denver mayor announces push for housing and transportation projects

Submitting an historically large fiscal year budget of nearly $1.5 billion, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock has said that he wants his city to focus more on housing and recreational initiatives.
Hancock, who was first elected as mayor of the twelfth largest city in the West in 2011, said he also wants to invest up to $118 million on new multi-modal transportation projects throughout Denver.
Those transportation projects include the designing and construction of up to 125 new miles of bikeways in the next five years, along with $1.5 million for the installation of crosswalk technology at particularly busy intersections in the city.
The budget, which the Mayor has now submitted to the Denver City Council, additionally calls for around $97 million to go for the construction of new affordable housing, a longtime Hancock priority.
An additional initiative proposed by Hancock would see the upgrading of the Salvation Army Crossroads Center at 1901 29th Street.
Last month, the City of Denver purchased that one-story former warehouse building for $2.5 million with the idea of providing shelter for more than four hundred homeless men per night.
In his budget message to the city council, Hancock said, “Protecting and improving the affordability of our homes is the guiding principle that informs and shapes all our work and policies.”
The Mayor added that delegating $71 million for a recently-created Department of Housing Stability will help to “establish housing stability as a core service of our city government, just like police, fire, paving, and planning.”
Members of the city council are expected to dissect the Mayor’s latest budget later this month, with a final vote expected to be taken in November.

By Garry Boulard

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