Traffic on Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena will be replaced by barbecues, folding chairs and coolers starting Wednesday night ahead of the 137th Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year’s Day.
That means road closures, traffic congestion and lots of people. A forecast of rain is adding another layer of complexity for campers and parade-goers.
Before the petals hit the metal, here’s what you should know:
Street closures
The 5.5-mile parade route begins on Orange Grove Boulevard, then turns east onto Colorado for the bulk of the trek before ending at Sierra Madre Boulevard.
Street closures will begin at 10 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, and roadways will reopen at 2 p.m. on New Year’s Day:
Officials will block traffic on Colorado, the main leg of the parade route.
All north-south roads intersecting the route between Del Mar Boulevard and the 210 Freeway also will be closed to traffic over that time period.
Sierra Madre Boulevard will be closed to southbound traffic for the duration.
A midnight 5K race will add another layer of overnight restrictions.
Beginning at 11 p.m. Wednesday, cross-traffic will be shut down at multiple intersections between Pasadena and Hill avenues, including El Molino, Fair Oaks, Marengo, Los Robles, Lake and Wilson avenues. Those intersections will reopen once the race concludes.
Race staging will begin even earlier. Streets along Colorado Boulevard from St. John Avenue to De Lacey Avenue, and from Marengo Avenue to Euclid Avenue, will close at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
Getting to the parade
The parade kicks off at 8 a.m. and runs for two hours.
Officials recommend avoiding driving to the event. Metro’s A Line (Gold) runs along the parade route and provides access to multiple viewing areas.
For those who do drive, plan to get there early. Campers and overnight spectators will set up on sidewalks along the parade route beginning Wednesday morning. The Pasadena Department of Transportation “strongly” advises parade-goers park before 6 a.m. the day of the event. Rose Bowl parking can be pre-purchased.
Drivers trying to get around the closures are encouraged to use Walnut Street or the 210 Freeway for east-west travel north of Colorado Boulevard, and Del Mar Boulevard or Cordova Street to the south. The 134 Freeway is also an option.
For information on towed vehicles on New Year’s Day, call (626) 577-6426 between 5 p.m. Wednesday and 6 p.m. Thursday.
Rules of the road
Rain is expected for this year’s Rose Parade, but umbrellas are not permitted along the parade route because they block the view for others. Wear a rain rain jacket or poncho instead.
Camping is permitted along the parade route beginning Wednesday. All items, including blankets, chairs and bags, must remain on the curb until 11 p.m.
After that time, spectators may move forward to the blue “honor line” chalked on the road but not beyond it.
Tents, bonfires and fireworks are not allowed.
With temperatures dipping, campers are urged to use weather-rated sleeping bags. Small, professionally manufactured barbecues are allowed, as long as they are elevated at least a foot off the ground, placed at least 25 feet from buildings, and accompanied by a nearby fire extinguisher.
Questions about closures or access can be directed to the visitor hotline at (877) 793-9911 or found online.
• The 137th Rose Parade gets underway at 8 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2026. • The 5.5-mile parade features floral-covered floats, equestrian units and marching bands.
The clock is ticking.
And it’s all hands on deck as an army of volunteers get floats ready for their run down Colorado Boulevard on Thursday, Jan. 1.
This year’s theme for the 137th Rose Parade is “The Magic in Teamwork” with Magic Johnson as grand marshal.
Here’s a look at what’s happening behind the scenes.
Volunteer Jeff Okayasu works on the Rotary International float titled “Unite for Good,” while other Rose Parade floats are constructed at the Phoenix Decorating Co. in Irwindale.
Volunteers work on cutting flowers that will be added to the the “Bee Magical Together” float at the Phoenix Decorating Co. in Irwindale.
Volunteer Heather Tran, 16, helps decorate a float for the Rose Parade at the AES Rosemont Pavilion in Pasadena.
Clockwise from top left, cut flowers to be used for the Rotary Club float titled “Unite for Good”; volunteer Dulce Monico works on a flower that will be part of the City of Hope float titled “Overcoming Cancer and Diabetes Together”; volunteers help cup Spanish moss used to decorate the San Diego Zoo Safari Park’s float; and volunteer Susie Fundter of Pasadena helps decorate a zebra on the San Diego Zoo Safari Park float.
