DENVER — Monday felt like a spring day in Denver: 70 degrees and sunny.

Opening Day for the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field is still more than three weeks away, but Monday was opening day for about 18 new ambassadors that will patrol 40 blocks around the ballpark, from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week.

Last fall, businesses and residents in the Ballpark District decided to create a General Improvement District (GID) for the neighborhood. The Rockies and other organizations support the GID.

“They came together because they wanted to make a difference in their district,” said Luke McCarthy, operations manager for the Ballpark Ambassadors. “They wanted to see a change.”

Property owners pay a fee, which is based on property value, into the GID budget each year. During a press conference last week, representatives from the GID said that equates to $1.3 million for the 2025 budget, with the district anticipating that number to be closer to $2 million after outreach to other funding sources.

That funding will go toward the Ballpark Ambassadors, with the stated goals of safety and security, cleaning and maintenance, outreach and navigation for people experiencing homelessness, and overall hospitality.

“We’re the eyes and ears on the street for the emergency services,” McCarthy explained. “So we’re the first first responders before we can get the people the help they need.”

That includes people living on the street.

McCarthy said ambassadors train with “outreach specialists” with the Denver Police Department “on how to handle maybe an aggressive, unhoused situation.” He added that the ambassadors’ company, Block by Block, provides de-escalation training for speaking with the unhoused. Block by Block serves similar street outreach programs across the country.

“No one is armed, no one is to cause conflict or any confrontation on the street in public space,” said McCarthy. “We build profiles on these [unhoused] individuals to be able to see exactly what resources they need and get them long-term assistance to get off the street.”

The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless was part of the early conversations surrounding the GID. Cathy Alderman, chief communications and public policy officer for the coalition, said those conversations were “very productive,” despite the organization having some hesitations.

“Operating in the downtown Denver area, we’ve seen different attempts at privatizing security, and sometimes that does lead to harassment or, you know, an air of enforcement against people experiencing homelessness,” she explained. “We just wanted to make sure that if folks are, you know, approaching people that are living outside, or who are forced to wait outside until a shelter opens, that they’re doing it compassionately and with the goal of maybe resolving some of their issues, instead of just trying to get them to move out of sight.”

Alderman said like any program of this nature, there will likely be adjustments needed and “the devil’s in the details,” but she is optimistic that the program will make progress.

“Anytime you have a diverse group of business owners and a particular neighborhood that come together to create, you know, a better environment for everybody, that it sparks collaboration, and you start to get to know your neighbors better,” she said.

The General Improvement District is hiring an executive director, while the ambassadors program is also hiring.

“A lot of the ambassadors are your Denver locals,” McCarthy told Denver7. “They live around this neighborhood. They come and were born [and] raised here. They really want to see the improvements themselves. And it’s time they rolled up their sleeves and got to work.”

Six months after city officials fenced off part of La Alma-Lincoln Park because of drug use and violence, it’s getting a makeover.

The Denver City Council approved a two-year, $1.3 million contract Monday that will pay for architectural and engineering design for changes planned at the park, located southwest of downtown along Mariposa Street between west 13th and 11th avenues. It passed in a block vote.

The redesigned green space will include a new walking loop, expanded skate and playground areas, a new roller loop, a “rhythm skate plaza” and added picnic groves, according to city documents. The project will also relocate the basketball and tennis courts.

In a description of their planned services, Livable Cities Studio, the company that will design the project, said the park “holds many significant neighborhood memories for the community.”

“The conditions of the existing features at the park are severely deteriorated and the available programming is not meeting current recreational desires,” according to the document.

The planned redesign comes after the city solicited community feedback and created a vision plan for the 15-acre park in July 2023.

“This is good timing, I think, for this neighborhood and this community,” said Councilwoman Jamie Torres, who represents District 3, where the park is located. “It’s a really good opportunity for the community to reimagine what the park will look like for the future.”

Last August, the city closed parts of the park as officials attempted to curb rising drug sales, violence and vandalism in the area. Parkgoers and a nearby charter school complained about human waste, syringes and physical fights in the park.

The park was also closed for periods in 2021 and 2022 after several shootings, including a fatal one in which Gary Arellano, 63, was killed while trying to break up a fight in the park.

Last year, Torres said the influx of drug use was related to Mayor Mike Johnston’s All in Mile High homelessness initiative, which closed off portions of downtown known for homeless encampments.

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Originally Published: March 10, 2025 at 4:18 PM MDT

After weeks of anticipation followed by a six-hour hearing, Denver officials hope they can put Mayor Mike Johnston’s testimony before Congress behind them.

