“Downtown Is Not Some Regional Amusement Park”

Although Denver boosters are working hard to bring back downtown, they’ve “done nothing to promote the kind of big-picture magnets necessary to create a fun, safe environment necessary to attract the millions of new visitors, employers and residents that downtown needs to thrive again,” says Ryan Ross, founder of New Downtown Denver.

“Here’s an idea that would boost all of downtown,” he suggests in an opinion piece we published last weekend. “Build an automatic network of elevated gondolas connecting all of downtown with on-demand, customizable cabins whisking visitors, residents and workers to every significant downtown attraction at up to 35 mph, either on the ground or in the air (across major streets, I-25 and the South Platte River). Raise millions from fares, sponsorships and advertising, and use some of that money to install a new battery of surveillance cameras and hire security staffers to monitor the video in real-time and alert guards in the streets of potential trouble before it becomes real trouble.  Build community by offering half-price rides to Medicaid recipients, seniors, kids and the handicapped.”

In their responses to the piece posted on the Westword Facebook page, readers offer both compliments and criticism of the idea. Says John:

Exciting big vision idea! Alas, in the context of a city unable to run a train to its airport in any reliable, comfortable, profitable way. Any existing city agency would grind even a no-cost, ground-breaking concept such as gondolas into a years-delayed taxpayer nightmare, I am sorry to say. But …go for it: maybe once this cowtown could hit a home run in transit, if we survive the Colfax bus debacle…etc.

Responds Brian:

I don’t know; it seems like this is the next big fleece. Earmark money for projects that will never get done, and then spend unaccounted-for billions.
It sounds a lot like California. How about we say no to these pet projects until our elected officials can balance a budget?

Adds Niccolo:

Please, think more pragmatically than some new PPP. Downtown is not some regional amusement park.

Offers Joe:

Certainly merits a study, sounds great — but also a massive investment and infrastructure project. Having it financed by private investors sounds great as long as it’s a fair payout and not a handout. Should start with stadium lines, excluding Mile High since it’s moving, and lines to light rail and Colfax BRT.

Wonders Timmy:

So if gondolas, can we convert the bike /scooter lanes back to cars?

Dorota replies:

That’s not a bad idea… since the gondolas would allow people to move across downtown without getting much in the way of traffic.

Comments Neil:

So, spend billions on a gondola system that would likely take decades to complete, and install surveillance all over the place and have big brother watching and security goons roaming the streets? Sounds great!

Counters Randal:

They should have built a gondola along the Colfax corridor and on 16th Street Mall many years ago. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to fix the problems that are happening in Denver.

Responds Belteshazzar:

If there’s money for something this stupid, there’s enough money to pay for social services and libraries and expanded rec center hours.

And Sage concludes:

This might be the single stupidest thing I’ve read in Westword. This article was a thinly veiled advertisement for New Downtown Denver and Boring Co. I sincerely hope Westword was paid generously for this waste of your platform.

And here we’re all talking about it again! Westword frequently publishes opinion pieces on westword.com, sharing commentary on local issues ranging from Jena Griswold to gondolas to the Axon Enterprises contract (and that was just last week). No, we don’t charge: Westword.com is a place for a free exchange of ideas. Have a piece you’d like to submit? Send it to editorial@westword.com, where you can also comment on the gondola idea.

And in the meantime: New Downtown Denver will host a presentation on its gondola concept at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 7, at the old Denver Post building on the edge of Civic Center.