Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now in Colorado's Morning News and a permitting office in Denver,
along with playoffs as well. Joining us now on the
KOA Common Spirit health hotline is Denver Mayor Mike Johnston,
mister mayor, good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Good morning, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
So what led you to issue your first executive order
creating a permitting office and what exactly does all that entail.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Yeah, I mean, one of the things we heard from
folks around the city was that it's too hard and
too cumbersome and too slow to build things, and it
could take up to three years to get a project done.
And if that's housing you're trying to build or a
business you're trying to open, that's slowing the economic development
of the city. And so we really wanted to make
this process faster and easier and cheaper, and this is
(00:45):
going to save people all over the city money. And
so what we did is we finally, you know, we
just committed to unilaterally, we will make a commitment from
the city that every project that comes to us will
be completed within one hundred and eighty days of time
in our hands. Instead of it taking two or three
years in our hands, it will take one hundred and
eighty days. We'll get you from site development plan through permitting.
(01:05):
That means you can get building faster, you can put
people on the job faster, you can build things cheaper
and not say this all money.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
So it was a really big step forward.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
We've been working together with business leaders and you know,
folks from across the city who had concerns. We really
heard those concerns and came out strong on a new
plan that we think we'll make Denver the model for
how to make it one of the best places people
to want to do business.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
Given you credit for that. My brother in law, I
think I mentioned this before, but when we've had these
discussions works in the development space, and he says that
was one of the biggest hang ups was getting the
permits out and the big lag time between that. I'm
sure that builders, developers, they must be thrilled about this.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Yeah, I think they are really excited, you know, and
I think everybody's doing this. Even if you're someone that's
got a restaurant you're trying to open. It used to
take you know, up to eighteen months to get a
restaurant permit to open a restaurant.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
We've got that down.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
About four weeks now, and so the key is when
people want to create things and build things in the city,
we should be grateful. We should work with them as partners.
And that's what we're really committed to doing. And I
think this is going to be a transformer of changed
for the city to get a suff moving even faster.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
And coming up this weekend we're going to have Nuggets playoffs,
ABS playoffs coming up as well. Well. What kind of
economic impact does all this have on downtown Denver, mister Mayor.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
You know, I'm so glad you ask, because it's obviously
great for the spirit of the city. It is also
great for the economics of the city. I mean, that's
why we just launched last night. We're doing these marches
every home game. We'll have parties downtown. We'll give away
free tickets, we'll give away t shirts, bars, we'll have
two for one deals because it's just a great time
to be in downtown Denver. But yeah, a long playoff
run in Denver is a big economics spike for the city.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
So we're mostly excited for the teams and for the city.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
But it is great for our small businesses and restaurants
who are excited to have their bars packed full of
fans cheering.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
We had a report recently. We have the folks with
the Common Sense Institute on with us and they have
the late latest report about homelessness strategy. And I don't
know if it's necessarily intent to pit Denver versus Roar,
but it seems to be the case here. They say
in the report that sixty nine thousand dollars is spent
per year per person on housing on in the Housing
First initiative. I think John Ewing says that the math
(03:08):
doesn't add up. Can you give us greater detail? Do
you greed disagree with your response to that?
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Yeah, I mean, I honestly think the report is laughable.
I don't know what happened to the folks over at
the Common Centensitute. There used to be a real common
sense but now they're seeing much more blinded by ideology.
They missed the basic math on stuff. But yeah, the
facts are actually quite clear, which is we've dramatically reduced
the cost of our homelessness program. It's down about seventy
five million year over year, and our results are leading
(03:33):
the nation in terms of outcomes. What you see in
that data is the homelessness in Denver is down dramatically.
It is going up in other areas like Aurora and
around the region, and so when you look at a
regional number, it's met up. But that's because we're the
one actually carrying it down. The rest of the region
is carrying it up. And you don't have to take
my word for it, you know, talk to a business
leader walk through downtown. I mean two years ago there
were one thousand tents in downtown. There have not been
(03:54):
a single tent in our city center for about a
year and a half. Family homelessness is down eighty three
percent undeniable, ten homelessness down fifty percent undeniable. We're the
largest city in America now ever to have ended the
cycle of street homelessness for veterans undeniable.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
So the data is clear. What we're doing is working.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
It's having a dramatic impact on the city, and it's
getting cheaper each year. But yeah, we had to make
one time investments into acquiring properties. That's what we use
federal dollars to do. It would be like taking the
purchase of a stadium and rolling it into your salary
cap each year. The math makes no sense to anyone
that's got common sense, but not sure how they missed that.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
And when it comes to people getting into that permanent
housing is a lot of it because of their are
getting employment getting jobs.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yeah, usually we focus on two things.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Now, one thing we've gotten better at two is getting
folks up out of transitional housing and into permanent housing faster.
And there's two focuses. One is getting them work so
that they can support themselves, and the other is getting
them access to housing supports. They are federal vouchers and others.
