Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is Colorado's Morning News. Marty Lenz Ginagondek, Good morning.
The nearly billion dollar Vibrant Denver Bond package heading to
voters this November in hopes of funding around sixty projects,
varying from new parks and recreation centers to infrastructure improvements,
maintenance projects, and other city upgrades.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
But with the passage did come pushback from some city
council members.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Don't think everyone gets something they need. I don't think
our elections division is getting everything it needs to secure
our elections, and that is concerning.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Joining us now on the KWA Common Spirit Health Hotline
is Denver Mayor Mike Johnston. Mister Mayor, thank you so
much for joining us a day early today.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
You beg good martin 'elle, thanks for making the work
on Thursday.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Before we get a little bit more into the councilwoman's remarks,
what was your initial reaction to the passing of the
Vibrant Denver bond proposal?
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Are you happy with it?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Is there stuff in it that you wish wasn't or
other projects that you wish were included?
Speaker 4 (00:51):
You know, worth thrilled with it, and this is obviously
how the process is supposed to work. We had, you know,
seven thousand Denver rights involved, We had fifty public meetings,
We had great hearings with the sold on along the way.
We got to try to figure out what the top
set of priorities are. It's always hard, right, I mean,
we had six billion dollars worth of projects that voters
wanted us to take on.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
We have about a nine hundred million dollar bond.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
There's always going to be things you want you don't get.
It's sort of like your kid building the wish list
for Christmas. There you're never going to get everything in
the list. And so we tried to really prioritize the
things that would most effectively focus on maintenance and repair, taking.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Care of the assets that we have so that they
don't you.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
Know, create catastrophic damage that was going to be much
more expensive, much more dangerous, and also trying to make
some investments on new growth where we think those are
important for neighborhood that need it. So I think we
struck a great ballance and delighted at the end.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
You know, we had a.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Unanimous thirteen to zero referral from Council for the ordinance
to put it on the ballot, so that was all
great progress and that's how the process is supposed to work.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
And one of those council members, flor Al Vidra, she
joined us yesterday and yes, she voted to push it forward,
but there were some concerns that she had based on
some of the price tags. For example, the project to
repair the eighth Avenue bridge near the Burnham Yard nearly
ninety million dollars. She was a little, I think dumb
struck by that price in the rationale for this repair
because the Broncos are involved with this, so we should
(02:05):
think and that's a lot of money or what the
situation is. I guess you was seeing more clarity and
transparency about why that is taking place.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
Yeah, I think there's been plenty of clarity and transparency.
We've met with there multiple times, there's been multiple public hearings.
I think that's pretty straightforward. You can see that bridge
literally was closed a weekend to go to traffic. It's
now has its speed limit reduced to ten miles per
hour because there's so many structural challenges there. And so
you know, those bridges carry about eighty thousand people a
day and if you look at, for instance, the sixth
(02:34):
Avenue bridge, we have multiple places where you have what
we call single fracture points, which is that's what happened
in the Baltimore Bridge when you saw a boat hitted
in the thing collapse. You don't ever want to have
a single fracture point of a bridge, So it's not
a moment like that. We have to shore those things
up and make sure they're going to carry another eighty
thousand passengers a day for the next you know, twenty
to thirty years. And so that's the kind of critical
(02:54):
infrastructure project you want to get ahead of and you
want to repair it now before you have catastrope damage later.
And so we have five of the most dangerous bridges
in the city. We've identified three of them around this bond.
The other two we're focusing on funding through alternate annual
investment in the next couple of years. So bridges are
one of those things you don't pay a lot attention
to until they're in trouble, and that's part of the
(03:15):
maintenance we got to do when it comes to bond time.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Colse Woman all Vidras also in that earlier comment we
played mentioned the election security. We spoke with you earlier
about that with Denver Clerk and Recorder Paul Lopez being
upset about not having a new facility and having that
excluded from the bond package. Will a new elections facility
be funded by other means in the future.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
Yeah, we see no need for there to be a
new election facility, nor does the council. The facilities We
have a perfectly adequate right now, and this is not
a time where we can afford to build brand new,
fifty sixty million dollars buildings when we have current resources
that we can use. So you know, we have plenty
of available city space that we can use to prioritize.
