[ Denver and Colorado Springs hosted the 1962 World Ice Hockey Championships.
File:Invesco Field at Mile High.jpg, Empower Field at Mile High, home of the Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL)
File:Pepsi Center, Denver.jpg, Ball Arena, home of the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Colorado Avalanche of the National Hockey League (NHL)
File:Coors field aerial 1.JPG, Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies of Major League Baseball (MLB)
File:DSG Park, June 21 2017.jpg, Dick's Sporting Goods Park, home of the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer (MLS)
]
Parks and recreation
, Denver had over 200 parks, from small mini-parks all over the city to the giant City Park, Denver, City Park. Denver also has 29 recreation centers providing places and programming for resident's recreation and relaxation.
Many of Denver's parks were acquired from state lands in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This coincided with the City Beautiful movement, and Denver mayor Robert W. Speer, Robert Speer (1904–12 and 1916–18) set out to expand and beautify the city's parks. Reinhard Schuetze was the city's first landscape architect, and he brought his German-educated landscaping genius to Washington Park, Denver, Washington Park, Cheesman Park, Denver, Cheesman Park, and City Park, Denver, City Park among others. Speer used Schuetze as well as other landscape architects such as Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and Saco Rienk DeBoer to design not only parks such as Civic Center, Denver, Civic Center Park, but many city parkways and tree-lawns. Cheesman Park neighbor the Denver Botanic Gardens displays the beauty and versatility of micro-climates within the semi-arid Denver Basin. All of these parks were fed with South Platte River
The South Platte River is one of the two principal tributaries of the Platte River. Flowing through the U.S. states of Colorado and Nebraska, it is itself a major river of the American Midwest and the American Southwest/ Mountain West. It ...
water diverted through the city ditch.
In addition to the parks within Denver, the city acquired land for Denver Mountain Parks, mountain parks starting in the 1911s. Over the years, Denver has acquired, built and maintained approximately of mountain parks, including Red Rocks Park, which is known for its scenery and musical history revolving around the unique Red Rocks Amphitheatre. Denver also owns the mountain on which the Winter Park Resort ski area operates in Grand County, Colorado, Grand County, west of Denver. City parks are important places for Denverites and visitors, inciting controversy with every change. Denver continues to grow its park system with the development of many new parks along the Platte River through the city, and with Central Park and Bluff Lake Nature Center in the Central Park
Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated ...
neighborhood redevelopment. All of these parks are important gathering places for residents and allow what was once a dry plain to be lush, active, and green. Denver is also home to a large network of public community gardens, most of which are managed by Denver Urban Gardens, a non-profit organization.
Since 1974, Denver and the surrounding jurisdictions have rehabilitated the urban South Platte River and its tributaries for recreational use by hikers and cyclists. The main stem of the South Platte River Greenway runs along the South Platte into Adams County in the north. The Greenway project is recognized as one of the best urban reclamation projects in the U.S., winning, for example, the Silver Medal Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence in 2001.
, ParkScore by the Trust for Public Land, a national land conservation organization, reported Denver as having the 18th best park system among the 50 most populous U.S. cities. The report noted that 89% of Denverites live within a 10-minute walk of a park.
File:The 1908 pavilion in Denver, Colorado's, Cheesman Park LCCN2015633572.tif, Cheesman Park started as a cemetery.
File:Carla Madison Recreation Center.JPG, The Carla Madison Recreation Center, completed in 2017
File:Red Rocks Amphitheater.JPG, Red Rocks is a Denver park and world-famous amphitheater in the foothills.
File:Washington Park Denver.JPG, Washington Park
File:Dmp.JPG, Genesee Park (Colorado), Genesee Park is the largest of the Denver Mountain Parks.
Government
Denver is a consolidated city-county with a mayor elected on a nonpartisan ballot, a 13-member city council and an auditor. The Denver City Council is elected from 11 districts with two at-large council members and is responsible for passing and changing all laws, resolutions, and ordinances, usually after a public hearing, and can also call for misconduct investigations of Denver's departmental officials. All elected officials have four-year terms, with a maximum of three terms. The current mayor is Michael Hancock (Colorado politician), Michael Hancock.