They get them into permanent housing and then getting their
jobs once they get there. So we have a whole
workforce command center that's focused on job preparation and job placement,
(05:03):
but also making sure folks have the supports they need
once they get there to not fall back into homelessness.
So we're doing a lot on unprevention. But yeah, our
deep focus is the only successful goals we're shooting for.
Is someone is up on their own in their own unit,
at a job, paying their own bills, or if they
have a permanent disability, you know, a mental health or
physical health disability, they have benefits to support them, but
(05:24):
our focus is all on getting them up and into independence.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
I know there's a site visit tomorrow for the new
soccer stadium for the NWUSL women's team. Is that process
going along like your thought or is there a little
more tumult and pushback than you anticipated with it?
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Now?
Speaker 3 (05:38):
I think it's going as we thought. You know, it's
a big investment for the city and we're excited about it.
But people have questions. They should ask questions. There's a
lot of excitement about this, but what we know is
this is going to be a huge economic driver for
the city too. You know, it's going to have about
two and a half billion dollars of economic impact. It's
going to create eleven hundred jobs, it's going to create
about half a billion dollars of tax revenue for the city,
(06:00):
and it's going to create you know, moments of joy
for the you know, I don't know if you know this.
Marty was the This was the fastest sellout of tickets
of any women's franchise in history. We reported that, Yeah,
eleven thousand season tickets. So, I mean, this city is
hungry for this team to open, and we're going to
it's less than a year two. We'll have opening day
for the first game. So I think there's a lot
of excitement. And this site has been you know, has
(06:21):
been abandoned for almost a decade.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
So we take a neighborhood that.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Had a real uh you know, block eye in the
middle of it, and we're going to create an amazing
development there. We think the neighbors are going to be thrilled.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
We've been talking about the economic development of sports in Denver.
Let's let's get on to the court. The Nuggets Clippers series,
who you got and how many games?
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Yeah, I'm going Nuggets in six. I mean I'm not
I'm not overlooking the fact that Kawhi Leonard is playing
great basketball right now and they'll always be tough.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
But I feel like, you.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Know, Nuggets really came together in jailed in those tumultuous
last three games. I think we're ready. Jamal Murray's back,
it's great to be at home. I think we're ready
for a deep playoff run, and we'll give up a
couple of but I feel confident we'll take this one
in six.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Deverra Mayor, Mike Johnson, thank you, Thank you all.
Now in Colorado's Morning News and a permitting office in Denver,
along with playoffs as well. Joining us now on the
KOA Common Spirit health hotline is Denver Mayor Mike Johnston,
mister mayor, good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Good morning, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
So what led you to issue your first executive order
creating a permitting office and what exactly does all that entail.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Yeah, I mean, one of the things we heard from
folks around the city was that it's too hard and
too cumbersome and too slow to build things, and it
could take up to three years to get a project done.
And if that's housing you're trying to build or a
business you're trying to open, that's slowing the economic development
of the city. And so we really wanted to make
this process faster and easier and cheaper, and this is
(00:45):
going to save people all over the city money. And
so what we did is we finally, you know, we
just committed to unilaterally, we will make a commitment from
the city that every project that comes to us will
be completed within one hundred and eighty days of time
in our hands. Instead of it taking two or three
years in our hands, it will take one hundred and
eighty days. We'll get you from site development plan through permitting.
(01:05):
That means you can get building faster, you can put
people on the job faster, you can build things cheaper
and not say this all money.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
So it was a really big step forward.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
We've been working together with business leaders and you know,
folks from across the city who had concerns. We really
heard those concerns and came out strong on a new
plan that we think we'll make Denver the model for
how to make it one of the best places people
to want to do business.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
Given you credit for that. My brother in law, I
think I mentioned this before, but when we've had these
discussions works in the development space, and he says that
was one of the biggest hang ups was getting the
permits out and the big lag time between that. I'm
sure that builders, developers, they must be thrilled about this.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Yeah, I think they are really excited, you know, and
I think everybody's doing this. Even if you're someone that's
got a restaurant you're trying to open. It used to
take you know, up to eighteen months to get a
restaurant permit to open a restaurant.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
We've got that down.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
About four weeks now, and so the key is when
people want to create things and build things in the city,
we should be grateful. We should work with them as partners.
