Ten Resolutions for Downtown Denver in 2024

Ding dong, downtown is dead...or so doubters would like to have you believe. Denver's downtown was once the envy of other cities our size — active and thriving with restaurants and retail, late-night events and daytime walkabouts — but now Cleveland is getting all the good press. Cleveland!

Downtown Denver faced challenges before the pandemic, but for a while, COVID looked like it could be the final nail in the community coffin. Still, Denver can rise again!

The Denver Downtown Partnership (DDP) is rife with plans to improve the area, not only restoring its former glory, but building it back better. Some of those plans are in process, others are in the works, and still others seem to be nothing more than a wish and a civic prayer.

That's not enough: We want to see more action in 2024. Here are ten ways to make sure the city center can hold:

Address the COVID Aftermath
The first step to recovery is admitting that there's a problem, yes? And downtown needs to do that, and do it overtly and with a clear message to Denverites: We know we're in a hole, and we need your help to crawl out. That's going to take more than just tax incentives — you can't simply lure longtime public institutions back from closure. And the world has changed: Restaurants will need to reinvent, theaters will need to pivot, shops will need support to survive. That's going to take time and investment.
Host More Community Events
One way to bring people downtown again is to remind them that not only does Denver have a great downtown area, but that boosters support the community, too. So things like the Halloween Zombie Crawl need to have the room to return. The Christkindlmarket belongs back at Skyline Park near the skating rink (though Civic Center Park is better than a parking lot near the Cherry Creek Shopping Center). Downtown needs to again be the hub of Denver, the place where people gather — and to remind them why they should come back again.

Trees, Trees, Trees
The lack of trees made last year's downtown resolutions list, and finally this month, a bunch of oak trees were planted along 16th Street between Market and Larimer. That's only the start: The future tree canopy will include ten diverse species of trees, including elm, oak, honey, locust and maple. Don't lose sight of this plan, downtown Denver. Green draws people in, and trees clean the air and support a better environment all around them. They even increase safety. All things the downtown desperately needs.
Speaking of Safety...
Things might be getting better, but they're not fixed yet — not by a long shot. There are still too many shootings, too many disturbances, too much chaos. People need to feel safe in their environment if you expect them to come downtown and stay a while. You can build all the patios you want, plant all the trees and put in a water feature or two — but if there's a clearly disturbed shirtless guy swinging away with a metal signpost he picked up somewhere (as there was just the other day near the construction area at 16th and Champa streets), that's not going to inspire anyone to stick around and have a coffee.

Address the Drug Problem
We broke the news last spring that the Target store on the 16th Street Mall was forced to lock up its aluminum foil because fentanyl users were taking it to smoke — sometimes right there in the aisle. There's only so much of that a store will abide before giving up and focusing on the suburban locations where it's just the usual bored teens shoplifting shit. Denver needs to address the addiction issue so as not to exacerbate the closure of stores big and small all over downtown. (McDonald's and TJ Maxx, we miss you.)
Let's Stop Calling it "Urban Camping"
Call it what it is: rampant homelessness in a population with very little choice left in the matter. It's certainly not a leisure activity like camping. There won't be s'mores and singing around a merry fire. The ghost stories are real ones, shades of people once known and now lost, either to the cold or exposure or who just plain went missing. Denver can't afford euphemisms about its homeless problems. Stop the sweeps, stop the rhetoric, stop the endless planning that leads nowhere. Help people. It's that simple.
Refocus on the 5280 Trail
Back in those pre-pandemic halcyon days of 2019, the DDP proposed something called the 5280 Trail, a "bold and visionary project that turns underutilized streets into the essential Downtown experience linking neighborhoods and connecting people," according to initial plans. The five miles of urban trail would loop from Coors Field to the Capitol Building, south to West High School and the adjacent Sunken Gardens, and on over to the Auraria campus. The idea was exciting and impressive and encompassing...and then sort of disappeared after voters approved putting $7 million toward the project in 2021. The website mentions a planning session for the Golden Triangle neighborhood back in September 2022, with no apparent updates since then. It's a good idea that will make a world of difference to Denver; can we get back to work on it, please?
Save Larimer Square
When a Starbucks closes, you know things on a city block are getting bad. And that's exactly what's happened on the formerly-booming Larimer Square back in 2021. (At least a Huckleberry Roasters will move into that now long-vacant coffee spot.) It wasn't that long ago that Larimer was thriving — locals flocked to the Market and Bistro Vendôme to eat and browse the baubles at John Atencio and Victoriana; tourists and business lunchers enjoyed Ted's Montana Grill. All those anchors are gone now, victims not only of the pandemic, but also of skyrocketing rents courtesy of North Carolina real estate firm Asana, which did similar damage to Boston's Harvard Square. Asana reportedly encountered larger-than-expected costs restoring these old buildings. But will the developer kill the village in order to save it?
When There Are Improvements? Show Us.
There can be no renaissance in a downtown that's constantly under construction and barricaded off with cyclone fencing. The seemingly interminable project on the 16th Street Mall has already hit snags that have ballooned the budget and pushed out the completion date into 2025. We need more updates; the city needs to be kept apprised. For every important-but-invisible sewer main that shuts everything down, do something apparent so it at least looks like there's a warm, bright light at the end of that long tunnel. Denver will wait for something good: Just ask the Nuggets.
And Surprise Us. Pleasantly.
Anyone can suggest a plan. The key is carrying it out. Maybe it's something cool, like tearing down one of the many parking garages, putting the same number of levels (or more!) below ground, and adding a park or a play structure or an outdoor amphitheater that serves as performance space in the warmer months and a sledding hill in the winter. Or maybe we could borrow the heated sidewalks from Chicago and Reykjavik and other snowy climes? There are ideas aplenty, and, yes, they'll take investment. But it's a small price to pay when compared to the cost of having a dead downtown in Denver.