncos’ new owners are acquiring land to keep the football team in the heart of Denver, right where it belongs.
A brand new, privately financed stadium on currently contaminated and abandoned land, Burnham Yard, is a vision we can get behind. The 58-acre rail yard is now owned by the Colorado Department of Transportation.
The Denver Post reported last week – following some brilliant reporting from BusinessDen – that part of the deal the Walton-Penner group is looking to make in addition to acquiring the state’s land would include buying a portion of Denver Water’s 36-acre campus where the headquarters and operations center are located.
We’re not opposed to the Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group buying some land from Denver Water to help the group spend billions building a stadium and a privately owned entertainment district. But it only seems logical that Denver Water would need to be compensated for the trouble of moving from this historic 150-year-old campus that recently underwent an entire rebuild to become a world-class facility.
“We recognize the impact this development could have to the largest community we serve,” Denver Water CEO and manager Alan Salazar said in an interview requested following The Post’s report. “Creative minds can think about ways that this could work. We’re trying to get there.”
Salazar said some things are not negotiable: The deal cannot devalue Denver Water and must protect the financial security of the enterprise. The deal can’t cause any upward pressure on water rates, and Salazar simply pointed out that the charter of the voter-created utility prevents money from being spent on anything that isn’t a waterworks project.
We say that Denver Water can in no way be asked to help subsidize this private development. Any private company would hold out for a substantial payout before ripping up its roots to relocate, and a good CEO would always be ready to walk away from negotiations if it wasn’t in their best interests.
That doesn’t mean the deal is dead, but it certainly complicates negotiations.
It’s unclear whether the Broncos need the land or whether they could build the stadium on the old rail yard and make a smaller entertainment district and still make the kind of return on investment they are aiming for.
Today, the Denver Water campus includes a brand-new headquarters on the far north side of the campus where white-collar employees, including engineers, human resources, and communications employees, work. We can’t imagine the Broncos would want that building.
But most of the land — and likely the land we imagine could be sold — is occupied by a number of high-tech service buildings, warehouses, and parking lots designed with efficiency and productivity in mind. Those buildings are only a few years old, and touring the campus makes it clear that Denver Water spared no expense to make this property its home forever. A brick pathway through the campus is marked with the names of every retiree from the company, with their dates of service.
This is the campus where hundreds of Denver Water employees start their day before dispersing out to a service area that stretches from Denver International Airport to Ken Caryl. Workers help supply clean drinking water from mountain reservoirs to some of the state’s largest municipalities, and the machine shop services everything from snowmobiles to dump trucks.
Moving those operations is not something that should be taken lightly.
As we’ve said before, we are not opposed to the Walton-Penner group getting some level of subsidy from the state of Colorado and the city of Denver, but that deal must be entirely transparent and account for every dollar given to these heirs of the Walmart fortune, Rob Walton and his son-in-law Greg Penner.
Before any deal is inked behind closed doors, the public needs to be told the modern-day market value of Burnham Yard and the value of Denver Water’s property with a true appraisal conducted by an independent firm.
And while it makes sense for the city of Denver and the state to incentivize the business prospects of the football stadium, we cannot see any possible justification for Denver Water to share in that burden.
Denver Water, much like the Broncos, is a storied institution.
We now know, thanks to Penner’s decision not to renew the lease at the existing Mile High Stadium (Empower Field), that the half-life of a new stadium is only about 4.5 years. In sharp contrast, Denver Water will be providing life-sustaining water to much of metro Denver for almost a million people into the foreseeable future, perhaps for as long as there are people on the Front Range.
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Hating on downtown Denver has become a sport for some, including recent college grads finding Denver’s cost of living to be unsustainable, anyone who has recently navigated Colfax’s construction cones, and yes, our Republican members of Congress who use the city as a political pawn […]
CartoonsHating on downtown Denver has become a sport for some, including recent college grads finding Denver’s cost of living to be unsustainable, anyone who has recently navigated Colfax’s construction cones, and yes, our Republican members of Congress who use the city as a political pawn in the debate over Venezuelan refugees.
But Denver is a big, beautiful city with blemishes and flaws just like any other major metropolitan area — and any small town, for that matter.
The Denver Post’s three-month-long downtown Denver project made it clear that the city has an uphill battle as it tries to recover from the COVID shock waves. The city is struggling with vacant buildings, a reduction in tourism, cratering tax revenues and other problems.
But if you haven’t visited the city recently, you may have missed some major developments.
First, the homeless encampments have been completely cleaned up. Certainly, there are still people sleeping on the streets during the day and night between Park Avenue and Speer Boulevard. But that has been an issue for every medium-sized city in this state for more than 50 years.