Volunteers John Hernandez, right, and his son, Leonidas, of Fontana, apply Spanish moss to an elephant on the San Diego Zoo Safari Park float.
Volunteer Carlos Bo Bedia works on the Shriners float titled “Building Dreams Together” at the Phoenix Decorating Co. in Irwindale.
Volunteer Neal Gamble, from Scott City, Kan., works on the Shriners float titled “Build Dreams Together.”
The wreck happened around 6:25 a.m. As the bus on Route 15L was heading westbound on I-70, it was rear ended. When first responders arrived on scene, the RTD bus driver did not report any injuries. The driver of the other vehicle was killed in the crash, RTD confirmed.
Westbound I-70 is closed at Holly Street, putting traffic on E. 45th N. Drive — previously Stapleton Drive North — over to Colorado Boulevard where Luber expects there to be backup at the stoplight there. Drivers on I-70 caught behind the closure are backed up to S. Peoria Street and Interstate 225.
This is a scary looking crash on WB 70 before Colorado in the left lane. The entire engine compartment is burned up. No info on how many people might be on that but besides the driver. pic.twitter.com/GPRqRX8wZM
Luber recommends morning commuters use westbound Interstate 270 or southbound Interstate 25 instead. Anyone on westbound I-70 east of Central Park should use side roads or I-270, I-25. Anyone not on westbound I-70 should use side roads past Colorado Boulevard, according to Luber.
The RTD bus was not in service at the time of the crash, according to DPD, and so there were no passengers on board.
Driver hits RTD bus on westbound Interstate 70 at Holly Street Monday morning
DPD told Luber, officers will keep westbound I-70 closed back after Quebec Street as they investigate the wreck.
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The last vacant parcel at 4050 N. Colorado Blvd. May 31, 2023.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
A developer has a key approval for building more than 300 apartments on vacant land near the Park Hill Golf Course on Colorado Boulevard.
Denver City Council members voted on Monday to approve a rezoning plan for 4050 North Colorado Boulevard that paves the way for the project. Councilmembers voted 10-2 in favor of the rezoning, with Kevin Flynn and Amanda Sawyer in opposition.
The rezoning applies to a block along Colorado Boulevard just south of Interstate 70 and near the 40th and Colorado A Line stop.
While the primary goal of the plan was to rezone the empty 7-acre tract of land owned by the Urban Land Conservancy, the vote also rezoned an area currently occupied by a strip of restaurants and another affordable apartment complex, even though it is not part of the development project.
Both city officials and the Urban Land Conservancy described the plan’s details as “complicated.” The parcels occupied by the empty tract, the restaurants, and the existing apartment complex are all under a planned building group, which sets rules about what can be developed and how.
Urban Land Conservancy wanted to amend that plan in order to build hundreds of affordable housing units on the empty parcel of land. However, in order to do that, they needed to rezone the occupied southern parcel of land, which they were able to petition for due to owning over 51 percent of the land within the planned building group.
The petition to rezone the land received widespread support from the neighborhood, including that of the Northeast Park Hill Coalition, the local neighborhood group. The council also received some opposition to the plan, with critics citing increased traffic, lack of grocery stores, and other concerns.
DelWest, which owns the apartment complex in the southern tract, wrote to city council that they did not plan to formally object to the rezoning, but the company asked Urban Land Conservancy and the city to consider several concerns DelWest had about the future vision of the area. Their concerns included changes being made to the agreements outlined in the planned building group.
This grass has been rezoned. May 31, 2023.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
OK, that’s interesting and all, but what are they going to do with the rezoned land?
Urban Land Conservancy is now free to develop the northern tract of land, pending the mayor’s signature. As detailed in a proposal sent to the city, Urban Land Conservancy plans to build three apartment buildings for permanently affordable, multifamily housing. They’ll be between five and twelve stories tall. The first phase of construction would bring 300 affordable units to the area, with room for further expansion.
