by Editorial Board | May 20, 2024 | Editorials
Editorial —
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston held an outdoor press conference by Union Station. He correctly noted that Denver, to be a successful vibrant city, must have a successful vibrant downtown, and for Colorado to succeed it needs a successful City and County of Denver. He also noted that Denver needs to break out of the area’s post-COVID “doom loop” that other cities like San Francisco are experiencing.
The trouble he has is that his solution of using an obscure special taxing authority — the Denver Downtown Development Authority (DDA) — to raise a half billion dollars to invest in downtown won’t work because of what the mayor will use the money for. The mayor is lying to you when he says he doesn’t know what the money will be used for. He indicates the “campaign will start with a conversation with downtown residents.” He has even set up a website, Denvergov.org/DDA, “where every Denverite can chime in with their hopes and dreams for what they want from the downtown.”
What a bunch of “malarkey” as President Biden would say. Luckily citizens have become a great deal wiser over the last few years that they cannot just count on what the government and politicians say is true. Rest assured every penny of that half billion “free money “ has already been spoken for.
The mayor will announce that what Denverites really want is for existing high rise office buildings to be retrofitted as personal residences. Of course, the mayor cannot be that brutally frank so it will be closer to what the mayor sheepishly said he maybe, sort of likes: “more childcare centers, commercial-to-residential conversions, and affordable housing.”
Yes of course, we need more childcare centers in the one place in Denver where there are almost no children. Downtown is inhabited by young two income couples with no children and older citizens whose children have left home so they decided to move to downtown Denver. The mayor also would like to have more “affordable housing” in the most expensive place to live in Denver. Really? No problem. He just declared 10% of the converted units must be “affordable” however he may define that term.
That leaves you with “commercial-to-residential conversions.” Anybody who has looked at such conversions states that they would be incredibly expensive and better to tear down the existing office towers and build new apartment houses and condominiums.
But you are failing to see who this is intended to benefit. Denver has a 30% vacancy rate and many properties have gone back to the regional banks that overly invested in office buildings and some properties owned by Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITS) that are in the same position. The banks have written off the loans and the REITS their investments. But they are both unwilling to expend any more money on the properties. That is where DDAs come in. They give free money to the property owners for the overly expensive conversions and now the properties will actually be worth something.
Even better, the Biden Administration knows it can’t let the regional banks go belly up so it has massive amounts of money in the form of federal grants for “commercial-to-residential” grants.
But if nothing is ever paid back who loses? Well, of course you do. The money that goes in the Tax Increment Financing is money that would otherwise go to the general fund of the city as well as to the Denver Public Schools. The schools just increase your mill levies as back fill and the city either cuts services sometime in the future or raises taxes sometime in the future but that is for your kids to worry about if they still want to live in Denver.
It is a great rob Peter (Denverites in the future) to pay today Paul (the banks and the REITS). Luckily no other media outlet in the Denver market other than the Chronicle will tell you this and the scheme will merrily be approved by the Denver City Council and the people voting in the future DDA. They have nothing to lose, only you, and you don’t get to vote on the matter. What a wonderful world.
— Editorial Board
by Editorial Board | Apr 19, 2024 | Editorials
Editorial —
Senator Lisa Cutter
Representative Lorena Garcia
Representative Tammy Story
There is no more contentious issue in the country than the schooling of children. Public school union teachers are one of the most important cogs in the Democrat coalition with funds for Democrat candidates from dues and volunteers for their campaigns. The teacher unions have become more and more radicalized over the years.
The “Red for Ed” movement among unionized teachers has spread across America starting in Chicago, and spreading all the way to states such as West Virginia, Arizona, and Oklahoma. The color “red” in this instance does not refer to Republicans but the earlier association with socialists/communists.
Conversely, educated during the COVID-19 pandemic, parents were shocked by what was being taught to their children and began pushing back. The fight was ratcheted up over the trans issues and in particular the position by some public schools that they would not notify parents while their children were given puberty blockers or beginning to transition from one sex to another.
Wealthy parents who could afford to send to private schools did so to escape the unionized teachers and other parents began homeschooling their children. Parents also began embracing the movement started in the 1990s of “charter” schools which are publicly funded but run by parents or even companies.