But it may not be that simple.

During Wednesday’s hearing about the immigrant-friendly policies enacted by Denver and three other cities, members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform threatened the mayors with criminal charges. President Donald Trump and other Republicans have also vowed to cut the cities off from millions of dollars in federal support.

The U.S. Department of Justice is already investigating both Chicago and New York City over their policies and Denver could be next.

“I don’t think this is the last you are going to hear from the Oversight Committee and other committees in Congress on this issue,” U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Windsor Republican and member of the committee, said in an interview with The Denver Post.

The city and outside legal experts say Denver’s policies are in line with federal law, so they believe there’s little chance criminal charges will be pursued. While Johnston hopes that defense will also protect the city from losing federal funding, officials are treading carefully as they dole out any federal dollars.

But the mayor acknowledges one thing for sure: There’s no real certainty as to what steps the president and Congress will take.

“We don’t have any more information on what comes next,” Johnston said. “I think we will keep going about our business running the city. If there are other questions … we will be responsive, but we don’t have any presumption of what the next steps are.”

A threat of criminal charges

During the hearing, several committee members said they wanted to pursue criminal charges against Johnston and the other mayors who appeared alongside him, from Boston, New York City and Chicago. Whether any cases are opened is ultimately a decision for the U.S. Department of Justice.

“I do not think you guys are bad people, but I do think you are ideologically misled,” said Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Florida, adding that she planned to “criminally refer” them to Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Luna accused Johnston of violating the federal harboring statute, which makes it a crime for anyone who “conceals, harbors or shields from detection, or attempts to conceal, harbor or shield from detection, such alien in any place, including any building or any means of transportation.”

She pointed to Denver’s policy of providing shelter to migrants who came to the city on buses beginning in late 2022 as being the basis for a possible charge against Johnston.

Legal experts say it seems unlikely such a case would hold.

“From what I observed, nobody was concealing, harboring or shielding folks from detection,” said Elizabeth Jordan, a visiting assistant professor at the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law who specializes in immigration law.

Jordan said she thinks the threats by members of Congress are less of an actionable plan for prosecution and more of a “deliberate strategy” to scare people like Johnston who are supportive of immigrants.

“This is all part of a big rhetorical strategy that they’ve got on the federal level,” she said.

Johnston is also bullish that the city’s ordinances don’t open the city up to legal action.

“We are not in violation of federal law,” Johnston said in an interview. “There are no grounds to pursue prosecutions of our city.”

Under a 2017 ordinance, the city won’t ask anyone about their immigration status or help federal agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But Johnston said Denver still work with ICE when it comes to violent criminals.

Colorado lawmakers have also passed laws that block some cooperation with ICE, including stopping jails from holding inmates solely at the request of federal authorities. Like in many counties, though, the Denver Sheriff Department will notify ICE when it is about to release someone who federal agents want to detain.

Possible loss of federal funding

The committee could also follow through on threats to divert federal funds away from Denver over the city’s policies. About $150 million of Denver’s $4.4 billion budget for 2025 is federal money.

While the possibility wasn’t a major talking point from Republicans during the hearing, Trump and others have mentioned the option several times.

Rep. James Comer, R-Kentucky, the chair of the committee, opened the hearing by saying Trump’s administration is already taking action against “sanctuary cities.”

“Congress must follow by not allowing a single penny of federal funding to go to cities and states that prioritize criminal aliens over the American people,” he said.

A day after Johnston appeared in D.C., the U.S. Small Business Administration announced it would pull regional offices from Denver and five other larger “sanctuary cities” over their policies.

In an interview after the hearing, Johnston reiterated that he doesn’t think there is any standing for Congress to take away the city’s funding, but said if that did happen, it would have a “profound impact” on the city’s services.

“In every single department, we have dollars at risk,” he said. “Going forward we’re having to be very cautious.”

If Republicans do try to divert federal funds away from Denver, a legal battle could ensue.

“If the Trump Administration moves forward with their threats, we will explore all options, including legal action, to protect the funding Denverites deserve,” said Jordan Fuja, spokeswoman for the mayor.

The last time Trump was in office, he also took on sanctuary city policies. Those efforts were largely stalled by the courts, with the U.S. Supreme Court deciding not to take up at least one of the cases against California. That decision allowed a lower court’s ruling, which upheld the law, to stand.

Boebert said if Denver’s policies remain in place, she would advocate for federal support to be moved to other parts of the state.

Committee members will have time to prepare and direct more questions to the mayors who appeared for possible further investigation.

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