Denver, CO
Sun Valley is in desperate need of a park. Residents are hoping the bond accelerates construction
Longtime Sun Valley advocate Jeanne Granville stands by the future site of Sun Valley Riverfront Park. July 2, 2025.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
After years of redevelopment, displaced Sun Valley residents are returning to public housing.
The $450 million redevelopment of Denver’s poorest neighborhood was, in many cases, painful. Longtime residents were displaced from their brick homes as the city set about building a mixed-income community. The city also razed old parks to make room for the developments.
Numan Mahamed was among those residents and was relocated out of the neighborhood about a decade ago, when he was 9. Now, he’s 19 years old and living in one of the newly opened housing developments. But he’s not returning to the same Sun Valley.
“There was probably about four or five parks in Sun Valley back then, and that’s where most of my fondest memories growing up happened,” Mahamed said. “There’s probably one or two new parks in the new apartments, but it’s just not the same as before.”
Longtime and returning residents say a new, proper park is badly needed to enhance livability in Sun Valley. However, while towering public housing has been opened, development on a planned riverfront park has slowed. But significant money from the upcoming bond package could boost the project again.
There aren’t a lot of proper outdoor places Sun Valley residents can go.
Within Sun Valley’s borders, Denver Parks and Recreation lists Rude Park and Weir Gulch Marina Park as city-managed parks. But many say they don’t count those as amenity-heavy city parks, like Cheesman Park or Barnum Park.
“There’s like a picnic table,” said Jeanne Granville, president of the Sun Valley Community Coalition. “There’s really nothing there.”
Residents found some relief in Fairview Elementary School for a bit. But shortly after people started moving back, Denver Public Schools shuttered the campus and fences went up, making it harder to access its grass field and playground.
Some of the new developments have small playgrounds, but Granville doesn’t consider those a “real park area.”
In 2019, Parks and Rec identified Sun Valley — and much of southwest Denver — as a neighborhood with a high need for a park.
There are plans for an 11-acre regional park next to the Platte.
In the near future, Sun Valley residents hope to see the vision of a riverfront park stretching from 6th Avenue to 20th Avenue come to fruition.
Plans for the park — which is going by Sun Valley Riverfront Park for now — go back as far as 2017. That’s when the Elevate Denver bond package included $2 million to design the park. Documents from the time projected a 2024 project completion date.
However, it’s now 2025, and the park is still just a dirt lot. The pathway towards building the park has hit numerous speed bumps. Namely, the area had to be cleaned up from decades of use as Xcel’s Zuni Generating Station, which processed coal, natural gas and steam energy.
Granville also said the design went through several iterations before the larger community signed off on it.
In a Denver Housing Authority presentation to Denver City Council last month, designs for Phase I of the park showed a playground, a splash pad, an event plaza and gardens featuring plants native to Colorado. Only about half of the final park will be constructed during this phase.
Riverfront Park may get more money to kick off the final leg of construction.
The project has been identified as a high-priority development in the upcoming 2025 Vibrant Denver bond package. Granville said the neighborhood has requested $20 million of the $800 million package to be devoted to completing the park’s Phase II construction — which will focus on “play fields” for the remaining six acres of land, according to the DHA presentation.
While the final list of projects hasn’t been announced by the city, locals are hopeful it will be included.
“What we’re just hoping is we have been planning and in development for so long that it would just be great if we could really start to have a sense of completion,” Granville said.
Melanie Thibodeau, the Director of Development for the Sun Valley Youth Center, is itching to get green space in the neighborhood. She said the kids who go to the youth center would greatly benefit from having a large playground or a field for youth leagues to play on.
While she’s hopeful the park will be funded by the bond, Thibodeau said she’s not going to let up on drumming up support until she sees it on her November ballot.
“I think with all things that are [receiving] public-based funding, if you look away for a second, you just need to stay with it,” she said.
The Denver Housing Authority’s presentation said Phase I construction will be completed by the end of 2026.
Denver, CO
Denver bans federal law enforcement officers from covering their faces, DHS says it won’t comply
Denver city leaders unanimously passed a ban on all officers, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, from wearing face coverings while detaining or arresting people. That law also requires officers to wear visible identification.
It’s the second sweeping ordinance against federal officers in Denver in just a few days. Last Thursday, Mayor Mike Johnston signed an executive order banning federal immigration agents from operating on city property without a judicial warrant.
