DENVER — The Denver Police Department (DPD) has quietly launched drones to serve as first-responders in a pilot program, sparking renewed concerns about surveillance and transparency.
The pilot program includes two Skydio X10 drones and two docking stations installed on the roof of the Denver Police Administration building on Cherokee Street in downtown Denver.
Since mid-October, when the pilot program was first launched, the drones have responded to 215 calls for service.
“Leveraging emerging technologies like Drone as First Responder platforms will help us to achieve quicker response times…” said Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas in a news release announcing the trial run.
The drones operate within a two nautical mile radius of that location, according to DPD.
Denver Police Department
Denver joins a growing number of metro area communities using drone as first-responder programs, including Commerce City and Castle Rock.
However, the program has sparked concerns about transparency around how the program started and who is being contracted to carry it out.
DPD said it is currently piloting with Skydio Drone, and has signed a contract with Flock Aerodome, the same surveillance company at the center of recent controversy over a contract extension it made with the city behind closed doors, according to some Denver City Council members.
A move that is apparently starting to become a pattern for the city.
When Denver7 reached out to Denver Councilmember At-Large Serena Gonzalez-Gutierrez, she said this was the first she had heard about DPD’s drone pilot program.
And as a member of the city’s surveillance task force, she believes the community should have been involved in the decision to launch the pilot program back on Oct. 18.
“We need an opportunity to at least catch up and to implement some guardrails to make sure that we’re not causing more harm,” she said.
Flock Safety, one of the two companies contracted for the trial, is already at the center of disputes with the city and residents over its automated license plate reader cameras.
“After everything that we have gone through with the automated license plate readers… it’s very, very concerning that we’re continuing to do business with this company,” said Gonzalez-Gutierrez.
Denver Police Department
Denver7 reached out to the department Friday, but DPD was not available for an interview.
In the department’s news release, the agency highlighted early successes.
DFR drones have been deployed to 215 calls for service (through December 8th) including, but not limited to: Robberies, burglaries, assaults, fights, weapons-related offenses, narcotics-related reports, and more
Over 80% of the time, drones arrive first on scene to incidents to which they respond
In more than 30% of calls to which they respond, the DFR pilots determine that no patrol response is needed, allowing officers to be redirected to higher-priority incidents
In 95% of the missions they fly, the pilots assess that they’ve provided critical information to officers on the ground
Using the DFR drones, the pilots have helped locate suspects, clear calls without officer deployment, and reduce wait times for service
But some city leaders remain unconvinced that the benefits will outweigh the risks.
“It’s yet to be answered whether or not these can be utilized by avoiding the concerns that people have been stating,” Gonzalez-Gutierrez said.
The zero-dollar Skydio pilot program is contracted through March of 2026.
Meanwhile, a timeframe for obtaining and installing the Flock Aerodome equipment has not yet been determined, according to DPD.
Denver7 | Your Voice: Get in touch with Claire Lavezzorio
Denver7’s Claire Lavezzorio covers topics that have an impact across Colorado, but specializes in reporting on stories in the military and veteran communities. If you’d like to get in touch with Claire, fill out the form below to send her an email.
A new economic study reveals the University of Colorado system generated $12.2 billion in economic impact across the state last year. This is an increase of more than half a billion dollars from 2024.
The report says most of that impact about $7.1 billion dollars, is right in the Denver metro area.
Campus by campus, CU Anschutz led the system with $5.7 billion in economic impact. That means it generated the most for nearby businesses.
CU Boulder followed with $5 billion, while CU Denver and UCCS contributed $667 million and $567 million.
Vibe Coffee & Wine is one of the businesses near CU Denver and staff say students play a major role in keeping their business steady.
“I think students play a significant role for small businesses. I think there’s also for this generation that’s coming up, they’re a lot more focused on the quality, and they’re willing to pay more for something that is created with care,” said Liza Giles, Vibe Coffee & Wine, brand operations.
Staff say student foot traffic drops during spring, winter, and summer breaks though, tourists make up for that loss, especially during the summer months.
For more information on the economic report, click here.
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Downtown Denver’s COVID-19 era slump is far from over. There are record-high office vacancies. Storefronts sit empty. People aren’t returning to work.
