You could call this the Summer of spin.

Be at the spinning of news stories in Washington.

But also this week at the governor's office, there were some spinning and interesting reaction to the failure of the proposed pedestrian bridge in an online poll.

And there was also some spinning in regards to the state of the city and referring to Denver and the mayor's, noted accomplishments and the goals he presented this week.

The four behind me are tapped into all that happened this week and come to the table ready to share.

So let's get started with this week's Colorado Inside Out.

Hi, everyone, I'm Kyle Dyer.

Let me get right to introducing you to this week's insider panel.

We start with Patty Calhoun, founder and editor of Westword.

Krista Kafer, columnist with The Denver Post.

Adam Berg, senior policy advisor at Foster Graham Law Firm.

And Laura Eldredge, a city building consultant with Hatch Urban Solutions and former planning director for the City and County of Denver.

One week from today is August 1st, and August is a month when Denver will start laying off employees to help with the bottom line, because the city is facing a $250 million deficit.

And then on August the 4th, the following week, the full city council will decide if Mayor Johnson's now $935 million bond package should go before voters.

It's a plan to repair and improve infrastructure and community spaces that was originally estimated to cost around $800 million.

And that was the price tag.

Now, I should remind everyone, this is an investment package.

It will not raise taxes, but it's still a lot of money.

And earlier this week, Patty Mayor Johnston gave his state of the city address and talked about his accomplishments and what he wants to do.

But there wasn't really talk about this budget deficit or the layoffs, but he used every symbol that you could imagine in this speech, like hoping people would catch on to the analogy about the train or learn to hopefulness or welcoming city.

What he didn't do was address the elephant in the room, which was the fact that we're about to have major layoffs in the city, and even then, we will still face a huge budget deficit.

And there was slight acknowledgment of the fact that Denver is not in a great place because of that.

But I really thought it was like whistling in the dark.

You're just like nothing to see here.

Just keep moving along.

Pay no attention to what is going to be a very hard time for this city, for the employees who've been working here, for the people who may not be paying for those bonds, but are paying more for sidewalks, are paying for trash, they're paying for things they didn't have to use to pay for when their income is being cut, and when their property taxes really haven't dropped.

So I think it's a tough time ahead for Colorado and the vibrant Denver Bonds.

I think we're going to see some challenges there, too, especially as you look at 130 million of it will be helpful to, oh, if the Broncos go to Birnam yards.

But they're not going to do much for most people.

Okay.

All right.

Chris, I saw you kind of going like this, agreeing with Patty.

Well, you know, the mayor is very sunny.

He's just he's an optimistic guy.

He's a nice guy.

And I appreciate that.

But he also tends to kind of gloss over or ignore the bad news.

And, you know, that's what politicians do.

I don't blame him for that.

But between the the the money issues and the crime issue, I think these things need to be addressed.

So crime, you know, I'm happy that he's happy.

We're all happy.

The homicide rate has gone down that that's great.

But it's no different than other major cities where homicide has gone down over the last couple of years.

All good news, obviously, but crime itself is still an issue.

If you look at Denver, Denver's crime rates are higher than the national average and higher than comparable cities.

And a Common Sense Institute report that just came out said, if you look at the first half of last year, in the first half of this year, crime has gone up in almost every area.

And as somebody who has friends and relatives who have been victims of those crimes, I think a lot more needs to be done to address this issues.

So rather than say, hey, look, homicides are down.

Awesome.

I appreciate that.

As someone who's alive, that's great.

I do think that the mayor does need to put more attention to the fact that we are still a city that has a disproportionate amount of crime.

Adam, there is a lot happening in the city.

I think we saw it throughout his speech, almost 40 minutes, where he touched on everything from homelessness to safety to youth programs to energy programs, all the stuff he wants to tackle.

But it also feels very scattered in a lot of ways.

We look at the vibrant Denver bond.

It has ballooned to almost 90 projects, including 50 counts.

15 council requested projects to get the council on board, which is critical to getting it to voters and almost $1 billion.

And there's real a reality where the state also only has so much borrowing room or borrowing limit.

And could it impact a credit rating, a Triple-A credit rating of the scope of this kind of package?

and amidst all this is I think, our, you know, frequent panelist and colleague Elaina Alvarez says there is a $250 million budget reckoning that the city has to deal with, and they feel like they're sort of taking everything all on once, but only going in a little bit.

