Square State Colorado

A Letter to Denver’s Mayoral Candidates

Technically, this is a podcast episode, but I would like for you to listen to it as if it were a letter. Before I get into the heart of this episode, I do want to bring up the elephant in the room-it has been awhile since I’ve worked on Square State Colorado. Like many multi-passionate creatives, I had to focus on the project that was the hardest to build over time. Now there are some systems in place and it’s time to focus on Square State.

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Honestly, I wasn’t sure what my approach would be.

Then, I realized that I had to continue talking about the things that make my other projects standout to others, keep me engaged and are important to me and others. Access, equity and policy. In the context of Square State Colorado, this will show up in many different ways in my content. From conversations about policies, sharing thoughts things that I’m noticing in Denver (and beyond) and what we could be doing better.

In addition to having conversations with local residents, business people, visitors and change agents-my goal is share the Denver that I know and love one that is surprisingly nuanced, fun and interesting. It’s not all puffy jackets and transplants. With that in mind, please make sure to subscribe to the show-there are some previous episodes including one where I share my experience making my way up the Manitou Incline. I’m so excited to work on this project again and I appreciate your support.

Welcome to Square State Colorado, I’m your Chief Charm Officer Michelle Jackson spilling the tea as I know it on Denver. Denver’s expensive don’t forget to sign up for Ibotta a grocery savings app designed here in Denver with a national reach. If you’re in town or out of state save money on groceries with Ibotta and earn cash back. I’ve earned almost $700 in cash back using Ibotta. I do think that the longer you use it the better and more tailored your savings is. Also, when you sign up using my affiiliate link you will earn an additional $10 towards your first $20 payout. I’m a proud affiliate of Ibotta and love this Colorado local business.

Listen to the Episode

Related Posts

• My Experience Hiking Up the Manitou Incline

• Experiencing White Homelessness as a Black Person in a White Town
  • Michelle is Money Hungry Podcast

Show Notes:

Right now the Denver Mayorial race feels like one of those clown car acts. You know, when 30 people pop out of a ridiculously tiny car and all of us are trying to figure out where all of these clowns came from.

I’m not calling the candidates clowns.

But, I’m struck by the fact that when I speak with other residents, we’re overwhelmed and underwhelmed all at the same time. And, there has been little to no publicity, conversation or ads that I’ve seen sharing the thoughts and views of the majority of these candidates.

As a resident, I have some thoughts.

I love this city. I grew up in Boulder and Denver. But, I’ve lived the majority of my adult life in Denver. I’ve seen it grow from a sleepy co-town into a major metropolitan city. This growth has obviously amplified the problems that many American cities are dealing with:

• Poverty-With a visible population of unhoused residents. I recorded a podcast episode on my personal finance podcast Michelle is Money Hungry about “Experiencing White Homelessness as a Black Person in a White City” You can hear my thoughts about this ongoing issue in that episode and I’ve included a link in the show notes.

• Traffic-The traffic is horrendous. Seriously, horrendous at different points in the day, if I drive I basically avoid significant stretches of I-25 in particular and use alternative routes-one of the benefits of being a long-term resident.

• Climate Change-I am very worried about the changing environment in Colorado-not only are we not having enough conversations about:
  • Water accessibility
  • Air pollution
  • Heat
  • I feel like there’s not enough urgency around creating solutions.

• Cost of living-Colorado is expensive. Weirdly, I didn’t realize how expensive it is until I left on a vacation and went EAST. Visiting California, provided no context for the cost of living because California is expensive. But going to Philadelphia really surprised me.

• It has gotten dirtier here-It’s really begun to drive me crazy. Especially in the past year. I hate how dirty Denver has gotten (for Denver) I notice all of the tagging, trash along the train tracks and public areas where it seems like trash isn’t being picked up.

Instead of complaining I would like to share some ideas-that you’re welcome to use (as long as you credit me) because I’m tired of candidates just not being BOLD ENOUGH. It’s like, we’re bold enough to legalize pod and decriminalize shrooms, but leadership continues to pull back on truly transformative change. This is a long-term issue and I’m not specifically talking about our current mayor. I’m talking mayors plural.

What I Want from Denver’s Next Mayor

For me, we’re truly at a turning point for a number of huge issues in this city. I’m sick of incremental solutions. No more. Go big or don’t run for mayor.

Here are 7 initiatives and policy ideas that I would love to see happen.