Gone, however, are the temporary structures with tarps and tents and grocery carts marking the territory of someone who had made a shanty structure on public rights-of-way. Mayor Mike Johnston spent millions of dollars getting people in those encampments into temporary housing, and while it wasn’t cheap, the result has been worth it. The encampments were unsightly, unhealthy, and had drawn criminal elements to the city.
A recent survey of Denver’s homeless population confirmed that while the number of unhoused people has increased, the number of unsheltered people — those sleeping on the street — dropped a dramatic 35% over the last survey in 2024.
Johnston deserves credit for this notable transformation, and he wasn’t shy about taking it.
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“We set this crazy, ambitious goal to end street homelessness in (my) first term,” Johnston told The Denver Post. “And to be almost halfway there, almost halfway through term 1, I think reaffirms that’s not an impossible dream.”
Second, while a number of restaurants have closed downtown, the city’s old favorites are still thriving, and new gems are opening daily.
The owner of Olive & Finch is giving all Denverites something to believe in.
Mary Nguyen just opened her fourth restaurant in the city.
“There’s a narrative that downtown is dead, that it’s not safe. But I’m here all the time. I see something totally different. There are new restaurants opening, the streets are active, there are interesting people looking for things to do,” Nguyen told The Denver Post. “I’m a Denver native. If I want to see a vibrant, activated downtown, then I’m going to help make that happen. I’m not waiting for someone else to do it.”
If you haven’t tried Olive and Finch, now is the time to support the budget-friendly downtown staple.
“If you look at the investment the city is making … no other city in America is spending $600 million to revitalize their downtown. Honestly, I think I’ve done a great job coming in at the beginning, because in 10 years – actually, probably just two years, or even one – Denver’s going to come back,” Nguyen said.
Smart entrepreneurs like Nguyen and Ibotta CEO Bryan Leach are betting big on downtown, for both civic and business reasons.
“We’re proud to have signed a 10-year lease in a moment where the city really needs us, where only a third of the occupancy is there,” Ibotta’s founder and CEO, Bryan Leach, told The Denver Post. “I never considered leaving downtown. It is important to have the downtown area of your community be a thriving place where people live and work.”
If you love (or have loved) Denver, now is the time to come back.
Because here’s the third and final secret about the city — the city will come back better than ever. As The Denver Post found, what is hurting the upper-central business district the most are vacant office spaces, cleverly explaining that the city has been “all work and no play” for far too long. But a rebalancing is happening, and the parts of the city where people live and play are vibrant and booming. It will only be a matter of time before that spills from Union Station and the River North neighborhood into the central business district.
The 16th Street Mall construction project is almost complete, bringing to an end a boondoggle of a project that could not have been more poorly timed.
And with any luck, the new owners of the Denver Broncos will be called by the civic duty Nguyen and Leach expressed to stay and invest in our city during its moment of need.
Denver may need a little help, but the city is certainly not dead.
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Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero is right: the more accountability, the better for district schools that are struggling. We support his effort to reinstate district-led accountability metrics that bring support to low-performing schools, and as a last resort, include school closures. Marrero announced last […]
CartoonsDenver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero is right: the more accountability, the better for district schools that are struggling. We support his effort to reinstate district-led accountability metrics that bring support to low-performing schools, and as a last resort, include school closures.
Marrero announced last month his plan to end the 7-year hiatus of DPS school accountability by developing a new system to judge school performance.
We know school improvement plans often fail, but ignoring students who are not learning is not the answer either. This city has an abundance of schools where students are thriving academically, including some of the best schools in the state. We cannot allow zip codes to determine who has access to the best education and who is stuck in some of the worst schools.
Take, for example, Denver’s Abraham Lincoln High School, a place that is on Year 7 of accountability watch from Colorado’s Department of Education.
In 2024, despite having a “Directed Pathway” performance plan in place, only 12.8% of juniors met or exceeded expectations on the reading and writing portion of the SAT, and only 5.1% met or exceeded expectations on the math portion. In March of that year, the school’s former principal wrote that “overall academic achievement in math and English is low and decreasing from past years and this needs to be addressed comprehensively for all students.”
This year, Marrero and a new principal, Néstor Bravo, are optimistic that gains in test scores will show improvement.
“We’ve seen incredible evidence of our approach,” Marrero said, pointing out that Manuel High School has improved test scores, attendance and graduation rates enough to come off the state’s watch list. “We’re also seeing it with Lake Middle School.”