To fix it and make downtown “world class,” Denver City Council just passed a new Downtown Denver Area Plan — the first major downtown plan since 2007.
The plan passed the council 11-0, with members Jamie Torres and Stacie Gilmore absent. The vote wrapped up a two-year planning process.
“What we heard was that a vision for downtown must not just reflect the values of the people who live and work here, not just the people who have a direct stake in this place, but also anyone who has a fond memory of this place and the people who have yet to experience this place,” said Andrew Iltis, Senior Vice President, Downtown Denver Partnership.
Many residents said downtown needs to be safer, affordable and focused on play. During a long public comment period, city boosters from Visit Denver, the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, registered neighborhood groups asked the council to pass the plan.
Thousands of people shared their ideas for downtown in written comments and through public meetings.
The approved plan includes shorter-term projects like the redesigns of Civic Center Park, Glenarm Plaza and Skyline Park, along with long-term projects like the potential realignment of Cherry Creek and Speer Boulevard, two-way streets through downtown, a reimagining of Broadway and a new Broadway Park.
Mayor Mike Johnston plays a pick-up game with kids gathered for the opening of two new soccer arenas at downtown’s Skyline Park. Aug. 26, 2025.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
The goals of the plan are to improve public safety, affordability, downtown governance structures, fill local businesses and office spaces, and connections between downtown and the rest of the city.
Ryan Ross, a Denver businessman who proposed a gondola through the center of the city, described the plan as “deeply flawed” and argued the public was not thoroughly engaged.
“The plan, as you know from having read it, consists of a long series of micro projects that even collectively won’t do much to get the vibrancy that we need in downtown, to get it back on its feet,” Ross said.
Why all the focus on downtown?
While the city center comprises less than 2 percent of the city’s land, it generates more than a fifth of the sales tax that pays for city government.
“When downtown falters, Denver feels it,” Councilmember Chris Hinds said. “When downtown thrives, the whole city benefits.”
Around 34,000 people live in the city center, with 53 million people visiting just last year.
In the decades to come, the city center may expand into Auraria, along the South Platte, with Stan Kroenke’s development plans for the Ball Arena parking lots and the proposed River Mile district, potentially doubling the population of downtown.
The plan aims to make downtown “the nation’s largest signature ‘play’ district.”
How? Events, art, food trucks, better parks and plazas, hang-out and fitness areas, pedestrian-oriented shopping and dining, creative lighting, digital games and musical installations, and enough security for everybody – including children – to feel safe.
It also calls for a focus on arts, culture and history, environmentally resilient design, child care and affordable housing, according to the plan.
But council members still have doubts and questions.
Councilmember Flor Alvidrez raised a pressing concern informed by a recent walk with her son through downtown.
“It felt like he was constantly going to get in trouble, or someone was going to come out and get mad at him for being a kid downtown,” Alvidrez said. “There wasn’t any other children when we were around Skyline Park, and there was, you know, human feces and urine.”
People mill around Denver Pavilions, on 16th Street, on a Saturday evening. Oct. 18, 2025.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
“People experiencing homelessness are always going to go downtown because it’s where there’s transit and resources and people, and ignoring that reality creates an unsafe, uncomfortable condition for everyone, especially families, when we’re trying to be a family-friendly city instead of meeting human needs,” Alvidrez said.
Downtown could also offer more child care centers, schools and free public amenities like a library extension, she said.
Other council members raised concerns about whether the L Line — the light rail through Five Points — would be maintained. Would converting Broadway into a park create traffic problems? And was downtown getting outsized attention compared to other neighborhoods that have no plans at all?
“We need to invest in the other 78 neighborhoods that we have in Denver,” Council President Amanda Sandoval said.
DENVER — After three years of construction and business interruptions, the $176 million project to revamp 16th Street in downtown Denver was officially declared complete Saturday.
City leaders, including Mayor Mike Johnston, celebrated the grand reopening alongside residents and business owners at an event on Saturday.
“With the work now completed, we’ve renewed a vital piece of Denver, while making it more welcoming, vibrant, and accessible for all,” Johnston said.
