One year from now, Denver will elect a new mayor.
The single most important question the anticipated robust field of candidates must answer is this: what is your vision for Denver? And that answer must succinctly provide a compelling and inspiring vision for Denver's future that meets the voters where they are — living in a city facing major challenges.
Coming out of Covid-19, mayors of big cities across the country are each facing the same set of core challenges: crime, homelessness, affordable housing and the cost of living. Reading the tea leaves from recent mayoral elections across the country has also signaled that the political landscape around these issues has changed in dramatic and unexpected ways.
As crime has increased across the country, cries to defund the police have been replaced with campaign platforms seeking to refund the police.
Successful mayoral candidates across the country, like Eric Adams, New York's new mayor and former New York police captain, and Bruce Harrell, in Seattle, both moderates, made investing in the police and fighting crime an essential part of their campaigns. By contrast, Harrell's liberal opponent supported drastically reducing the Seattle Police Department's budget.
Candidates would be wise to take their cues from President Joe Biden on this issue. Biden's budget calls for $3.2 billion in "discretionary resources for state and local grants" for communities to hire more police officers, and an additional $30 billion in "mandatory resources to support law enforcement, crime prevention and community violence intervention."
In announcing his budget, Biden said, "I've said it before, the answer is not to defund our police departments, it's to fund our police and give them all the tools they need, training and foundation and partners and protectors that our communities need." Biden's proposal put more police on the street for community policing, increased funding for body cams, and supports hiring personnel to fight gun violence, among other community based programs.
Here, in Denver, up to $10 million has been budgeted this year to hire 184 new police officers. In addition, Mayor Michael Hancock has been an outspoken advocate for tougher criminal laws on a myriad of subjects, including the fentanyl crisis plaguing the city.
Homelessness and housing affordability will also haunt next year's elections and other municipal elections across the country, as the housing crisis is not unique to Denver. Candidates will need to articulate how drug addictions are worsening the situation and familiarize themselves with the myriad of ways in which the Hancock administration has and continues to meaningfully address this issue and build upon this body of work.
Polls in Seattle, long perceived as one of the most liberal and activist cities in America, show that homelessness was the number one issue for voters. Mayor Harrell pledged to remove encampments by opening more shelters and affordable housing and calling for philanthropic funds. His opponent campaigned on preventing the city from ending homeless encampments. And, in New York City, Mayor Adams is pursuing plans to clear the city's streets where makeshift camps are located.
News reports have chronicled how liberal cities, like Portland, Washington DC, and Los Angeles, that once tolerated encampments in public spaces, are removing them and pushing other strict measures to address homelessness. In neighboring Aurora, City Council recently made it illegal for anyone to camp on public property without permission.
Anyone who has traveled through downtown Denver or its surrounding neighborhoods knows that this is one of the top-of-mind issues for local voters watching the mayoral race. There can be little doubt that Denver voters want a clean, safe and affordable city and want to see the makeshift homeless encampments removed. That will require them to outline their plan to place people in stable housing with the on-site wraparound services that are needed to address this issue.
Denver's mayoral candidates will also have to build a compelling case to address Denver's rising real estate costs and shrinking housing inventory, even in a city that has experienced a slight decline in population. The Denver Post reported this week that the latest census estimates show that the city saw 6,167 people leave, a 0.9% decrease in population from mid-2020.
The decline is mostly attributable to the impact of the pandemic, and will likely be short-lived. But the candidates would be remiss not to address the perception that Denver, like major urban centers across the nation, is now in decline.
Denver voters will not tolerate candidates who ignore or sidestep these burning issues.
Doug Friednash is a Denver native, a partner with the law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber and Schreck, and the former chief of staff for Gov. John Hickenlooper.
Originally Published by The Denver Post
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