Tuesday, August 11, 2026, 9:30 a.m. (Denver time), City & County Building Parr-Widener Room 389
This Mayor-Council meeting was a general session focused on the mayor's quarterly update on the citywide goals: Vibrant Denver (economic recovery), affordability, safety, All In Mile High (homelessness), climate resilience, and child-friendly Denver. The mayor reported being ahead of schedule on filling vacant downtown office space, progress on housing permits and affordable units, continued drops in shootings alongside a small rise in homicides, a 64% drop in unsheltered homelessness since 2023, and climate and youth program milestones. Council members raised questions and feedback on downtown office activation (Independence Plaza), traffic safety and speeding enforcement including street racing, homeless count methodology and shelter throughput data, family homelessness, and the childcare framework process. Several follow-up data requests were committed on the record. No votes or decisions were taken in this meeting.
0:05 Thanks for joining us for this
0:06 weekly joint meeting of the
0:11 mayor and Denver City Council.
0:12 Follow along as the mayor and
0:13 city council members here,
0:14 updates from city agencies and
0:16 project discuss important city
0:17 matters and hear about what's
0:18 happening across the mile.
0:21 High City. Join the discussion
0:22 with your elected officials
0:24 starting now.
2:31 Everybody. Welcome to Mayor
2:34 Council. Thank you so much for
2:36 joining We'll start off with
2:36 some introductions and
2:37 announcement. So we have a
2:40 general session today to
2:42 update folks on our quarterly
2:43 report under citywide rules.
2:44 But we will start with
2:46 introductions. No better place
2:50 to start distinguished panel
2:54 which thank you, Good Paul
2:56 Kashmann SEPTEMBER districts.
2:57 Time as you pleased as punch
3:04 to punched in good morning
3:04 set. It's all as one of your
3:12 council members at large Inc
3:13 punchy, perfect end change. I
3:17 do want find district 9. At
3:18 campus of these Denver
3:20 District great. Thank you all
3:20 so much for being here. Thank
3:21 you. Members the public for
3:24 joining live to start with
3:24 announcements of there. Any
3:25 announcements that council
3:26 members have to share the
3:27 public at large will reach
3:31 other COUNCILMAN Sword. Time
3:33 30th anniversary Mayfair Park
3:38 is coming up. AUGUST 22nd and
3:38 every year there's a big party
3:41 in the park put on by the
3:42 neighborhood organization. We
3:42 fare neighbors. They're
3:44 fantastic city partners with
3:47 us. So Denver Municipal will
3:49 be playing. There will be food
3:52 trucks. There will be
3:53 community bring a blanket calm
3:53 and hang out. Listen to Denver
3:57 Municipal Band celebrates the
3:57 30th anniversary of Mayfair
3:58 Park. It's 5 to 8 AUGUST 22nd
4:05 which center to make join like
4:08 fun too Council. John stunned.
4:09 Want to share 2 things. First
4:12 time last night, I was remiss
4:15 to party for another amazing
4:16 event this past weekend. So
4:18 coach, White and your entire
4:19 team, all honorees receive
4:25 awards to hundreds little
4:28 kindergarten kids Pat knocking
4:29 each other out from testing
4:30 and all the community members
4:32 are out there. What a great
4:34 event in Park Hills. So
4:35 congratulations to everyone
4:36 that's out there. I came out
4:37 this weekend and participates
4:40 each and every year. I want to
4:41 many folks remember Patrick's
4:45 Day parade? Chauvin children's
4:46 happens every year and we're
4:48 like what a great got some
4:49 information. It shares white
4:53 even greater event. There's an
4:56 economic impact study that we
5:00 asked the Patrick's Day parade
5:01 folks to do encounter behind
5:03 my district and they provided
5:04 some information and customer
5:05 Hines up since the officer,
5:08 can have a newsletter as well.