Unionized teachers uniformly dislike charter schools and do what they can to destroy them. Not a single charter school in Colorado has unionized teachers. That is where the Polis caper begins.
Democrat Representatives Lorena Garcia, Tammy Story, and Senator Lisa Cutter introduced HB24-1363 they said to reform and update the provisions for charter schools. They claimed to want to make charter schools more transparent and provide them with the same high standards as neighborhood public schools.
It drew high levels of support from a “who’s who” of progressive groups including the League of Women Voters, Colorado PTA, Colorado Working Families Party, Colorado Teachers Association, American Federation of Teachers Colorado, Servicios Sigue, Latino Education Coalition, Colorado Democratic Education Initiative, Advocates for Public Education, and Advocacy Denver.
No one supporting charter schools was fooled. American Federation for Children said that “30 years of charter school work could be undone.” Local charter groups said charter schools in Colorado “will suffer death by a thousand cuts.”
It would seem with strong support from Democrat groups and the state legislature having Democrat super majorities the legislation could not fail to pass.
Governor Jared Polis
But that was the big con. It was never intended to pass. No bill is introduced by Democrats that is not pre-approved by Governor Polis. He, in turn, has great aspirations to run for U.S. President with cross party appeal. He has almost comically labeled himself to be a small “l” libertarian. In his five years as governor, he has done nothing that did not mark him as a far-left politician.
Now was the time for the charter school caper. A true Sister Souljah moment.
When Polis first ran for governor in 2018, he claimed to be a strong charter supporter, having helped start one in Boulder, and appointed pro charter and even Republicans to his education team in 2018.
So why didn’t Polis tell the three legislators that they could not introduce the legislation. That would not work because he would not have gotten credit for killing anti charter school legislation backed by many progressive groups. Alternatively, he could have waited to veto the legislation but by then numerous people would have become attached to the legislation and a veto would ruffle feathers.
So after being introduced and sent to a committee, Polis announced his opposition to the cheering adulation of pro charter advocates. The bill was then killed in committee by a 7 to 3 vote. Polis was a hero to people that normally dislike him and his status as a possible presidential candidate with broad support enhanced.
It is said that most people can be fooled most of the time and Governor Polis has proved that he is very adept at doing so.
— Editorial Board
by Editorial Board | Mar 18, 2024 | Editorials
Editorial —
The residents of the Queen City of the Plains are facing a Brave New World with our indomitable Mayor Mike Johnston at the helm of our ship of state. The helmsman has spent the first few months of his term finding sites for his homeless micro-communities and recently began opening them over the strenuous objections of the affected residents.
The largest homeless ‘micro-community’ has just opened in Overland Park, the future homes of 47 homeless people and if all goes well, expanded to 120 units.
The assurances of government have not impressed Craig Arfsten the head of “Safe and Clean Denver.” Arfsten told the Denver Gazette: “Today may be a win for the mayor, but it’s not for the residents of the Overland Park neighborhood. Yes, the pallet sheds are in place, but the safeguards to protect the surrounding neighborhood are not.”
Of course, it has been quite a while since a mayor of Denver has actually cared what the residents think or want. The problems of the 4,000 plus homeless facing Mayor Johnston seem almost quaint when compared to the avalanche of 40,00 penniless “newcomers” descending into Denver from the Texas border thanks to the Governor of Texas and the federal government.
Johnston’s largess to the newcomers is two weeks of shelter and food and then they are supposed to be kicked to the curb. It is not clear what they are to do after that. Johnston has tried to move the newcomers to Denver into neighboring municipalities but other than Lakewood, the surrounding cities don’t seem very accommodating to the project.
Across Denver some of the newcomers are appearing as squeegee men who will clean your car windshield whether you want them to or not. The last time squeegee men were prominent in America was in New York City under Mayor David Dinkins in the early 1990s. They were credited with helping to get Dinkens thrown out of office in favor of Rudy Giuliani in 1993.
Denver’s newcomer squeegee men do not appear to be a danger to our new progressive Mayor. To help pay for the newcomers’ cost to the city Johnston closed Motor Vehicle Offices and recreation centers every other week. This effort of course greatly inconvenienced many residents, but we know that Denverites are gluttons for punishment.