We're not building that for any other department agency in
(03:58):
the city.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
And so I think that was one that didn't have
really any public support, from the committee meetings to public
feedback to the.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
Council, and so that's how the process worked, and the
council we felt like there was more important priorities to
invest in, and so that's where the dollars went.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
You announced yesterday that DA was looking into the feasibility
even installing a small nuclear power plant. Tell us about
that project, and there are some concerns, some people saying
having a radioactive waste or something like that. The airport
is a little disconcerting to some. Can you talk about
that more in the study that's going to be taking place.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Yeah, all those are very fair concerns, and that's exactly
why we do this study is to take a look
at is this feasible or not? And we may find
out that it's not that.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
The risks are too high and we wouldn't go forward.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
But what we're looking at is, you know, right now
the airport requires about fifty megawats and energy it's on
the way up to potentially four hundred megawats of energy
needs over the years to come.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
And what we want is for that airport not just
to be a place where we can.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
Run an airport. We want it to be a real
economic center. And we look at right now massive increase
in demand for electricity for things like data centers where
more and more tech companies, more and more.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
AI are driven companies.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
All these folks need data centers which consume massive amounts
of electricity. And so what we don't want to do
is either not have reliable energy supply to the airport
or have to drive up costs for other residents because
we can't we have shortages of electricity, and so to
be the first airport in the world that has its
own on site, self sustaining clean energy source that could
not just power the airport, but could power a big
(05:26):
part of the neighboring city and infrastructure could be a
big way to both protect the environment long term and
to drive down costs for us and to drive up
opportunities for economic development. So we know it's a big
idea and we think it's worth investigating. It doesn't mean
we know that it will work, but we think when
you have an opportunity like this, you know, this could
supply up to four hund and make wats of energy
that would be transformational, and so we think it's one
(05:49):
part of a potential set of solutions.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
We want to investigate.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
It.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Big idea, but also a big cost one and a
quarter million dollars in order to study the viability at
the reactors ATDIA.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Where would that money be coming from.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Yeah, this is really important because you know, the airport
is its own enterprise.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
The airport is paid for by.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Fees from airlines and other private sector companies. There's not
a single tax dollar that goes to the airport it's
all independently funded. So things like the rebuilding and Pinion
Boulevard study to do that, all those are funded by
the airport, and none of those are funded by taxpayer dollars.
So well, this is a good thoughtful approach to a
complicated problem. None of these are tax dollars and none
(06:27):
of them would change any part of the city's financial.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Landlook, mister mayor, it is a state level issue, but
my guess is that the state budget shortfall likely impacts
municipalities and cities like Denver. Do you have any anticipation
about what those impacts could be on your city and
will there be any impacts?
Speaker 4 (06:44):
You know, it's a great point, Martin, and we know
there will be impacts, and impacts keep coming. And so
that's the challenge for us as the city is the
federal government makes cuts, those roll down to us, the
state governments make cuts those roll down to us. We
were just looking this week, and you know, we have
more than two hundred housing vouchers, which are we use
to get people out of homelessness and into a permanent
apartment unit. If you're someone maybe that's disabled, you're a
(07:06):
doubly afpt or a veteran and you need access to housing.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Those are immediately.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
You know, we had two hundred of those that were
cut from federal and state cuts, and so that's two
hundred people who can't get access to housing. And so
we're worried about cuts to access to food from the
federal legislation that the President passed, and so that could
have more and more families who can't get access to
food in Denver.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
More more families can't get access to healthcare.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
So we are worried about these and that's why you know,
we're being extra conservative and extra cautious in our budgeting.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
We think you have to.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Find a way to live it in your means, even
when it's not easy, and that's what the city's taking
on doing. I think that's the only responsible thing you
can do in the moment of economic downturn, and that's
what we'll do real.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Quick, mister Mayor broncos on Saturday, Are you looking forward
to it?
Speaker 4 (07:47):
And what you got? I couldn't be more excited. I mean,
I just want to remind people that I did on
your show a few weeks ago say that we're going
to win the AFC West this year. Now, Champ Bailey's
coming out and saying, you win the AFC West as
a path.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
The Super Bowls. So I mean.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
Lots of excitement. I feel great about the team. I
can't wait to start watching them play, and I know
the city is super excited too. But I think we've
rebuilt in just the way we hoped and feel like
to go the end of the season with a real
shot at the playoffs in the Super Bowl is exactly
the best thing for Broncos Country. So I couldn't be
more excited.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Denver Mayor, Mike Johnston, thank you, thanks for having me, y'all,
It is Colorado's Morning News. Marty Lenz Ginagondek, Good morning.