The project, partly funded by a voter-approved bond back in 2017, upgraded 13 blocks of 16th Street from Market Street to Broadway, addressing deteriorating infrastructure, improving transit flow, and enhancing pedestrian safety.
The historic shopping corridor even got a name change in May of this year, going from “16th Street Mall” when it opened in 1982, to just “16th Street.”
Denver resident Kendall Rohach has been visiting 16th Street for the past 30 years and told Denver7 that the improvements are noticeable.
“Now it seems people have a reason to stop and sit,” he said. “It seems a lot cleaner now. It seems friendlier.”
For years, business owners have shared concerns about construction and crime, saying it’s led to a drastic decrease in customers, despite some help from the city during the project’s construction.
Denver7
Downtown Denver Partnership CEO Kourtny Garrett told Denver7 in May that the retail vacancy rate for the 16th Street area was 22% and the overall downtown retail vacancy rate is 15%.
Garrett and city officials hope that the project’s completion will bring more businesses back to downtown Denver and increase foot traffic.
After 3 years of construction, Denver’s 16th Street is officially reopened
Highlights of the renovation include:
Improvements Below the Surface Miles of underground water, sewer and fiber infrastructure have been modernized as part of the project, turning a “noodle soup” of underground utilities created over time into a reliable and organized network. This critical work ensures that 16th Street remains resilient and functional, ready to grow and evolve as our city does.
Improved Paver System Laid by hand by skilled craftspeople, more than 950,000 new pavers were installed as part of the renovation that offer improved drainage and better surface friction to prevent slipping and to enhance pedestrian safety. The granite paver design honors the original Navajo rug and diamondback rattlesnake pattern that has been a prominent feature of 16th Street.
Expanded Tree Canopy The project improved, diversified, and expanded 16th Street’s tree canopy with large, healthy trees that cool and create a welcoming environment. More than 200 new trees were planted along the corridor, increasing its tree canopy by 34 percent. Several of the original 16th Street trees were thoughtfully repurposed into beautiful benches now installed at the new Populus Hotel downtown. Also as part of the renovation, a new underground soil and irrigation system was installed to sustain the trees in their new home along the transitway. The system provides more soil for the tree roots, supporting healthier growth and a long canopy life.
Enhanced Walk and Transit Ways Transit lanes moved to the center of 16th Street, eliminating the median that ran between the buses on some blocks, and creating wider pedestrian walkways. Outside of the transit stops themselves, there is a new curbless configuration that facilitates the movement of people and enables a variety of uses, including events and festivals.
Enhanced Visitor Experience New interactive kiosks provide selfie opportunities, business listings, games, and free Wi-Fi. New lighting, comfortable seating, and open spaces promote people-watching and gatherings. A dazzling art installation at 16th & Glenarm Street called Aspen Light enhances the new Glenarm Plaza open consumption and seating area. Five new play structures foster a greater family atmosphere:
The Nest | Children’s climbing structure at 16th & Glenarm Street
Fallen Leaves play feature | Hop on the teal/yellow “leaves” to make fun sounds at 16th St. between Arapahoe & Curtis streets (by Rock Bottom Brewery)
The Beehive | Children’s climbing structure at 16th between Larimer and Lawrence streets
Howdy Trouty | Three ‘climbable’ trout, including one donning a western “troutfit” at 16th between Market and Larimer streets
Grasslands | Undulating prairie grass-inspired forms and integrated seating at 16th between Court and Cleveland places.
Prior coverage:
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DENVER — Summer on Downtown Denver’s rebranded 16th Street started loudly: a pounding electronic dance music concert on Memorial Day, followed by a “Summer Kickoff” event the next weekend. Both events, meant to celebrate most of the corridor’s long-running construction being complete, drew thousands of people.
Denver7 spoke with optimistic members of the business community along the corridor around that time. One of them was Rafail Martinez, general manager for the 3 Margaritas restaurant and bar on 16th Street.
“We wait a long, long, long time to having this here now,” he said in May as people flocked back to the area for the concert.
Now with those big events in the rear-view mirror, Denver7 checked back in with Martinez to see if the new 16th Street had continued to make a financial difference for the restaurant.
