PRAGMATIC ISSUES

Mayor Mike Johnston is asking Denver voters to open the city’s wallet yet again this time for a so-called “Vibrant Denver” bond package that sounds more like a marketing campaign than a rescue plan for a city in crisis.

The proposed $935 million bond, pitched as a “no-tax-increase investment” in parks, rec centers, bridges, and libraries, is being sold as visionary. In reality, it’s a distraction, a glossy detour from the city’s most visible, human emergency, people living, suffering, and dying on our streets.

Let’s not sugarcoat this. Denver’s already over budget on multiple projects. We can’t even manage the cost of keeping our own housing initiatives on track, and yet here we are being told that what the city really needs is shinier playgrounds, prettier bridges, and a fresh coat of “vibrancy.”

What’s vibrant about people sleeping under those new bridges?

A Bond Built on Blind Spots

Johnston’s office claims this bond will “keep Denver strong.” But for whom? Homeowners? Developers? Construction firms who will cash in on publicly funded contracts while city workers scramble to justify how a new park somehow solves homelessness?

Let’s get real. Denver’s homelessness crisis isn’t going to be fixed with cosmetic infrastructure. It’s going to be fixed with beds, treatment, and long-term housing, not splash pads and pickleball courts.

And the mayor’s 2025 “2,000 indoors, 2,000 housed” goal sounds great on paper, but when less than 10% of this billion-dollar bond goes toward housing or shelter-related improvements, the math doesn’t add up. You can’t declare victory over homelessness while investing 90% of your public funds in things that make tourists happy but leave the unhoused invisible.

A City Addicted to Optics

This administration seems addicted to optics, ribbon cuttings over real results. Johnston’s team can call this “no new taxes” all they want, but issuing debt still costs money. Future taxpayers will be paying interest long after these projects are complete, long after campaign promises fade, and long after today’s unhoused population has doubled if we don’t treat root causes.

It’s almost cruel how predictable this playbook has become:

1. Call something “vibrant” or “bold.”
2. Add vague language about “community investment.”
3. Toss in a token housing component so critics can’t call it tone-deaf.
4. Hope voters are too exhausted by city hall’s spin cycle to notice the grift.

Housing Before Headlines

If the mayor truly wants a vibrant city, he should start by restoring dignity, not facades. Every unspent dollar on this bond is a dollar that could be saving lives through addiction treatment, mental-health programs, and supportive long term housing.

The Mayor should be focusing his attention on cleaning up the pockets of criminal activity and drug area’s like the Papa John’s at 1111 E Colfax, where a woman was beaten yesterday, pulled out of her vehicle by two men who subsequently stole it.

That’s how you build vibrancy that lasts, from the ground up, not from the top down.

Denver doesn’t need more beautification projects. It needs leadership that understands that a city’s beauty is measured by how it treats its most vulnerable, not how many parks it can ribbon-cut before election season.

The people of Denver are compassionate, pragmatic, and tired of being sold “vibrancy” while stepping over tents. Mayor Johnston’s bond may be colorful, but the reality on our streets is anything but.