A park, accessible paths, urban plazas and playgrounds are also included in the proposal. Urban Land Conservancy said plans for those features are not finalized, as conversations with stakeholders continue.
There are no plans in the works to redevelop the southern parcel of land,occupied by the strip of restaurants and the existing affordable housing complex. That means residents there, as well as the Popeye’s, Starbucks, Carl’s Jr., and Neko Ramen & Rice, aren’t going away anytime soon. (Ed. note: Unless they want to…)
The upcoming development isn’t the only complicated rezoning issue to impact the area.
Editor’s note: This article was updated on 10/2/24 at 5:36 p.m. to include information from a more recent version of the Urban Land Conservancy’s plan for the land.
West Colfax Avenue at Irving Street, July 12, 2023.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Denver Police Department’s new network of license plate readers scanned vehicles more than 2 million times in the last month, according to new data from the department.
DPD launched the system of 95 surveillance cameras throughout the city in May 2024. Today, the department published a dashboard with basic data on the system for the public.
Among the 2,072,000 vehicles detected in the last 30 days, the system reported about 86,000 hits to a “hotlist,” often because the plate was for a stolen car. The system looks for vehicles tagged in national and state-level crime databases, as well as the Amber Alert system for missing and exploited children.
Law enforcement officers ran about 1,400 searches on the Denver system in the last month.
The system used by DPD is made by Flock Safety, a technology company that has become one of the most popular in the niche for both police departments and private homeowners associations. The company describes its technology as a “holistic solution to crime.” It has drawn criticism from civil rights and anti-surveillance advocates.
DPD says that the system has been effective. Officers have used the system in the arrests of 142 crime suspects and the recovery of about 100 stolen vehicles, as well as some weapons.
This year has seen a significant decrease of motor vehicle thefts, which police attributed in part to the system — but that trend also began before the system was installed in May.
Eventually, the number of cameras could grow to 111 around Denver. The system photographs license plates but doesn’t produce any information about drivers, passengers, or other people, according to Flock. The data is “never sold to 3rd parties” and is “used for law enforcement purposes only,” according to Flock.
The cameras were planned for some of the city’s busiest roads, like Federal Boulevard, Alameda Avenue and Speer Boulevard — and especially Colfax Avenue, 9News reported.
DPD didn’t immediately respond to questions about the cost of the system.
Cities including Arvada, Aurora, Brighton, Castle Rock, Commerce City, Edgewater, Erie, Glendale, Lakewood, Northglenn, Thornton and Wheat Ridge have installed (or plan to install) similar systems, according to Denver7.
The American Civil Liberties Union has raised concerns about the scanners, saying that they were contributing to a “giant surveillance network” that centralizes data and could enable “abuse by government,” including tracking political dissidents.
“We have long had concerns about the dangers posed by hybrid public-private surveillance practices — but Flock threatens to take that to a new level,” the ACLU wrote in 2022.
Numerous other law-enforcement agencies around Colorado have access to the Denver system’s data. But the system is prohibited for use in immigrant enforcement, traffic enforcement, personal use, and more, according to Flock.
Police say they have strong leads on who put up the signs, and expect to take a suspect into custody soon.
City Councilmembers Shontel Lewis and Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez speak at a press conference in response to racist and anti-immigrant signs found at bus stops near City Park.
Rebecca Tauber/Denverite
Editor’s note: This story contains language that readers may find offensive.
One day after RTD removed racist and anti-immigrant signs bolted to bus stops near Colfax Avenue and Colorado Boulevard, a group of city and state leaders gathered at the site Friday morning.
Surrounding one of the vandalized bus stops, the group strongly rejected the signs that had referred to “Kamala’s migrants” and Black people sitting “at the back of the bus.”
The press conference included dozens of politicians, nonprofit leaders, activists and community members. They filled a portion of the sidewalk by the busy Colorado and Colfax intersection near City Park, where new immigrants often offer to wash car windows in exchange for cash.
Signs linked to a self-described “political” guerilla artist carried a race-baiting anti-immigrant message on Aug. 29, 2024.