Denver has a strong mayor/weak city council government. The mayor can approve or veto any ordinances or resolution (law), resolutions approved by the council, makes sure all contracts with the city are kept and performed, signs all bonds and contracts, is responsible for the city budget, and can appoint people to various city departments, organizations, and commissions. However, the council can override the mayor's veto with a nine out of thirteen member vote, and the city budget must be approved and can be changed by a simple majority vote of the council. The auditor checks all expenditures and may refuse to allow specific ones, usually based on financial reasons.
The Denver Department of Safety oversees three branches: the Denver Police Department, Denver Fire Department, and Denver Sheriff Department. The Denver County Court is an integrated Colorado County Courts, Colorado County Court and Municipal Court and is managed by Denver instead of the state.
Politics
While Denver elections are non-partisan, Democratic Party (United States), Democrats have long dominated the city's politics; most citywide officials are known to be registered with the Democratic party. The mayor's office has been occupied by a Democrat since the 1963 municipal election. All of the city's seats in the state legislature are held by Democrats.
In statewide elections, the city also tends to favor Democrats, though Republicans were occasionally competitive until the turn of the millennium. The last Republican to win Denver in a gubernatorial election was John A. Love in 1970 Colorado gubernatorial election, 1970 by a narrow majority. Bill Owens (Colorado politician), Bill Owens in 2002 Colorado gubernatorial election, 2002 remains the last Republican governor to receive at least 40% of Denver's vote. The last Republican Senator to carry Denver was William L. Armstrong during his 1984 United States Senate election in Colorado, 1984 landslide. The last statewide Republican officeholder to carry Denver was Secretary of State of Colorado, Secretary of State Victoria Buckley in 1994 by 1.2% margin, who was at the time the highest ranking African-American Republican woman in the United States.
In federal elections, Denver is a Democratic stronghold. It has supported a Democrat for president in every election since 1960, excluding 1972 and 1980. The city has swung heavily to the Democrats since the 1980s; Ronald Reagan is the last Republican to garner even 40 percent of the city's vote. At the federal level, Denver is the heart of , which includes all of Denver and parts of Arapahoe County. It is the most Democratic district in the Mountain West and has been in Democratic hands for all but two terms since 1933. It is currently represented by Democrat Diana DeGette.
Benjamin F. Stapleton was the mayor of Denver for two periods, the first from 1923 to 1931 and the second from 1935 to 1947. Stapleton was responsible for many civic improvements, notably during his second stint as mayor when he had access to funds and manpower from the New Deal. During this time, the park system was considerably expanded and the Civic Center completed. His signature project was the construction of Denver Municipal Airport, which began in 1929 amidst heavy criticism. It was later renamed Stapleton International Airport in his honor. Today, the airport has been replaced by a neighborhood initially named Stapleton. However, because of Stapleton's demonstrated racism and prominent membership in the Ku Klux Klan, during the George Floyd protests, residents of the neighborhood List of name changes due to the George Floyd protests, changed the name to "Central Park" in 2020. Stapleton Street continues to bear his name.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Denver was one of the centers of the Chicano Movement. The boxer-turned-activist Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales formed an organization called the Crusade for Justice, which battled police brutality, fought for bilingual education, and, most notably, hosted the First National Chicano Youth Liberation Conference in March 1969.
In recent years, Denver has taken a stance on helping people who are or become Homelessness, homeless, particularly under the administrations of mayors John Hickenlooper and Wellington Webb. At a rate of 19 homeless per 10,000 residents in 2011 as compared to 50 or more per 10,000 residents for the four metro areas with the highest rate of homelessness, Denver's homeless population and rate of homeless are both considerably lower than many other major cities. However, residents of the city streets suffer Denver winters – which, although mild and dry much of the time, can have brief periods of extremely cold temperatures and snow.
In 2005, Denver became the first major city in the U.S. to vote to make the private possession of less than an ounce of cannabis (drug), marijuana legal for adults 21 and older.[O'Driscoll, Patric]
Denver votes to legalize marijuana possession
USATODAY.com. November 3, 2005. Retrieved on July 21, 2006. The city voted 53.5 percent in favor of the marijuana legalization measure, which, as then-mayor John Hickenlooper pointed out, was without effect, because the city cannot usurp state law, which at that time treated marijuana possession in much the same way as a speeding ticket, with fines of up to $100 and no jail time. Denver passed an initiative in the fourth quarter of 2007 requiring the mayor to appoint an 11-member review panel to monitor the city's compliance with the 2005 ordinance. In May 2019, Denver became the first U.S. city to Decriminalization, decriminalize psilocybin mushrooms after an initiative passed with 50.6% of the vote. The measure prohibits Denver from using any resources to prosecute adults over 21 for personal use of psilocybin mushrooms, though such use remains illegal under state and federal law.
