Big promises and bigger challenges for Denver's mayor in 2025
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Mayor Mike Johnston unveils his 2025 priorities at the Denver Central Library on Wednesday. Photo: Alayna Alvarez/Axios
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston's ambitious 2025 agenda to make the city safer, more affordable and climate-friendly faces tough economic realities and political headwinds.
The big picture: The blueprint he laid out Wednesday coincides with a slim spending plan, steep housing costs, downtown struggles and uncertainty over federal funding — especially as the Trump administration threatens to penalize sanctuary cities.
Zoom in: Johnston's 2025 priorities include:
🏙️ "Revitalizing" downtown by fully reopening the 16th Street Mall this summer and launching a "strategic" investment plan for Denver neighborhoods.
- Reality check: He made the same pledge in 2024, but downtown continues to grapple with business closures, office vacancies, crime concerns and lingering construction.
⛺️ Sheltering 2,000 more unhoused people and moving 2,000 people into permanent housing — calling it his administration's "most ambitious goal ever."
- Reality check: That's 30% of unhoused people in Denver County, according to the latest count that tallied more than 6,500 people experiencing homelessness in 2024 — a figure that's risen for the third straight year despite billions spent trying to curb the crisis.
🏠 Adding 3,000 more affordable units — a fraction of the roughly 45,000 he estimates are needed to meet demand over the next decade.
- Reality check: Johnston admits this will be "tougher" to achieve without federal pandemic dollars.
🚨 Reducing shootings by 15% and creating a citywide strategy to combat nonviolent crime.
- Reality check: Johnston said Denver saw a 23% drop in violent gun crime last year after he set a 20% reduction goal at the start of 2024 — but murders, while dropping, remain higher than pre-pandemic levels, per DPD figures.
⚡ ️Curbing carbon pollution by adding 2,000 heat pumps, EV chargers and solar panels, planting 4,500 trees and slashing municipal water use by 20 million gallons.
- Reality check: The city will likely remain far from hitting its greenhouse emission reduction goals.
🎒 Making Denver "the premier city in America for raising a family" by connecting 5,000 kids to "high-quality" extracurricular programming and placing 2,500 young adults in jobs.
- Reality check: This could be particularly difficult as youth violence persists.
The intrigue: Johnston didn't mention immigrants or his administration's goals to support them — a notable omission as the issue dominates the spotlight and another sign the city's migrant response is winding down.
- It also juxtaposes Johnston's loud and firm stance on immigration when positioned against President Trump.
What's next: His administration will release quarterly progress reports on each goal for the public to "hold us accountable."