Your Daily Guide

🏛️ Democrats Eye Denver for 2028 Convention

Yesterday, city officials welcomed representatives from the Democratic National Convention for a three-day tour of Denver. The Mile High city is in the running to host the 2028 DNC, a four-day event that would bring 50,000 people to town. Mayor Mike Johnston and other city leaders are positioning Denver as the perfect destination because of its accessible infrastructure — and potential for fun.

• Aligning on the A Line: In the past, delegates’ biggest woes about visiting Denver involved logistical challenges, like getting to the city from the airport, since the train was built after the last DNC held here in 2008. That’s why Denver leaders met reps at the airport yesterday and accompanied them on the A Line to downtown.
• Denver’s big bid: Mayor Johnston will talk up the expanded Colorado Convention Center, the location of Ball Arena, and resources for lodging and security to show why Denver will make a better host than other cities in the running, which include Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Boston. [Axios; The Denver Post]
• At least $75 million: Mayor Mike Johnston must pledge to raise a minimum of $75 million to host the event. However, the mayor's office says that investment would ultimately pay for itself, since an event of this size is likely to bolster Denver’s economy by many millions more. [CBS News]
• Two decades later: The 2008 DNC in Denver holds particular historic weight because that was when Barack Obama officially became the Democratic party’s leading candidate and began his path toward the presidency. You can learn more about that pivotal moment in “The Blueprint: How the Democrats won Colorado,” a book by two local authors. [Democratic National Convention]

🤝 Broncos Negotiate With Their Neighbors

As the Broncos ownership plans their new stadium at Burnham Yard in the La Alma-Lincoln Park neighborhood, local residents are speaking up. They’ll work with owners of the NFL team to create a community benefits agreement, a legal contract where developers offset their impact through affordable housing, expanded childcare, and other community initiatives. [The Denver Post]

• Listen to our 2024 conversation with City Councilmember Jamie Torres about the vote that secured the new stadium’s fate — and what neighborhood issues residents are still discussing today.

🚗 Gas Prices Tip Rideshare Drivers Over the Edge

Low wages, high insurance prices, and car maintenance costs already threatened more than 41,000 rideshare drivers in Colorado before the war broke out in Iran. Now, high gas prices across the state are compounding these longstanding issues, and some say that being a driver for Uber or Lyft simply costs more than what it earns them. [Colorado Sun]

⛪ Is This $60,000 Church Divine Intervention?

An abandoned church in Five Points could soon be reborn as an events and music venue after Regas Christou, who opened The Church in 1994 and currently owns Milk Bar, bought the property. The most surprising detail isn’t that the ceiling fell down right after Christou acquired the building, which sits on a 9,275 square-foot-lot. It’s that, a year after the church was listed for $1.2 million, Christou bought it for just $60,000. [Westword]

🎧 Is One of the Mayor’s Big Downtown Projects in Trouble?

When the Downtown Development Authority announced its first wave of funding last year, the owners of the new Denver Immersive Repertory Theater celebrated what they thought was a $400,000 grant. But it turns out, it was just a loan — and that was just the start of the problems for a project many still hope will help boost business downtown. Comedian Joshua Emerson and producer Paul Karolyi have been asking around, and today they talk through the story of how DIRT got delayed. [City Cast Denver 🎧]