Regarding your mayoral candidacy — a questionnaire from The Denver Gazette editorial board
David Stevens
I help Spanish-speaking adults in the U.S. learn how to speak English with confidence as fast as possible through non-traditional conversation classes for work, community, and travel.
Regarding your mayoral candidacy — a questionnaire from The Denver Gazette editorial board
We are currently experiencing the aftershock of the pandemic downtown, so I think over time it will naturally start to come back to life.? Because of the pandemic, more people are working from home and no longer go to their offices downtown.? This is a major reason why downtown feels so dead.? Furthermore, Denver residents don’t feel safe when going downtown because of the abundance of homeless people, open drug use, and crime.? Downtown Denver has one of the highest rates of crime in the city right now, and much of that is violent crime.? When speaking with downtown residents, everyone has a story of people shooting up or freebasing in public.
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Giving Downtown Denver its “mojo” back has no simple solution, but these are some of the things we need to do as a city.? In order to revitalize downtown, we must solve the issues related to homelessness, including drug addiction, mental health, and job rehabilitation.? I’m a fan of doing this with some compassion, with the understanding that it can be solved if we put our energy behind real, long-term solutions.? I see another question related to the homeless, so I will go into more detail on my vision for that later.
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Next, we have to look at the open drug consumption that is so blatant downtown.? The war on drugs has failed, so we need to recognize that prohibition doesn’t work.? I have been following Portugal’s case study of decriminalizing drugs since 2000 and treating it as a public health issue.? While I think our current police and DA have recognized that incarcerating people for drug use doesn't work, as a city we haven’t put everything else in place to improve public health surrounding drugs.? I would advocate creating safe consumption sites run by doctors, nurses, drug abuse counselors and mental health professionals so people can test their drugs to make sure they have what they think they have, have access to help in the case of an emergency, and get counseling.? From what I understand, New York City has recently adopted some of these practices and in Europe these programs have been quite successful.
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Next, a lot of crime that happens downtown is related to drunk people getting out of the bars and clubs at the same time.? I think it is time to rethink how we do this in Denver.? I lived in both Spain and Argentina, where bars and clubs don’t have an official closing time.? The idea is if people get out while the sun is down, problems happen, but by allowing people to stay indoors until the sun comes up the burden on the police is greatly alleviated.? I would be interested in exploring an option to create a new nightlife scene that avoids the craziness of the 2 am closing time which causes so many drunk people to flood the streets at the same time and create something that would allow people to continue the night as long as they wanted.? Of course, American culture around hard alcohol consumption would have to be examined, so maybe the clubs should only sell beer after midnight so that people would be encouraged to party safely.
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I also think we need to fix the traffic issue in Denver to bring people back downtown.? I live in NE Denver, and I remember when it only took 10-20 minutes to get downtown.? It now takes about an hour.? While this is another complex issue in itself, we need to have smarter city planning and make sure new developments take traffic into consideration.? This means building denser, multi-use projects and stop building sprawling suburbs.? We can also look at making public transportation free, or at least expanding the 16th street mall bus to cover more geography.
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Finally, we have to do something to attract businesses back downtown.? My focus would revolve around small businesses.? Creating an environment that helped small businesses get started would make our downtown really unique, and many people would start to visit downtown again because of this.
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So, in conclusion, my plan to revitalize downtown would be multifaceted:
2.? ? ? ? ? What do you think is at root of Denver’s affordable housing shortage? What would you do about it?
In short, supply and demand.? Denver is an amazing city to live and work in, and the secret is out!? More people are moving here than moving out, and new construction isn’t keeping up.? Developers also don’t have much of an incentive to build affordable housing, so they don’t.
Everyone in the next race for Denver mayor is talking about affordability, but it’s the wrong topic.? You can’t control prices in a free market economy like what we have.
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The real topic should be on investing in our people and providing them with everything they need to lift themselves out of poverty so they can buy a home and start generating wealth.
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Poverty is the real problem we should be talking about.? How do we eliminate poverty???
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I want to change the conversation from affordability to eliminating poverty because the government has no real control over prices.? The market, based on supply and demand, will ultimately determine prices, so let’s stop kidding ourselves, you’ll never elect a mayor that is just going to all of a sudden make things affordable.
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Poverty is a vicious cycle that people get caught in and gets handed down from one generation to another.? People living in poverty from an early age can’t concentrate in school, and also end up in schools with less resources, so they get a poor education.? They often drop out of school to start working in minimum wage jobs, or resort to hustling to make money, and end up in jail.??
