I’ve been busier than expected this past week, plus I wanted to give it a few days for the experience to sink in, but I’m finally ready to share a few of my observations about how Downtown Denver held up during the Democratic National Convention.

I agree with what I believe is the overwhelming majority opinion that Denver really nailed it on hosting the DNC. Despite the slow fundraising and some late logistical worries, the whole thing seemed to come off without a hitch. There were two broad areas in which things could have gone horribly wrong: widespread violence or destruction due to a terrorist act or out-of-control protester/police confrontations, or major logistical failures resulting in huge traffic jams, telecommunications breakdowns, etc. Neither happened to any serious degree. In fact, it seemed that the whole convention went smoother than perhaps any of us in Denver could have hoped. Even the weather cooperated, which, for those of us who live here know, is not at all an unusual situation, but we also know that any kind of freak weather could have easily occurred (blizzard in August anyone?). Add to all of that the fact that we got lucky and hosted a convention at which historic political events occured that will be remembered for generations, and I think we can conclude that the entire event was a huge success for our city. The repeated mention in all the print and electronic media of the word “Denver” about a million times in association with the week’s historic significance is PR virtually impossible to buy.

Wandering the streets of Downtown during the convention watching people, overhearing snippets of conversation by visitors, and talking to fellow Denverites who were doing the same, I think the tens of thousands of visitors to Denver were genuinely impressed with our city. Hopefully, some of those visitors will come back and invest in Denver in some form or another or, at least, return for a visit. Certainly, our successful hosting of the DNC represents another step forward in Denver’s emergence onto the world stage.

One very obvious observation was the appeal of the 16th Street Mall. It was like a river of humanity for most of the time and an exciting example of what Downtown’s main pedestrian corridor could look like every day if we continue to invest in Downtown. What was also just as obvious, however, was the lack of pedestrians on almost all of the other Downtown streets. Sure, there were some folks wandering along California, Welton, 14th, and a few other streets around the Convention Center or near a major hotel, and most of the LoDo streets usually had decent pedestrian traffic, but venture more than a block or so beyond 16th Street and in most cases you’d find yourself one of just a small handful of pedestrians. The reason why is clear: many of our blocks in Downtown don’t offer ground-floor uses to which pedestrians would want to travel. Through additional infill developments, retrofitting retail into the ground floor of some of our 1980s office tower lobbies, improving the physical qualities of the sidewalk and pedestrian amenities, and adding thousands of more residents Downtown, we will start to change that situation.

The DNC showed us exactly the strengths and weaknesses of Downtown Denver: the appeal of the Mall versus the lack of appeal to many of our other Downtown streets; the difficulties in crossing Broadway, Colfax, and Speer as pedestrians versus the ease of walking now from Downtown to the Highland district; the great sports, culture, and entertainment infrastructure we have in Downtown versus the spotty, fledgling retail scene; the remarkable diversity of transportation conveyances we saw being used during the convention versus Downtown’s streets which are still overwhelmingly oriented to accommodating the private automobile. The DNC experience for me clearly confirmed that the goals set forth in the Downtown Area Plan are exactly what we need to accomplish in order to spread throughout all of Downtown the many great qualities we currently find today only in certain places Downtown. I look forward to the day when dozens of our Downtown streets look like the 16th Street Mall did during the DNC (minus, perhaps, a bit of the craziness) on just a normal uneventful day.