Minneapolis and Portland saw rent level off nearly completely over the last six years.
How?
They built a ton of apartments with little parking.
Lessens from other density efforts elsewhere —>
It's much harder for Denver resident Michelle Leonard to get to the mountains since she stopped driving.
And that got her wondering: Why isn't there public transportation to the city's mountain parks?
Hi! I have an announcement.
I and many others at
@COPublicRadio
have been making a documentary podcast on Denver's hugely ambitious rail transit system.
We're calling it "Ghost Train."
NEW: Colorado legislators are considering a fee on heavy vehicles (SUVs, trucks, etc) to help fund pedestrian/bicycle safety improvements.
But it sounds like there are already big changes afoot before the bill is even introduced -->
Dude at a brewery in Denver tonight was telling the guy next to him about how highway expansions can induce demand ... and my heart grew two sizes listening.
(No I wasn’t the dude in this conversation.)
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis is saying a lot of urbanist- and YIMBY-friendly stuff about transportation and housing affordability in advance of the coming session. Here's a sample:
Remember that court fight between low-income, rural Hispanics (mostly) and a Texas billionaire over a southern Colorado ranch?
Well, an appeals court ruled against the billionaire:
Y'know how CDOT's been talking up a "fix-it-first" strategy? Here it is in action.
Out: A $900M expansion of I-25 in central Denver.
In: $23.4M in resurfacing
An entire block in south Denver near DU of old bungalows is being scraped. Proposed replacement, under review, is a five-story, 235-unit apartment building w/ 2 levels of underground parking.
NEW: Gov. Polis tells my colleague
@AndyKnny
that the state should encourage dense and sustainable housing development — and he pointed the finger at local gov'ts for blocking that.
I didn’t think I’d be the guy who tweets about how the US requires more staircases in apartment buildings than most other countries, which makes them less livable, but here we are
Wild to see 17th St in downtown Denver go from *five* vehicle lanes (one was parking) go to two vehicle lanes, two bus lanes, and one protected bike lane in the last few years.
NEW: Colorado Gov. Jared Polis' housing plan would explicitly allow more dense housing across the state's metro areas and resort communities — even if local officials object to it.
Update from
@FBIDenver
:
- Sol Pais is “infatuated” by Columbine
- Came to CO last night, and procured a gun
- No threat to any specific school, but still consider her a “credible threat”
- “This has become a massive man hunt.”
-Tip line 303-630-6227
.
@GovofCO
Jared Polis thinks density is the magic bullet for high housing costs. I took a look at research to try to answer whether he’s right or not.
Here’s a Denver appreciation thread:
In June I bought two fancy sheets of plywood at Front Range Lumber in Lakewood and brought them to the Denver Tool Library (
@DenverTools
).
I wanted to make this bookshelf I found on Etsy but could not afford:
The NYT significantly edited the story I linked to yesterday, so the screenshots of text no longer match the article if you click through.
Here's a version of the story that does:
Let's take a moment to remember Phyllis Mack, perhaps Denver's most unlikely pedestrian activist.
I met her a few years ago on Alameda Blvd, in a snowstorm.
1/
This is the Federal-Colfax cloverleaf in west Denver. It moves lots of cars quickly. Pedestrians, bicyclists, and nearby communities say its super dangerous and a barrier btwn neighborhoods.
And now, city and state leaders say they want to take it down.
📷:
@KevinJBeaty
1/
If I'm reading this right, Denver is now proposing protected bike lanes some of the city's busiest arterial streets:
- Colorado Blvd
- Speer
- S Broadway
- W Evans
- Monaco
- Quebec
- 17th/18th
- 13th/14th
- York/Josephine
Take a look at the map here:
NEW: A majority of RTD's board of directors say they'll vote to lower Denver-area transit fares next week.
Big, big discounts coming on monthly passes especially — $200 to $88.
The Colorado legislature has passed a bill that will allow cyclists to roll stop signs at empty intersections.
Black and brown cyclists here hope it'll give police one less reason to pull them over.
NEW: The CO Transportation Commission will vote later this week on a climate policy that could shift billions of transportation dollars away from roads and toward bike/ped/transit.
I wrote down every major-ish Colorado bus/shuttle/train line I could think of that could get you reasonable close to a trailhead in the mountains.
What did I miss?
NEW: The Colorado Transportation Commission has approved a rule that could divert billions of dollars away from emissions-generating highway projects and toward cleaner things like bike paths, sidewalks and more transit.
NEW: Trains on some RTD light rail lines have been crawling at 10 mph all week. Operators tell me the order came as a surprise, and could be a sign of something really bad.
“Everybody’s just angry,” one said.
