Denverites went to the polls Tuesday night and, while votes are still being tallied, two clear front-runners emerged: Kelly Brough and Mike Johnston. The candidates took their lead early and maintained their edge with each subsequent set of results released by the Denver Clerk and Recorder's Office.
Here's where the two candidates stand on Denver's most pressing issues.
Top spending priorities:
Both candidates identified public safety, homelessness and housing affordability as their biggest spending priorities if elected. Brough shared several steps in her plans to address each, while Johnston pointed readers to his website for more comprehensive plans. Brough and Johnston have detailed plans online.
Brough:
1. Community Safety – Ensure a broad array of police and non-police approaches to incident response. Build a policing culture based on best practice, transparency, and accountability. Address the drivers of community safety by ensuring strong educational and economic opportunity and access to housing and health care.
2. Homelessness – Denver can’t solve this alone. Build a regional strategy based on data, focused on housing and sheltering people.
3. Housing – Build more housing, including on city-owned property. Increase density, especially along major transportation corridors. Fundamentally change the approach to development review to create more efficient and effective processes.
Johnston: “In no order, I’d say Denver’s three biggest issues are homelessness, affordable housing, and public safety. While I have and will release comprehensive policies to solve each one of them, the core solution framework is to first identify the overlapping crises that cause the issue, address them in a coordinated way, and then understand how to pay for those solutions in an ongoing, comprehensive way. You can access my comprehensive plans on homelessness and affordable housing here.”
Homelessness
Both Brough and Johnston agree homelessness is unacceptable but have different approaches on addressing it. Both want to build temporary housing solutions – not necessarily shelters – while Denver shores up its affordable housing inventory. Brough will create sanctioned camping sites and coordinate a response with regional governments whereas Johnston will build so called micro-communities in a housing first strategy. Both agree there is no single solution to homelessness, which is caused by a mosaic of issues.
Brough: "Living on the streets is neither safe nor humane — for people experiencing homelessness or the broader community. I will eliminate unsanctioned encampments in my first year in office by temporarily sanctioning camping sites while I take a regional, data-driven approach: work with regional governments to establish a coordinated strategy and strengthen our data system to ensure it is timely, complete, and sophisticated; invest in prevention: support those at risk of homelessness by ensuring access to job support and stabilizing services; evolve sheltering & build housing: evolve our shelters to ensure we have safe beds to serve the diverse unhoused population. Build the housing needed to best support people exiting homelessness."
Johnston: "It is inexcusable that thousands of people are sleeping on the streets of Denver on any given night. We have a moral obligation to help people get into stable, safe, and dignified housing. I deeply believe we can end homelessness during my first term by addressing three overlapping crises: the lack of affordable housing, the absence of mental health resources, and an explosion in the severity of addictive drugs. As mayor, I will take a housing-first approach to solving homelessness. We will build 10-20 micro-communities throughout the city, consisting of tiny home villages, converted hotels, and other housing. Each micro-community will include wraparound services that provide addiction treatment, mental health support, and workforce training. We need bold, ambitious action, and we need a mayor who isn’t afraid to take ownership of the problem. We can be the first major city to end homelessness, and as mayor, I will work tirelessly to get it done."
Snow Plowing:
Denver’s snow woes prompted some passionate responses from mayoral candidates early on in the election. Brough wants to stay the course, citing financial responsibility. Johnston worries about climate change and called for a more robust snow plowing effort from Denver.
Brough: "I know Denver residents want to hear a mayoral candidate promise to regularly plow side roads, but as a former Chief of Staff who managed the city’s response to snowstorms, that would be financially irresponsible. That is why I will maintain the policy of only plowing side streets for storms forecasted to produce more than six inches of snow."
Johnston: "As climate change leads to harsher winters and snow storms like the ones we’ve experienced this winter become more frequent, effectively plowing roads and side streets will become more necessary. But this is a fixable problem and we cannot tolerate another winter like this one. As mayor, I will ensure that we expand our snow plowing reach and frequency, particularly on side streets, to make sure streets are clean and we are not plowing snow into bike lanes and sidewalks that increase hazards for Denverites."
16th Street Mall:
Both candidates recognize the importance of the 16th Street Mall. Brough supports the current renovations despite the extended timeline they’ve taken to complete. Johnston believes the project should be accelerated and will focus on attracting businesses to fill the mall. Both agree the issues and perceptions people have of the mall are reflective of all the issues facing Denver as a whole.
Brough: "The 16th Street Mall is the backbone of our central business district and an essential element of downtown Denver. I am very supportive of the Market Street to Broadway renovation underway. However, we can’t ignore the tremendous challenges facing downtown Denver as a whole, including the mall. The successes and struggles of downtown Denver impact the economy and vibrancy of the entire state. Downtown revitalization will be a priority for my administration, starting with safety. I will focus on filling the approximately 150 vacancies in Denver Police Department and expanding the co-responder and STAR programs. We must meaningfully address homelessness. My plan to end unsanctioned camping within my first year by focusing on housing and sheltering and taking a data-driven, regional approach has been endorsed by five metro-area mayors. I will develop strategies to support the conversion of some existing downtown office space to residential to ensure sustained activity downtown."
Johnston: "One of the most important things we have to do is revive our downtown. The construction project on 16th Street Mall has destroyed this main artery, making it hard to get around and visit businesses. We can’t afford to have 16th Street under construction for two years. As mayor, I would accelerate this project. We have to incentivize and support a return to commerce downtown so our local businesses can thrive, and we can have a bustling, vibrant city center. That means addressing the issue of homelessness and move people into housing, it means having more community-based police who build relationships with business owners and residents, it means we have to incentivize child care facilities to open downtown so workers come back, and it means the city has to do more to support business owners and make sure they have access to the funding and investment they need to thrive."
Brough and Johnston will likely face off against one another in a June 6 runoff election. Results from the April 4 municipal election will be certified on April 20th, formally setting the candidates who will appear on the ballot.
