❗ Mayor Johnston’s first veto

❗ Johnston Vetoes Freezing Sweeps Ban

In a narrow 7-6 vote last week, Denver City Council passed a bill that would prohibit the city from sweeping homeless encampments during dangerously cold weather. On Friday, Mike Johnston exercised the mayor’s rarely-used veto power to block the passage. Previously, Johnston and other opponents have said that, while well-intentioned, this ban conflicts with the city’s voter-approved urban camping ban. [Denverite]

• What’s next: City Council could override the mayor’s veto if they can get a nine-count supermajority vote.

🆘 Colorado’s Most Endangered Places

Nonprofit group Colorado Preservation, Inc., has released its 2024 list of “Colorado’s Most Endangered Places.” This year’s roundup includes a 124-year-old bowling alley, a 19th-century Catholic church, a historic two-room school building, a former jail turned prisoner-of-war camp turned museum, and Denver’s very own defunct Sun Valley power plant. [CPR]

• More on that power plant: Denver’s first-ever chief urban designer weighs in on why the old Zuni Street steam power plant could become the city’s next iconic landmark. [City Cast Denver 🎧]

🚫 CO Springs: We Are ‘Not a Sanctuary City’

After a bus of migrants recently arrived in Colorado Springs, the city’s leaders want to make it abundantly clear: Colorado Springs is not a sanctuary city. City Council members, county commissioners, and the mayor have all gone on record to say they cannot and will not allocate public funds to migrants. [KKTV]

• But Denver IS a sanctuary city — and Mayor Mike Johnston told us there are few lengths he won’t go to to support these new arrivals. [City Cast Denver 🎧]

The Romantic Myth (and Bloody Reality) of Denver's Old Streetcar

Denver Water was fixing a busted water main on East Colfax recently and stumbled upon some of the Mile High’s old streetcar tracks. The lost era of the streetcar is remembered fondly in Denver history, but was the picture always so rosy? Author and transit nerd Jake Berman tells the forgotten story of the eventual violent end to the city’s first mass transit system.