Denver hosted the 2008 Democratic National Convention, which was the centennial of the city's first hosting of the landmark 1908 convention. It also hosted the G8, G7 (now G8) summit between June 20 and 22 in 1997 and the 2000 National Convention of the Green Party of the United States, Green Party. In 1972, 1981, and 2008, Denver also played host to the Libertarian Party of the United States National Convention. The Libertarian National Convention#1972, 1972 Convention was notable for nominating Tonie Nathan as the vice presidential candidate, the first woman, as well as the first Jews, Jew, to receive an U.S. Electoral College, electoral vote in a U.S. presidential election, 1972, United States presidential election.
On October 3, 2012, the University of Denver in Denver hosted the first of the three 2012 presidential debates during the election that year.
In July 2019, Mayor Hancock said that Denver will not assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents with immigration raids.
Taxes
The City and County of Denver levies an occupational privilege tax (OPT or head tax) on employers and employees.
*If any employee performs work in the city limits and is paid over $500 for that work in a single month, the employee and employer are both liable for the OPT regardless of where the main business office is located or headquartered.
*The employer is liable for $4 per employee per month and the employee is liable for $5.75 per month.
*It is the employer's responsibility to withhold, remit, and file the OPT returns. If an employer does not comply, the employer can be held liable for both portions of the OPT as well as penalties and interest.
Education
Denver Public Schools (DPS) is the public school system in all of Denver. It educates approximately 92,000 students in 92 elementary schools, 44 K-8 schools, 34 secondary school, middle schools, 18 high schools, and 19 charter schools. The first school of what is now DPS was a log cabin that opened in 1859, which later became East High School (Denver, Colorado), East High School. East High School (Denver, Colorado), East High School, along with the other three directional high schools (West High School (Denver, Colorado), West, North High School (Denver, Colorado), North, and South High School (Denver, Colorado), South), made up the first four high schools in Denver. The district boundaries are coextensive with the city limits.[School District Reference Map (2010 Census): Denver County, CO]
"
Archive
U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved on May 16, 2013. The Cherry Creek School District serves some areas with Denver postal addresses that are outside the city limits.[About Us]
." Cherry Creek School District. Retrieved on May 14, 2013.
Denver's many colleges and universities range in age and study programs. Three major public schools constitute the Auraria Campus: the University of Colorado Denver, Metropolitan State University of Denver, and Community College of Denver. The private University of Denver was the first institution of higher learning in the city and was founded in 1864. Other prominent Denver higher education institutions include Johnson & Wales University, Catholic (Jesuit) Regis University and the city has Roman Catholic and Jewish institutions, as well as a health sciences school. In addition to those schools within the city, there are a number of schools throughout the surrounding metro area.
File:East High School in Denver, Colorado LCCN2015633554.tif, East High School (Denver), Denver East High School has seen several world-famous people walk the halls as future alumni.
File:CU Denver Student Wellness Center and Student Commons Building on the Downtown Denver Campus .jpg, University of Colorado-Denver in downtown
File:Ritchie Center sunrise 2006.jpg, The Ritchie Center at University of Denver
Media
The Denver Metropolitan Area is served by a variety of media outlets in print, radio, television, and the Internet.
Television stations
Denver is the 16th-largest market in the country for television, according to the 2009–201
rankings
from Nielsen Media Research.
* KWGN-TV, channel 2, a The CW, CW owned and operated station, O&O station owned by Nexstar Media Group, who also owns Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox affiliate KDVR 31. KWGN is run by KDVR management and is Colorado's first TV station, on the air since July 1952.
* KCNC-TV, channel 4, a CBS O&O station.
* KRMA-TV, channel 6, the flagship of Rocky Mountain PBS, a state network of five public TV stations throughout Colorado.
* KMGH-TV, channel 7, an American Broadcasting Company, ABC affiliate owned by the E.W. Scripps Company, previously owned by the McGraw-Hill company for 40 years to early 2012.