Denver7 has been following the changes to 16th Street all summer. Read our previous coverage below:
Martinez estimates his sales are up 85% compared to the previous summer when the street was consumed by construction.
“Before it was dark, dangerous, yeah. Now looks so different,” he said. “We have a patio outside, so now it’s open. Like 20 tables outside. Before it was nothing, just closed, no patio, construction.”
Denver7
Rafail Martinez
Martinez also said that while there have not been big blowout events like those to start the summer, there have been events on the corridor to bring vendors and music to the area to attract visitors.
Others told Denver7 the same: less construction and more of a police presence on 16th Street have made a difference.
“Compared to last year, we’re in a much, much better spot,” said Feven Nebiyu, who works at the Brooklyn’s Finest Pizza on 16th Street. “For reference, we used to average like 200-300 tickets a night. Now we’re averaging about 400 or 500 on a busy night.”
Nebiyu acknowledged the busy start to the summer fizzled out recently, but she’s hopeful the reimagined stretch of downtown will have a lasting impact.
“Traffic just kind of mellowed out, as it does, especially towards the fall,” she said. “But I think this upcoming winter is going to be real good for us because when we have all of this open and they’re doing the Parade of Lights, when they’re doing the New Year’s show, that’s when we get the most people all year, actually.”
Denver7
Feven Nebiyu
Some who spoke with Denver7 still want to see changes, like restarting bus service down the entire corridor to spur more foot traffic. That’s expected to happen once construction is fully complete. Another business manager told Denver7 that they want to see better signage so more people know about these outdoor drinking zones at 16th and Glenarm.
“It’s been great until COVID,” said Michael Falls, who has lived at 16th and California since 1998. “COVID changed a lot, and I think the city’s about at least 85% back to where it used to be.”
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Michael Falls
The Downtown Denver Partnership’s July 2025 report shows foot traffic was indeed at 85% of 2019 levels. So far, Falls is happy with the changes the city has made.
“They’ve done a lot,” he told Denver7. “I think now it’s up to the business community to come in and do more patios, bigger patios, and just fill in the blank spots.”
DENVER — The historic Denver Dry Goods Company building, a downtown landmark since the late 1800s, is on its way to a new chapter as part of a $67 million redevelopment project aimed at addressing the growing need for affordable housing in the area.
Developed by Jonathan Rose Companies, the Denver Dry Building has evolved over the years from a popular department store to a mix of apartments, commercial space and offices. With goals set on revitalizing downtown Denver, the company is reimagining the space to create affordable living options and enhance the neighborhood’s foot traffic.
Denver Dry Goods building to be renovated to address affordable housing shortage
Since the early 1990s, the building has served various purposes, including ground floor retail, two floors of office space and affordable apartment units.
The redevelopment will renovate 51 existing affordable units and introduce 55 new units, all income-restricted based on the area’s median income.
“This building has been part of our portfolio for a long time, since the early 1990s, and our real goal is to create housing for residents across the income spectrum,” Hayley Jordahl, director of development at Perry Rose LLC — the firm partnered with Jonathan Rose Companies — said.
The project marks an opportunity to reactivate downtown Denver, especially in light of the challenges faced since 2020 when the city — like many others — experienced a decline in retail and office occupancy. The pandemic has left many storefronts vacant, prompting this plan to enhance the area by attracting more residents and potentially increasing foot traffic for local businesses.
“We’re hoping that our work of historic preservation, creation of new affordable housing, and greening of this building will contribute to the next steps for downtown Denver,” Jordahl said.
Denver7
As part of the renovation, developers plan to restore the building’s historic exterior, focusing on its brickwork and windows. Renovations for the interior housing units will align existing units with upgrades seen in the newly constructed apartments, installing energy-efficient appliances and a modern heating system.
“The interior renovation will take about 13 months, with completion expected in early fall of next year,” Jordahl stated.
Leasing information for the new apartments will become available by late summer 2026.
This redevelopment is part of a broader effort to create a thriving, diverse environment that meets the needs of those who work, live and visit the area.
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On Tuesday, in front of a crowd of leaders and employees of various businesses operating in downtown, like DaVita and Southwest, Johnston said the city’s made considerable progress on that goal.