And it makes me worried about where the focus needs to be and should be.

And maybe it's public safety, or maybe it's, simply that our roads are not what they should be.

Based on a recent, national report on road maintenance and in Colorado.

So just a little worried about where the focus is for the mayor.

Okay.

So before we even get to the $250 million deficit, right, we will recall that we had we spent the mayor spent $155 million over 18 months on homelessness, spent $79 million of city money on, the immigration issue that came through in the first year of his, of his term before we even get to.

So.

So all that money has been spent, serving those two issues.

I would say the immigration issue has is very subdued.

Now, I would say based on my experience, moving throughout the city of Denver, I'm still seeing homelessness.

I'm still seeing mental health issues.

I'm still seeing some dirty streets in the downtown area.

So it's not completely addressed.

And yet we continue to spend this money.

And now, surprise, surprise, we have a $250 million budget deficit.

the spoonful of sugar, speech felt disingenuous to me.

And I also was wondering, where's the strategic plan that we need from a leader?

And I don't mean just the city of Denver.

It should be for this region.

Denver metropolitan region.

Where are we going in this next century?

Also this week, a lot of news has come out of the governor's office, the Colorado attorney general's office and the offices of some of our, congressional leaders.

First up, governor, policies, pedestrian bridge not happening, as we all know, since, what, 94% of Coloradans who jumped in on the online poll shot it down.

The spin from Polis is pretty interesting with him saying that he's going to chain himself to the Capitol to stop the walkway.

He proposed from being built, so that was kind of odd.

But some transparency did emerge from the governor's office this week with the acknowledgment that the state has indeed turned over personal information of Coloradans at least four times this year to, federal immigration agents.

And that is something that has sparked a lot of tension within state government and led to the governor himself being sued.

Since the law of Colorado does state that government employees are forbidden from turning over personal information of workers?

Krista, where would you like to begin?

I want to say, who are the 6% that like the bridge?

I mean, esthetically challenged.

Seriously?

That was the ugliest, stupidest idea I've not ever seen.

I've been in politics for too long, but I, I'm glad it's off the table.

The chaining myself to a building thing.

Very silly, given that it was his idea that it's off the table, why not put in some beautiful gardens that showcase Colorado native plants?

Low water gardening?

I think it could be a real inspiration for people to walk through if they did something creative.

Now I will actually defend the governor.

I can understand why he turned over the information.

I realize there's a court, a court case, and a sense that he shouldn't have done that, but he really is trying to keep Colorado out of the the vision and sights of the Trump administration.

He's doing what he thinks is best for the for for Colorado.

And that is staying off Trump's list.

So the fact that he turned over some information, you know, I know people are mad, but I'll defend him on that okay.

All right.

Adam, I think we're seeing a lot of national politics and political climate sort of trickling in to Colorado.

Not necessarily a big surprise as we have midterms, what may not feel like just around the corner, but for getting as many phone calls as I'm sure a lot of us are, feels like it's just around the corner.

You obviously have the attorney general who seems to be stepping in and looking into Mesa County and some of their deputies in the handling of a case around turning information over to immigration officials.

You have the Congressional District eight race where we are just seeing money dumped into Gabe Evans and Shannon Bird and you dear care video and Mandy route now.

And whoever else decides they want to jump into this race.

And then obviously Gabe Evans again in national media for sort of his heritage and immigration story, which he's he's talked about on the campaign trail.

So I don't anticipate some of these larger conversations, whether it's immigration or federal cuts that are coming to the state, to continue to be a big topic, especially if we have a special session or when we go back to our General Assembly normal session in January.

So I think it's only just beginning to see some of these really big headlines starting to pop up around.

I think on the dignity bill that Gabe Evans introduced, it's it's it's like a breadcrumb.

I also think we might we might ought to take it.

It's not a great plan.

It's not a great policy, but it's better than nothing.

The other piece I will say is his misrepresentation of his how his family came to the United States.

Based on on my family's experience.

Right.

We I have, I have a niece who has gone through medical school, both in Mexico, here in the United States, is serving infectious disease HIV patients as a infectious disease specialist in Milwaukee.

I have cousins, in a unnamed city who are undocumented.