* KUSA-TV, channel 9, an NBC affiliate owned by Tegna, Inc., Tegna, who also owns KTVD 20, a MyNetworkTV affiliate.
* KBDI-TV, channel 12, a secondary PBS affiliate.
* KDEN-TV, channel 25, a Telemundo O&O station.
* KPJR-TV, channel 38, a Trinity Broadcasting Network, TBN O&O station.
* KCEC (TV), KCEC, channel 50, a Univision affiliate.
* KETD, channel 53, is a Christian station owned by the Lester Sumrall, LeSEA Broadcasting group.
Radio stations
Denver is also served by over 40 AM and FM radio stations, covering a wide variety of formats and styles. Denver-Boulder radio is the No. 19 market in the United States, according to the Spring 201
Arbitron
ranking (up from No. 20 in Fall 2009).
For a list of radio stations, see List of radio stations in Colorado, Radio Stations in Colorado.
Print
After a continued rivalry between Denver's two main newspapers, ''The Denver Post'' and the ''Rocky Mountain News'', the papers merged operations in 2001 under a joint operating agreement that formed the Denver Newspaper Agency until February 2009 when E. W. Scripps Company, the owner of the ''Rocky Mountain News'', closed the paper. There are also several alternative or localized newspapers published in Denver, including the ''Westword'', ''Law Week Colorado'', ''Out Front Colorado'' and the ''Intermountain Jewish News''. Denver is home to multiple regional magazines such as ''5280'', which takes its name from the city's mile-high elevation ().
Transportation
City streets
Most of Denver has a straightforward street grid oriented to the four cardinal directions. Blocks are usually identified in hundreds from the median streets, identified as "00", which are Broadway (the east–west median, running north–south) and Ellsworth Avenue (the north–south median, running east–west). Colfax Avenue, a major east–west artery through Denver, is 15 blocks (1500) north of the median. Avenues north of Ellsworth are numbered (with the exception of Colfax Avenue and several others, such as Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd and Montview Blvd.), while avenues south of Ellsworth are named.
There is also an older downtown grid system that was designed to be parallel to the confluence of the South Platte River
The South Platte River is one of the two principal tributaries of the Platte River. Flowing through the U.S. states of Colorado and Nebraska, it is itself a major river of the American Midwest and the American Southwest/ Mountain West. It ...
and Cherry Creek. Most of the streets downtown and in LoDo
LoDo (Lower Downtown) is an unofficial neighborhood in Denver, Colorado, and is one of the oldest places of settlement in the city. It is a mixed-use historic district, known for its nightlife, and serves as an example of success in urban reinves ...
run northeast–southwest and northwest–southeast. This system has an unplanned benefit for snow removal; if the streets were in a normal N–S/E–W grid, only the N–S streets would receive sunlight. With the grid oriented to the diagonal directions, the NW–SE streets receive sunlight to melt snow in the morning and the NE–SW streets receive it in the afternoon. This idea was from Henry Brown the founder of the Brown Palace Hotel. There is now a plaque across the street from the Brown Palace Hotel that honors this idea. The NW–SE streets are numbered, while the NE–SW streets are named. The named streets start at the intersection of Colfax Avenue and Broadway with the block-long Cheyenne Place. The numbered streets start underneath the Colfax and I-25 viaducts. There are 27 named and 44 numbered streets on this grid. There are also a few vestiges of the old grid system in the normal grid, such as Park Avenue, Morrison Road, and Speer Boulevard. Larimer Street, named after William Larimer Jr., the founder of Denver, which is in the heart of LoDo
LoDo (Lower Downtown) is an unofficial neighborhood in Denver, Colorado, and is one of the oldest places of settlement in the city. It is a mixed-use historic district, known for its nightlife, and serves as an example of success in urban reinves ...
, is the oldest street in Denver.
All roads in the downtown grid system are streets (e.g., 16th Street Mall, 16th Street, Stout Street), except for the five NE–SW roads nearest the intersection of Colfax Avenue and Broadway: Cheyenne Place, Cleveland Place, Court Place, Tremont Place and Glenarm Place. Roads outside that system that travel east–west are designated "avenues" and those that travel north–south are designated "streets" (e.g., Colfax Avenue, Lincoln Street). Boulevards are higher capacity streets and travel any direction (more commonly north and south). Smaller roads are sometimes referred to as places, drives (though not all drives are smaller capacity roads; some are major thoroughfares) or courts. Most streets outside the area between Broadway and Colorado Boulevard are organized alphabetically from the city's center.