Continuous improvement is necessary at these schools to provide even a semblance of equity with the experience students have at other high schools and middle schools in the district. It’s what Marrero calls having a “minimum equivalency” for all schools in the district, and” having a Blue Ribbon school in every neighborhood.”
Bravo told us that he does think closure should be on the table for low-performing schools, but he added that Lincoln is an “iconic community hub” with a “multi-generational sense of belonging.”
“Closing a place like this has consequences that go way beyond academic performance,” Bravo said.
Which is why it makes sense for the district and the state to pull out all the stops to give students at Lincoln an equitable education.
Bravo said he took over the school and faced a $1.2 million budget deficit. Since then, he said, he has created a clean and efficient system that puts employees where they need to be based on their strengths, provides training and support, and then focuses resources on intervention and foundational skills for students.
The school still has a tough road ahead. Many students stopped attending school when federal immigration raids started in Denver, and Marrero said the school’s metrics on attendance took a hit. We don’t see any sense in the state holding Lincoln High School accountable for students who are afraid of deportation.
But we have also seen time and time again that accountability works to improve school conditions.
After years of pushback and reluctance from the Adams 14 School District, officials finally turned over Adams City High School to outside control. Almost immediately, test scores and performance began to improve. It took the threat of closure for the district to finally concede that it needed help running the school.
We know that every student in this district can succeed. Marrero said he knows that the state’s tests — the PSAT, SAT, and the CMAS — are imperfect measures of students’ abilities. The tests have an obvious bias toward good test takers and students who have been trained to test well; also, the tests have a bias against English language learners and students with IEPs or other learning needs.
But Marrero said he is eager to “prove that we can and our kids can in spite of the missing equity components.”
Marrero is asking charter schools in the district to agree to being held accountable by the district and not just the state. He pointed to the school board’s failure to close Academy 360 despite poor performance. There has got to be high accountability that comes with the autonomy of a charter school, he said.
We are concerned that, given the current anti-charter school ethos among district leaders and school board members, the policy could be abused to shutter good charter schools that perhaps just need a little help.
But we also resolutely believe that charter schools should be held to the exact same standard as district schools, and that closure should be on the table when charter schools fail students.
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The community of Boulder has once again suffered a horrific attack. On Sunday, a terrorist fueled by antisemitism attempted to burn people alive who had gathered on the Pearl Street Mall to walk in solidarity with Israeli hostages still held captive by Hamas. We pray […]
CartoonsThe community of Boulder has once again suffered a horrific attack. On Sunday, a terrorist fueled by antisemitism attempted to burn people alive who had gathered on the Pearl Street Mall to walk in solidarity with Israeli hostages still held captive by Hamas.
We pray fervently for the eight victims to survive this horror and fully recover from their injuries, and for their families’ strength and resilience during this difficult time. In the aftermath of the King Soopers shooting in 2021, Boulder rallied around victims, their families, and law enforcement, and the community will rise again to support those injured Sunday.
The opportunity to support Colorado’s Jewish community will come quickly; Sunday, June 8, is the 30th Boulder Jewish Festival. The annual celebration of Jewish culture is held on the Pearl Street Mall, the site of the attack. Coloradans should come out in mass to support our Jewish community and send a message that terrorism will not succeed.
We are relieved that a suspect has been detained. But until the scourge of antisemitism is wiped from America, we fear the Jewish community will never attain peace in this country. Two Israeli Embassy staffers were assassinated in Washington, D.C., last month as they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum. Yaron Lischinsky had purchased an engagement ring for Sarah Milgrim, but never got the chance to propose before they were shot and killed.
The FBI’s regional spokesperson reported that the suspect in the Boulder attack yelled “Free Palestine” as he threw gas and flames on the crowd. The suspect’s social media posts indicate he wanted to “end Zionists.” The Denver Post reported that he is an Egyptian citizen who came to America on a tourist visa but that it had expired. We cannot prevent every terrorist attack, but local, state and federal law enforcement should review this case to make certain signs weren’t missed along the way. Perhaps the next attack could be thwarted if lessons are learned.
This terror has existed long before Hamas’ terrorist attack on Oct. 7, 2023, sparked a protracted war with Israel. Hamas still holds 58 hostages somewhere in Gaza who were captured during the attack that left 1,500 civilians dead. During a recent ceasefire, several hostages were released who recounted torture and rape, and the bodies of some who Hamas killed during captivity were also released.
The war has raged for almost two years, and Israel’s bombing campaign, combined with its control of food, water and electricity to the occupied territory, are creating a humanitarian crisis that has killed tens of thousands of innocent civilians (a number that will never be known precisely as independent journalists have been kept out of Gaza). As the war drags on in the Middle East, we call for peace, understanding, and love to reign here.
