Opinion: Imagine A Competent City

Here’s A Suggestion: Move Denver Health To Denver International Airport

By Dan Danbom
For the GPHN

As a native Denverite, I think I’ve always voted for sales tax increases and bond issues. But this time may be different with the mayor’s .5 percent tax increase for affordable housing, another .34 percent to “stabilize” Denver Health, and, separately, Denver Public Schools’ expected request for “substantial” additional money for capital projects. 

Methinks the Broncos will also want money for a new stadium before you can say “winning season.”

Putting aside the idea that raising taxes will make Denver more affordable — yes, that’s the argument — as both a resident and the owner of a small business, I’d first like to see Denver demonstrate even the slightest bit of competence with the funds it already has.

Where are the new parks?

Six years ago, we passed a measure to raise funds for the acquisition of parks. To date, the city has raised over a quarter billion dollars toward that purpose. Where are the new parks?  Last year, voters turned down a developer’s plans to re-develop the desert formerly known as the Park Hill Golf Course. Voters hoped the city would buy the property and turn it into a regional park. Instead of re-opening it as a golf course, as it is contractually obligated to do, the developer vindictively let it go to seed. The city seems fine with this.

Here at the Printed Page Bookshop that I co-own, we also have a bag fee. Although we provide only already-used bags (for which we already pay a bag fee ), the city told us we need to charge the customers for each bag dispensed. 

We use maybe 24 bags every quarter. We collect $2.40, of which we get to keep 96 cents. We have to file quarterly bag fee payments with the city, which our accountant prepares. To our dismay, she charges us more than 96 cents for the time she spends preparing the filing. I’d rather the city just let us give it some money — say $50 a year — and we’ll promise not to give out more than 500 bags, so long as we don’t have to file quarterly payments. The city has collected about $5 million in bag fees and is now trying to figure out what to do with the money. My suggestion? Pay my accountant to do your paperwork.

There are more petty nuisances for businesses in the form of fees. We pay a $50 fee to have a sandwich board in front of our store. We were told earlier that sandwich boards were a hazard to pedestrians, but the $50 magically makes them safe. We asked the city inspector what the $50 went for. He said it went to pay for city inspectors like him. 

Just a thought, but maybe the money could go toward policing traffic laws. Street racers in cars and motorcycles routinely roar down our thoroughfares with impunity. Red lights and stop signs have become mere suggestions. When was the last time you saw a cop pull over a car for a traffic violation? Not in this decade for me.

We pay for trash pick-up. Of course, we always have, but the new system promised more recycling and composting. The compost bin we requested two years ago has yet to arrive. I’m told the bins are warehoused in northeast Denver.

Residents voted to raise money for sidewalks. The city is still trying to figure out how to do that.

The 16th Street Mall? Behind schedule and tens of millions of dollars over budget. So low are the city’s expectations that it celebrated the completion of a single block of the project. 

Endless supply of money

All of these boondoggles pale in comparison to the city’s bottomless money pit: Denver International Airport. The $70 million Denver Health needs? That’s chump change at DIA, which paid $181 million just to cancel a contract. 

So that you don’t think I’m just another grumpy old man prone to rants, let me end with a positive suggestion: Move Denver Health to DIA. 

DIA has an endless supply of money, so much so that it could blow off a few hundred million on a new hospital and not break a sweat. Better yet, as DIA always reminds us, none of the money spent there costs taxpayers anything. Already hoping to become a “destination” for more than just flyers, locating Denver Health at the airport would allow people visiting their sick loved ones to shop and dine at a world-class facility, easily accessible from anywhere in the metro area. And what is an Aerotropolis — the city’s newest grandiose scheme — without a hospital?

According to Aerotropolis promoters, “Colorado Aerotropolis is a forward-looking model for development that builds on the region’s success and creates opportunities for purpose-driven organizations to bring ambitious visions to life. Advanced manufacturing, aerospace, agriculture, renewable energy and healthcare are only a few of the industries of the future that call Colorado home.” 

And the old Denver Health facility? Convert it to housing for the homeless as well. It even has special facilities for those homeless dealing with substance abuse. Problem solved!

Does the City of Denver need more money? I don’t think so. Convince me that I’m wrong.

Dan Danbom is co-owner of Printed Page Bookshop, at 1416 S. Broadway.