The nearly billion dollar Vibrant Denver Bond package heading to
voters this November in hopes of funding around sixty projects,
varying from new parks and recreation centers to infrastructure improvements,
maintenance projects, and other city upgrades.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
But with the passage did come pushback from some city
council members.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Don't think everyone gets something they need. I don't think
our elections division is getting everything it needs to secure
our elections, and that is concerning.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Joining us now on the KWA Common Spirit Health Hotline
is Denver Mayor Mike Johnston. Mister Mayor, thank you so
much for joining us a day early today.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
You beg good martin 'elle, thanks for making the work
on Thursday.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Before we get a little bit more into the councilwoman's remarks,
what was your initial reaction to the passing of the
Vibrant Denver bond proposal?
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Are you happy with it?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Is there stuff in it that you wish wasn't or
other projects that you wish were included?
Speaker 4 (00:51):
You know, worth thrilled with it, and this is obviously
how the process is supposed to work. We had, you know,
seven thousand Denver rights involved, We had fifty public meetings,
We had great hearings with the sold on along the way.
We got to try to figure out what the top
set of priorities are. It's always hard, right, I mean,
we had six billion dollars worth of projects that voters
wanted us to take on.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
We have about a nine hundred million dollar bond.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
There's always going to be things you want you don't get.
It's sort of like your kid building the wish list
for Christmas. There you're never going to get everything in
the list. And so we tried to really prioritize the
things that would most effectively focus on maintenance and repair, taking.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Care of the assets that we have so that they
don't you.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
Know, create catastrophic damage that was going to be much
more expensive, much more dangerous, and also trying to make
some investments on new growth where we think those are
important for neighborhood that need it. So I think we
struck a great ballance and delighted at the end.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
You know, we had a.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Unanimous thirteen to zero referral from Council for the ordinance
to put it on the ballot, so that was all
great progress and that's how the process is supposed to work.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
And one of those council members, flor Al Vidra, she
joined us yesterday and yes, she voted to push it forward,
but there were some concerns that she had based on
some of the price tags. For example, the project to
repair the eighth Avenue bridge near the Burnham Yard nearly
ninety million dollars. She was a little, I think dumb
struck by that price in the rationale for this repair
because the Broncos are involved with this, so we should
(02:05):
think and that's a lot of money or what the
situation is. I guess you was seeing more clarity and
transparency about why that is taking place.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
Yeah, I think there's been plenty of clarity and transparency.
We've met with there multiple times, there's been multiple public hearings.
I think that's pretty straightforward. You can see that bridge
literally was closed a weekend to go to traffic. It's
now has its speed limit reduced to ten miles per
hour because there's so many structural challenges there. And so
you know, those bridges carry about eighty thousand people a
day and if you look at, for instance, the sixth
(02:34):
Avenue bridge, we have multiple places where you have what
we call single fracture points, which is that's what happened
in the Baltimore Bridge when you saw a boat hitted
in the thing collapse. You don't ever want to have
a single fracture point of a bridge, So it's not
a moment like that. We have to shore those things
up and make sure they're going to carry another eighty
thousand passengers a day for the next you know, twenty
to thirty years. And so that's the kind of critical
(02:54):
infrastructure project you want to get ahead of and you
want to repair it now before you have catastrope damage later.
And so we have five of the most dangerous bridges
in the city. We've identified three of them around this bond.
The other two we're focusing on funding through alternate annual
investment in the next couple of years. So bridges are
one of those things you don't pay a lot attention
to until they're in trouble, and that's part of the
(03:15):
maintenance we got to do when it comes to bond time.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Colse Woman all Vidras also in that earlier comment we
played mentioned the election security. We spoke with you earlier
about that with Denver Clerk and Recorder Paul Lopez being
upset about not having a new facility and having that
excluded from the bond package. Will a new elections facility
be funded by other means in the future.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
Yeah, we see no need for there to be a
new election facility, nor does the council. The facilities We
have a perfectly adequate right now, and this is not
a time where we can afford to build brand new,
fifty sixty million dollars buildings when we have current resources
that we can use. So you know, we have plenty
of available city space that we can use to prioritize.