RTD has said little. Passengers are mad.
I'm reading through Denver's big 2050 transportation plan, which lays out the city's vision for a shift away from vehicles and toward bikes/walking/transit.
Not gonna get through the entire doc today I'll tweet a few highlights here.
Colorado has an all-mail ballot system. And it gets really, really good reviews from election security experts.
I wrote a brief history of how Colorado built it, and why it works, back in 2018:
New: RTD wants to expand its free fare program this summer ozone season to July *and* August. Also looking at a free youth fare program for the ‘23-‘24 school year.
Thanks to
@KevinJBeaty
for getting up way early and staying out way late to get some amazing photographs.
And to everyone who told me their stories; I won’t soon forget them, and it’s my privilege to share them.
I rode along with ~75 kids and parents this morning on one of Denver’s first “bike bus” rides to a NW Denver school.
And folks, these kids were just the best.
NEW: I profiled Denver’s sidewalk queen
@jlocantore
, who kept pushing for walkability when city officials balked.
Voters just gave her the biggest win of her career, one that her national peers hope is replicated elsewhere.
(The answer, in short, is there’s a lot of research to suggest that restricting supply drives up prices and adding more helps temper them. And that sprawl is expensive. But you should still read the story 😘)
The Grand Lake lodge and downtown GL were saved from the
#EastTroublesomeFire
, per town councilor Ernie Bjorkman. He cited GL's town manager. More coming at a news conference in a few minutes.
Polis also said the housing issue transcends local control and suggested the state could get more involved in it. This entire passage is worth reading:
A Twin Cities urbanist came to Denver recently and wrote up his thoughts.
Some things he liked:
- Downtown not surrounded by highways
- Scale of rail network
- Union Station
Things he didn’t:
- Super wide roads
- Land use around rail stations
NEW: Colorado bicyclists could roll through stop signs (if the intersection is clear) under a bill to be introduced next session. Lead sponsors are
@matthewogray
and
@FaithWinterCO
.
NEW: RTD data show a 36% year-over-year ridership increase during fare free August, and a 22% increase from the month before. Highest monthly ridership since Feb '20.
@FaithWinterCO
calls that "fantastic."
Denver’s about to rip up the I25 & Broadway area for a long-planned congestion relief project.
Problem is, RTD’s busy Broadway station is nearby, and this project would force some people to walk across nearly *20* lanes of traffic to reach it.
A lil' personal news: I'm officially
@newscpr
's transportation and growth reporter. I'm working on a number of Columbine anniversary stories now, but come spring expect more
@RideRTD
stories, and a broader look at, well, transportation and growth. 🙃
.
@DRCOGorg
's is also proposing to axe or minimize planned expansions of a half-dozen arterial roads.
Its new plan would speed up BRT projects on Federal Blvd, Colorado Blvd, far East Colfax, and the Diagonal (119) between Boulder/Longmont. And pour $ into bicycle/ped infra.
We would not have known about the law that protected her, or the state office that advocated for her, without the work of
@chrisvanderveen
and others. That's is the power of journalism done in the public's interest.
Support it wherever you get it.
NEW: Denver’s looking into big changes to Wynkoop Street in downtown. One possibility is making it a permanent “shared street” which could also effectively make the plaza in front of Union Station bigger.
NEW: Broadway, Welton St in Denver are going car-free for four "¡Viva! Streets" ciclovía events this year.
8a-2p on Sundays:
- May 14
- June 4
- July 9
- Aug 6
$150-$250 fines are coming for drivers who swerve in and out of Colorado's toll lanes -- and the state will be able to prevent violators from registering their cars if they don't pay up.
#TRAFFIC
:
#DPD
is investigating a a traffic crash with serious injuries involving a motorist and a bicyclist at Downing and Speer. Expect delays in the area.
#Denver
In total we're talking about a $900 million shift away from capacity projects and toward cleaner, multi-modal projects through 2050.
Here's a table w/ proposed changes.
I may regret asking this, but I'll do it anyway.
Who's got links to peer-reviewed research that stress-tests the main YIMBY policies (upzoning, parking reductions, etc) and their effect on housing costs?
42
#CelebrityCrossingGuard
's!
30 schools
60 gift cards (for lunch w/principal)
10 radio DJs + TV anchors
Most of City Council
The Mayor
@MikeJohnstonCO
@DenverDOTI
Exec. Director
The Denver DA
Chiefs of Police + Fire
7 musicians/entertainers
Turns out there was supposed to be. The original mountain park plan circa 1912 envisioned electric tram lines. But that was soon dropped.
Maybe the first time CO voters approved a tax increase for rail lines that were never built?