Now officially two years into his time as mayor, Mike Johnston has been working on ending unsheltered homelessness and deciding which neighborhood projects will make it into the Vibrant Denver bond package, which City Council is set to vote on August 4. But those are far from the only hot-button issues on his desk right now. Host Bree Davies and producer Paul Karolyi recently sat down with Mayor Johnston to dig into the city’s toughest issues and ask him a big question: Is he starting to think about his next job??
Are the Broncos Getting Bond Money?
Debates over the Vibrant Denver bond package have been getting spicy, particularly when it comes to the inclusion of two projects for the west side – repairs and replacements of the 6th Avenue bridge and 8th Avenue viaduct – which also happen to be the priciest line items at $50 and $89 million. These also happen to be infrastructure projects that could benefit an area that the Broncos are looking at building their new stadium. Could they be a “secret subsidy” for Denver’s NFL franchise, as one transit advocate alleged to us last week?
“No secrets,” Johnston promises. “Those are two of the most important east-west arteries. There's a lot of development happening on both sides of I-25. They're gonna be important and I think that's why they were on the list.”
But has the mayor been talking to anyone from the Broncos about infrastructure in that area? “I've talked to the Broncos every week for the last two years,” Johnston says. “I talked to them a lot about all sorts of things in the same way I talk about a lot of projects.”
The mayor also explained how he’s thinking about public support for the team’s work on a new stadium. “If they want to build the stadium, they build it how they want to build it at their cost on their dime. It is usually our obligation to make sure people can get in and out of that stadium. So the public accessibility, whether there's a sidewalk you can get a wheelchair on, or bike access, or a road — if there is supporting infrastructure, that's only where the city plays a role. But we would not anticipate playing a role in building a stadium, no.”
He’s stated multiple times that keeping the team in the city is a top priority. “My opinion is, I want them, if they stay in Denver, to be additive and integrated to any neighborhood that they stay in or enter so that they're a built part of that community and that experience. The community has a voice in what the community benefits would be for any type of project, whether it stays at Mile High or goes someplace else.”
Has Mayor Johnston Flip Flopped on Bike Lanes?
Transportation advocates have been grumpy with the mayor lately, especially bicyclists who once supported him. As a candidate, he won their support with pledges to “expand the Denver Moves bicycle network,” make car-free streets permanent, and make streets safe for everyone.
Since his inauguration two years ago, however, the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DOTI) under Johnston has cancelled or rolled back bike lane projects on W. 29th Ave and S. Irving St. DOTI has also allowed cars back onto the pandemic-era car-free block at 2900 Larimer St. and, as of this writing, the Vibrant Denver bond package includes zero dedicated bike infrastructure projects.
All the rollbacks and cuts have advocates wondering if the mayor has changed his mind. Were his administration’s actions in response to a shortfall in expected tax revenues and complaints from local business owners?
Johnston rejected that notion entirely. “What we want are bike lanes that are the most protected and the most safe for folks of all ages,” he said, referencing his preference for a smaller number of protected lanes over a larger number of less-protected lanes. “In fact, we're gonna add 38 miles of new bike lanes between this year and next year.”
“I never at any point said, I'm anti-car and I want to get all the cars out of the city. I said, we wanna be able to make it safe for both [bikes and cars]. And I think that's the goal.”
He also pointed to a project in the Vibrant Denver bond package for the reconstruction of 38th Avenue, where a cyclist was hit by a car and killed last week. “This would be a dramatic overhaul of 38th to make it much more walkable and bikeable,” Johnston said.
A Dilemma Over Immigration and Surveillance
Despite the mayor’s call back in May asking City Council to reject a contract extension for Flock cameras – surveillance devices used to track and record license plates of cars passing through intersections across the city – he’s since changed his mind. Johnston says the cameras have been critical in drastically reducing auto theft and lowered incidences of violent crime.
“For me, there are two values that are critically important here – one is we want to make Denver as safe as possible,” Johnston said. “The second is we want to protect people's privacy and specifically, we want to protect — as I've worked very hard to do — any risk of federal overreach of Trump enforcement on people who are undocumented in the city and state.”
But at-large councilmembers Sarah Parady and Serena Gonzales-Guiterrez and state senator Julie Gonzales have joined with community groups to ask the mayor to discontinue the use of the cameras over privacy concerns and fears that ICE could gain access to Denverites’ personal information. Johnston says that Flock cameras do not collect that information and the system’s databases are not accessible to outside law enforcement agencies.
“We've turned off the ability for anyone from out of state to have access to [Flock camera data],” the mayor says. “We have no record of a single ICE arrest linked to a spotting on a Flock camera. There's just no indication of that. If you are an ICE agent and you are looking for someone, you have a name and an address, you don't need a license plate.”
Inside the state, Johnston says law enforcement can only look at Flock data for cases related to criminal charges, not just related to someone’s immigration status. “If [law enforcement officers] break the law and access it for a different purpose, we would charge [them] for a crime and put [them] in jail.”
Michael Bennet’s Potential Successor
With Senator Michael Bennet the clear frontrunner in the 2026 governor’s race, speculation abounds about who might be his replacement if he wins. We asked Mayor Johnston directly if he would take the offer from Bennet if the opportunity came his way.
“No, I would not. There we go. We can make news right there,” Johnston said. “I love this job. I think we have so many things that we are in the midst of doing that I want to see through. I love this job every day and I have no plan to leave it.”
One More Thing…
Mayor Johnston is a diehard Broncos fan. As wonky as he can be in debates over public policy issues, he will go just as deep discussing roster moves and stats from years gone by. So with the Broncos back in training camp and expectations high for our promising young quarterback Bo Nix’s sophomore season, we had to get his prediction on the record.
“My crazy prediction is [they go] 11-6 and win the AFC West. I think this is the year [Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick] Mahomes falls off the throne.”
But that’s not all, we asked the mayor about his favorite pizza place in town, if he’s considered selling naming rights to any city property, if he’d be willing to help bring the Underground Music Showcase back next year, and much, much more. Listen now 👇
