Parking in Denver Is Free on Juneteenth — but City Meters Don't Say So

Last year, Denver made Juneteenth — which celebrates the day in 1865 when word finally got to Texas that enslaved people had been emancipated — an official holiday. But you wouldn't know it by looking at city parking meters.

Over a year later, Denver’s meter stickers still haven’t been updated to reflect the new holiday as one of those for which city parking is free. As a result, someone who looked at them in the days leading up to June 19 may accidentally pay to park in a garage or outdoor lot somewhere under the assumption that they don't have time to feed the meter or simply don't want to.

Then there's the possibility of people accidentally putting change into a meter, not realizing that Juneteenth is an official city holiday now.

"The meter won't stop someone from putting coins into it," notes Nancy Kuhn, marketing and communications manager for Denver's Department of Transportation and Infrastructure.

Luckily, DOTI has some plans in place to make sure no one gets duped while enjoying the Juneteenth festivities.

“The actual parking meter screens on Juneteenth will indicate no payment required due to the holiday and won’t accept credit cards," Kuhn notes. "So the sticker in this case is secondary to these other measures."

As for people's change, she says, "the meter will not register/process the coins." But it will still eat them.

Last year, Juneteenth was on a Sunday, when parking is free anyway. This year, June 19 falls on a Monday.

The holiday marks the first news of the Emancipation Proclamation reaching enslaved people in Texas on June 19, 1865 — two years after the proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln. General Gordon Granger and Union troops spread the news in Galveston, Texas. The day was celebrated unofficially by people in the Black community for over a century before President Joe Biden made it a federal holiday in 2021.

Federal Reserve banks and the U.S. Postal Service won’t operate on the holiday, and most other banks and schools are expected to follow suit. Juneteenth was the first holiday added to the federal calendar since Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983.

In May 2022, Colorado made Juneteenth the state's eleventh official holiday, after Governor Jared Polis signed a bill passed by the state legislature. Denver has a long history of celebrating Juneteenth in years past, particularly in the Five Points neighborhood.

Kuhn confirms that DOTI is looking into an update for the parking meter stickers to reflect the new holiday. The department was waiting to see how Denver City Council would vote on changes to Denver’s 100-foot parking rule, which it approved in May.

In the end, though, the changes did not end up impacting metered parking. So the city is moving forward to update the list of holidays on the stickers to include June 19.

“We’re getting quotes now for new stickers and plan to install updated stickers this summer,” Kuhn says.

In the meantime, DOTI will use social media to reinforce the message that parking is free on Juneteenth; it will also issue a Juneteenth holiday press release.

Enjoy the free parking and the celebration with one of the events on Westword’s list.

This story was updated on June 16 to clarify recent changes in the city's parking rules.