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For a winning night in Denver, you couldn’t do much better than dinner at Tamayo in Larimer Square, followed by great seats at Ball Arena where the Colorado Avalanche trounce the Minnesota Wild, and then on to a nightcap of karaoke at Charlie Brown’s.
That’s what Denver boosters treated the Democratic National Committee’s convention-site scouting crew to on Tuesday night, and the snow falling throughout the evening didn’t put a damper on the festivities.
The snow wasn’t the only backdrop. Memories of the 2008 Democratic National Convention — in Denver exactly 100 years after the Dems had held their last nominating convention in town — were thicker than the flakes on the ground. That was the year Barack Obama accepted the nomination for president, an event so groundbreaking that the location for the speech was moved from what was then the Pepsi Center to Mile High Stadium, a shift that added tens of thousands of seats and another $10 million to the cost of hosting the convention.
But it paid off. Denver made the most of its time in the spotlight, and it took a long time for the glow to fade.
Writers who covered the event for Westword divide modern Denver history by BC (before Convention) — and AD (after Dems). Before, when Denver was one of the country’s worst-kept secrets, a place where millennials flocked without any social media lures, an oasis in the Great American desert filled with the creative class. And After, when the secret was definitely out…and Denver had to fight to protect its reputation as the cost of living here ballooned and naysayers took pleasure in bursting the city’s bubble.
Now Denver is one of five finalists to host the 2028 convention, and the only one in the West; also in the mix are Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia and Atlanta. “Boston is history. Philadelphia is played-out. Denver is nostalgia. Atlanta is now,” says the mayor of that city (where we can guarantee it will not be snowing in the summer of 2028. Maybe 100 in both degrees and humidity, but not snowing).
After their night on the town, the team led by DNC chair Ken Martin (a Minnesotan, he didn’t blink at the blizzard, although the Avs game might have made him look twice) and assorted Colorado officials held a press conference at the facility now known as Ball Arena, which would be a major player in the 2028 convention (and would adjust its renovation plans accordingly).
Mayor Mike Johnston — who, as an award-winning principal at Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts, hosted Obama during a 2008 visit to the Thornton school — emceed the event, hyping the city’s “walkable convention village,” with everything within a fifteen-minute walk after you disembark from the train from Denver’s international airport (200 direct flights a day), from the upgraded convention center to Ball Arena to 13,000 hotel rooms. Everything except Red Rocks, where the visitors were supposed to catch a show before the snow fell — but is now slated to host an opening-night concert.
If the Dems decide on Denver.
During the presentation, speakers referred frequently to Denver’s entrepreneurial spirit, the state’s ability to get along, the bright future of the West. But memories of the past were a common refrain, too, recalling 2008 as a time of hope and change. And a big win.
“It’s bigger than a convention,” Johnston promised as he touted the city. “It’s a message to the country. Change drives hope. Hope inspires change.”
The DNC crew is still in town today, when the sun is shining and the city looks pretty good even without the added nostalgic glow.
Come early 2027, when the DNC announces its selection, Atlanta could be singing a different tune.
Where would you take the DNC scouting team? Send your suggestions to editorial@westword.com.
