Downtown had already been battered by COVID and the endless construction work along the 16th Street Mall, which put some businesses on life support and killed off others altogether. Then came the four stabbings over the weekend of January 11-12, which cut right to the heart of this city.

On January 17, 24-year-old Elijah Caudill was charged with two counts of first-degree murder. One was for the slaying of 71-year-old Celinda Levno, an American Airlines flight attendant who was visiting downtown during a layover; she was stabbed at 16th and California streets before 6 p.m. on January 11. Just over 24 hours later, 34-year-old Nicholas Burkett, a homeless individual who was a familiar sight in LoDo, was attacked and killed at 16th and Wynkoop streets.

Between those two deadly incidents, two more men were attacked, at Lawrence Street — right by the Clock Tower and Downtown Ice Rink — and Tremont Street. The violence stretched almost the entire length of the mall. But the ramifications have gone much further.

For years, the city has been discussing how to bring back downtown from the doldrums created by COVID, remote workers, a proliferation of homeless encampments...and a general bad rap. It allocated funds for downtown PR campaigns and pop-ups, but those efforts generally fell flat. Mayor Mike Johnston upped the ante last year by proposing an expansion of the Downtown Denver Authority that helped pay for the renovation of Union Station over a decade ago; downtown voters approved that in November, guaranteeing a pot of $550 million for downtown projects. Last month, Johnston contracted with Bill Mosher, a developer who headed the Downtown Denver Partnership in its heyday, to serve as the City Projects Officer, with a focus on downtown and distributing those DDA funds.

For those of us who work and live close by, there have always been plenty of reasons to go downtown: great restaurants, great bars, great theaters, great live-music venues. In recent years, you've sometimes needed to plan your route more carefully than you might have in the past — on-street parking has just about disappeared, certain intersections are blocked at 16th by construction, and at one point, sidewalks along 20th Street were filled with urban campers — but downtown remained the heart of Denver history, Denver business, Denver culture.

On January 13, after Caudill had been arrested and panic subsided (at one point, even Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas warned people not to go downtown alone), Johnston held a press conference that sounded a little too boosterish considering that the second murder had occurred less than 24 hours earlier. He was like the mayor in Jaws, assuring everyone the water was fine. This was the time to assure residents that downtown was as safe as the city can make it — you can't control crazy, as Las Vegas knows after its collision with another Colorado man on New Year's Day. This was not the time to share rosy Chamber of Commerce stats about how "vibrant" downtown is — as a heckler caught on camera pointed out.

That time will come, though. Perhaps on January 29, when Johnston has promised to lay out his plans and priorities for 2025. In the meantime, here are ten ideas for downtown he's welcome to suggest:

1) Get the job done on the 16th Street Mall. Back in 2020, a city official told us the target completion date was 2022. COVID pushed that back, but other delays have been less excusable — including one that blamed historic old steam pipes under the mall, which surely would have been found forty years ago when 16th Street was first excavated. Put more people on the job, if necessary; some days, the only workers we see are directing traffic. (Maybe the others are in those old steam pipes?)

2) Postpone the Civic Center Park project. The mall is a mess, East Colfax Avenue is a mess now that work has started on the Bus Rapid Transit project. We don't need Civic Center Park to be a mess, too. Now that the Landmark Preservation Commission has approved the plan, push back the planned upgrade for a year — and let the park in the shadow of the Colorado State Capitol serve as the center of the celebration when the Centennial State turns 150 in 2026.

3) Speaking of that anniversary, spend the next year rolling out 150 stories of remarkable people, places and things downtown. The city's Office of Storytelling has been disbanded (and good riddance to that boondoggle, whose most notable product was a long love letter to departing mayor Michael Hancock), but there are still communications staffers who could produce those pieces. We'd be happy to help!

4) Tout noteworthy downtown events on social media every day: restaurant specials, theater openings and, yes, an occasional block completed on the mall.

5) Help restaurants all over town, but especially downtown. Streamline the permitting process, and dedicate a position in the Department of Community Planning and Development to helping restaurateurs (and other independent businesses) through what's become a bureaucratic nightmare. And while we believe that every worker deserves a living wage, restaurateurs wouldn't find that $18.81 hourly rate for back-of-the-house employees so onerous if the tipped hourly rate didn't add insult to economic injury.

6) Hire a Night Mayor. As the 2023 mayoral campaign wrapped up, some nightlife fans pushed for the city to appoint a Night Mayor, a person who would focus on the unique needs of the nighttime economy of bars, clubs, restaurants and other entertainment outlets. Coloradan Howie Kaplan created the role in New Orleans, and while that position can't stop crazy — Kaplan resigned in 2024, before the New Year's tragedy — by all reports it's helped businesses deal with the often tangled red tape of doing business.

7) Subsidize live music on Thursday nights at every venue on the mall that would like to host a band. Pay the bands, which will bring their friends and fans, who will buy drinks, which will make the businesses happy. (Former Partnership head Tami Door had this idea years before COVID, and it's a good one.)

8) If and when the 16th Street Mall project is ever complete, celebrate by hosting the Mile High Mile, a run along what used to be a mile-long stretch. The race can start on those new blocks by Union Station, and then the city can put on a big party in those extra blocks by Broadway that need the biggest boost.

9) Yes, downtown could use more police officers. Especially if they're riding on horses. We haven't seen Denver's Mounted Patrol Unit lately, but cops on horseback would be a welcome sight on the mall — for tourists and timid residents alike.

10) Back in 2005, the city had two daily newspapers working under a joint operating agreement and sharing a just-completed, state-of-the-art structure at the edge of Broadway. Today the Rocky Mountain News is dead, the Denver Post has moved its offices to its printing plant, and city employees occupy the building, which was purchased by Denver last year. Surely one of those employees can be charged with getting the electronic ticker tape going again, sending out informative, entertaining messages about Denver every day.

Starting with this: We're still down with downtown.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5668746&forum_id=2...id.#48582176)