As more newcomers arrive from the Texas border we suggest Johnston start closing down garbage pickup followed by providing water only on alternative days. As a sociological experiment Denverites need to find out exactly how much punishment they can handle until they finally rise in revolt. Based on what has happened over the last 13 years, residents can undergo a great deal more punishment and we trust in Mayor Johnston to ladle it out in hefty doses.
— Editorial Board
by Editorial Board | Jan 18, 2024 | Editorials
Billionaire and octogenarian, Phil Anschutz, is the wealthiest man in Colorado, worth almost 11 billion dollars. Befitting a man of such wealth, he desires to have political influence to protect his business interests and have a say on the matters of the importance in the state. Described by many as a rock-solid conservative he is a member of the Colorado Republican Party. He is, however, more of a Bush/Cheney country club Republican and no fan of Donald Trump or the vulgarians (as he sees them) in the party who support him. Over time as with many other billionaire businessmen he finds himself drifting to the left or perhaps the Republican Party under Donald Trump is moving to the extreme right.
A couple of falls ago he hosted a conclave of billionaires at his Sea Island Resort off the coast of Georgia. There they decided to support Ron DeSantis as the best person to dethrone Trump after his January 6th shenanigans. They poured in hundreds of millions to that end which now appears for naught.
An extremely private man Anschutz never publicly states his political preferences as that would make him a target for those who would oppose him. Your chances of getting to meet him are on par with you meeting up with Bigfoot. He has set up in Colorado an intricate web of front groups to express his views and undertake his political agenda. He has control or influence over including inter alia The Gazette (Colorado Springs), Denver Gazette, Independence Institute, Complete Colorado, Advance Colorado, The Lobby, Leadership Program of the Rockies, Camp Fire Colorado (RIP) Rocky Mountain Voice, Caucus Room, and Colorado Peak Politics. Publication of an article from one outlet is quickly republished in one or more of the other outlets to amplify the message.
The message these days from Anschutz world screamed by Dick Wadhams, Jon Caldera. Jimmy Sengenberger and various others is how awful the new grassroots Colorado Republican Party is and, in particular, its Chairman Dave Williams. Virtually the only publication supporting the Colorado Republican grassroots and Williams is the recently formed and anonymous RINOwatch Colorado which does a good job, but it is a David versus Goliath battle.
Anschutz also has indirectly controlled the Colorado Republican Party for over three decades by he and his allies generously contributing to party activities. No one reflects Anschutz views more than two-time State Republican Party Chair Dick Wadhams, who sits on the board of Anschutz’s Independence Institute. Wadhams is fond of quoting former U.S. President Calvin Coolidge: “The chief business of the American people is business.”
But the business of America is not looking too good according to Anschutz. Democrats control the U.S. Presidency and Senate. Even worse, the national Republican Party is increasingly dominated by Donald Trump. In Colorado, the Democrats control every statewide office including governorship and have supermajorities in the State House and Senate.
It is not that Anschutz won’t do business with just about anyone. He is purported to have made a deal with Governor Polis where he would not support his Republican opponent, Heidi Ganahl, if Polis would stop Democrats from attacking his business interests. Each man lived up to his side of the bargain.
Democrats have turned Colorado blue by changing the election rules from everything from open primaries to mail balloting and ballot harvesting. Anschutz is at fault for this predicament as he fought none of those changes because they hurt the hated grassroot Republicans and assured ever more moderate squishy Republicans like Joe O’Dea that Anschutz prefers. His idea of a great Republican these days is Liz Cheney. He contributed the full amount allowed to her disastrous re-election campaign in 2022 in his own name, which he seldom does. He views the social issues important to the grassroots like abortion, gun rights, parental rights, and school choice as tedious and a distraction from the chief business of the American people.
The rudest shock came this last March when the grassroots under Dave Williams took over the State Republican Party. The prior party chair, Kristi Burton Brown, drained the party dry before leaving to join Anschutz’s Advance Colorado. Anschutz and his business allies cut off all funds to the Party expecting Williams to go belly up. But Williams found funds from small donors and other sources like charging Republican Presidential candidates large fees for participating in the Colorado Republican Party Primary. He has found innovative ways to fund lawsuits against the Party’s enemies. Worst of all Williams has become a strong favorite of Donald Trump.