5:12 Thank But Patrick's Day,
5:15 economic impact 20.7 million
5:16 dollars. They've estimated all
5:18 as far as economic impact to
5:23 the city. 450,000 volts.
5:25 Spectators come downtown
5:27 perfect 10 and find district
5:30 9. On that wonderful. Usually
5:31 Cold Day. But it's all not one
5:32 this year. I wanted to really
5:35 reach out and thank some of
5:38 the city employees that
5:40 amazing both of our districts
5:42 for that event. Megan
5:44 Sullivan, office, a public
5:45 event and permitting does a
5:47 great job. Jim Rose Denver.
5:49 Police does a fantastic job.
5:53 And then some Patrick's parade
5:55 Frank Halligan Dave Anderson
5:56 and more in ski. They all
5:57 every year, each and every
6:00 year. Do such amazing work.
6:02 But we thought that we uplift
6:02 this because we have so many
6:06 great events in Denver. They
6:06 fund that we have is one
6:09 thing. But also they draw
6:10 hopes to our districts to our
6:13 city. And we wanted to share
6:14 kind impact has been and what
6:16 continues to be. So thank you
6:18 so much, Mayor Johnson for
6:18 giving us the time, even if
6:23 both fun and funds at the
6:27 center But lot of jokes are
6:27 lead into Thank you. I wanted
6:30 to invite people this
6:33 Saturday, AUGUST 15th, 2 Bible
6:35 park. It is the South by
6:36 Southeast concert series. We
6:40 are going to have that the
6:41 Sudan, Elwood, big band. It's
6:44 like a swing band that's
6:47 coming and the opening act is
6:48 from forty-seven opening Act
6:51 is Thomas Jefferson High
6:52 School Orchestra. There will
6:55 be lots of food trucks and
6:59 lots city agencies as well
7:02 some of our nonprofits and
7:03 tabling out there and so come
7:06 and join us for a fine that
7:08 summer, concert in the park
7:10 and it says it might rain but
7:13 rain or shine. We're going
7:14 forward. So party gets going
7:15 to be a party regardless. So
7:16 it'll it'll be a lot of fun
7:17 please come join us this
7:18 Saturday and by the park
7:18 starting at 04:00pm.
7:22 Excellent. Other announcements
7:26 because the order Alright, But
7:27 we will jump into General
7:29 session today. Thank you all
7:33 so much for joining Probably
7:34 know we do quarterly updates
7:37 on the citywide goals and
7:38 progress that we're making.
7:41 Any obstacles were hitting
7:42 opportunities for the council
7:43 to weigh in with feedback and
7:43 are questions on this. And so
7:45 just want have a chance to
7:46 walk them through. If you are
7:48 not tracking these, you can
7:50 see on the dashboards we have
7:52 on public website. They can
7:52 show you the updates on each
7:53 of these schools. You can
7:54 check in daily. You can check
7:55 them quarterly. But we make
7:56 them publicly available know
7:58 what we're trying to do and
8:01 Walk you through these 2026
8:01 what progress we're making.
8:04 goals on our path to
8:05 delivering fight for gender.
8:06 Thanks so much. We'll go to
8:09 the next one here. The 6 goals
8:10 we have laid out this year and
8:12 last year, vibrant, affordable
8:14 safety. Our focus on all in
8:17 mile high climate and
8:18 child-friendly walk you each
8:21 of those for with a overview.
8:23 First one is our goal and
8:24 vibrant Denver, which is
8:26 really focused on the economic
8:27 recovery of the city. And
8:28 there are 2 key priorities One
8:32 this year is focusing on
8:33 filling the 3 million square
8:36 feet of vacant commercial and
8:37 retail space. To great news is
8:39 we're actually ahead of
8:40 schedule on this or have about
8:42 a million 6 square feet of
8:42 office space. We've already
8:45 field that includes 18 new
8:48 retail openings in the 2nd
8:51 quarter for a new downtown
8:53 office and important. We have
8:54 this little piece state in the
8:56 bottom of is very important,
8:59 which 607,000 square feet of
9:00 renewed leases. Those are
9:01 folks at the opportunity to
9:02 leave downtown, to leave the
9:02 city and all decided to stay.
