A Ghost of a Chance

Ghosts were all over Civic Center at a spirited Dia de los Muertos celebration Saturday. And they didn’t leave after the vendors packed up: This park at the heart of Denver is haunted by history.

One of the newer ghouls is the memory of Governor Jared Polis’s $28 million Colorado150 Pedestrian Walkway, which was designed to link the west side of the Colorado State Capitol with Lincoln Veterans Memorial Park. At one point, Polis proposed having that slip-and-slide-like monstrosity descend all the way into Civic Center Park, but Denver put an end to that when city officials very quietly insisted they wanted no part of the bridge boondoggle. And then 94 percent of the Coloradans who participated in a hastily assembled July poll brought Polis’s proposal to a dead stop.

But in the process, our governor accomplished a remarkable feat: His bridge connected the vast majority of Colorado’s residents…who were united in their hatred of the thing.

There are far better ways to commemorate Colorado’s 150th birthday.

Unfortunately, Denver has its own $50 million plan for Civic Center, which will entail much of the park being closed in 2026 — when Colorado, the Centennial State, celebrates its 150th anniversary, even as the country marks its 250th. On Monday, Denver City Council got a look at a $40 million contract for construction services on “Civic Center Next 100, Phase 1,” which covers three distinct but connected areas of the park. “Scope of work to include historic restoration of the Greek Theater (improvements to the theater’s stage, seating, lighting, and audio-visual systems), landscape and hardscape improvements through the Central Promenade and the South Plaza, and a fully accessible route from the improved South Plaza entrance at 14th Ave. to the Voorhies Memorial at Colfax.”

In its first round of grant announcements, the Downtown Development Authority suggested giving $30 million of its estimated $570 million kitty to the Civic Center project, as well as $7 million for work on the McNichols Building at the edge of the park; at their October 20 council meeting, a majority of councilmembers approved expanding the DDA’s boundaries to allow for those grants.

Councilman Kevin Flynn voted against the proposal, as did two other councilmembers — Sarah Parady and Shontel Lewis — whose votes rarely align with his. “I think it turns that beautiful space into an amusement park, and it makes it, in my view, kind of useless for the big celebrations we’ve had there,” Flynn said.

He hadn’t changed his mind by the time the construction contract arrived. “Leave Civic Center Park alone. It’s too much. It’s breaking up the historic landmark pattern to put little stuff here and little stuff there,” Flynn says. “So, we’re going to drag it out like 16th Street?”

The party’s not over…yet

https://www.westword.com/news/denver-christkindlmarket-leaving-civic-center-because-of-park-upgrade-22892498/Not exactly, it turns out. If council approves the construction contract and the $30 million DDA grant, the Civic Center project will definitely proceed — but it won’t require that the entire park be closed for the duration, as was originally rumored. That rumor was enough to scare off the popular Christkindl Market, which has moved its 2025 event to the Auraria Campus. But other events, those “big celebrations” Flynn cited, might still be able to return. 

(The McNichols proposal, which would ready the old Carnegie Library for a restaurant and artists’ shop on the first floor and a museum on the second, is a separate ask, and that work could proceed even if the park proposal is rejected or put on hold.)

“Given the size and scale of the park, we will be able to activate certain areas while construction is underway,” says Stephanie Figueroa, spokesperson for Denver Parks & Recreation, which will oversee the project.

And the Civic Center Conservancy, which helps maintain and activate the area (and raises money for it, including some of what will be needed to complete the $50 million project), plans to keep hosting its own events there — Civic Center EATS, the Night Market, perhaps another Day of the Dead Festival, like the one that packed the place on Saturday. “As the park’s partners, we’re very excited to continue to activate Civic Center Park through the construction,” says Eric Lazzari, executive director of the foundation. “We’re working to accommodate groups.”

He can’t speak for those groups, independent entities that put on events like the 4/20 festival, Cinco de Mayo and other annual celebrations. But just knowing that parts of the park may stay open is giving people hope that at least some of the party can proceed.

If people are still in a mood to party, that is. Although the 16th Street project is finally done, the Bus Rapid Transit project could snarl Colfax for years, and there are other in-process projects all over town. People are tired of construction. After the COVID shutdown, they’d just become accustomed to coming back to Civic Center for big bashes…not traffic tangles.

But when I suggested to Mayor Mike Johnston (in last winter’s list of ten ways to help downtown, and again in person just a few weeks ago) that the Civic Center project be postponed — perhaps indefinitely — in order to save this budget-strapped city $50 million and a lot of headaches, he insisted that project is essential to making the park serve as a proper gateway to downtown.

Really? Civic Center has always served as the heart of this city’s celebrations, and visits downtown have been a happy byproduct of those events. Before catching a concert (and those are definitely off for 2026, since they require use of the Greek Theater slated to be turned around by construction), they might grab a bite on 16th Street; after downing nachos and a few Cinco beers in the park, they could sleep it off during a movie at the Pavilions. And after gathering before the City and County Building to cheer a sports championship, they’d continue the party in LoDo.

Think Colorado’s birthday celebration has a ghost of a chance of being a real party without Civic Center Park?

If you buy that, I have a $28 million bridge to sell you.

A version of this column appears in the October 30 issue of Westword…be sure to grab one, because the cover art will make a great Halloween mask!