• Change our unhoused policy-I am a huge fan of the Finnish approach to homelessness. Put people in homes. I want to get rid of those damn tents and house people who would have gone into those tents into apartments, etc around the city. It snows and tents catch on fire as we’ve seen when folks try to stay warm during the cold. Provide additional support for citizens with children, needing substance abuse support and mental healthcare.

• Expand the Zero Fare for Better Air Initiative-One of my favorite initiatives in 2022 was the Zero Fare for Better Air. During the month of August cities across the state participated in providing free transit to their citizens. Denver was one of those cities. I LOVED EVERYTHING ABOUT IT. If Kansas City can provided free transit why can’t Denver? At this point it makes so much sense. Ease up traffic on the roads, save residents money and help with the environment. It’s not rocket science. I’ve also included a link to a podcast episode where I share my Zero Fare for Better Air experience. By the way, the state of New Mexico is testing this policy out for a year.

• Community Engagement Pods-Part of why I think citizens are mistreating the city (especially the downtown corridor) is that they don’t feel a connection to it. I would love for the city to create city pods that have a percentage of citizens from different neighborhoods throughout the city. Then they explore and connect with the residents and businesses of the part of the city they have been assigned. Each pod would have 25-30 members, assigned 10 blocks of the city and the goal is to get to know that part of the city well. Then 3 times a year (around every four months) all of the pods would participate in a community clean up and BBQ day partnered with private companies and the city. I feel like we’ve had city cleanups before but they went away before COVID.

• Vehicle free 16th Street Mall-One of the best experiences I had during COVID was all of the car free spaces main streets around the state. For Denver, I continue to be baffled by the fact that we don’t just embrace a completely car free 16th Street Mall and shift transit to 17th Street. The infrastructure is already built and busses are already running that route. I’m not the only person who has been saying this and I’ve heard A LOT of chatter around this idea. I’ve enjoyed these spaces across the world and in 10 years when the next downtown refresh needs to happen-this is the most obvious change.

• Monthly Ciclovias-One of the coolest events that I’ve experienced in Denver was the Ciclovia hosted in Park Hill about 8 years ago. A massive stretch of road going east to west was shut down so that people could ride their bikes up and down the street. There was food, music and local vendors. In Bogota, Colombia they host this event EVERY SINGLE SUNDAY. I’m not saying we should do it every single Sunday. But, I am proposing that we could do something like this one Sunday a month.

• Clean Up the City-The city of Denver has gotten noticeably dirtier in the past couple of years. While COVID malaise definitely factored into this we’re at the 4 year mark and I think there are a few things that just have to be said.
  • The tagging everywhere is out of control-We need to clean this up.
  • Trash along the lightrail lines especially bad where unhoused communities reside-why? Because there’s no mechanism to assist with trash removal.
  • Manned restroom and shower spaces throughout the city-There is an incredible resource called “Showers For All” that provides laundry services and showers to the unhoused. But, there is no way that they can serve everyone. Anti-poverty measures around the city have created a problem-public restrooms are now difficult to find. In Europe it’s common practice to “man” restrooms. We’re used to seeing this stateside at nightclubs. Instead, I propose that we build out these facilities or and have safety staff, other resources so that people can do what they have to do vs. dropping a deuce in the alleys.

• Commit to building safe biking infrastructure that is so clearly biking infrastructure that cars don’t try to drive through it.

Don’t even get me started on our Police budget. I could go on but that would make this podcast episode way too long. I guess I’m just asking for some BOLD action vs. nervous baby steps. Denverites, what else would you include to this list? Workable solutions that have been done in other cities and have a positive substantiated positive outcome.

There’s also something else that I want to bring up. I wonder how connected are the candidates to Denver? I remember when Wilmington Webb wore out those white tennis shoes meeting people everywhere walking around the city of Denver. I’m struck by the fact that out of the 27 candidates there are basically 3 candidates that have even broken through my subconscious.

How connected are you really to Denver? I think a lot of the issues that we’re experiencing are related to a population of people who truly don’t have roots here. They are living here but it’s a surface level connection to the city. It’s easy to tear up and disrespect a place that you don’t really care about.

And with mayorial candidates heavily relying upon social media and passive means of “connecting” with citizens in the city of Denver-I’m beginning to worry that the problems that we’re having will continue because if candidates aren’t even willing to meet citizens of the town-how can I believe that they’ll be willing to do the hard work of being mayor of this city.

And, real talk, we need to change our term limits to two terms max.