And that's what we're really committed to doing. And I
think this is going to be a transformer of changed
for the city to get a suff moving even faster.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
And coming up this weekend we're going to have Nuggets playoffs,
ABS playoffs coming up as well. Well. What kind of
economic impact does all this have on downtown Denver, mister Mayor.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
You know, I'm so glad you ask, because it's obviously
great for the spirit of the city. It is also
great for the economics of the city. I mean, that's
why we just launched last night. We're doing these marches
every home game. We'll have parties downtown. We'll give away
free tickets, we'll give away t shirts, bars, we'll have
two for one deals because it's just a great time
to be in downtown Denver. But yeah, a long playoff
run in Denver is a big economics spike for the city.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
So we're mostly excited for the teams and for the city.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
But it is great for our small businesses and restaurants
who are excited to have their bars packed full of
fans cheering.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
We had a report recently. We have the folks with
the Common Sense Institute on with us and they have
the late latest report about homelessness strategy. And I don't
know if it's necessarily intent to pit Denver versus Roar,
but it seems to be the case here. They say
in the report that sixty nine thousand dollars is spent
per year per person on housing on in the Housing
First initiative. I think John Ewing says that the math
(03:08):
doesn't add up. Can you give us greater detail? Do
you greed disagree with your response to that?
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Yeah, I mean, I honestly think the report is laughable.
I don't know what happened to the folks over at
the Common Centensitute. There used to be a real common
sense but now they're seeing much more blinded by ideology.
They missed the basic math on stuff. But yeah, the
facts are actually quite clear, which is we've dramatically reduced
the cost of our homelessness program. It's down about seventy
five million year over year, and our results are leading
(03:33):
the nation in terms of outcomes. What you see in
that data is the homelessness in Denver is down dramatically.
It is going up in other areas like Aurora and
around the region, and so when you look at a
regional number, it's met up. But that's because we're the
one actually carrying it down. The rest of the region
is carrying it up. And you don't have to take
my word for it, you know, talk to a business
leader walk through downtown. I mean two years ago there
were one thousand tents in downtown. There have not been
(03:54):
a single tent in our city center for about a
year and a half. Family homelessness is down eighty three
percent undeniable, ten homelessness down fifty percent undeniable. We're the
largest city in America now ever to have ended the
cycle of street homelessness for veterans undeniable.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
So the data is clear. What we're doing is working.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
It's having a dramatic impact on the city, and it's
getting cheaper each year. But yeah, we had to make
one time investments into acquiring properties. That's what we use
federal dollars to do. It would be like taking the
purchase of a stadium and rolling it into your salary
cap each year. The math makes no sense to anyone
that's got common sense, but not sure how they missed that.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
And when it comes to people getting into that permanent
housing is a lot of it because of their are
getting employment getting jobs.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yeah, usually we focus on two things.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Now, one thing we've gotten better at two is getting
folks up out of transitional housing and into permanent housing faster.
And there's two focuses. One is getting them work so
that they can support themselves, and the other is getting
them access to housing supports. They are federal vouchers and others.
They get them into permanent housing and then getting their
jobs once they get there. So we have a whole
workforce command center that's focused on job preparation and job placement,
(05:03):
but also making sure folks have the supports they need
once they get there to not fall back into homelessness.
So we're doing a lot on unprevention. But yeah, our
deep focus is the only successful goals we're shooting for.
Is someone is up on their own in their own unit,
at a job, paying their own bills, or if they
have a permanent disability, you know, a mental health or
physical health disability, they have benefits to support them, but
(05:24):
our focus is all on getting them up and into independence.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
I know there's a site visit tomorrow for the new
soccer stadium for the NWUSL women's team. Is that process
going along like your thought or is there a little
more tumult and pushback than you anticipated with it?
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Now?
Speaker 3 (05:38):
I think it's going as we thought. You know, it's
a big investment for the city and we're excited about it.
But people have questions. They should ask questions. There's a
lot of excitement about this, but what we know is
this is going to be a huge economic driver for
the city too. You know, it's going to have about
two and a half billion dollars of economic impact. It's
going to create eleven hundred jobs, it's going to create
about half a billion dollars of tax revenue for the city,
(06:00):
and it's going to create you know, moments of joy
for the you know, I don't know if you know this.
Marty was the This was the fastest sellout of tickets
of any women's franchise in history. We reported that, Yeah,
eleven thousand season tickets. So, I mean, this city is
hungry for this team to open, and we're going to
it's less than a year two. We'll have opening day
for the first game. So I think there's a lot
of excitement. And this site has been you know, has
(06:21):
been abandoned for almost a decade.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
So we take a neighborhood that.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Had a real uh you know, block eye in the
middle of it, and we're going to create an amazing
development there. We think the neighbors are going to be thrilled.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
We've been talking about the economic development of sports in Denver.
Let's let's get on to the court. The Nuggets Clippers series,
who you got and how many games?
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Yeah, I'm going Nuggets in six. I mean I'm not
I'm not overlooking the fact that Kawhi Leonard is playing
great basketball right now and they'll always be tough.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
But I feel like, you.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Know, Nuggets really came together in jailed in those tumultuous
last three games. I think we're ready. Jamal Murray's back,
it's great to be at home. I think we're ready
for a deep playoff run, and we'll give up a
couple of but I feel confident we'll take this one
in six.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Deverra Mayor, Mike Johnson, thank you, Thank you all.
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