Axios Denver

March 24, 2025
☕️ It's Monday again. Thanks for starting your week with us.
- Today's weather: Mostly sunny and windy with a high near 72.
🎂 Happy birthday to our Axios Denver members Naomi Perera, Pam Gail and Bonnie Seals!
- And a belated happy birthday to Carly Kurzava, Ben Rainbolt, Austin Kane and Max Eshleman!
🏀 Situational awareness: The Colorado State Rams were eliminated from the men's NCAA tournament yesterday by the Maryland Terrapins, who scored a last-second basket to end the game 72-71 and spoil CSU's season.
Today's newsletter is 823 words — a 3-minute read.
1 big thing: Denver's homeless spending problem
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston's administration is failing to adequately track millions in spending on homeless encampment cleanups, a new city audit finds.
Why it matters: Without oversight, the city can't account for how taxpayer money is being used — raising questions about how Johnston is managing one of his top priorities.
Driving the news: The audit is a follow-up to a 2023 report that found the city, under former Mayor Michael Hancock, was likely underestimating how much it spends on encampment outreach, cleanup and enforcement.
- It also comes on the heels of a separate audit last fall that found Johnston's team is struggling to keep homeless shelters safe and falling short on tracking costs.
What they found: The city's homeless encampment response still has major accountability gaps:
- No clear system exists to track cleanup costs, monitor contracts or verify services are delivered.
- Property storage — which holds belongings seized from encampments — lacks oversight, including whether it's secure or accessible.
- Daily coordination meetings about encampment actions aren't documented, leaving key decisions without a paper trail.
By the numbers: The city has fully implemented just six of the 36 recommendations from the auditor's 2023 report, despite agreeing to fulfill them all, per the report.
The other side: Johnston's senior homeless adviser Cole Chandler acknowledged there's "room for improvement" but said many issues are already being addressed or have recently improved.
- That includes better tracking of expenses, data monitoring and access to property storage, he said.
The bottom line: Nearly two years into Johnston's tenure, no one — not even his office — has a full picture of what Denver is spending to address homelessness.
2. AI 🤝 city government
The Denver mayor's office is working with an AI startup to streamline the city's work, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: Government agencies have been increasingly looking to AI to help tackle thorny administrative problems that have saddled the public sector with a reputation as low-tech and sluggish.
Zoom in: Shannon Beckham, a former campaign operative and aide to Colorado Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, is launching Chief AI, which bills itself as a "command center to supercharge a leader's time, relationships, and priorities."
- The mayor's team has been working with the startup to pilot the product since it was first presented at the DenAI Summit last September.
- Denver has signed a one-year, $10,000 contract to test the tool.
What they're saying: "Chief AI helps remove hours of administrative burden in the mayor's office — from scheduling to briefing preparation," Mayor Mike Johnston's spokesperson Jordan Fuja tells us.
The bottom line: "For too long, clunky interfaces and outdated infrastructure have reigned in legacy industries," the website says.
- "The people running our most critical institutions lack the tools and data to be as efficient and strategic as possible. We're changing this[.]"
3. 🦾 Charted: Where the AI jobs are


More than 250 Denver job openings this January required AI skills, a new analysis found.
- That's enough to rank Denver 20th out of the top 75 largest metro areas for available AI jobs, according to estimates from the University of Maryland's UMD-LinkUp AI Maps.
Why it matters: Local leaders want Denver to become a magnet for AI companies. The city hosted the nation's first major city-led AI summit last fall in a push to plant a flag in the new frontier.
The bottom line: Amid lots of consternation about the emerging technology taking people's jobs, a growing number of workers are landing new roles working with it.
4. Mile Highlights: Judge blocks Vizguerra deportation
⚖️ A federal judge in Colorado ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement not to deport prominent local immigrant rights activist Jeanette Vizguerra. (Axios Denver)
📣 A rally on Friday at Civic Center Park in Denver featuring U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez drew more than 34,000 people, making it the largest crowd of Sanders' career, he said. (CPR)
🔎 Denver Mayor Mike Johnston faces scrutiny from open records advocates after records show he and his top appointees used an end-to-end encryption app to communicate about the city's migrant crisis. (CBS4)
🍺 Aviation-themed brewery FlyteCo says it will close its original location in north Denver to focus on its newer site at the former Stapleton International Airport control tower. (Denver Post 🔑)
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5. 🤩 Meet the face of Axios Boulder
We're thrilled to announce Mitchell Byars will lead the new Axios Boulder newsletter!
Why it matters: Mitchell knows Boulder better than most. His expertise will be instrumental in getting readers smarter, faster on the news shaping locals' lives.
Zoom in: Mitchell was born and raised in South Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii.
- He went to the University of Colorado Boulder and graduated in 2011 with a degree in journalism.
- After graduating, he went to work for the Boulder Daily Camera, where he covered the city for almost 15 years in various roles.
🚀 What's next: The Axios Boulder newsletter launches soon.
- Sign up here and tell your friends to subscribe!
Got a story idea for Mitchell? Hit reply or email us at [email protected].
Our picks:
🥢 Alayna is trying Wok Spicy after seeing it named one of Westword's top 10 new restaurants in 2024.
👟 Esteban is reading about this sneaker loafer trend (and he admits he kinda likes the Vans' options).
❤️🩹 John is on medical leave.
Editor's note: A photo caption at the top of a story in Friday's newsletter was corrected to accurately identify chef Alex Seidel.
Thanks to our editor Gigi Sukin.
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