Williams has become the odds-on favorite to replace Doug Lamborn in CD 5 following Lamborn’s shock retirement while continuing to be Party chair to the horror of Anschutz world. If grassroot Republicans also win CD 3 and CD 4, which is certainly possible, the grassroots would control a great deal of money and power with Williams becoming Colorado’s “Grassroots King.” If Trump became President, Anschutz could then be facing fierce enemies locally and nationally. Trump and Williams could then join together for revenge. All the tens of millions Anschutz spends annually on all of his front organizations would be of little value.
Anschutz’s detractors would like to envision, if this would come to fruition, Anschutz in one of many mansions mumbling: “Rosebud.”
— Editorial Board
by Charles Bonniwell | Dec 15, 2023 | Editorials
Editorial —
Denver’s new Mayor Mike Johnston, upon assuming office earlier this year, declared that his top priority was housing the homeless. It is not clear whether the politically correct term is “homeless” or the newer “unhoused,” but either appears allowable for the time being. On Johnston’s first day in office, he declared a state of emergency around homelessness and prioritized housing 1,000 homeless people in his first year as mayor. He had learned, as so many politicians had under COVID-19, that you can do things under an emergency that you could never get away with in “normal” times.
Not to let grass grow under his feet he went on a tour of the city’s 74 neighborhoods hoping to find 200 public plots to place “tiny home” communities where people experiencing homelessness could be housed. As he said, “This is what we think is the most important crisis the city is facing.” But with only a month to go only about 250 people have boarded under the program so far.
It may come as a surprise to some newcomers to Denver that housing the homeless has not always been the top priority of a city with now over 711,000 people. “The greatest good for the greatest number” is definitely not a guiding principle of the new progressive Johnston administration.
Of course, there have always been unhoused people in Denver since its founding in 1858, but the so-called homelessness crisis did not reach full public awareness until the 1980s with the dropping of certain housing programs by the Reagan administration and the widespread deinstitutionalization of the mentally challenged. Even then the crisis did not seem so overwhelming that all other city businesses had to grind to a halt.
Denver’s first progressive mayor, Frederico Peña, convened a taskforce in 1984 which led to city funding for a non-profit organization called the “Coalition for the Homeless.” John Parvensky, who would become the head of the organization for 37 years, joined in 1985. It had at the time a $100,000 budget and a staff of six. Parvensky has been deemed one the most successful modern Denver entrepreneurs growing his homelessness business to 750 employees and 2,000 volunteers and a budget of over $126,000,000 when he retired.
He was able to do this all while increasing the number of homeless to a little over 3,600 when he left. Following the footsteps of Parvensky, an energized younger staff at the Coalition headed by the new President and CEO Britta Fisher, have managed to grow homelessness in Denver in a single year by an impressive 31.7% to just under 4,000. Even more impressive is her growth in homelessness for the first timers by 120.4%. Even the late Bernie Madoff would have had to give a tip of the hat to that achievement.
Luckily at the right time, the homeless have a true advocate in the city’s new mayor, Mike Johnston. Not since Mayor John Hickenlooper and his “10 Year Plan to End Homelessness” have the homeless had such a champion. But even John Hickenlooper was not willing to suspend all work on any other of the city’s concerns in the name of growing the all-important homeless segment of the population. As Johnston stated, “We took the oath yesterday to commit on taking on this problem.” The new mayor correctly understood that the city could not rely on existing Denverites facing hard times to sufficiently increase the homeless. No, if homelessness was going to continue to be a growth industry in Denver, we needed to attract homeless from all across the country. What better way than to guarantee any person coming to Denver a home as the mayor did. Moreover, Mayor Johnston has promised “funding for wrap around services and it will come from the existing Homelessness Resolution Fund.” In addition, money forecasts will come from Proposition 123, the “Colorado Affordable Housing Financing Fund” which is expected to bring in $300,000,000 annually.
