How Denver beat the odds and saved itself

As the Democratic National Convention begins in Denver, the world will see the First City of the Intermountain West. It’s not Phoenix (population 1.5 million; metro 4.1 million), which sits in its desert frying pan like an overweight couch potato. It is Denver (pop. 567,000; metro 2.9 million). It’s another reminder that population alone is more likely to mean problems than strength. Let me tell you about one of my adopted hometowns.

Delegates will see a sparkling downtown and central city that have made a remarkable comeback from their fading 1980s. It’s genuine live-work-play. They can ride one of the best light-rail systems in the country, soon to be muscled up with commuter and light rail reaching more than 100 additional miles; the hub will be historic Union Station. Lovely old neighborhoods close to the core have been preserved and revived. Miles of bike and walking paths, including along Cherry Creek, flow seamlessly into a walkable, dense downtown. Nearby, the Cherry Creek district is a delightful walkable shopping area.

This city that sits at the edge of the arid Great Plains (it was the Queen City of the Plains before the Mile High City) is blessed with shady streets and gorgeous parks. It’s rich in culture, with a superb performing arts center and art museum, and edge, with many galleries, coffee houses and warehouse spaces. Chain stores and local stores, historic architecture and avant-garde, sit side by side along 16th Street and in lively Lower Downtown. Four pro sports teams play in downtown stadiums, which only enhanced the move to preserve historic buildings full of real businesses, and add to the downtown population. Where the old Stapleton Airport once stood is one of the nation’s top New Urbanist developments.

Let’s be clear: Denver is surrounded by plenty of suburbs, some pleasant and most quite dreary. Some are being refitted around light or commuter rail, which will be a huge advantage in the future. But Denver is not an either/or city like Phoenix. It offers choices. This being America, vast swaths of agricultural land have been lost there to sprawl (something we may come to regret in the new paradigm of food production). The foothills have been profaned with the houses of the rich. But unlike many places, Denver offers another choice: a high-quality urban lifestyle, and it’s paying off, especially in the competition for talent and capital. (For example, Denver routinely far outpaces fat Phoenix in venture capital.)

It will be interesting to see if the Democrats learn anything. Many are happy to attend a Save the Earth rally and then drive back to their McMansion in the suburbs, in an SUV of course.

Denver saved itself from the fate of many American cities by having leaders and wealthy stewards that focused on the city and the future. Cherry Creek Shopping Center was a dying mall that could have met the fate of Phoenix’s Park Central. Instead, it was revived as an upscale urban shopping district. Reinvestment is a constant theme here. Rich families such as the Bonfils graced the city with gifts to the arts and social programs — instead of decamping for other places or merely investing in more sprawl. Strong mayors such as Federico Pena and Wellington Web pushed through visionary programs — and a progressive populace largely embraced them. For example, LoDo was saved from demolition. And private investment flowed in, including from pioneering urban developers. Ironically, the Poundstone Amendment that prevented Denver from any
further annexation, pushed by the suburbs to punish the city, helped
save it, too. The city had to focus on itself, not some new land scheme. Denver showed a city can be progressive about planning, transit and the environment — and be pro business.

It’s true that Denver began the last century as a city, with more than 100,000 people. It had assets such as railroad terminals and the mining industry. It also built and has the largest concentration of federal employees in one place outside of Washington, D.C. But the old assets might have led to a frozen mindset, one that has killed so many cities. Instead, Denver remained open and outward looking. The Federal Center could have been easy pickings for other cities hungry for jobs, but Denver leaders and members of Congress protected it. Denver was never dependent on one single industry, even as it navigated the booms and busts of energy and mining.

People will come to Denver now and be dazzled, thinking it was always meant to be. It wasn’t. It took years of hard work. It’s not utopian, but what can really be accomplished in America, and in a region with strong political divisions.

Old Denverites miss their cowtown, lament the huge airport far out on the plains. Kerouac’s Denver is gone. I miss the old railroad yards where the amusement park, condos and convention-hosting Pepsi Center now stand. Like everywhere, the nearby countryside has largely been lost. But Denver itself has gotten better and better, and is well positioned to weather a nasty future.

In Phoenix, my sweet garden city was swept away forever and replace by what? Lookalike crap in segregated, tribal Gilbert? Surface parking lots downtown? Rocks thrown down at the missed opportunity of the Henson Hope VI project, where there were once shade trees and grass? An out-of-the-box suburban mall in place of the unique Biltmore Fashion Park? The faux Tuscan-Spanish-stucco slums of the future that replaced the magical Japanese Gardens? A taxpayer-funded football stadium in the middle of nowhere to grease a private land deal? People who roll in from the Midwest to vote against any community betterment, against any community, while slurping up the legacy of long-dead stewards?

Phoenix — "the Valley": we must protect the egos of Mesa and Glendale, of course — would never have the ambition to go for a political convention. (And heat can be dealt with; Dallas did). But lack of ambition has a price, as is shown in virtually every measure of competitiveness and social health that hasn’t been waterboarded beyond recognition by the Golddigger Foundation and its media mouthpieces.

As for Denver — learn and enjoy. The summer twilight is enchanting, especially as the sun lights up the skyline.