Some Denver streets have bicycle lanes, leaving a patchwork of disjointed routes throughout the city. There are over of paved, off-road, bike paths in Denver parks and along bodies of water, like Cherry Creek and the South Platte. This allows for a significant portion of Denver's population to be bicycle commuters and has led to Denver being known as a bicycle-friendly city. Some residents are very opposed to bike lanes, which have caused some plans to be watered down or nixed. The review process for one bike line on Broadway will last over a year before city council members will make a decision. In addition to the many bike paths, Denver launched B-Cycle – a citywide bicycle sharing program – in late April 2010. The B-Cycle network was the largest in the United States at the time of its launch, boasting 400 bicycles.
The Wheel clamp, Denver Boot, a car-disabling device, was first used in Denver.
Cycling
The League of American Bicyclists rated Colorado as the sixth most bicycle-friendly state in the nation for 2014. This is due in large part to Front Range cities like Boulder, Fort Collins and Denver placing an emphasis on legislation, programs and infrastructure developments that promote cycling as a mode of transportation. Walk Score has rated Denver as the fourth most bicycle-friendly large city in the United States.
According to data from the 2011 American Community Survey, Denver ranks 6th among US cities with populations over 400,000 in terms of the percentage of List of U.S. cities with most bicycle commuters, workers who commute by bicycle at 2.2% of commuters. B-Cycle – Denver's citywide bicycle sharing program – was the largest in the United States at the time of its launch in 2010, boasting 400 bicycles. B-Cycle ridership peaked in 2014, then steadily declined. The program announced it would cease operations at the end of January 2020. The city announced plans to seek one or more new contractors to run a bike-share program starting mid-2020.
Electric rental scooters
In 2018, Motorized scooter, electric scooter services began to place scooters in Denver. Hundreds of unsanctioned LimeBike and Bird electric scooters appeared on Denver streets in May, causing an uproar. In June, the city ordered the companies to remove them and acted quickly to create an official program, including a requirement that scooters be left at RTD stops and out of the public right-of-way. Lime and Bird scooters then reappeared in late July, with limited compliance. Uber's Jump e-bikes arrived in late August, followed by Lyft's nationwide electric scooter launch in early September. Lyft says that it will, each night, take the scooters to the warehouse for safety checks, maintenance and charging. Additionally, Spin and Razor each were permitted to add 350 scooters.
Walkability
2017 rankings by Walk Score placed Denver twenty-sixth among 108 U.S. cities with a population of 200,000 or greater. City leaders have acknowledged the concerns of walkability advocates that Denver has serious gaps in its sidewalk network. The 2019 "Denver Moves: Pedestrians" plan outlines a need for approximate $1.3 billion in sidewalk funding, plus $400 million for trails. Denver does not currently have resources to fully fund this plan.
Modal characteristics
In 2015, 9.6 percent of Denver households lacked a car, and in 2016, this was virtually unchanged (9.4 percent). The national average was 8.7 percent in 2016. Denver averaged 1.62 cars per household in 2016, compared to a national average of 1.8.
Freeways and highways
Denver is primarily served by the interstate freeways Interstate 25 (Colorado), I-25 and Interstate 70 (Colorado), I-70. The problematic intersection of the two interstates is referred to locally as "Mousetrap (Denver), the mousetrap" because, when viewed from the air, the junction (and subsequent vehicles) resemble mice in a large trap.
*
Interstate 25 runs north–south from New Mexico through Denver to Wyoming
Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the southwest, and Colorado to the s ...
*
Interstate 225
Interstate 225 (I-225) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway in the U.S. state of Colorado. The freeway is a connector spur route of I-25 that acts as an eastern bypass in the Denver metropolitan area and serves Aurora. It also provides direct ...
traverses neighboring Aurora. I-225 was designed to link Aurora with I-25 in the southeastern corner of Denver, and I-70 to the north of Aurora, with construction starting May 1964 and ending May 21, 1976.
