Mayor Mike Johnston gives his second State of the City address, held this year at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. July 21, 2025. Photo: Kevin J. Beaty/DenveriteAll Denver mayors are tested. John Hickenlooper had the great recession and Michael Hancock COVID-19. Mike Johnston inherited a post-COVID, George Floyd crime wave, massive homelessness and a vacant downtown. As he passes the halfway mark of his 4-year term, he used his state of the city address to recount the progress on homelessness, crime, and downtown. But he acknowledged the shortfalls and new problems in the city budget, exacerbated by the serious federal cutbacks.
The Mayor recognized that the perception of downtown Denver as a dangerous and mostly empty space is the city’s biggest challenge, even with the reopening of a refurbished 16th Street. Most importantly, he outlined a new theme of tough love with homelessness, i.e., provide alternatives besides arrest but don’t take no for an answer.
His biggest test now is passage of the typical mayoral solution to a slow economy which has worked numerous times in the past – tee up a one billion dollar or so bond package to upgrade Denver infrastructure and provide jobs.
The debate now is about what’s in the proposal and, of course, will it pass?/
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