It also directs Denver police, deputies and fire personnel to investigate reports of violence and criminal behavior.
The Department of Homeland Security responded calling the executive order “legally illiterate,” adding, “no local official has the authority to bar ICE from carrying out federal law on public property … and while Mayor Johnston continues to release pedophiles, rapists, gang members, and murderers onto their streets, our brave law enforcement will continue to risk their lives to arrest these heinous criminals.”
DHS didn’t mince words when responding to Denver’s new face coverings ban either, saying in part, “To be crystal clear: we will not abide by a city council’s unconstitutional ban. Our officers wear masks to protect themselves from being doxxed and targeted by known and suspected terrorist sympathizers. Not only is ICE law enforcement facing a more than 1,300 percent increase in assaults against them, but we’ve also seen thugs launch websites to reveal officers’ identity.”
On the other hand, the Denver City Council didn’t mince words when it approved the ban.
“It’s very disturbing to me, as an American, to see masked agents on the street,” said Councilman Kevin Flynn who represents District 2. “I don’t know what the best way is to enforce our immigration laws, but I think I know the worst way when I see it.”
“I said all along, this was a slam dunk,” added Councilman Darrell Watson of District 9.
Last month, a federal judge struck down a California law prohibiting federal agents from wearing masks. But, the city council says it made sure its ordinance is enforceable.
You have to treat all law enforcement the same,” said City Council President Amanda Sandoval. “So, our sheriffs can’t have masks. Our State Patrol can’t have masks. And federally you can’t have masks. And we delineate that within the ordinance which, that’s where California got the issue.”
Sandoval said she was monitoring the legal process and comparing the two ordinances to ensure they would be good to go.
Although the city council believes the ordinance is constitutional, the Denver Police Department says it’s still working to determine what implementation could look like, and provided this statement to CBS Colorado:
“Our Safety departments are working with the City Attorney and bill sponsors to determine what implementation could look like. Of utmost importance is discretion and prioritizing de-escalation when encountering these situations. Our goal is to apply this ordinance in a way that builds trust and transparency without putting officers, deputies, or the public at risk.”
Coupled with the city’s new executive order, Sandoval believes Denver now has the necessary guidelines in place.
“A map for residents to understand predictability, and that’s what I always want, is what can the residents be able to rely on.”
There are exemptions in place for the ban, for example: during an active undercover operation, when gear is required for physical safety, and for personnel performing SWAT duties.
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DENVER — More than 24 hours after the United States and Israel attacked Iran, Coloradans are continuing to express their feelings about what the attack means not only for the world, but here in our state.
For the second straight day, Coloradans expressed their opinions on the steps of the state Capitol about the attack by the US and Israel on Iran.
But instead of anger, as was the case on Saturday, the tone on Sunday was more cheerful.
“Today it’s a celebration about like getting our freedom back, and we would love to have people to be happy with us,” said Forzun Yalme, who helped organize the event with Free Iran Colorado.
For some Iranian-Americans, the news of the attack brings a new sense of hope that freedom is near.
“For me to be Iranian-American, in 47 years here, I learned about democracy and human rights and what I like,” detailed Amir Tosh, another member of Free Iran Colorado. “I want to transfer what your values are for democracy, human rights, freedom to my country, my motherland.”
Denver rally shows divided feelings over U.S.-Israel action against Iran
“My uncle and grandma, grandparents, they were all so happy about what happened, because we can, like, now feel the freedom,” explained Yalme.
But some Iranian-Americans are more cautious.
Colorado’s only Iranian-American state representative, Yara Zokaie, doubts the operation will have a significant impact to Iran’s leadership.
“I’m sympathetic to people who want regime change by any means necessary, but I think we also need to stop and realize what this actually means,” said Zokaie. “Regime change is not something that can happen in one airstrike.”
Zokaie admits she herself was elated to hear Iran’s supreme leader and other top officials were killed in the attack.
But she hopes Coloradans remember the innocent people who have already been killed and those who are more likely to come.
“I ask that we remember the humanity of people in the Middle East as this news unfolds. I ask that we call for a peaceful resolution that we empower Iranian people who will bring change from within, and that we call for no war with Iran,” said Zokaie.
Several people at today’s event at the Capitol approached our Denver7 team. They shared their gratitude for President Donald Trump, the US military, and the Israelis for their action in helping bring freedom to Iran.
They hope others will see that as well. They plan on being here for the next hour and a half or so.
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