I took a walk in Denver today.
Just a 10-minute circuit of a few blocks near my office, in the southern corner of downtown near the Civic Center.
This is a rather bleak part of the city—and one become only bleaker post-COVID.
In following local politics, the concerns about downtown Denver sometimes seem a little hysterical—but they are not once you walk around.
Sixteenth Street—the ostensible shopping district of downtown—is an empty corridor choked by construction barriers, empty storefronts, and few pedestrians.
The feeling isn’t so much apocalyptic as it is pathetic: it’s hard to care about this very not vibrant neighborhood. Office towers, hotels, chain stores, parking lots. There’s very little to recommend it, save for some architectural interest. (The Convention Center! The Wells Fargo building!) But even that is not enough to recommend a stroll to a Denver tourist.
Where is the past? Where are all the old buildings that you see in LoDo? The past was razed in the 1960s in one of the more regrettable endeavors at “urban renewal.” The lessons of Jane Jacobs bubble up in my mind every time I think of it.
So, there we have it—parking lot after parking lot. Few local stores to speak of. Hardly any people walking around. No one hanging out outside.
Taylor Coe 