I myself am a dual citizen of Mexico in the United States.

And the truth of the matter is that many Latino families are a mix of this, very gray, black and white, experience of what it is to live on both to have family on both sides of the border.

And so for us to smack him down, whether he was disingenuous or not truthful about his heritage or that pathway, I don't know, I just maybe he can open up a little bit about that truth, though.

Okay.

All right.

I have no problem smacking him down.

You weren't running for public office.

This is a man who ran for public office who has stood up at the house.

In the house and said things about immigration, which it turns out are not true.

So He's a public figure, so you have to be careful about public comments.

Now, since I'm being ungracious, let me go on and be a happy winter about the bad bridge thing.

I understand Polis is trying to surrender in a funny way, gracefully.

The bridge was such a bad idea from the word go.

Today is the start of the countdown.

Really.

Until the 100th anniversary of Colorado, it's Celebrate Colorado Day.

Celebrate Colorado lasts a week and then we go into the August 1st 20, 2026 celebration of Colorado.

Let's think about something we can do that would help bring the state together.

Think about, like StoryCorps, for example, which has had its funding cut.

Why not equip some vans to go all through Colorado's 64 counties, collecting stories, bringing the state together?

We don't have to do anything at the state Capitol.

Let's spread the wealth.

I'll do that.

That would be amazing.

Let's do it through channel 12.

Okay.

All right.

Let's look into it after the show.

While summertime is supposed to be carefree, we still have to be responsible.

The grim reality is that nearly half of Colorado's bicyclist fatalities since 2020 occurred during the summer.

And it's not like we're not used to sharing the road with cyclists.

Colorado is one of the most bicycle heavy states in the US.

There are awareness campaigns.

But earlier this week, a bicyclist was killed in a hit and run in Denver in a spot where neighbors thought a bike lane was supposed to be built.

Adam, this is upsetting.

This is unsettling.

It is scary.

It is.

And it's also very timely.

So the American College of Sports Medicine recently ranked Denver as the fifth best fitness city in the United States.

This is their 18th.

You're doing it.

We're actually moving up in the rankings.

So we are a community that likes to get outside, whether it's walking or running or biking.

But the data when we look historically does paint a troubling picture.

So, across Colorado, pedestrian deaths surged 77% since 2018.

And in 2023, they made up nearly 19% of all roadway fatalities.

Speaking bike specifically, the Denver metro area saw around 742 bike crashes in recent years, resulting in 11 deaths and 135 serious injuries.

About one third of all of those occurred within Denver.

So two deaths and 51 serious injuries.

So these are these are frightening numbers.

You know, we all have probably friends and loved ones ourselves who get out on their bike to go to work and come back from work in the evening or early morning.

And, you know, the city has tried to address this for several years it doesn't look like the data is trending positively for us to meet that goal.

And I do find that something that should be discussed a bit more by the mayor and his team.

Well, Laura, I'm sure it'd be happy to share her story with the mayor.

Yeah, well, so about a year ago, I was hit with a hit and run on a. I was on an e-bike, and and, hit by a car and fortunately have minor, lasting issues.

But, the I think this really boils down to two issues.

I, as a plant city planner that I think about.

One is just the behavior of car drivers and cyclists, which is an issue.

The second is road design.

Most of our roads have been designed around the car, and so you have these cars and you have behavior happening as a result of the design for 50, 60, 70 years.

You then began introducing, bike lanes and without really, I would say, without really any edification for the car drivers or the cyclists.

just anecdotal after my accident, a friend who's, her son was in driver's ed and said there was no conversation at all in driver's ed at the like a year ago about green lanes, bike lanes, protected bike lanes.

How do you behave as a car driver when you've got all sorts of different white poles?

And it just just no conversation about it?

And I think that's that's, problematic.

That sure is.

Okay, Patty, to say that there are more bicycle deaths in the summers, like saying there more ski deaths in the winter.

Like we should be surprised, but the problem is that we are not a year round bicycling city.

There are some people, but that's one of the challenges.

We can't.

Everyone is not going to give up their cars, so we have to figure out how to share the roads.

You can tell sometimes public transport planners would like you to public transportation, bicycles, whatever you can use.

It's not reasonable in Colorado, in so many cases when you want to get out to those rural areas and you're not going to be able to get there unless you take your car.

