Johnston has rolled out six town hall meetings as part of his Community Conversations series, with each talk focused on crime and safety. Around fifty to sixty people showed up at the Lifegate Church, 10200 East Girard Avenue, on Thursday, May 23, to talk about their slice of Denver: City Council District 4, represented by Diana Romero Campbell.
Hampden residents said they were largely satisfied with the Denver Police Department, applauding officers at one point after a resident stood up and said attitudes have changed since protests in the summer of 2020. Romero Campbell described it as "a deep appreciation" for the police. Comments from residents read by city employees also included calls for more policing and patrols, but "not just at speed traps."
District 4 feedback also questioned the $90 million migrant budget Johnston has rolled out during the past few weeks.
"I feel like if we're spending $90 million on newcomers, then we aren't spending that money on parks," said one resident. Another group shared that they didn't want migrants on the medians with squeegees because accidents could happen.
The Hampden neighborhood is located in the far southeast corner of Denver, along a border with Aurora. It's wrapped by three big streets: Interstate 25, Highway 30 and East Yale Avenue. Romero Campbell's District 4 stretches from University Hills to the Denver Tech Center. The Hampden neighborhood is heavily residential; Romero Campbell says about 80 percent of the neighborhood is suburban homes and parks.
"I don't think it's something that some people in our community have had much interaction with," Romero Campbell told Westword after the meeting. "People with different economic status, people who look different than they do. I think it's just continuing to create this space for us to be a welcoming community."
Councilwoman Diana Romero Campbell hosted the latest Community Conversation in District 4 on Thursday, May 23, alongside the mayor and a dozen other city officials.
Bennito L. Kelty
Several residents expressed concerns about the Tamarac Family Shelter, a former Embassy Suites at 7525 East Hampden Avenue that is now a city-owned homeless shelter. The city converted the hotel into a shelter for homeless families and opened it on December 28, during Johnston's push to house 1,000 people before the end of 2023.
Residents said they'd heard about property crimes like car and business break-ins around the shelter, but at the end of the town hall, Johnston got on stage to clarify that crime data in the area's police district is "quite promising."
"Since the opening of Tamarac, crime is [down] 23 percent overall," Johnston said of Denver Police District 3, a large area that also includes the Baker and Lowry neighborhoods. "And property crime is down 30 percent overall, so actually we have seen a significant net decrease in crime over the last five months. That's a huge tribute to our members in blue who are out here serving the street."
After the meeting, Johnston told Westword that he's seeing a turn in favor of the shelter since the idea was first introduced at a similar town hall last year.
"You think about the conversations we had with this community about a year ago about the Tamarac, there would be a thousand people in this room," Johnston said. "Six months ago, there'd be 300, and we don't have that. It was, like, the eighth issue that came up after unregistered license plates and loud parties in the park."
The mayor is now trying to shelter another 1,000 homeless residents before the end of 2024, dubbed his All In Mile High initiative. The feedback from this meeting marked "a great sign of success for us," according to Johnston.
Praise for Denver Parks, Worries About Road Safety
Johnston spoke to the room at the beginning and end of the meeting, with separate group discussions taking place with different city officials, who later read the comments aloud to everyone. Drug dealing and road safety were both common concerns.Residents said they'd heard about property crimes like car and business break-ins around the shelter, but at the end of the town hall, Johnston got on stage to clarify that crime data in the area's police district is "quite promising."
"Since the opening of Tamarac, crime is [down] 23 percent overall," Johnston said of Denver Police District 3, a large area that also includes the Baker and Lowry neighborhoods. "And property crime is down 30 percent overall, so actually we have seen a significant net decrease in crime over the last five months. That's a huge tribute to our members in blue who are out here serving the street."
After the meeting, Johnston told Westword that he's seeing a turn in favor of the shelter since the idea was first introduced at a similar town hall last year.
"You think about the conversations we had with this community about a year ago about the Tamarac, there would be a thousand people in this room," Johnston said. "Six months ago, there'd be 300, and we don't have that. It was, like, the eighth issue that came up after unregistered license plates and loud parties in the park."
The mayor is now trying to shelter another 1,000 homeless residents before the end of 2024, dubbed his All In Mile High initiative. The feedback from this meeting marked "a great sign of success for us," according to Johnston.
Praise for Denver Parks, Worries About Road Safety
Residents shared a vocal appreciation for the playground, cleanliness and safety of James A. Bible Park — one comment described it as "absolutely fabulous" — as well as the High Line Canal Trail and other nearby outdoor spaces. Seeing fewer homeless individuals and encampments around Interstate 25 and Hampden Avenue came up in group discussions.
Hampden residents said "open-air drug deals" take place on East Yale Avenue and South Holly Street, near an entrance to the High Line Canal Trail and an overpass above the canal. One group said they feel unsafe around a part of the trail near South Boston Street and East Cornell Avenue.
While residents as a whole are fed up with speeding, some are specifically concerned about potholes, naming a section of East Girard Avenue that passes in front of the Hampden library and a portion of South Monaco Parkway as the worst examples.
During a May 2 town hall for West Colfax communities, residents had also complained about drug use and sales out in the open, and a group of kids said they had seen a naked person on the way there. Two weeks ago, residents at a gathering in the Ballpark District mentioned an open-air drug market, while a separate meeting in Highland focused more on speeding traffic.
A handful of Hampden residents also wondered why they hadn't gotten their compost bins yet. Councilwoman Romero-Campbell says her district is last in the rollout of compost bins, questioning how an "equity lens" was applied.
Thursday's meeting was the first Community Conversation that Johnston had attended since May 2. After an illness, his mother, Sally, passed away on May 17.
The mayor's office has scheduled three more Denver neighborhood safety conversations over the next two weeks, but he also expects to hold more town halls about city vibrancy and affordability. These were all laid out in Johnston's Citywide Goals 2024; he said he wanted to start with public safety first.
That didn't stop other topics from coming up in the Hampden meeting, though. "It's hard to feel like Denver is vibrant when it's unaffordable," read one resident's comment.