“If you think about where we were a year ago when we were talking about the visions that [Kourtny Garrett, President of Downtown Denver Partnership] and the Downtown Denver Partnership had for the city and what we had for the city, it is a dramatic change from where we were a year ago,” Johnston said.
“We have had three times the number of leasing requests and inquiries over the last three months as we have over the last three years combined,” he said. “That is the sign of a downtown that is making a comeback.”
Voters have an opportunity this November to decide whether to invest more money into downtown. Denver Ballot Issue 6A, which Johnston endorsed Tuesday, would raise the city’s debt by $847 million to invest in the Denver Downtown Development Authority, to be paid for by existing taxes on downtown.
The authority has been at the center of Denver’s efforts to revitalize downtown. Money from the program has mostly been used for the area surrounding Union Station, but Johnston now wants to use the money for a greater area.
During his brief speech, Johnston doubled down on his promise that he would transform downtown Denver into a hot destination.
“If you own property in downtown Denver, keep it. If you don’t own downtown Denver property, you should buy it. If you have office space in downtown, you should keep it,” Johnston told the crowd. “If you don’t, you should get some, because what you’re going to find is three years from now, but three years from now when every other city in the country is traveling to Denver to say, you have to go see what Denver did with their downtown.”
Do you buy the idea of a downtown comeback? Let us know at [email protected].
Shortly after Maria Hernandez came from Mexico to the United States in 1985, she got her first and only job in this country: working the night shift as a janitor.
For nearly four decades, she cleaned 12 floors of a downtown Denver office building where the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment does business.
Now she plans to retire in a few months.
But first, she’s helping negotiate a contract for better wages, health care and retirement benefits for the more than 2,300 unionized janitors who work downtown. More than 90 percent of them are also Latina immigrants.
Janitors need more money and benefits to live in Denver, the union argues. But the city’s downtown office economy has taken a beating, and raising pay and benefits could be challenging in this market, their employers argue.
For Hernandez, these fights are nothing new.
An early member of the Denver Justice for Janitors campaign, she has spent decades fighting for better working conditions and struggled for a higher minimum wage citywide.
She’s marched in the streets, picketed and gone on strike. She was even arrested during a protest for “making too much noise,” she said in Spanish, and she’s proud of it.
Now, as her career comes to an end, Hernandez is willing to fight again if it means better working conditions for women like her, struggling to make enough money to raise families in this city, to pay rent and maybe even retire.
Working away from family, for unknown bosses
Hernandez worked hard for her family, getting by on near-minimum wage earnings.
She scrubbed toilets in dozens of bathrooms a day, threw out the trash, vacuumed the floors. She’s one of the longest-employed people in the building where she works, yet among those who get the least recognition and compensation.
She doesn’t know the people she works for. Not the bosses, not even most of the employees of the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment whose messes she tidies.
A view of the building that houses the Colorado Department of Labor downtown. June 14, 2024.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Her schedule makes her an invisible part of their lives. After all, the workers in the building are long gone, back home with their friends and families, when she’s getting started, making sure they have a nice place to conduct business.
Over her 38-year career, she raised three children who all still live in Denver: one daughter who now works with people with disabilities, another who remodels pools and a son who works in a law firm.
While they were growing up, she’d leave her home in the Lincoln Park neighborhood for work before they’d get back from school. She would return from work while they were still asleep.
She lost precious time with her kids.
“It is difficult, but one needs to work to survive,” she told Denverite, standing outside the highrise she cleans before a Friday night shift in June.
These days, her kids tell her they’re grateful for the life she provided, even if it was hard for them to be apart from their mother so often.
Now that retirement is approaching, can she afford it?
Her family has lived in the same house for decades, though her kids have moved on. Her husband passed away recently, and she’s shouldering the bills on a paycheck that doesn’t match Denver’s cost of living.
And rent has gone up mightily. Her family paid roughly $500 in rent decades ago. Now, without her husband, she pays more than $2,000 a month.
After 35 years, Hernandez’s pay is just a little over a dollar higher than Denver’s minimum wage of $18.29.
