16th Street Mall conditions deter convention business, says Visit Denver report (Center: neighborhoods, closing)

[sammy87]

Originally Posted by bluescreen73

Homeless or transient? There is a difference. Homeless folks tend to be local and will work (if possible). Transients OTOH typically aren't from the area, have absolutely no desire to be gainfully employed, and to them there's no shame whatsoever in funding their lifestyle by taking advantage of peoples' charity and mooching off the government.

FWIW, I guarantee ColoradoCare will lead to a sizable uptick in the latter if it passes.

I'd take that bet. It will do nothing but drive bums and low income families in and good jobs out.

[lovecrowds]

Originally Posted by Dirty-Mill

Atlanta has a bad homeless population as does Vegas... both cities continue to hold a lot of conferences.

I am very familiar with both Denver and Las Vegas.

They are about equal on homeless visability. Neither city really has a plan to deal with it that will actually work.

I do think Las Vegas is more lax when it comes to homeless sleeping on sidewalks and walkways.

Denver is extremely aggressive in contrast with enforcement. It is obviously that they have had a change of mentality in Denver from being a passive police department to being an aggressive and heavy handed police department.

Denver's homeless plan are heavily skewed towards housing families compared to other cities. The people who are causing the issues are typically single males and Denver has very few units or funding for that demographic.

Las Vegas has much lower rents. Clark County used to offer assistance for people getting out of the jail or shelter system for immediate free rent. I know that from co-workers I worked with there.

Usually the way the city would provide homeless assistance was to give a few months rent to people who were homeless or had gotten out of jail. It would cost Clark County like $800 and they would rent to private landlords for 2 months or so.

Denver's homeless plan has some units for single adults but most of the new projects are geared towards 30-50% of the median income so they are more geared towards service sector employees.

Denver seems to be much more aggressive about building family homeless and extremely low income housing for families. I was looking at the portfolio for the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless and many the apartment complexes and townhomes are 2 to 4 bedroom units.

If one thinks Denver is bad, they should go to downtown Colorado Springs where they have so few people walking around and the majority of the people downtown on the street walking around or the few bagel and coffee shops they have are homeless.

I just don't see the amount of trouble when I am in downtown Denver that other people say. There are so many people working in that area, that the homeless population while visable is very diluted by the amount of business people.

The library in downtown Colorado Springs is overwhelmingly homeless people and there is alot of deep coughing inside the library.

Even though the downtown Denver has a large homeless population, it is no where near as awful as downtown Colorado Springs library.

[KaaBoom]

Originally Posted by lovecrowds

I am very familiar with both Denver and Las Vegas.

They are about equal on homeless visability. Neither city really has a plan to deal with it that will actually work.

I do think Las Vegas is more lax when it comes to homeless sleeping on sidewalks and walkways.

Denver is extremely aggressive in contrast with enforcement. It is obviously that they have had a change of mentality in Denver from being a passive police department to being an aggressive and heavy handed police department.

Denver's homeless plan are heavily skewed towards housing families compared to other cities. The people who are causing the issues are typically single males and Denver has very few units or funding for that demographic.

Las Vegas has much lower rents. Clark County used to offer assistance for people getting out of the jail or shelter system for immediate free rent. I know that from co-workers I worked with there.

Usually the way the city would provide homeless assistance was to give a few months rent to people who were homeless or had gotten out of jail. It would cost Clark County like $800 and they would rent to private landlords for 2 months or so.

Denver's homeless plan has some units for single adults but most of the new projects are geared towards 30-50% of the median income so they are more geared towards service sector employees.

Denver seems to be much more aggressive about building family homeless and extremely low income housing for families. I was looking at the portfolio for the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless and many the apartment complexes and townhomes are 2 to 4 bedroom units.

If one thinks Denver is bad, they should go to downtown Colorado Springs where they have so few people walking around and the majority of the people downtown on the street walking around or the few bagel and coffee shops they have are homeless.

I just don't see the amount of trouble when I am in downtown Denver that other people say. There are so many people working in that area, that the homeless population while visable is very diluted by the amount of business people.

The library in downtown Colorado Springs is overwhelmingly homeless people and there is alot of deep coughing inside the library.

Even though the downtown Denver has a large homeless population, it is no where near as awful as downtown Colorado Springs library.

The fact that they are diluted by the Downtown workforce, doesn’t mean that the problem is not there. Anyway I believe that most of these problems are occurring late at night after most workers have gone home for the night, and the homeless have taken over the streets.

Whether or not you see the problem, the video evidence of it, seems pretty indisputable.

[himain]

My bf and I were there a couple of weeks ago and there was homeless everywhere. Crazy ones swinging in the air screaming at themselves and other people.


We won't be going back down there again and the last time we were there we dropped $300 on food/drinks at different places.

[Coloradomom22]

16th St mall is a pit and frankly besides some restaurants and limited shops there's nothing great to keep you there.

[cowboyxjon]

I work downtown and see/smell public marijuana consumption nearly every day. I usually go out for a walk at lunchtime. While it's sad that people apparently feel negatively about the Mall, I've witnessed most of what has been cited nearly every day. The Mall is definitely not a place where I take out of town guests, nor do I hang out anywhere along the Mall with friends.

[ayoitzrimz]

It's a shame, so much potential. I do like the mall around Christmas time especially when it's below freezing and the streets are empty. I definitely avoid it like the plague during the summer

[vegaspilgrim]

I used to go downtown on nights and weekends and take long walks for fun, going up and down the whole length of the 16th St Mall, get something to eat, hang out a bar, Tattered Cover, etc. Now I avoid 16th St Mall (and downtown in general) entirely except if I'm going to a ball game at Coors Field, and even then it's just in and out. Just about every time I walk past a building it smells like an open urinal in the alley, with trash everwhere. It's disgusting and I don't feel safe around there anymore. I am sick of these young bums (and many of the worst offenders are indeed young, in their 20s) who have been infesting our city. It's time to start cracking down on these scumbags and send them back home (one way bus tickets) where they came from.

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

I used to work downtown and would go out walking at lunch. I never understood why anyone would suggest that the 16th Street Mall would be a good place for out-of-town visitors to go. Even during the middle of the day, with lots of office workers around, I thought it was dirty, crowded and over-run with bums. I agree with vegaspilgrim about so many of them being young who have nothing better to do than hang out and bother respectable people.

The Mall used to be a fun area when we had real stores like May D&F (I just aged myself) and other places to shop. Now there are some nice restaurants but mostly crappy tourist stores and fast food places. Maybe the people who revitalized Larimer Square could do something with 16th Street.

[Gorges]

Originally Posted by Dreaming of Hawaii

I used to work downtown and would go out walking at lunch. I never understood why anyone would suggest that the 16th Street Mall would be a good place for out-of-town visitors to go. Even during the middle of the day, with lots of office workers around, I thought it was dirty, crowded and over-run with bums. I agree with vegaspilgrim about so many of them being young who have nothing better to do than hang out and bother respectable people.

We we moved here, we got a lot of recommendations to visit the mall. The first few times we went there, it was fine, I never felt unsafe, but I also couldn't understand why anyone would consider it a tourist destination. The last couple of experiences, in just the past two months, have made us not want to go back. One was at 6pm on a Sunday and we were walking from the Yard House to the performing arts center. There was a huge altercation in front of us with multiple police officers and many of the 16th st regulars. It was large and unsettling. Another time, there was a stabbing on Welton St, way too close to hotel we were staying at for a weekend in the city. We love the performing arts center and will be going back there many times, but we'll probably stick pretty close to the center now for meals.