“Our Denver does not stand for attempts to divide our communities,” City Councilmember Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez said. “Our Denver showed up with open arms and hearts when busload upon busload of people arrived here unknowingly, and I’m here to say that this is our Denver.”
Conservative activist Sabo, who describes himself as a street artist, took credit for the signs Friday, along with similar ones discovered in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention.
Denver Police are investigating the incident as a bias-motivated crime.
“I can share that we have some very strong leads, and I have every confidence that the despicable individual who is responsible for his acts will be in custody soon,” Police Chief Ron Thomas said at the press conference Friday.
The past two years have seen thousands of people, largely from Venezuela, come to Denver and cities across the country. Anti-immigrant backlash followed.
During peak arrival periods, the city of Denver mobilized emergency shelters while community groups and volunteers have mobilized to help people find housing and support when public systems have fallen short.
The backlash seen in Denver following the influx of new immigrants has also appeared across the U.S. and in other countries.
Speakers also used the press conference as an opportunity to advocate for presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
Calls of “We will not go back” echoed throughout the morning, referencing a line Vice President Kamala Harris has used repeatedly during her presidential campaign.
Some advocates think public displays of racism and anti-immigrant sentiment will continue to get worse in the lead-up to the November election as Republicans stake out an anti-immigrant stance.
The original signs themselves explicitly mentioned Harris. If elected, Harris would be the first woman, the first Asian American person and the second Black person elected president of the U.S.
“None of these messages are new. They’re being amplified because we are in a presidential election year, and every single time there is an opportunity for Black and Brown people to be thrown under the bus, they will use it. They will use it to try to divide us,” said Gladis Ibarra, co-executive director of the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. “It’s up to us as individuals, residents of Colorado and the City of Denver, to say that that is not okay, and anytime we see and hear anything, we stand up against it.”
The group of politicians, community leaders and activists closed out Monday’s press conference with a prayer.
Right before crowd members headed for their cars, former Denver School Board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson made a request: for people to spend some cash to get their windows washed by some new immigrants nearby.
Denver has built hundreds of miles of new bike lanes over the last decade or so, mostly on side streets.
But that strategy could soon change.
City planners are floating a draft update to their long-term bike infrastructure plan that calls for more than 230 miles of new bike lanes — many on car-dominated major arterial roads like Speer, Leetsdale, Broadway, Colorado Boulevard and others across the city.
They have published a new map showing exactly where and what kind of bike lane the city is proposing over the next two decades. Plans will almost certainly change as individual projects are designed, funded and go through a public feedback process, said Taylor Phillips, a senior city planner at the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure.
But before that happens, Phillips is hoping to get buy-in now for the overarching plan from the public and political leaders.
“This is exciting,” Phillips said, “… to be able to kind of think about what will Denver look like in 20 years and how can we really push the envelope and push the vision to be a city that people want to live in, that people want to visit and find it easy and comfortable and safe to get around — no matter how you choose to get around.”
The South Broadway bike lane, at Cedar Avenue. Aug. 8, 2024.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
If it were to be fully built out, the new lanes would require the removal of long stretches of vehicle lane miles and parking spots. Phillips couldn’t provide an estimate of how many. But given the controversies that often come with street changes, transformations at this scale would surely draw opposition from some of Denver’s many motorists.
But city officials say the new lanes would go a long way toward helping Denver various city goals, including those on climate, traffic safety and transportation generally. The plans around those goals all envision a different kind of Denver: one where residents drive much less than they do today.
The new plan would help get cyclists closer to their destinations.
Some of the city’s current bike lanes and low-traffic “neighborhood bikeways” abruptly end. Or, as with the 16th Avenue bike lane in the Uptown neighborhood, they run a block or two parallel to busy commercial corridors full of shops, restaurants and other destinations.
That can leave cyclists like Anthony White with a last-block problem. They can walk to their destination, slowly roll down the sidewalk, or take their chances in mixed traffic on high-speed, highly trafficked roads.
“One-ways — they’re fun to smash down,” said White, who delivers DoorDash orders and Jimmy John’s sandwiches on his bicycle and says he’s been hit by a driver before.