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For those that continue with school, it’s next to impossible to go on to higher education, which leaves them with limited job opportunities.? This leads to the next dilemma, which is not being able to save enough money to buy a house.? Right now, if you are making less than $50,000 in Denver, it’s impossible to buy a house.
Honestly, it’s pretty hard to save money even if you are making $100,000 a year.? You might be able to afford a decent lifestyle, but you can’t save money.
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I know.? I’ve been rich, and I’ve been poor in my life.? I was lucky to generate some decent money in my early career, and back then houses were affordable.? Through a special program I qualified for a mortgage and only had to put down $5,000 for the home that I bought in Montbello.
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Well, those days are gone.? In fact, the cost of living has doubled since I bought that home.? On top of it, the pandemic crushed my business.? I went into serious debt to try and keep things going, but finally had to throw in the towel.? Earlier this year I had to sell my house and move in with my family in order to have a fresh start.
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Luckily, I was able to do that, but not everyone can.? Instead, the cycle continues, people lose their jobs, then their homes, and homelessness ensues.
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So the real issue is poverty.? How do we get our people out of poverty???
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As Mayor of Denver, I want to eliminate poverty.? Denver is one of the most economically stable cities in the country, and it’s pitiful that the current leadership has led so many people into this never ending cycle of poverty, crime, and homelessness.
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So my plan to eliminate poverty in this city is going to be to focus on investing in our residents and providing them with everything they need to unlock their full potential.
This starts with education.? I want to create world class schools from the cradle to the grave, so our people can get amazing educations no matter what their background is.? Now this is going to be a very long-term project, so in the short term, I want to provide Denver with what it needs now.
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For people living in poverty, I want our social services department to provide them with the following services so they don’t have to worry about the bare necessities in life:
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These should be available to everyone earning less than $35,000/ year, up from the current maximum income of around $18,000/year.? If you are earning less than $35,000/year, you are worried about paying rent and putting food on the table.? You worry about losing your job, or getting into an accident that would prevent you from working.? What happens if you get sick and go to the hospital?? Hospital bills are ruining people, and this should never happen in Denver!? Let’s give people living in poverty a chance, let’s eliminate their worries about surviving and provide some stress relief in this area.
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Now, notice that job training services are also included on this list.? The more education and training people get, the more money they will make, so let’s help them get the training they need to get out of poverty and make more money.? This is how you make things more affordable.
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Transportation needs to be on this list of things we provide people too.? Let’s get City of Denver residents EcoPasses so they can ride the buses and trains for free and get to where they need to be.? This will also have a huge impact in reducing traffic and air pollution, which everyone knows we need desperately as a city.
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Now, let’s talk about housing.? My plan for affordable housing is really unique, because it doesn’t just focus on short-term affordable housing.? I want to create a housing department in Denver that focuses on paths to home ownership, because owning a home is one of the most significant ways someone can change their economic status.? Investing in real estate can truly change someone’s social status, so we need to help people take this step.
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If you can afford to pay $1,000 - $2,000 or more in rent, you can afford to pay a mortgage.? Mortgages can actually be less expensive than paying monthly rent. I envision a city that can provide its residents with rent to own opportunities to help them get into home ownership.? I know a lot of people that go decades renting, and that’s just money down the drain.? If they were investing in their own home, paying a reasonable monthly rate, and then having the possibility to sell down the road and generate wealth, we should be able to help them do that as a city.
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If you elect me as Mayor, I’m going to put the smartest people on this and create a poverty elimination task force that will once and for all solve the real root cause of affordable living in this city.
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3.? ? ? ? ? The Common Sense Institute did a deep dive into resources available to the homelessness. After extensive numbers crunching, the institute concluded the metro area is on track to spend three quarters of a billion dollars this year in public and private funding on the homeless. Yet, more homeless people keep turning up on Denver’s streets. The ranks of the chronically homeless on our streets are dominated by people who are addicted to drugs or alcohol. Do we already spend enough? Should we use the money differently — perhaps to treat addiction and mental illness first?
I don’t know if we are spending enough on this issue or not, but I know what we are currently doing isn’t working.? I want to take a hard look at the budget and the policies that the previous administration has created with the experts in this area that has led to this explosion in homelessness and come up with some compassionate policies that would better rehabilitate those that want the help.
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From what I understand, a lot of the shelters simply provide a roof and maybe some meals for those that want it.? While they used to insist on people being sober, they no longer have that requirement.