*
Interstate 70
Interstate 70 (I-70) is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the United States that runs from I-15 near Cove Fort, Utah, to a park and ride lot just east of I-695 in Baltimore, Maryland, and is the fifth-longest Interstate in the co ...
runs east–west from Utah to Maryland. It is also the primary corridor on which motorists access the mountains. A proposed $1.2 billion widening of an urban portion through a primarily low-income and Latino community has been met with community protests and calls to reroute the interstate along the less urban Interstate 270 alignment. They cite increased pollution and the negative effects of tripling the interstate's large footprint through the neighborhood as primary objections. The affected neighborhood bisected by the Interstate was also designated the most polluted neighborhood in the country and is home to a Superfund site.
*
Interstate 270 runs concurrently with U.S. Highway 36 (Colorado), US 36 from an interchange with Interstate 70
Interstate 70 (I-70) is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the United States that runs from I-15 near Cove Fort, Utah, to a park and ride lot just east of I-695 in Baltimore, Maryland, and is the fifth-longest Interstate in the co ...
in northeast Denver to an interchange with Interstate 25 north of Denver. The freeway continues as U.S. Highway 36 (Colorado), US 36 from the interchange with Interstate 25.
*
Interstate 76
Interstate 76 may refer to:
Interstate Highways in the United States
* Interstate 76 (Colorado–Nebraska)
* Interstate 76 (Ohio–New Jersey), running through Pennsylvania
Video gaming
* ''Interstate '76
''Interstate '76'' is a vehicular ...
begins from I-70 just west of the city in Arvada
Arvada () is a home rule municipality located in Jefferson and Adams counties, Colorado, United States. The city population was 124,402 at the 2020 United States Census, with 121,510 residing in Jefferson County and 2,892 residing in Adams Cou ...
. It intersects I-25 north of the city and runs northeast to Nebraska where it ends at Interstate 80 (Nebraska), I-80.
*
U.S. Highway 6 (Colorado), US 6 follows the alignment of 6th Avenue west of I-25, and connects downtown Denver to the west-central suburbs of Golden, Colorado, Golden and Lakewood, Colorado, Lakewood. It continues west through Utah and Nevada to Bishop, California. To the east, it continues as far as Provincetown, Massachusetts, Provincetown, on Cape Cod in Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
.
*
U.S. Highway 285 (Colorado), US 285 ends its route through New Mexico and Texas at Interstate 25 in the University Hills neighborhood.
*
U.S. Highway 85 (Colorado), US 85 also travels through Denver. This highway is often used as an alternate route to Castle Rock, Colorado, Castle Rock instead of taking Interstate 225 (Colorado), Interstate 25.
*
U.S. Route 87 runs north–south and through Denver. It is concurrent with I-25 the entire length in the state.
*
U.S. Highway 36 (Colorado), US 36 connects Denver to Boulder, Colorado, Boulder and Rocky Mountain National Park near Estes Park, Colorado, Estes Park. It runs east into Ohio, after crossing four other states.
*
Colorado State Highway 93, State Highway 93 starts in the western Metropolitan area in Golden, Colorado, and travels almost to meet with Colorado State Highway 119, SH 119 in central Boulder, Colorado, Boulder. This highway is often used as an alternate route to Boulder, Colorado, Boulder instead of taking U.S. Highway 36 (Colorado), US 36.
*
State Highway 470 (C-470, SH 470) is the southwestern portion of the Denver metro area's beltway. Originally planned as Interstate 470 in the 1960s, the beltway project was attacked on environmental impact grounds and the interstate beltway was never built. The portion of "Interstate 470" built as a state highway is the present-day SH 470, which is a freeway for its entire length.
Denver also has a nearly complete beltway known as "the 470's". These are SH 470 (CO), SH 470 (also known as C-470), a freeway in the southwest Metro area, and two toll highways, E-470
E-470 is a controlled-access toll road that traverses the eastern portion of the Denver metropolitan area in the US state of Colorado. It is the eastern half of the 470 beltway that serves Meridian, Parker, Aurora, Denver International Airpor ...
(from southeast to northeast) and Northwest Parkway (from terminus of E-470 to U.S. Highway 36 (Colorado), US 36). SH 470 was intended to be I-470 and built with federal highway funds, but the funding was redirected to complete conversion of downtown Denver's 16th Street Mall, 16th Street to a pedestrian mall. As a result, construction was delayed until 1980 after state and local legislation was passed. I-470 was also once called "The Silver Stake Highway", from Gov. Lamm's declared intention to drive a silver stake through it and kill it.