So that's an issue.

There needs to be education.

We also need to clear up the roads for the construction that's going on.

If you are driving around Denver right now, bicycles, you can't even see them for all the construction trucks are very weird problems that are going on.

So it's a huge issue.

I'm glad.

One thing I think we can agree in in the vibrant Denver plan, that section of 38th and Tay home where the where the bicyclist was killed.

That is going to get some attention.

Why it took this is the question.

We need to prosecute people who drive carelessly and hit bikes, and hit bicyclists.

I have a relative who was hit, hit and run.

They left him for dead after they nearly killed him.

30 bones, more than 30 bones broken.

He says his two years ago.

He has had surgery.

After surgery, the police know who did it.

It was a drunken driver and his buddies.

But because they can't figure out which of the buddies actually was behind the wheel, they have not prosecuted these people.

They're still driving.

Probably still drinking and driving.

Then I think about my sister whose bike was stolen by vagrants.

My sister called the police and said, see that?

That's my bike.

I can actually give you the lock number on the bike.

I can describe to you the t the bike, because that bike 30ft from here is my bike.

And the police were like, well, unless you know the Vin number, we can't exactly give you your bike back.

So now my sister and I are probably going to do something vigilante and get the bike back on our own.

And thus the police take these incidents seriously and prosecute those people.

People are still going to do careless driving at the expense of bicyclists since our sports loving city planner Laura, is here this week, let's talk about Denver Summit FC, our new women's pro professional soccer team.

The name was announced this week.

And the new logo and all the merch.

And there is a big launch party planned for Saturday afternoon downtown at McGregor square.

But, Laura, at the same time, there's still that conversation about will this really get be built in, you know, in three years?

And it's in a spot of land in Denver that's never really become anything since gates went away.

So what's your take?

I know you're excited about the team itself, right.

So I'll just start by saying I love soccer.

I love women's soccer.

I love the name.

I was excited about the logo, the reference, that slight reference to the license plate.

For some reason, I think it's cheesy and fun.

So obviously there's still a conversation about what does this bring enough value to Denver, to the metropolitan area?

You know, there's an ask for $70 million of investment, the the three year issue about can they do it quick enough.

The land has been cleaned.

Right.

And and they there has been a 25 year run to try to make the previous gates Rubber factory redevelop into something.

There have been at least three development attempts on it, and it has it never got off the ground.

And the two hottest real estate markets that we have had in the past in the sense Denver came into existence.

So the fact that the that public investment can go into this stadium to help bring private development along afterwards is a win win for the city and for all the residents in the metropolitan area.

Okay.

All right, Gary, we did love it when the possible six names for the team were released in February, and there was some polling on it, like summit.

It's a nice name, except there's the ultimate Frisbee group named summit.

So they did work that out with Sal Pace, the owner of that team, and so they got the rights to it.

And now you have the people quibbling that, where is this summit in Denver?

Is that where it will be?

Hill is it of course field.

But I think the name is fine.

I think the logos fine.

I would rather see the money go to women's soccer than to the Walton family for the football stadium, that they could certainly pay for themselves and it's a great benefit.

I remember Dana Crawford talking about that area around gates, and that was her biggest regret in Denver, that that hadn't been developed.

They hadn't been able to do anything with the old buildings and come up with a great amenity.

So if this could work, wonderful.

I think we want to look at the timeline and the money a little more.

Okay, Krista, now I'm with Patty.

If we're going to spend the money, let's spend the money there.

Make the Walton's pay for another stadium.

We already have one perfectly good stadium, but if they want to rebuild another one, they need to pay for it.

And they need to pay Denver water the fair amount for that land.

Not only did that did they redevelop that land and put new buildings on it for Denver water employees.

You know, if they're going to sell that land, it needs to be given a fair value and be fairly paid for it.

And under.

No, ratepayers should not have to pick up a dime, for a new stadium.

Adam, I am also a huge soccer fan, so I am excited about the prospect of having this team.

I think the stadium location makes a lot of sense.

You know, having had one soccer stadium where we built up in Commerce City as opposed to more in in metro Denver for the Rapids.

I think the biggest thing that's been going through my mind is when the mayor gave his stay the city on Monday, he talked explicitly about wants and needs for the city of Denver.

And I worry they're taking on so much.