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I believe that homelessness can be solved, but again, it requires more than just one approach.? There are those that have mental illness and are simply not capable of taking care of themselves, and as a government we need to help them get off the streets and take care of them.
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There are those that are addicted to drugs or alcohol, and they would need a separate game plan that offered services related to drug abuse.? I think given a second chance a lot of these people can be rehabilitated and get back to being productive members of society.
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Then there are those that simply need to restart their lives.? Having more programs geared towards job rehabilitation and helping them get into affordable housing would do wonders here.
4.? ? ? ? ? Do you support Denver’s decade-old camping ban and if so, how would you enforce it?
As the camping ban stands today, I don’t support it.? It doesn’t work, it’s not enforced, and criminalizing someone for not having a house doesn’t solve anything.?
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That said, people should not be camping downtown.? We have to come up with compassionate solutions geared towards rehabilitating homelessness and providing people that can’t be rehabilitated with safe shelter and food.
5.? ? ? ? ? Crime has been rising while recruitment by Denver’s Police Department remains in a slump. Are the two related? How do you propose to fully staff our police?
Yes, rising crime and trouble recruiting police are correlated, and have been exacerbated by the defund the police calls.? We need police to keep us safe, so defunding police departments was one of the worst ideas that could have gone mainstream.
Of course we are in a crime wave.? The government shutdowns prevented people from going to work and many businesses, especially small businesses, went out of business.? We haven’t fully recovered from this, and people are more desperate now than they ever have been.? Combine that with massive protests against the police and from what I can see, the police has stepped back and stopped policing.
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The reality is we need to improve funding for the police and reform the way it’s been done in the past.? Police need more training in de-escalation techniques and diversity awareness.? We also need different types of police, or public safety units.? I want to expand on the community safety officers that go out in the community and help people, doing events and providing community service that will get people to trust the police again.? I’m very interested in creating a unit that doesn’t carry weapons so that the average person isn’t scared of the police, similar to what they do in England and Japan.? I also think we need to create a complimentary department of public safety officers that are better trained in mental illness and drug addiction so that armed police aren’t the first to arrive to every emergency.
6.? ? ? ? ? Former Police Chief Paul Pazen has said Denver’s dubious distinctions for crime — from auto theft to porch piracy — stem significantly from watering down Colorado’s criminal code at the state level as well as from lax prosecution, bail and parole standards locally. What is your take on the origins of the epic crime wave that has hit our state and metro Denver — and how as mayor would you fight crime? What role has the legislature played in fomenting the crime wave, and what responsibility does it bear?
We have to be tougher on crime, obviously.? Someone stole my catalytic converter earlier this year, and the police never even came to investigate, they just sent a report via email.
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We need a complete overhaul of our justice system.? Laws need to be rewritten to focus on harsher punishments for violent and intrusive crimes, and also rewritten for “victimless” crimes related to things like drug consumption or perhaps petty shoplifting.? Mandatory minimums also don’t work, so we need to get away from those so that judges can have more flexibility in showing mercy depending on certain circumstances, like a single mother that is stealing milk for her children.
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There are a lot of criminals too that are criminals only because of lack of education and lack of opportunity.? I want to increase education and job training for people in jail, and then create better job placement services for when they get out.? Our current system of incarceration tends to create smarter criminals instead of rehabilitated citizens, so this needs to change.
7.? ? ? ? ? Where do you stand on the fentanyl possession debate in the legislature last year? Was decriminalization a mistake? Would you support returning the deadly opioid to felony status for possession of any amount??
The war on drugs is a complete failure, so yes, in general I’m in favor of decriminalizing drugs.? That said, fentanyl is more like a poison than a drug.? I think punishing drug addicts doesn’t work, but we should punish fentanyl dealers to the maximum.? I would advocate creating a law that treats possession of large amounts of fentanyl like attempted murder, and decriminalizing possession of small amounts.? I think a lot of people that consume fentanyl don’t realize they are doing it, so my earlier statement on creating sites where people can test their drugs should help here too.
8.? ? ? ? ? The city has been cordoning off bike lanes in the inner-urban core. In a city in which very few people bike to work or school in the colder months, should we make way for more motor-vehicle traffic or for more bicycles??