A highway expansion and transit project for the southern Interstate 25 (Colorado), I-25 corridor, dubbed T-REX (Transportation Expansion Project), was completed on November 17, 2006. The project installed wider and additional highway lanes, and improved highway access and drainage. The project also includes a light rail line that traverses from downtown to the south end of the metro area at Lincoln Avenue. The project spanned almost along the highway with an additional line traveling parallel to part of Interstate 225 (Colorado), I-225, stopping just short of Parker Road.
Metro Denver highway conditions can be accessed on the Colorado Department of Transportation COtrip website.
Mass transportation
Public transport, Mass transportation throughout the Denver metropolitan area is managed and coordinated by the Regional Transportation District (RTD). RTD operates more than 1,000 buses serving over 10,000 bus stops in 38 municipal jurisdictions in eight counties around the Denver-Aurora-Boulder Combined Statistical Area, Denver and Boulder metropolitan areas. Additionally, RTD operates nine RTD Bus & Rail, rail lines, the A, B, D, E, G, H, L, N, R, and W, with a total of of track, serving 44 stations. The D, E, H, L, R, and W lines are light rail while the A Line (RTD), A Line, B Line (RTD), B Line, G Line (RTD), G Line and N Line (RTD), N Line are commuter rail.
FasTracks is a commuter rail, light rail, and bus expansion project approved by voters in 2004, which will serve neighboring suburbs and communities. The W Line (RTD), W Line, or West line, opened in April 2013 serving Golden/Federal Center. The commuter rail A Line from Denver Union Station to Denver International Airport opened in April 2016 with ridership exceeding RTD's early expectations. The light rail R Line (RTD), R Line through Aurora opened in February 2017. The G Line (RTD), G Line to the suburb of Arvada (originally planned to open in the Fall of 2016) opened on April 26, 2019. The N Line (RTD), N Line to Commerce City and Thornton opened on September 21, 2020.
An express bus service, known as the Flatiron Flyer, serves to connect Boulder and Denver. The service, billed as bus rapid transit, has been accused of bus rapid transit creep for failing to meet the majority of BRT requirements, including level boarding and all-door entry. A commuter rail connection to Boulder and its suburb of Longmont, also part of the FasTracks ballot initiative and an extension of the B Line (RTD), B Line, is planned to be finished by RTD, but no construction funds have yet been identified prior to 2040. RTD is currently considering an interim commuter service which would run rush-hour trains from Longmont to Denver.
The Colorado Department of Transportation runs Bustang, a bus system that offers weekday and weekend service connecting Denver with Grand Junction, Colorado, Grand Junction, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins and Gunnison, Colorado, Gunnison.
Greyhound Lines, the intercity bus operator, has a major hub in Denver, with routes to New York City, Portland, Oregon, Portland, Reno, Nevada, Reno, Las Vegas, and their headquarters, Dallas. Subsidiary Autobuses Americanos provides service to El Paso. Allied bus operators Black Hills Trailways, and Burlington Trailways provide service to Billings, Montana, Billings, Omaha, Nebraska, Omaha, Indianapolis, and Alamosa, Colorado, Alamosa.
Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, provides service to Denver, operating its ''California Zephyr'' daily in both directions between Union Station (Chicago), Chicago and Emeryville, California, across the bay from San Francisco. Amtrak Thruway service operated by private bus companies links the Denver station with Rocky Mountain points. In 2017 the Colorado legislature reinvigorated studies of passenger rail service along the Front Range, potentially connecting Denver to Fort Collins and Pueblo, Colorado, Pueblo, or further to Amtrak connections in Cheyenne, Wyoming and Trinidad, Colorado, Trinidad.
At Albuquerque, New Mexico, Denver Thruway connections are made daily with the Amtrak ''Southwest Chief''. Additionally, the Ski Train operated on the former Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, which took passengers between Denver and the Winter Park, Colorado, Winter Park Ski Resort, but it is no longer in service. The Ski Train made its final run to Winter Park on March 29, 2009. The service was revived on a trial basis in 2016 with a great amount of local fanfare. Further development of a mountain corridor rail option, though publicly popular, has been met with resistance from politicians, namely the director of Colorado Department of Transportation. The Ski Train did return to service under Amtrak with the name "Ski Train, Winter Park Express" in 2017, and currently runs only on Saturdays, Sundays, and major holidays during the winter ski seasons.