9:04 We don't count and the new
9:06 square footage that's been
9:06 filled. But it is important
9:09 for us to focus keeping
9:10 businesses that are already
9:12 here in Denver. And those are
9:13 all successful steps forward
9:17 on that front. Also want to we
9:18 announced our Denver Jobs
9:20 agenda plan, which many of you
9:22 saw and were a part of. But
9:23 that includes a couple of
9:26 priorities for supporting both
9:27 workers and Denver looking for
9:28 opportunities for jobs as
9:30 well. As for small businesses,
9:31 including looking for
9:36 opportunities. And so we have
9:38 4 different components of that
9:39 our launched Denver, which is
9:40 if you are someone starting a
9:41 business here, we have
9:44 resources to help you do Bill
9:44 Denver, which is if you are a
9:47 small business owner currently
9:48 and you're trying to scale
9:49 have a restaurant or
9:50 cosmetology business and you
9:51 want to be able to get some
9:51 money to help grow your
9:55 business, we can help support with that hope. And Denver
9:57 is an effort to try to recruit
9:58 businesses around the region
9:59 around the country or around
10:01 the world to move in, bring
10:02 jobs to Denver and then our
10:04 work. Denver's really focused
10:05 on a 40 million dollar fund to
10:07 get Denver workers into higher
10:08 skilled jobs that pay you a
10:12 better salary. And so if
10:13 you're in Sydney, finding job
10:13 that's going to tell you
10:16 better family or be able to
10:17 grow or start a business. We
10:18 have resource available to do
10:20 on other priority. Here was on
10:22 the big projects. The city is
10:23 working on making sure they're
10:25 coming in on time. Couple
10:28 landmarks here is, you know,
10:30 thanks to the council's final
10:31 approval. There will be
10:32 construction set to be on the
10:34 Denver Summit Stadium for any
10:36 women soccer team will start
10:36 in the fall. 26 with a 2028
10:41 scheduled opening there. For
10:41 me. Art small area plan is
10:43 still going with 3rd public
10:44 open house coming up this
10:45 week. If you want to learn
10:46 more about plans please come
10:50 to that open house and our
10:52 National Western Center has
10:53 triangle coming to vision
10:54 process. The council Watson's
10:55 very aware of or involved
10:56 they'll be working towards
10:57 community-based
10:59 recommendations on how to use
11:01 that site as we redevelop
11:03 there. And the council's, as
11:04 you all know, just approved
11:05 the spear Boulevard pedestrian
11:07 bridge to connect LoDo to Ball
11:08 Arena, which is also scheduled
11:10 to be done in 2028. So those
11:14 are just some updated prob
11:15 process and projects. We have
11:16 a bond. That's what this
11:17 morning in Santa for the Santa
11:17 Fe streetscape that we'll be
11:21 breaking ground on updated at
11:22 all. 59 of the bond projects
11:24 are old party moving this year
11:25 and so excited that those on
11:26 track. You can also track
11:27 progress in the bond online.
11:31 If you want to excellent. By
11:32 the way, Hawks at Maple do
11:33 questions are coming to the
11:37 end your throat. Here's bit of
11:39 our affordability progress
11:40 both online affordable units.
11:41 Plus new permits of the
11:42 permits first because that's
11:43 very good news is, you know,
11:44 we had a goal to make sure we
11:45 have more units in the
11:46 pipeline of all sorts because
11:48 that helps that's what's
11:49 helped bring down costs in
11:51 Denver, about 14% drop in
11:52 rental prices. That's in part
11:53 because are bringing on more
11:55 new units. So we want get to
11:56 get 5,000 units per month.
