Denver Mayor Mike Johnston announced a plan to deliver universal childcare in the city if voters give him a second term during his annual State of the City address Tuesday evening.
Johnston said he planned to have a pilot for the program available to test the city’s design by fall 2027. If itap successful, he will then figure out “what the cost of that system is and what the revenue sources are needed to pay for it,” he told reporters ahead of the speech.
“Some families are spending two-thirds of their income just paying for rent and paying for childcare before they ever buy groceries, before they ever pay for school supplies or a family trip or even a birthday party,” Johnston said. “That burden, left unchecked, has made some cities impossible places to raise a family — a fate we won’t allow Denver to repeat.”
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The mayor’s plans include convening a task force made up of a “group of leaders” that will develop the program and deliver three things: “a plan to cut the red tape so passionate educators can open and run a quality childcare business; a pipeline of well-trained, well-paid caregivers; and a path to make care affordable for every Denver family.”
Johnston plans to seek another term in Denver’s municipal election next spring, and a growing list of opponents has filed for the race. He stood on stage Tuesday with City Councilwoman Shontel Lewis, who announced her bid for mayor last week.
His new plan echoes similar calls for universal childcare from other Democratic politicians, including Melat Kiros, who defeated U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette late last month in the Democratic primary to represent Denver in Colorado’s 1st Congressional District.
Johnston said his speech had been in the works for months before Kiros’ victory.
“This is part of a long-term strategy to focus on the biggest needs in the city,” he said.
Johnston is delivering the speech in the National Western Center’s new Sue Anschutz-Rodgers Livestock Center in the Elyria-Swansea neighborhood. He began speaking at 6:50 p.m.
Johnston also laid out plans for the “Old Mile High” site where the Denver Broncos’ stadium currently sits. If the team follows through on its plans to move to Burnham Yard in 2031, that 85-acre parcel will return to the city. Johnston said the city plans to encourage housing construction on that site by allowing developers to build there without having to pay for the land.
“In the next year we will start a community process unlike anything Denver has done in our adult lifetime to meet this opportunity. Neighbors will get to dream together about what to build, what to connect and how to knit back together communities that spent generations disconnected. This can mean thousands of new units of housing, new public spaces, all directlyconnected to Federal Boulevard and downtown,” he said.
That will be part of a plan to develop 20,000 units of housing around seven recent or future developments, located in a swath of the city he’s calling the “Mile High Line.” The group consists of Park Hill Park, the National Western Center, the 16th Street mall, Ball Arena, Santa Fe Yards, Burnham Yard and Old Mile High.
Johnston said the new housing at those sites will be near existing light rail stations and will be linked by bike and pedestrian paths “that allow you to live there without owning a car,” according to the copy of the remarks.
This is developing story that will be updated.