And this is a big commitment.

And I do think, as you said, there is this massive desire for this in Colorado.

Where is it going to get or will it get lost in the money shuffle that is happening within this city and all these massive projects?

They're trying to bring online at one time?

So the idea of getting it done in a timely, cost efficient way feels like a big hurdle, potentially with everything else going on.

But I'm certainly rooting for them to to find a path forward.

And it's interesting too, when we talk about the Denver summit, that wasn't one of the ones we voted on, right?

Patty.

It was Colorado Summit.

But I guess if the Denver city of Denver is going to pay for it, I guess they say we want our name in it.

I don't know how that worked.

Okay.

All right.

Well, we'll see what happens in the next three years.

Let's go down the line now and talk about some of the highs and the lows of this week.

Plenty of both to talk about.

Patty, I'll start with you with something low.

This hadn't happened when we filmed last week, but the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which lost its federal funding, which affects EPR, it affects obviously PBS.

So, give if you love this show.

Okay.

I'm going to go international, which I don't normally do, but I was looking at pictures of starving children in Gaza this morning on CNN.

And I know war is horrible.

I know the situation is complex, but 58,000 civilians have died, a lot of them children.

Something's got to change.

Yeah, I know, heartbreaking.

Absolutely.

Atom mind is that drug overdose rates and this is both fatal and non-fatal, increased by more than 20% in Denver through July of this year.

It's the highest levels the city has seen since 2023, when nearly 600 people died from drug use.

This is an epidemic in our city.

We we see too much of it on the streets of Denver.

But there are, you know, on the positive note, people like the back from Broken Foundation, which is a new group who's hosting a benefit concert with Josh Ritter on September 28th.

They're trying to raise awareness about these kinds of issues, but it's it's disheartening.

Yeah.

All right.

Learned hopefulness is what the mayor used in the state of the city.

And I, I just thought it was a subtle way to say, stop complaining.

And I feel like it's toxic positivity that is not needed in this time where we really need to look, look at our future straight in the face, get some real solutions.

Let's talk about something good and positive.

Okay, here's learned hope for this.

I will go to Casa Bonita and eat the worst food as many times as I can in order to support the South Park creators who put on the most amazing season opener taking on Trump on Wednesday night.

If you haven't seen it, do.

Yep.

Krista, I got to give it to our producer Rachel, who got nominated for two Emmys and won one.

And we are all super, super, super proud of her and her whole team.

Absolutely.

And the one for which she won re becoming me is it was showed on PBS 12 in the last year.

So you can find it online.

Just a 30 minute really powerful.

Documentary of various people within Colorado who grew up in the foster care system.

And looking back where they are now, their struggles and also their achievements.

Okay, so Colorado got a C minus grade from the American Society of Civil Engineers on their infrastructure, largely roads.

That's obviously bad.

The potentially good is there's a new ballot, two new ballot issues that may be coming to voters in November that look explicitly at earmarking funds intended for transportation to road maintenance.

We have a long way to go.

But it's nice to see that without much progress being made, people are being solution oriented on these types of things.

That sounds like toxic positivity.

But yeah, I'm trying to make it possible.

It would be fun.

We'll change the name of the subject.

It's a double negative.

You're toxic positivity come out of the week.

Go.

So this weekend on Santa Fe Drive is the 29th annual Chicano Music Festival.

And it's happening all weekend long.

It's a range of different music types coming from the, from, you know, Latinos and Chicanos and, Saturday night they have a big party.

They call it Yanga.

We call it the tango.

And it's, for sure will be a great time.

So come out and enjoy it.

And my positive high is the big feast that is set for tomorrow over at the Auraria Campus.

And I do mean it's going to be huge.

Denver is looking to host the longest shared meal and America.

There is a table measuring 5280ft.

So yes.

Cheers!

For many people as well.

With the idea being that we all come together from all walks of life, different perspectives.

We meet strangers, we see old friends, and we share a meal and make some good relationships with other people.

This year you can go to the Prairie campus.

As I mentioned, everything get started at ten Saturday morning.

For more information, check out the website which is mile long table.org and have fun getting to know 5279 people.

Thank you insiders.

We so appreciate you coming.

Thank you for watching or for listening to our podcast.

I am Kyle Dyer I will see you next week here on PBS 12.

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