Until Denver creates more multiuse neighborhoods, biking and walking are not much of an option.? When it comes to transportation, I’m more of a fan of providing free transportation via EcoPasses through RTD, improving RTD’s service to be more frequent and efficient, and creating a city-wide network of bridges and tunnels that would completely separate car traffic from bicycle and pedestrian traffic.? Shared streets are a terrible idea, and if we want to reduce traffic and traffic related deaths, to truly achieve the City’s vision of 0 deaths per year, we have to separate motor vehicles from bikes and walkers.
9.? ? ? ? ? More generally, what is your view of what some call the war on cars, and will mass transit ever really work for most Denverites? What does RTD need to do differently to better serve Denver — or is it capable of better service?
I spend a lot of time sitting in traffic, missing the open roads I grew up with in Colorado, which means I spend a lot of time thinking of ways to reduce traffic.
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First, I think the problem comes from a lack of city planning.? We must stop building these sprawling suburban zones of pure residential neighborhoods and do a better job of zoning for mixed use developments that eliminate the need to commute in the first place.? As long as we keep building out there isn’t much hope for eliminating traffic.
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Next, RTD should be free.? If you want people to use it, make it free.? This would reduce traffic, pollution, and so much stress in our city.
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However, making RTD free in Denver isn’t the only solution.? It has to be better.? The pandemic forced me to get rid of my car, and I was fully dependent on RTD for a while.? It was a miserable experience.? The routes don’t make any sense right now.? They twist and wind their way through residential neighborhoods, and there aren’t many direct routes from one place to another.? From my house in Montbello, it would take a transfer and over an hour to get to Green Valley Ranch, a ten-minute drive.? Bus routes need to be changed to provide more frequent service on major roads and then have smaller buses that go through the residential neighborhoods.? I used to live in Boulder, and this is what Boulder does, so why doesn’t Denver do the same?
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In an ideal world, I think RTD should partner with ride-share services like Lyft and Uber to provide real door to door service that is fast and comfortable.? RTD could provide frequent service on the main roads, and then passengers could connect to their final destination in a residential neighborhood via ride-share.
10. ? ? ? Describe race relations in our city. Does City Hall focus enough, too little, or too much on racial equity? How would you define racial equity?
I think that in the year 2023 it’s absolutely absurd that we are even talking about racial equity, or gender equity, or any other type of equity.? People are people, and everyone deserves the same amount of respect and the same opportunities to live their lives happily and safely, regardless of skin color, country of origin, and sexual identity/orientation for that matter.
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That said, we clearly aren’t giving this issue the attention it deserves.? Minorities have really low graduation rates in our schools, so this is where we need to start and improving education is a major component of my campaign.
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I would do everything in my power to stomp out racism and hate of any kind and level the playing field for all.
11. ? ? ? Denver’s mayor has no authority over Denver’s school board or school district. Yet, the mayor has an enormous stake in the city’s schools. Denver Public Schools test scores have taken a nosedive, particularly for kids of color — while the board arguably has been sidetracked on internal politics. A recent, groundbreaking report by CU-Denver affirms and substantiates the profound accomplishments of reforms under prior boards — yet, current board members reject the work of those reformist boards. Meanwhile, stakeholders throughout the community have criticized the? current board not only for backsliding from efforts to uplift at-risk kids but also for public squabbling. In a commentary published in The Gazette, James Coleman and Rosemary Rodriguez recently called on the DPS board to mend its ways. How would you use your bully pulpit as mayor to help get the district back on track?
This should have been your first question!
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Lately I’ve been getting asked a lot of questions about my plan to put education first to make Denver a happy and stress-free city.? The Mayor of Denver has nothing to do with Denver Public Schools, so why are you campaigning on a promise to put education in the spotlight?
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Well, my answer is that the current system is wrong.? The Mayor of a city should absolutely have some say in what is going on in the public school system.
The issues that every other person is campaigning on, like coming out of the COVID pandemic, exploding housing prices, homelessness, the crime wave, the drug epidemic, and economic uncertainty all stem from education, or lack thereof.
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Look, our education system is broken.? It has been for a long time, and as a society we need to come together to fix it.? We are at a critical point, and if we aren’t honest with ourselves about the real core problem being a broken education system, things are going to get a lot worse before they get better again.
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From my viewpoint, I see the following things that are wrong with our public schools today.? First, we simply don’t spend enough money on the schools, and this also includes teachers’ salaries.? We keep asking teachers to do more with less, and this has a bad impact on the classroom and therefore student outcomes.? There is also no more accountability.? Since we started tying school funding to academic activity, teachers simply don’t have the option to discipline students, and when they do, the administrators don’t back them up.? Finally, teachers don’t have any freedom to really lead the classes the way they want to, it’s all about testing these days.? Test after test after test, it’s madness.? We have created this system that is stifling, creating unhappy teachers, unhappy students, and unhappy parents.??
