16th Street Mall conditions deter convention business, says Visit Denver report (hotel, living in)

[SQL]

Well, this is disappointing. But maybe now that it's going to start hitting the city in the pocket book, they'll implement some long term solutions to squash these problems.

16th Street Mall conditions deter convention business, says Visit Denver report

[Good Red Road]

Originally Posted by SQL

Well, this is disappointing. But maybe now that it's going to start hitting the city in the pocket book, they'll implement some long term solutions to squash these problems.

16th Street Mall conditions deter convention business, says Visit Denver report

Ouch! It's hard to read that article and not squirm a little.

One of Denver's best selling points for meeting planners, is that it's a great summertime convention destination. Attendees often bring their families along for a work/vacation combo. Unfortunately, summertime is also when homeless folks are most prevalent on the mall. It's very sad.

[bluescreen73]

Originally Posted by Good Red Road

Ouch! It's hard to read that article and not squirm a little.

One of Denver's best selling points for meeting planners, is that it's a great summertime convention destination. Attendees often bring their families along for a work/vacation combo. Unfortunately, summertime is also when homeless folks are most prevalent on the mall. It's very sad.

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.

[hikernut]

Yeah, it's too bad. We won't be staying in downtown Denver again, after our visit in June.

We had a dog with us, and the area that we were supposed to use to "exercise" the dog had people living in it probably 20 hours out of the day. The first morning we went downstairs we were informed that we should not exit on that side of the hotel (the side with the dog exercise area / park) because police were trying to talk down a man with a knife. This was at 7 or 8 am, immediately off the 16th Street Mall in a very nice area. So our dog is supposed to poop either in the hotel lobby or out on the sidewalk?

The permissive "live and let live" attitude is not working for Denver. The city needs to keep public areas safe, and figure out how to take care of people who cannot or will not take care of themselves. Throwing a warm meal their way and letting them live in public areas is not a solution.

[Good Red Road]

Originally Posted by bluescreen73

Homeless or transient? There is a difference.

Meeting planners and conference attendees could care less about this distinction.
They simply want a good venue and safe city to book their groups.

[flamadiddle]

The most homeless people I've ever seen was in Denver. I lived downtown for 6 months about a year ago and although the Homeless didn't really bother me, I can see how others would be dissuaded by their presence...

However, crossing the street one day, I saw a used needle laying on the street. Now that freaked me out a bit. Couldn't imagine walking around with sandals and possibly getting jabbed.

[Timmyy]

Needles are scary. I have seen needles in the sand at the beach in California.

My wife and I were just talking about how we don't go there anymore. It used to be fun to hang out at the mall before heading to a game or Comedyworks. I hope it gets cleaned up for the sake of the city's reputation.

[Dirty-Mill]

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

[alloo66]

Saw the article! Thought, now that the perception is out the Denver is a haven for homeless and transients, the reputation will be hard to eliminate. Safety is a critical issue for tourism. Perception is their reality. When you don't deal with an issue or are in denial, the issue will only get worse. Denver needs more patrols on the mall and on busses.

[sammy87]

I attend several conferences in Denver every year. My clients always say the same things about the bums. They're all under the impression Denver is super nice and they bring their wife or family. Downtown Denver sucks. There are worse cities, but its really nothing special.