11:58 This year. We're already 4,000
11:59 halfway through the year. And
12:01 so that's a great step
12:03 forward. Grateful for city
12:05 councils efforts to extend
12:06 this key deadline for
12:07 developers to get booked
12:10 building permits up with about
12:12 23,000 unit stalled in the
12:13 pipeline. Your extension that
12:15 projects to still come
12:15 dot the deadline allows those
12:16 through, which could bring
12:17 really much-needed units
12:21 online. So making other one
12:22 that we're a little more
12:23 worried about it on track
12:24 currently, but is the number
12:25 of new affordable units goal?
12:27 Here is to bring on 2500 new
12:29 units. As you know, federal
12:30 government is cutting back
12:32 vouchers. State government has
12:34 been cutting back on housing
12:37 funding. And we are on track
12:38 to add of about 500 so far is
12:40 because you can see from this
12:41 graph. A lot of the biggest
12:42 projects are set to open later
12:45 on in the but carefully want
12:47 watching out to make sure we
12:49 get all of those. And and
12:51 thank you. The council's help
12:52 our first live in bond
12:53 investment into real estate
12:55 acquisition for us to use for
12:57 the development of affordable
12:58 housing in downtown. And so
13:01 that close by the state
13:02 Capitol. So that's a little
13:09 bit more in progress on the
13:10 one of the things just just
13:11 improvements on the Denver
13:13 permitting office. 2 major
13:15 process improvements here. Is
13:17 there's a new quick permit for
13:19 single unit to unit and
13:20 projects. And so there's no
13:20 townhomes interior only
13:22 longer require building
13:24 reviews and can now much
13:25 faster than we have of one and
13:28 done concepts site site plan
13:28 process change used to be
13:29 multiple applications for
13:33 vision on a concept plan
13:34 consequences. We just add a
13:36 concept, not a permit. And so
13:37 we've stream and that just be
13:38 a one process application,
13:39 which is much faster. So
13:43 thanks sort of permit for
13:45 Next. One is This is the one
13:47 that we're tracking the most
13:49 closely. I want to give you
13:51 where we are here. Our flow
13:53 first should focus on
13:54 shootings and high-risk areas
13:55 and our right side. Our goal
13:56 was to continue to reduce that
13:59 by 20%. That's really focused
14:00 on our place network
14:02 investigations sites where we
14:03 have dedicated wraparound the
14:05 efforts to reduce shootings
14:06 and even after some historic
14:07 drops last year, these
14:08 continue dropping very pleased
14:11 to see that. Still a 33% drop
14:14 in shootings 43% drop in
14:15 violent gun crimes at those
14:18 sites. This and we also
14:20 launched a location 2 over on
14:23 Colfax and this tragic
14:24 continues to be very, very
14:26 effective where we have
14:28 community partnership around
14:31 using all the tools we have
14:32 economic development to
14:33 lighting infrastructure to
14:35 after school programming
14:38 police for presence. And those
14:40 are on places where we are off
14:42 track right now. But we're
14:44 tracking very closely is on
14:46 homicide data right now in
14:47 Denver's y'all probably tracks
14:47 some of this state up just a
14:52 couple of them things to right
14:54 now. We have reduction still
14:56 further reductions in citywide
14:57 violent gun crime down. 25%
14:59 still citywide reduction in
15:01 total are people that have
15:02 been shot this year is still
15:04 down. We do have an increased
15:06 number of folks that that have
15:07 died firearm homicides,
15:08 smaller number of shootings.
15:11 But what we shootings want to
15:12 give you little deeper dive on
15:13 that day to the next slide. So
15:13 I answer some of the questions
15:18 you MAY This gives you a
15:20 perspective of the last 4
15:24 years, 2022. To 2026. As you
15:27 remember 2025 was our lowest
15:28 year of homicides. One of
15:29 those 2 years on record last
15:32 50 years in Denver said was a
15:32 historic You know, when you
15:35 have historically low with a
15:36 chance, you get some
15:37 correction back his high. So
15:39 we were prepared for But what