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When Westword released the 2026 Best of Denver, one award caused a bit of a stir online: We named 16th Street as the Best Place to Take a Kid in Denver. In comments, concerned parents called 16th Street “dangerous” and suggested our recommendation that children go there was “malicious.”
And Daron in Littleton asked: “The city would have to pay me to take my kids to 16th Street. This has to be a joke, right?”
So, for the first edition of our Weekly WTF series, we looked into the safety of 16th Street.
Is 16th Street Unsafe?
The reputation of 16th Street took a major hit in recent years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, foot traffic plummeted, businesses shuttered and crime surged both in Denver and nationwide. Then, construction for 16th Street Mall’s renovation project started in 2022, clogging the corridor with fences and deterring visitors when the street still hadn’t recovered from the pandemic fallout. The situation came to a head in January 2025, when a knife-wielding assailant stabbed four people along the mall, killing two.
For many, 16th Street had become a no-go zone. But as anyone who has visited 16th Street since it reopened last fall can tell you, things have changed.
By many crime metrics, Denver is safer than it’s been in years.
Crime rates are way down citywide. In 2025, Denver experienced the largest year-over-year drop in homicides of any major city in the United States, according to the Council on Criminal Justice. Denver recorded 37 homicides last year, which is the lowest number since 2014 and the second-lowest number since 2000. Factoring in population growth, 2025 had the second-lowest homicide rate since 1990, according to the city.
Crime has been trending down for a while, and it’s not just homicides. Citywide reports of both violent crime and property crime have fallen every year since 2022, according to Denver Police Department data. Last year, the number of victims of non-fatal shootings was the lowest it has been since Denver police started keeping track in 2018.
In Police District 6, which encompasses 16th Street, violent crime and property crime rose slightly from 2024 to 2025, but both were still down compared to 2021, 2022 and 2023. The district’s property crime dropped nearly 28 percent from 2022 to 2025, according to DPD data. The district’s violent crime fell 2 percent from 2021 to 2025.
The 16th Street area’s crime rates are continuing to decrease this year. In the district, violent crime is down over 15 percent and property crime is down 0.6 percent compared to this time in 2025.
City leaders have also increased police presence downtown. Mayor Mike Johnston launched a Downtown Safety Action Plan last April, which created a ten-officer unit dedicated to patrolling 16th Street, Union Station and the Colorado Convention Center area on foot, bikes and motorcycles. Since the patrols started, police have increased downtown response rates by 64 percent for drug use and 167 percent for shoplifting, CBS reported. The Denver Downtown Development Authority board recently approved funding to continue the patrols through 2027.
Beyond crime, 16th Street finally completed its three-year construction in October, so the blocks of fences are now gone. In addition, unsheltered homelessness has decreased by 45 percent citywide since 2023, virtually eliminating the presence of tents in and around 16th Street.
All of these factors have revitalized 16th Street and downtown as a whole. By the end of 2025, downtown pedestrian activity had reached 99 percent of the pre-COVID levels seen at the end of 2019, according to the Downtown Denver Partnership.
Why Did 16th Street Win a Best of Denver?
Best of Denver editorial picks are determined by Westword’s editors and writers. But the Best Place to Take a Kid in Denver award was unique in that it was chosen by a non-staff member: my six-year-old niece, Olive.
Last summer, Olive visited Colorado from her home in rural Massachusetts. My family took her to pretty much every age-appropriate attraction in the metro area, including a zoo, aquarium, circus, trampoline park, farm, children’s museum, baseball game, arcade, and even Meow Wolf and Casa Bonita. You name it, she tried it.
At the end of her three-week visit, when asked to rank each activity, Olive’s favorite destination in the city was 16th Street. We had spent an entire day enjoying the street’s newly installed mini play structures and touch-screen video games. Since I live downtown, we also walked and rode pedicabs down 16th on a near-daily basis while heading to restaurants and the movie theater.
Downtown was a highlight of Olive’s visit and convinced her, in her own words, that “cities are better than towns.” If a small-town kindergartener is brave enough to give the new 16th Street a chance, maybe you can, too.
Do you have a question you want Westword to answer? Submit it here and we may respond in our next Weekly WTF column.