America should be a safe haven from antisemitism and terrorism, a place where our communities can come together, if not in agreement, then at least in a shared coexistence that celebrates our freedom in this country.
The assault on Sunday not only shattered lives and terrified a community, but this senseless violence tears at the foundation of America, and makes us all less safe. Whether compelled to exercise your free speech in a Boulder march calling for the release of Israeli hostages, or to join a protest on the University of Boulder’s campus calling for an end to Israel’s campaign in Gaza, or the many who would march in both, Americans should feel safe that their words, beliefs, and advocacy won’t get them killed.
We have a long way to go before we find such peace, but in the wake of a tragedy is the time to remind everyone of our idealistic hopes for America, something we can all unite behind as international conflicts divide us.
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No one should be surprised that Denver is scaling back hiring and spending for 2025 and 2026. The city has been living high on the hog for more than a decade, growing city government services and hiring hundreds, if not thousands, of new employees. Like […]
CartoonsNo one should be surprised that Denver is scaling back hiring and spending for 2025 and 2026.
The city has been living high on the hog for more than a decade, growing city government services and hiring hundreds, if not thousands, of new employees. Like a majority of Denver taxpayers, The Denver Post editorial board has supported much of the spending (as both investment in our city and as a way to recover from the dark days of COVID).
We’ve also opposed some of the more outlandish pet projects that we feared frittered away the city’s sales tax revenue. It’s too late now to rededicate those millions of dollars in sales tax increases to the city’s general fund operations.
Almost two years after taking office, Mayor Mike Johnston will oversee a reduction in staff and services for the first time since the aftermath of the 2008 housing crisis and Great Recession. Sales tax revenues will be down $50 million this year from projections and down $100 million in 2026 from 2025 levels. That represents about a 7.5% reduction in revenue, not accounting for anticipated increases in costs for inflation and city growth.
Layoffs, furloughs coming for Denver employees amid budget crisis, mayor says
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Given that bleak outlook, we are disturbed that up until last week, the city was considering hefty raises for staffers in upper management positions. City Council smartly sidelined that proposal from the mayor’s office, and in sharp contrast, Johnston’s furloughs will be graduated, so lower-income employees will take two days unpaid, and higher-income employees will take up to seven days unpaid.
The cuts will come at a terrible time – reductions in staff from President Donald Trump have left thousands of federal employees who live in Colorado out of a job, and the state of Colorado is slowing the pace of growth in accordance with TABOR spending limits. Luckily, private-sector hiring has remained strong across the U.S., according to the most recent jobs report, cutting the risk of a possible recession.
Johnston is correct, however, to make adjustments now in the budget.
Certainly, this could just be a mini-downturn that could be weathered with a combination of discretionary spending reductions, contingency funds and rainy day funds. But federal policy is causing uncertainty, to put it mildly, and that can have disastrous consequences.
Consumer confidence is extremely low, meaning more people are spending less across the country, including downtown Denver, where the majority of the city’s sales tax revenue is generated. Big cities like Dallas, Denver, Chicago, Houston, New York, Miami and San Francisco are also being hit by the effects of vacant office buildings. Cities across the nation are cutting their budget.
In Denver, office buildings are selling for far less than they did even 10 years ago, and vacant office space means fewer commuters spending their dollars in the city. Add on top of that a false perception that Denver is unsafe or that it is filled with homeless encampments, and you’ve got a perfect storm.
Getting Coloradans and tourists back to the city, and spending their money, is a key part of recovery for the city. Recovery is also crucial for our small businesses, especially retail stores, restaurants and bars. No one can patronize businesses that aren’t open.
Johnston has a plan to bring people back downtown. Some of those plans are immediate – finishing the 16th Street project and increasing the presence of police and other security services. Some of those plans are ongoing — Johnston has already cleaned up the homeless encampments in downtown, leaving not a single tent in the urban core as the city has provided housing options to more than a thousand people. The city will continue to spend millions on the program so the camps don’t just spring right back up.
Most of the city’s capital improvement projects are funded with dedicated bonds paid for by property tax mill levies. That revenue stream is still growing despite the sharp decline in commercial real estate evaluations. The increase is driven by the continued growth in residential home values.
These are strange economic times, and even top economists are finding it hard to predict what will happen next.
In such days, fiscal conservatism is prudent. Hiring freezes, furloughs and layoffs may seem dramatic for a city that only a few short years ago had 16% fiscal reserves, but taking action today will forestall more dramatic cuts should the economy take a turn for the worse.
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