The following mayor of Denver faces a spread of urgent challenges, together with homelessness, housing affordability, and public security, that each one must be tackled. But, if we tackle these points alone with out a systemic method to creating town extra equitable and local weather resilient, we are going to doubtless discover ourselves in the same spot to the place we at the moment are.
Underlying many of those social and financial points are longstanding environmental challenges and injustices that threaten to make Denver considerably much less liveable and put on away on the economic system of the area.
Over the past 10 years, the Metropolis and County of Denver has convened a whole bunch of specialists and neighborhood members who’ve developed sturdy plans to attain dozens of formidable but affordable objectives that may tackle these environmental points, whereas additionally making our metropolis safer and more healthy, each bodily and economically. These suggestions and plans present a robust roadmap for a extra equitable and resilient metropolis.
Nevertheless, to implement them we’d like considerably larger monetary funding and political management from the Metropolis.
Along with 30-plus associate organizations, we’ve got created the “Platform for a Thriving, and Local weather-Resilient Denver” — a collection of baseline objectives, commitments, and rules we imagine all candidates ought to assist and implement. This platform is based on objectives of fairness and therapeutic, and the statements have been vetted and accepted by our metropolis’s foremost specialists on every subject.
Plans like these developed by means of the Denveright course of, suggestions from the Metropolis’s Local weather Motion Job Power, and objectives like decreasing greenhouse fuel emissions 65% by 2030 and 100% by 2040 are laudatory, however want actual and sustained dedication from the Metropolis.
Practically all the methods tackle a number of points without delay – delivering larger return on funding for all residents of Denver. Listed here are three examples:
Water
We should tackle water demand and water loss head-on and prioritize alternatives to make use of and honor our water sources in smarter, extra ecologically-balanced methods. The following administration should ship on the Waterway Resiliency Program by committing and delivering a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of {dollars} to match the $350 million federal funding to assist flood safety and the well being of the South Platte River and key tributaries.
We should additionally cut back water loss from water supply infrastructure and water demand generated by Metropolis-managed properties. This contains working with water suppliers and different companions to decrease water demand throughout town and taking steps comparable to lowering irrigation of and changing non-essential turf grass.
In recent times, town has made nice strides in constructing infrastructure that manages stormwater flooding and protects the well being of our waterways through the use of pure methods to carry and clear polluted water. These are large steps in the proper path, however we’d like the following administration to proceed to prioritize our water and waterways, and put money into pure options that may make our metropolis extra resilient to local weather change and a greater place for all to stay.
Timber
City bushes present numerous advantages to individuals and nature together with cooling streets and sidewalks by greater than 15 levels, enhancing air high quality, making our industrial areas extra economically viable, and benefiting human bodily and psychological well being. In accordance with a current examine that analyzed climates much like Denver, each $1 invested in city bushes returned someplace between $1.37 to $3.09 in worth.
However many neighborhoods in Denver nonetheless have only a few bushes – one-seventh the quantity than in close by, usually wealthier areas – and lots of of these bushes are struggling and unhealthy. We have to lastly tackle this subject and achieve this in a fashion that mixes neighborhood enter with plans and funding for each neighborhood that may collectively make our metropolis more healthy and extra resilient.
Transit
We have to construct extra transit-oriented growth that may tackle myriad environmental challenges and make our metropolis extra accessible and reasonably priced for all. By constructing denser communities that prioritize reasonably priced housing and complement multi-modal transportation, we will enhance entry and connection to colleges, employment, parks and pure areas, and different very important companies whereas minimizing gentrification and displacement. As a part of this funding, we are going to cut back the greenhouse gasses we produce, cut back water demand, and mitigate the impacts of elevated warmth.
The residents of Denver perceive and have made it clear that addressing local weather resilience is a precedence. Over the previous few years, Denverites have overwhelmingly supported poll initiatives that prioritize funding in local weather motion, parks and open areas, and environmental justice, and can be in search of a mayor with the identical aspirations. That’s why we’re urging whomever wins in June to commit to creating the sensible and daring selections required for Denver to turn into the thriving, wholesome, and climate-resilient metropolis we’re poised to be.
Jolon Clark, of Denver, is a member of the Denver Metropolis Council.