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The bad news is that it could get even worse!? Let’s talk about the money for a second.? Teachers require the same amount of education as doctors and lawyers, and frequently graduate with the same amount of debt.? However, they go into teaching where they barely make more than minimum wage when they get started.? They convince themselves that they are altruistic, not caring about the money and doing it for the students, but the fact is they don’t make enough money to live a decent life.? So they work second, sometimes third jobs to get by, which makes them exhausted and unable to really give it their very best in the classroom.? Held down by worries of money and not getting enough free time to recharge, they are unable to really put on their best face with the kids and this shows up in the results.??
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Apart from paying teachers decent wages, we don’t upgrade and modernize our schools frequently enough.? How many school closures have we seen lately because it was too hot, and the building didn’t have air conditioning?? I mean really, in the year 2022 we still have schools without proper heating, air conditioning, and ventilation systems.? It’s ridiculous!
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All of this was already happening, and then the pandemic came.? Teachers were forced to figure out how to teach online overnight, and it completely exacerbated the problems in education.? Teachers burnt out and quit at record levels, and it’s not even over.? A recent survey found that 50% of teachers are currently considering leaving the profession to do something else.??
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What happens then?? What happens if 50% of teachers all of a sudden don’t show up to work tomorrow?? The kids are currently testing at only about 30% at being at their current grade levels when it comes to things like math and literacy.? What happens when they don’t even have teachers at all?
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So why am I campaigning for Mayor of Denver on education when the Mayor has nothing to do with it? Because everything that is happening right now is wrong and we are on the verge of a complete implosion in our schools if someone doesn’t step up to the plate to fix it.? And no one else is talking about it except for me.? The other candidates are talking about the problems that stem from a broken education system, but they aren’t trying to fix the root problem.? It’s like putting a band aid on a broken bone, it looks like they are trying to fix the problem, but it’s just a superficial fix that will keep getting worse with time.
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To get back to the original question, how can I fix the schools as Mayor of Denver if the Mayor has no oversight of the school system?? I’m going to call attention to the real problem and get people to start thinking about it.? I’m going to meet with the Superintendent of DPS and the Board and let them know that they have my support for improving things.? I’m going to meet with lawmakers and city representatives and come up with innovative solutions to funding teachers’ salaries to get them more money so they can feel financially secure, and I’d make sure that we got school infrastructures up to a modern time.
People keep asking me this question like I have no idea what I’m doing, but the truth is, I know exactly what I’m doing.? We need a Mayor that puts education first.? We need a Mayor that isn’t a typical politician and is thinking outside the box.? We need a Mayor that is willing to be honest with the city and get down to the core of the problems that we face as a city.
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Putting education first is the only way to make Denver a happy and stress-free city, and I’m the only candidate that understands this incredibly vital issue.
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12. ? ? ? Would you, if elected mayor, openly endorse/oppose school board candidates on next fall’s ballot?
Yes, I would do everything in my power to make sure we are electing people that know what they are doing in this area.
13. ? ? ? Should Denver Public Schools reinstate its school resource officer program staffed by Denver police — especially after reports that crime has been rising on DPS campuses?
Unfortunately, yes, at least in the short term.
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My son is in 1st grade and has been participating in active shooter drills since he was in ECE.? This saddens me so much.
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In the long term, we really need to fix our gun laws so that gun ownership is available only to those that are responsible, trained, and educated in this area.?
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I’m extremely interested in working with state legislators to create an official registration, license, and insurance program for gun owners that would also involve requiring on-going safety training.?
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We also need to put an end to allowing gun shows to come to Denver.? A couple of weeks ago, my friend’s 18-year-old son told me “everyone knows that you can go to the gun show and buy a kit to build your own gun”.? This needs to come to an end.
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Schools should be the safest place in our city, but until we have safer gun laws and improve the entire system, yes, we unfortunately need schools to have police present for the time being.
14. ? ? ? Would you take a two-term pledge even though mayors may serve for three?
No, I can’t commit to something like this until I’ve been on the job.? If I get elected and my leadership improves our economy and safety, I’m not sure that I would want to limit myself from what the current system allows.? If I’m really good and enjoy being Mayor of Denver, then I will probably want to do it as long as allowed!