Maria Hernandez stands outside of the downtown building where she works as a janitor. June 14, 2024.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
On the eve of retirement, Hernandez is not certain she can afford to stay here. Denver’s too expensive, and she hasn’t been able to save enough to make it without working.
“It’s sad,” she said.
She’s considering moving to another state or even back to Mexico, where the cost of living is lower. But she’d hate to leave her kids.
“There you can own your own house,” she said. “Here you have to rent.”
Her hours haven’t changed after all these years, but the workload has.
Since the pandemic, the downtown offices have emptied out. Many janitors lost their jobs. Hernandez was among those who stayed, shouldering extra work.
Even with lots of chatter about downtown coming back to life, the office buildings have not been restaffed to pre-pandemic levels. The janitors still employed have been doing extra labor without significant raises.
The work itself is tiring and, for some, dangerous.
“Many times the chemicals are very strong,” she said. “They give people allergic reactions. There are people who have been unable to work because of what the chemicals do.”
What do the bosses do to help?
“It’s not important to the owners that the chemicals they give you make you sick or hurt you,” she said.
Marching for better pay and benefits
Hernandez was voted by more than 2,400 janitors in Service Employees International Union Local 105 to represent them in contract negotiations with multiple companies charged with keeping downtown offices clean, including CCS Facility Services, ABM and Master Klean.
The workers are demanding better pay, health insurance and retirement benefits.
The negotiations launched on June 17. Janitors marched alongside other SEIU members, labor activists and State Rep. Tim Hernandez.
“We know that when workers who are directly impacted have improved conditions that everything around them becomes improved,” Rep. Hernandez said to a cheering crowd.
Tim Hernandez speaks at an SEIU Local 105 rally for janitors, outside Union Station, on June 17, 2024. Kyle Harris / Denverite
Stephanie Felix-Sowy, President of SEIU Local 105, said the group was fighting for higher wages, better health care benefits, and retirement packages.
Discussions began Monday morning and were slated to continue until later in the day.
“With the growth in Denver, and with the kind of revitalization efforts in the downtown, our members feel like they’ve been left behind at this point,” Felix-Sowy said. “And so this is our opportunity to really concentrate on what are fair wages, competitive wages, where we can attract and retain folks in this industry.”
Downtown office building owners have been struggling after the pandemic.
John Nesse, the attorney who represents the six companies united in negotiations under the name Denver Janitorial Contractors, says the city center’s commercial real estate market is hurting.
While he declined to comment on specific points in the negotiation, he suggested that the market isn’t favorable to expensive changes in the contracts.
“The Denver office market has a record high vacancy rate right now, and like a lot of office markets, it’s struggling,” Nesse said. “So we expect that that will have an impact on these negotiations.”
A view of the building that houses the Colorado Department of Labor downtown. June 14, 2024.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
There are already eight meetings on the calendar between the union and Nesse.
“We’re very early in the process, and you know, our goal is to negotiate a contract that reflects the realities of the Denver market, and to do that in a way that ends with a handshake with the union and an agreement before the expiration of the contract,” he said.
What’s next for contract negotiations
While both parties hope to reach an amenable agreement by the contract’s expiration on July 28, that isn’t guaranteed.
Is Hernandez optimistic the contract will favor the janitors?
“Hopefully,” she said.
If the contract expires and a deal hasn’t been struck, workers could walk off the job in protest — an outcome neither party wants.
But the union is ready to fight for the long haul for better wages and benefits.
“If the owners of the companies do not want to accept what the people are asking of them,” she said, “we are ready to go on strike.”
Maria Hernandez, a Denver janitor, participates in an SEIU Local 105 rally outside Union Station, on June 17, 2024. Kyle Harris / Denverite
Over the past decade, Denver’s relatively new Union Station neighborhood was touted as both one of the city’s most desirable and least desirable places to live — a hub of luxury and a hotbed of crime.
A new Denver Urban Gardens community garden behind the station and above the bus terminal is the latest attempt to restore the neighborhood to its pre-pandemic glory, where restaurants and shops flourished and people walked about, sharing space and enjoying community.
