Hancock says his third term about consensus
Mayor Michael Hancock launched his third term Monday morning with a speech that was notable for what it didn’t have.
While in previous years he rolled out new city programs with new acronyms and new promises, his annual address this year was more about poetry than groundbreaking policy.
“The full measure of what we do will not be counted in buildings built or dollars spent, but in futures secured,” he said as the sun baked the front steps of the City and County Building. The audience was a mix of friends, family, city employees, protesters and passers-by.
Hancock, who cannot run for re-election again, contrasted Denver with a nation torn by strife. Coming off a victory in an intense runoff election, his theme was consensus, though he had to speak over a few protesters for much of the speech.
On growth and development, Hancock tried to reconcile with annoyed residents, saying construction must be directed “where it makes sense” while neighborhoods will have “a greater say” on what happens.
“There is no justice if histories and cultures and families are lost,” he said.
The mayor whose tenure began with promises of economic revitalization focused more of his third inaugural speech on changing the system. “We are resolved to correct, and correct now, the decades of intentional bias in our criminal justice system that trapped generations of families in a relentless cycle of oppression and poverty,” he said.
He also responded to complaints about the city’s strained open space, reiterating his promise of parks within a 10minute walk of every resident. He briefly took a harder edge on mobility, implying that the city will push back against the pervasive automobile.
“Our streets must change to make way for more transit riders, bike riders and pedestrians,” he said, adding that the city must reduce speeds on its streets.
“The goal was for us to talk about unity, and the identity of Denver, who we see ourselves as a city, and not about new projects,” Hancock said later in an interview. “We’ve got enough new projects to last a decade and a half.”
In his previous term, the mayor and city legislators and Denver voters spun up several responses to the city’s growth boom. The city has a new affordable housing fund, reorganized housing and transportation departments and new voter-approved sales taxes for parks and mental health. The third term, he implied, would be about execution.
As Hancock spoke, protesters jeered him about issues old and new. One woman was escorted away in a police vehicle after standing up inside the guest seating area and shouting, “stop the sweeps,” referring to the breakup of encampments from sidewalks and parks.
Earlier, a separate group, Denver Homeless Out Loud, delivered an agenda for 100 days of action, saying that Hancock should install new trash cans and portable toilets around the city, accelerate affordable housing and end the camping ban. An effort to end the city’s camping ban failed during the elections.
Hancock also saw signs deriding the roundup and killing of about 1,700 Canada geese from city parks, with one sign declaring that the administration was not “pro-life” and another saying that “goose lives matter.”
In his speech, Hancock also returned to a favorite trope: Denver as a bulwark against national politics and the federal government. The city stands for the rights of LGBTQ people and for “facts and science” in the climate change debate, he said. With immigration raids threatened by federal authorities, the city would “shield our residents from … any radical and hatefilled agenda.”
Also Monday morning, the Denver City Council’s 13 members took their oaths of office, including five new members who could present new wrinkles and challenges to Hancock. Also sworn in were Auditor Tim O’Brien for his second term and former Councilman Paul López for his first term as clerk.