Is Denver Anti-Small Business?

In an open letter to the Denver Business Journal, Jim Hannifin, a long-time Colfax Avenue small business owner, argues Denver city government is basically anti-small business.

He believes this in spite of eight years of pro-business mayoral leadership from John Hickenlooper.

RNOs are Hannifin’s main complaint. Registered Neighborhood Organizations, some of which are just front organizations for a few anti-growth, not in my neighborhood activists, have Excise and License and Planning departments in their grip. Public Works, he states, is just not very commerce-oriented and has a myriad of inappropriate and inflexible rules and procedures.

In a mayor and council election that has been mostly devoid of issues, maybe a discussion of jobs requires taking on the long overdue problems of Denver’s bureaucracy.