Residents are excited about it. So is Denver Urban Gardens. And a bevy of public relations pros are touting the space as a sign that downtown’s back — a drum beat they’ve been pounding to keep the area active, so property values stay high, businesses return and everybody feels safer.
And maybe, just maybe, if the community members have their way, the garden could even be a meeting place between the haves and have-nots. A space where tensions evaporate as people plant seeds, water plants, grow healthy foods, breathe in the air and decompress from a terribly tense few years.
It’s one of the first steps, driven by the community, in making the area above the bus terminal a place people actually want to be.
Next will be a stage, lunchtime concerts, more food trucks and other amenities the community wants.
All this is welcome news to Laura Morgan, who has lived in the neighborhood through some of its peaks and slumps.
Roughly eight years ago, when Morgan moved from San Francisco into a Union Station apartment at the Platform, the area was poised to become the next hot place to live in Denver.
City planners, developers and urban boosters had spent years plotting the Union Station revival, with a new Downtown bus station below ground and a luxurious neighborhood with big-city vibes where everything was walkable above.
The new 17th Street Gardens behind Union Station is nearly complete. June 11, 2024.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
You could work from an office during the day; play at sports arenas, music venues, bars and museums in your free time; and live in stylish housing. Even better, on the weekends, you had easy access to the mountains on Bustang and the Winter Park Express.
“(There were) a lot of people, a lot of population, just lots of booming businesses — people coming to be here,” Morgan said.
As Anna Jones, manager of the Central Platte Valley Metropolitan District, put it, the area was “high-end and yet accessible.”
”Because you have Union Station and all the open public areas,” Jones said. “So it’s kind of where everything comes together. And it really did meet the mark of what the initial designers and developers were thinking.”
Morgan, benefiting from all that planning, liked the area so much that she decided to quit renting and buy a condo at the Coloradan.
Then COVID-19 pummeled the thriving city center.
The public space above the bus terminal and behind Union Station had been built for informal public gatherings, an area for the community.
“It was intended to be a passive, enjoyable linger-in kind of space,” Jones said. “And as the pandemic hit, people emptied out.”
Offices shuttered, restaurants closed. As winter came in 2021, people who had been camping at Civic Center Park were fenced out of that space and moved to the Union Station bus terminal, the public square built above it and the Great Hall itself.
Indoors, people without homes stayed warm, charged their phones and slept in relative safety many said they couldn’t find on the streets or in the emergency overnight shelters. For those who used drugs, they had a place where people could see if they overdosed and administer Naloxone, an overdose reversal drug.
The new 17th Street Gardens behind Union Station is nearly complete. June 11, 2024.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
“When COVID hit, things definitely closed down a bit,” Morgan said. “And it was definitely a very interesting experience living here with not as many people and a lot more unhoused people, a lot of different kinds of drug issues that we saw daily, outside our front door.”
Complaints about safety rose as did drug crimes. Some downtown residents applied for concealed-carry permits or bought mace, afraid they needed to defend themselves.
Neighbors reported people using drugs while engaging in oral sex in the entryway to the bus terminal, rats gobbling cereal from boxes littering the gardens and pet dogs getting stuck by syringes.
In December 2021, the head of a transit union described Union Station’s bus terminal as “a lawless hellhole.” Bus drivers were scared to be there.
Ever since, downtown residents, boosters, businesses and politicians have been struggling to bring a sense of safety back to the Union Station neighborhood.
In an effort to create safety, large granite benches above the bus terminal were demolished, giving people one less place to sit comfortably.
The open space where the community gardens now sit was fenced off by the Central Platte Valley Metropolitan District, creating a sense that the area was uninhabitable.
Some residents proposed the people living on the streets, who had nowhere else to go, needed more social services and healthcare or housing. Others wanted them rounded up and put in jail.
The new 17th Street Gardens behind Union Station is nearly complete. June 11, 2024.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Listening to the loud complaints of neighbors, Mayor Michael Hancock’s Denver Police Department ramped up its presence. So did RTD’s police force. The transit agency also funded a host of environmental fixes. Private security patrolled the station itself.
And after Mayor Mike Johnston took office, he spent his six months trying to end visible homelessness in the urban core by bringing more than 1,000 people inside and permanently shuttering encampments through increased enforcement.
