Denver Mayor Mike Johnston celebrated his administration’s progress on some of the city’s biggest challenges during his first year in office on Monday, while making a pitch for the first big initiative of his second — a sales tax increase to tackle affordable housing.
The mayor delivered his State of the City address a year and five days after he was sworn into office. It was a speech light on announcements of new programs, though Johnston previewed a few — including new on-foot “trust patrols” that police will use to reduce crime in neighborhoods and a volunteering initiative spearheaded by his wife, Courtney.
Instead, Johnston, 49, used the speech to press the importance of parts of his agenda he’s rolled out in recent months, including the housing tax, while taking stock of his first year.
Johnston talked about a homeless man he met last year when the man was living in a tent with visible rat bites on his back. The mayor’s All In Mile High initiative has now moved more than 1,600 people out of illegal encampments on the city’s streets and into shelters and housing units, he said.
“In these last 12 months, Denver has housed more people faster per capita than any city in America,” he said.
It’s an initiative that’s still a work in progress, with questions about how to house all those people permanently. And while downtown’s streets are largely clear of camping, people have set up tents in other parts of the city, including along the South Platte River.
Johnston also spoke about the people helped by the city as tens of thousands of migrants came to Denver over the last year, with some of them staying here. The Denver Asylum Seekers Program his administration launched this spring is dedicated to supporting roughly 800 people and their families with food, shelter, job training and legal support for six months as they await temporary work authorization from the federal government.
“Our work is not done, but our progress is dramatic,” Johnston said of his administration’s two signature programs thus far. “Our successes here have opened up new opportunities for even greater impact in the year ahead. Inside each of these struggles, we see the need for more work to be done.”
Johnston also spent time looking forward and asking Denverites for help, both by donating their time and through their tax dollars.
Earlier this month, Johnston and supporters on the City Council unveiled what they are calling the Affordable Denver sales tax measure. That 0.5% dedicated sales tax would raise an estimated $100 million a year, powering a raft of affordable housing efforts. Their goal over the next decade is to help build or secure 45,000 more homes and apartments that are affordable to people struggling to afford to stay in Denver.
But ramping up the city’s efforts to that level will depend on support from voters.
“If we want to keep the (single) mom and the grandma and the college graduate in Denver, we can — but we have to choose it, and we have to fight for it,” Johnston said. He pivoted to what was the most urgent request in his speech, name-checking the initiative: “This November, I will ask you to choose it by voting for an Affordable Denver on your ballot.”
In a departure from his predecessor Michael Hancock, who gave his final State of the City speech in 2022 at the Montbello Recreation Center and tended to select city buildings for the annual address, Johnston on Monday delivered his remarks inside a privately owned venue. He spoke from the stage of the historic Paramount Theatre, 1621 Glenarm Place.
The nearly 100-year-old art deco theater is just feet from Denver’s still-under-construction 16th Street Mall rehab project.
One of Johnston’s key focuses has been revitalizing downtown and breaking the “doom loop” of visible homelessness and crime, coupled with greatly diminished office worker foot traffic in the wake of the pandemic. In May, Johnston announced plans to expand an obscure special downtown taxing authority that he and supporters project could generate $500 million in new public investment downtown over the coming decade.
On Monday, Johnston noted that by the time he gives his State of the City address next year, most of the 16th Street Mall will finally be refurbished, with construction fencing gone. But that project is only part of his vision for the city’s core and what he thinks major public investment can bring to the area.
“We will use these resources to turn downtown from a central business district to a central neighborhood district, complete with affordable housing, public parks, child care, great retail, restaurants, art and music, and walkable, activated streets where you can get lost in a vibrant world you can only find in Denver,” he said.
The mayor encouraged attendees on Monday to sign up for Give5 Mile High, the new volunteer program Courtney Johnston is leading. Participants will be asked to give five hours of their time one Saturday each month to support an important need in the city.
The initiative will launch next month in partnership with Denver Public Schools, with an initial focus on helping students prepare for the school year.
The mayor has already demonstrated his public safety priorities through his budget. The city has allocated $8.2 million this year to efforts to grow the Denver Police Department by 167 officers. On Monday, Johnston — who has previously made the distinction between residents feeling protected and feeling policed — announced that his administration will up police patrols in known high-crime areas.
And to build stronger relationships with people and neighborhoods, new “trust patrols” of officers will visit businesses, rec centers, special events and other community-centric spaces. They’ll have conversations with people about what is working and what isn’t when it comes to public safety, Johnston said. By the end of next year, he expects DPD to have completed 6,000 such patrols across the city.
Denver council members highlighted some of their own priorities during Monday’s event.
Councilwoman Amanda Sandoval, elected by her peers as council president last week, announced the council was pursuing a citywide rezoning effort that would make it much easier for homeowners to build accessory dwelling units, including backyard homes and garage apartments. Sandoval did not tie that effort to a bill passed by the state legislature this year that is also dedicated to clearing the way for ADUs on the Front Range, including in Denver.
“The importance of accessory dwelling units is creating benefits for homeowners and providing much-needed, family-oriented affordable housing without diminishing and demolishing existing homes,” Sandoval said.
To close his speech Monday, Johnston returned to the central theme of his inaugural address a year earlier: the role that he says belief plays in overcoming daunting problems.
“Those challenges that have overwhelmed other communities have only made us stronger,” he said. “Because the one thing you won’t find in Denver is that destructive, contagious belief that we can’t. Here in this capital of the New West … people believe in each other and they lean on each other and they fight for each other — fortified by the deep belief that all our problems are solvable, and we are the ones to solve them.”
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Originally Published: July 22, 2024 at 2:27 p.m.