Mayor Johnston sagaciously understands that Denver is at a competitive disadvantage in attracting the homeless due to, at times, brutal winters in Colorado. Thus, we must look abroad for assistance in growing homelessness in Denver. Foreword thinking Mayor Wellington Webb back in 1998 declared Denver to be a “sanctuary city” for illegal immigrants with Executive Order 116. Mayor Hancock cleared any ambiguity over the executive order when he declared that Denver welcomed the “sanctuary city” designation. This allows the “Queen City of the Plains” to partner in a bipartisan manner with Democrat led cities in Texas, like El Paso, and Republican Governor Greg Abbot’s Operation Lone Star to bus homeless illegal immigrants from all over the world right to our doorsteps.
True, we need to share the bounty with other sanctuary cities like New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles, but there are tens of thousands pouring over the border every day. President Biden and Secretary of Homeland Security Mayorkas have promised to keep the border open as long as humanely possible.
Denver, in welcoming thousands of new homeless customers from across the country, and the world, will dwarf the 1,000 people that Johnston claims he will be housing this year. We have a modest proposition that Denver needs to require the Coalition of the Homeless to go public on the New York Stock Exchange. While homelessness has been a major growth industry in Denver over the last 40 years, its salad days are far from over with Mayor Johnston at the helm. That way the individual investors in Denver could join Mayor Johnston in celebrating the New Year and look for positive returns for years to come.
— Editorial Board
by Charles Bonniwell | Nov 16, 2023 | Editorials
At one time not so long ago, everyone loved bicyclists. What is there not to love? The vast majority of people have ridden a bike some time in their lives. Bicycling is great for your health, it lessens automobile traffic, and is helpful to the environment as a whole. But as Eric Hoffer surmised, every cause starts as a movement, becomes a business, and finally a racket. Even many bicyclists intensely dislike the bicycle lobby in Denver, as evidenced by the many communications this publication received on last month’s lead story: “7th and Williams Fiasco.”
Developers use the bicycle lobby to argue that they should not have to provide adequate parking for their high-density apartment buildings. Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DOTI) has been captured by the bicyclist lobby and is busily screwing up streets across the city with ridiculous and ugly plastic bollards, roundabouts, and striping all in the name of “bicycle safety.”
Whether it’s at Williams and 7th, Broadway, or Marion Parkway, DOTI’s work is reviled by residents, businesses, pedestrians, and bicyclists, and just about everyone else with the exception of the bicycle lobby and tone-deaf politicians like District 5 Councilwoman Amanda Sawyer. Moreover, this is just the beginning. DOTI has many other so-called “bicycle safety” projects on its books throughout the city.
The worst part of it is, as letters to this paper demonstrate, that DOTI’s monstrosities do not provide bike safety, but just the opposite for everyone involved, including bicyclists. Accidents are piling up along the streets that DOTI has jerry-rigged, and in particular, where it has installed roundabouts on streets not designed for them, with trucks, buses, delivery vans, and other larger vehicles having to careen around them.
The intersection of 7th and Williams alone has seen four accidents between September 25 and October 6, bringing the total amount of accidents since the installation of these roundabouts to nine, as reported to the Chronicle by Kitty Koch, Denver resident.
But the baleful influence of the bicycle lobby is not limited to the actual streets of Denver. Last fall, Ordinance 307 was pushed by the bicycle lobby and was narrowly passed. This ordinance imposes fees on Denver homeowners from $110 to $1,000 per year for sidewalk repairs (see “Bicycle Lobby Peddles Tax That Forces Property Owners To Fix City Sidewalks”, January 2023 edition of the Chronicle). Voters who live in apartment buildings are not directly affected, but homeowners are. They have taken their outrage to Denver’s City Council, which has been delaying the implementation of the now highly unpopular fees, but the day of reckoning is coming.
Undoubtedly, the bicycle lobby is searching for other opportunities to make the lives of Denverites worse and more costly as that lobby is a monster that must be fed. What can you do about it? Well, supporting the expected recall effort of Councilwoman Amanda Sawyer, who is a pitchwoman for the bicycle lobby, would be a positive step. Electing someone who returns calls and cares about his/her constituents and not just pressure groups is never a bad idea.
— Editorial Board