Morgan and Jones are part of the latest effort to reenergize Union Station, this time by creating the 17th Street Community Garden.
The gardens are being built in the fenced-off areas above the bus station, and while fences will remain, the unsightly, tall chain-link fence will likely be removed, if the Metro District has its way and the city’s planning department approves a new design.
“We have 32 community garden plots,” said Nessa Mogharreban, the director of partnerships at Denver Urban Gardens. “All of the plots are full with residents and businesses to take care of the space, grow food, grow community, and help create a human-based solution for the climate challenge that we’re facing as well.”
Central Platte Valley Metropolitan District manager Anna Jones (left to right), Denver Urban Gardens partnerships director Nessa Mogharreban and 17th Street Gardens leader Laura Morgan sit in the nearly-completed 17th Street Gardens behind Union Station. June 11, 2024.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Anybody can request a garden, and 50 people have signed up for the list. All you need to join is an email address.
Theoretically, the garden could be a place where the housed and unhoused can garden together.
“I think it’s going to be a really interesting experiment,” Jones said. “This is kind of the ultimate post-pandemic, urban exercise in equitable shared space. If we do this well, I am confident that we will be able to replicate this kind of model all over the country. I think it really is going to be a great post-pandemic paradigm shift that a lot of people are gonna look to.”
DENVER — Several businesses in downtown Denver have recently announced their permanent closures despite city leaders’ continued work toward pre-pandemic levels of traffic and occupancy.
Three Saints Revival, Avelina’s Kitchen and Bar, and Ana’s Norwegian Bakeri are among the businesses that have shuttered this month.
When Denver7 spoke to Ana Fanakra, owner of Ana’s Norwegian Bakeri, at Christmas, we highlighted the ways different cultures in our community celebrated the holiday season. Fanakra was excited to share her home country’s baked goods and customs.
But in early February — three months after the bakery’s grand opening — Fanakra closed the shop for the last time. She blames insufficient traffic over the winter months to sustain her business.
“February 3rd was our official last day… I closed at noon that day because we had made less than $100. And that, I think, says a lot,” Fanakra said. “It was a consistent issue.”
The often-cited issues of crime and homelessness were not factors. Fanakra said she had problems with neither during the months she was open. Instead, she blames a long permitting process that delayed her opening until November. She feels her business could have survived if it had opened during the busier summer months when there are consistently higher levels of foot traffic throughout downtown.
Fanakra is not alone. The Three Saints Revival restaurant in lower downtown announced this week it was permanently closing.
In a posting on its website, the restaurant’s team said they are “truly appreciative of the support” of their guests, but that they are unable to continue operations.
“We opened in late 2021 as a celebration after surviving the pandemic,” the post reads. “We’re so proud of what we built and operated and all the team-members that brought it to life day-in and day-out, but downtown never recovered.”
Data from the Colorado Restaurant Association shows Denver had a net loss of 222 restaurants between July 2022 and July 2023, constituting more than 11% of the city’s total. Before the pandemic, Denver saw a 3% to 5% growth in restaurants each year. The Colorado Restaurant Association blames several factors facing business owners.
“The challenges facing Denver’s local restaurants are daunting — remote work reducing foot traffic, safety concerns related to the unhoused population downtown, and a minimum wage surpassing major cities like Los Angeles and New York,” said Colorado Restaurant Association President and CEO Sonia Riggs in a statement.
Kourtney Garrett, executive director of the Downtown Denver Partnership, acknowledged that “we need to see more people downtown” in order for long-term economic stability. However, she said some data points make the DDP optimistic.
Findings released this month show a steady increase in people coming downtown on a weekly basis since 2021, which Garrett said is at 91% of pre-pandemic levels at some weeks. At the same time, though, office vacancy downtown remains high, eliminating an important customer base for businesses.
“The last 18 months have almost been a tale of two cities,” Garrett said. “We see these positive trends, yet we know that the environment still is not what it was pre-pandemic, particularly in the retail and food and beverage industry, which is already a difficult industry to begin with. We do see that there’s a continued challenge.”
“We need people to spend their time and spend their money in downtown Denver,” Garrett said.
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