Denver's early years as a major train hub of the west are still very visible today. Trains stop in Denver at historic Union Station (Denver), Union Station, where travelers can access RTD's 16th Street Free MallRide or use light rail to tour the city. Union Station (Denver), Union Station will also serve as the main juncture for rail travel in the metro area, at the completion of FasTracks. The city also plans to invest billions to bringing frequent public transit within one-fourth of a mile of most of its residents.
Denver public transportation statistics
The average amount of time people spend commuting on public transit in Denver and Boulder, Colorado—for example, to and from work, on a weekday—is 77 minutes; 31% of public transit riders ride for more than two hours every day. The average amount of time people wait at a stop or station for public transit is 14 minutes, while 25% of riders wait for over 20 minutes, on average, every day. The average distance people usually ride in a single trip with public transit is , while 31% travel over in a single direction.
Airports
Denver International Airport (IATA: DEN, ICAO: KDEN), commonly known as DIA, serves as the primary airport for the Front Range Urban Corridor surrounding Denver. DIA is east-northeast of the Colorado State Capitol and opened in 1995. DIA is the 3rd busiest airport in the world with 58.8 million passengers in 2021; it had the 5th highest number of passengers in the U.S., 61 million, in the pre-pandemic year 2019. It covers more than , making it the largest airport by land area in the United States and larger than the island of Manhattan. DIA serves as a major hub for United Airlines
United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois. , is the headquarters and primary hub for Frontier Airlines, and is a major focus city and the fastest-growing market for Southwest Airlines.
In 2017, Denver International Airport was rated by Skytrax as the 28th-best airport in the world, falling to second place in the United States behind Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. Skytrax also named DIA as the second-best regional airport in North America for 2017, and the fourth-best regional airport in the world.
Three general aviation airports serve the Denver area. Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (KBJC) is north-northwest, Centennial Airport (KAPA) is south-southeast, and Colorado Air and Space Port (KCFO), formerly Front Range Airport, is east of the state capitol.
Centennial Airport also offers limited commercial airline service, on two cargo airlines.
In the past, Denver has been home to several other airports that are no longer operational. Stapleton International Airport was closed in 1995 when it was replaced by DIA. Lowry Air Force Base was a military flight training facility that ceased flight operations in 1966, with the base finally being closed in 1994. Both Stapleton and Lowry have since been redeveloped into primarily residential neighborhoods. Buckley Space Force Base is the only military facility in the Denver area.
Notable people
Twin towns – sister cities
Denver's relationship with Brest, France, began in 1948, making it the second-oldest sister city in the United States. In 1947, Amanda Knecht, a teacher at East High School, visited World War II–ravaged Brest. When she returned, she shared her experiences in the city with her students, and her class raised $32,000 to help rebuild the children's wing of Brest's hospital. The gift led to the development of the sister city program with Brest. There were serious efforts in the early 2000s, in both Denver and Sochi, Russian Federation, to establish sister-city ties, but the negotiations did not come to fruition.
Since then, Denver has established relationships with additional sister cities:
* Brest, France, Brest, France (1948)
* Takayama, Gifu, Takayama, Japan (1960)
* Nairobi, Kenya (1975)
* Karmiel, Israel (1977)
* Cuernavaca, Mexico (1983)
* Potenza, Italy (1983)
* Chennai, India (1984)
* Kunming, China (1985)
* Axum, Ethiopia (1995)
* Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (2001)
See also
* Colorado
** Bibliography of Colorado
** Index of Colorado-related articles
** Outline of Colorado
* List of counties in Colorado
* List of municipalities in Colorado
* List of places in Colorado
* List of statistical areas in Colorado
** Front Range Urban Corridor
** North Central Colorado Urban Area
** Denver-Aurora, CO Combined Statistical Area
** Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area
Explanatory notes
References
External links
City and County of Denver website
CODOT map of the City and County of Denver
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Denver,
1858 establishments in Kansas Territory
Cities in Colorado
Colorado counties
Consolidated city-counties
County seats in Colorado
Denver metropolitan area
Populated places established in 1858
Railway towns in Colorado