We're not building that for any other department agency in
(03:58):
the city.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
And so I think that was one that didn't have
really any public support, from the committee meetings to public
feedback to the.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
Council, and so that's how the process worked, and the
council we felt like there was more important priorities to
invest in, and so that's where the dollars went.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
You announced yesterday that DA was looking into the feasibility
even installing a small nuclear power plant. Tell us about
that project, and there are some concerns, some people saying
having a radioactive waste or something like that. The airport
is a little disconcerting to some. Can you talk about
that more in the study that's going to be taking place.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Yeah, all those are very fair concerns, and that's exactly
why we do this study is to take a look
at is this feasible or not? And we may find
out that it's not that.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
The risks are too high and we wouldn't go forward.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
But what we're looking at is, you know, right now
the airport requires about fifty megawats and energy it's on
the way up to potentially four hundred megawats of energy
needs over the years to come.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
And what we want is for that airport not just
to be a place where we can.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
Run an airport. We want it to be a real
economic center. And we look at right now massive increase
in demand for electricity for things like data centers where
more and more tech companies, more and more.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
AI are driven companies.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
All these folks need data centers which consume massive amounts
of electricity. And so what we don't want to do
is either not have reliable energy supply to the airport
or have to drive up costs for other residents because
we can't we have shortages of electricity, and so to
be the first airport in the world that has its
own on site, self sustaining clean energy source that could
not just power the airport, but could power a big
(05:26):
part of the neighboring city and infrastructure could be a
big way to both protect the environment long term and
to drive down costs for us and to drive up
opportunities for economic development. So we know it's a big
idea and we think it's worth investigating. It doesn't mean
we know that it will work, but we think when
you have an opportunity like this, you know, this could
supply up to four hund and make wats of energy
that would be transformational, and so we think it's one
(05:49):
part of a potential set of solutions.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
We want to investigate.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
It.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Big idea, but also a big cost one and a
quarter million dollars in order to study the viability at
the reactors ATDIA.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Where would that money be coming from.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Yeah, this is really important because you know, the airport
is its own enterprise.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
The airport is paid for by.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Fees from airlines and other private sector companies. There's not
a single tax dollar that goes to the airport it's
all independently funded. So things like the rebuilding and Pinion
Boulevard study to do that, all those are funded by
the airport, and none of those are funded by taxpayer dollars.
So well, this is a good thoughtful approach to a
complicated problem. None of these are tax dollars and none
(06:27):
of them would change any part of the city's financial.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Landlook, mister mayor, it is a state level issue, but
my guess is that the state budget shortfall likely impacts
municipalities and cities like Denver. Do you have any anticipation
about what those impacts could be on your city and
will there be any impacts?
Speaker 4 (06:44):
You know, it's a great point, Martin, and we know
there will be impacts, and impacts keep coming. And so
that's the challenge for us as the city is the
federal government makes cuts, those roll down to us, the
state governments make cuts those roll down to us. We
were just looking this week, and you know, we have
more than two hundred housing vouchers, which are we use
to get people out of homelessness and into a permanent
apartment unit. If you're someone maybe that's disabled, you're a
(07:06):
doubly afpt or a veteran and you need access to housing.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Those are immediately.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
You know, we had two hundred of those that were
cut from federal and state cuts, and so that's two
hundred people who can't get access to housing. And so
we're worried about cuts to access to food from the
federal legislation that the President passed, and so that could
have more and more families who can't get access to
food in Denver.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
More more families can't get access to healthcare.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
So we are worried about these and that's why you know,
we're being extra conservative and extra cautious in our budgeting.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
We think you have to.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Find a way to live it in your means, even
when it's not easy, and that's what the city's taking
on doing. I think that's the only responsible thing you
can do in the moment of economic downturn, and that's
what we'll do real.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Quick, mister Mayor broncos on Saturday, Are you looking forward
to it?
Speaker 4 (07:47):
And what you got? I couldn't be more excited. I mean,
I just want to remind people that I did on
your show a few weeks ago say that we're going
to win the AFC West this year. Now, Champ Bailey's
coming out and saying, you win the AFC West as
a path.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
The Super Bowls. So I mean.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
Lots of excitement. I feel great about the team. I
can't wait to start watching them play, and I know
the city is super excited too. But I think we've
rebuilt in just the way we hoped and feel like
to go the end of the season with a real
shot at the playoffs in the Super Bowl is exactly
the best thing for Broncos Country. So I couldn't be
more excited.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Denver Mayor, Mike Johnston, thank you, thanks for having me, y'all,
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