Anthony White holds his bicycle on East 17th Avenue, where the city now says it wants to install a protected bike lane at some point in the next 20 years, on Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. Nathaniel Minor/CPR News
“But,” he added, standing next to the three-lane East 17th Avenue one-way thoroughfare in Uptown, “it would be safer if there was a bike lane.”
Seventeenth, and many other busy streets like it across the city, may one day have just that.
Denver’s new plan calls for new protected bike lanes on highly trafficked roads including 17th and 18th avenues, 13th and 14th avenues, Speer Boulevard and Leetsdale Drive, York and Josephine streets near Congress Park, Park Avenue, West Evans Avenue, Monaco Street, Quebec Street, and Colorado Boulevard.
It also calls for an extension of the Broadway bike lane, Denver’s preeminent example of a protected bike lane on a busy street.
Such changes would likely cost vehicle travel lanes or parking spaces, and could mean slower travel times for drivers. At least one told Denverite that the trade-off would be worth it.
“I would hate to lose the three lanes for the mobility of driving cars,” said Scott Ruggiero, an Uptown resident who was gassing up his SUV at a neighborhood Conoco. “But I would say the safety of the bikes and people would be nice to have as well.”
Scott Ruggiero smiles for a portrait in Denver on Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024,Nathaniel Minor/CPR News
The plan also calls for upgrades to existing bike lanes, like converting the painted bike lane on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to a protected lane.
Some of the new bike lanes would be part of a new “core network” that would help cyclists travel more directly over longer distances. They would use high-quality, permanent materials like concrete and would accommodate a high volume of cyclists, planners say.
Given how dangerous many of Denver’s arterial streets are, advocates say any new bike lanes on them will need “extra measures” like that to keep cyclists safe.
Denver will have to work with the state to make some of these changes.
The plan calls for a protected bike lane on some state highways, including Leetsdale Drive and the entire length of Colorado Boulevard in Denver city limits. That often-congested thoroughfare is 11 lanes across at its widest and carries some 68,000 cars a day at its busiest point.
As a state highway, any changes to it must be approved by the Colorado Department of Transportation. And CDOT is ready to make significant changes to the road, said executive director Shoshana Lew.
“We all share the vision that Colorado does not function as a city street the way it needs to right now,” she said in an interview.
Colorado Boulevard, pictured here Oct. 28, 2022.Hart Van Denburg/CPR News
CDOT is planning a bus rapid transit line on the boulevard, which may include converting some car lanes to bus-only lanes. Lew said improving the shoddy, narrow sidewalks along some stretches of Colorado is also a top priority.
CDOT wants to improve bike crossings across the boulevard as well, she said.
But she was skeptical that Colorado would be the best choice for an on-street protected bike lane.
“It may be that the best option for that area is to do the dedicated bike lane on a somewhat quieter street,” she said.
Phillips acknowledged that a bikeway along the entire length of the corridor may not be feasible, but they might be possible along “critical lengths” where there aren’t good alternatives nearby.
“Just drawing that line and making sure that that intent is set now really helps us kind of fight for that in the future,” she said.
One controversial connection didn’t make the cut.
In 2020, the city backed off a plan for protected bike lanes on Washington and Clarkson streets after residents complained about the loss of hundreds of on-street parking spaces.
Advocates have pushed for it as a north-south route through Capitol Hill. And as recently as 2023, city officials said the Washington-Clarkson project wasn’t dead.
It’s now been abandoned, Phillips said.
“The trade-offs on Washington and Clarkson were high,” she said. “The parking removal would’ve been very difficult for some of the folks that live and own businesses along the corridor.”
The city is now planning for neighborhood bikeways on Emerson and Pearl streets, where bikes will share space with cars on those lower-trafficked streets. Phillips said those bikeways will be high-quality and rival, “if not exceed what we could build on Washington and Clarkson.”
The South Broadway bike lane, at Cedar Avenue. Aug. 8, 2024.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Editor’s note: This story has been corrected. Denver law prohibits riding a bicycle on a sidewalk under most circumstances, but it makes an exception for cyclists reaching their final destination. The law also says cyclists on sidewalks must ride no faster than 6 mph and must yield to pedestrians.
