• about
  • about this podcast
  • contact us
• podcasts
  • upcoming episodes
  • archived episodes
    • 2009
    • 2010
    • 2011
• resources
  • interesting blogs
  • UDP travel blog
• advertising

123. ULI Colorado event, Speaker Event Series: Denver Mayoral Forum march 12, 2011

Speaker Event Series: Denver Mayoral Forum. Provided by David Gross.

Who do you want for Denver’s next mayor?

“Did you find your candidate?” Michael Leccese asked someone as he left the Crestone Ballroom at the Embassy Suites hotel Thursday evening.

Leccese is executive director of the Urban Land Institute’s Colorado chapter, which hosted a mayoral forum to introduce the development community to the slate of candidates competing in the May 3 election (with a runoff scheduled for June 7) to become Denver’s new mayor. The event was sponsored by Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck and Trammell Crow Company.

Those vying for the spot at the city’s helm came across as well-versed in the language of real estate and development and genuinely interested in deepening Denver’s public-private engagement. The six candidates bring impressive credentials from both the private sector and public service at the municipal, state, and regional levels. They were smart and articulate, but so was their audience. Sound bites that might work better in political settings had less impact than visionary ideas and the disclosure of the daily details of city government.

The forum was a round-robin, with introductory and closing remarks by each candidate, and the chance to answer five questions chosen at random from the 19 questions ULI posed to the candidates in a questionnaire. (Want to see their answers in-depth? Check the ULI website posting.)

Topics under consideration spoke directly to the concerns of an audience of about 100 people from the fields of real estate law, banking, planning, and commercial development. There was much discussion of how to complete the FasTracks project and how to encourage transit-oriented development around it. There was anguish over the Denver Public Schools system and its 53 percent graduation rate. Denver International Airport was a main subject as one of the city’s finest assets that needs leveraging to bring the city into the global business environment.

Both Blueprint Denver and Greenprint Denver came under scrutiny, as did the Inclusionary Housing Ordinance (IHO). And everyone addressed the issue of redevelopment of the major infill sites in Denver, including the former Gates Rubber Factory at I-25 / Broadway and the former CU Medical School at Ninth and Colorado Boulevard, both of which have left sizable holes in the urban fabric.

The real “sell” of the event was the chance to experience the personalities of these aspiring public servants in an intimate setting and to get a feel for how each might conduct city business. The panoply ranged from Carol Boigon’s impressive grasp of the nuts and bolts of city financing and Chris Romer’s powerbroker persona, to Michael Hancock’s charisma, James Mejia’s political savvy, Theresa Spahn’s passion about health and human services, and Doug Linkhart’s insights and consensus-building style.

Some of the high points came when candidates revealed passionate concerns, went off-topic, or offered insider knowledge, such as:

• Boigon sharing the nitty-gritty on the symphony and on new concepts that may re-shape the I-70 to Vail debate

• Hancock speaking about following in former Mayor John Hickenlooper’s footsteps by convincing the best and brightest to come into public service

• Linkhart concerned with the outward face of the city, specifically transitions between downtown and surrounding neighborhoods, especially to the north

• Mejia focusing on drawing commerce and enterprise to Denver to build “a community of businesses that can grow up together”

• Romer forcefully conjecturing that FasTracks “is going to happen, the only question is at what tax rate and when,” and,

• Spahn voicing the feelings of many when she said, “We are stewards of this vital city—let’s make it great for our children.”

As ULI moderator Bill Mosher said in closing the session, ULI Colorado has worked with every mayor over the past two decades and looks forward to working with whichever candidate ends up leading Denver through this challenging economic time. The Thursday forum was a peek at what that future may hold.

Val Moses

Speaker Event Series: Denver Mayoral Forum. Provided by David Gross.	Speaker Event Series: Denver Mayoral Forum. Provided by David Gross.

Follow us on Twitter

Skype 'arina.habich'

Join us on Facebook

Join us on LinkedIn

Contact the show