Denver City Council District 9 runoff: Albus Brooks and Candi CdeBaca

2 min. read
Albus Brooks and Candi CdeBaca. (Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite)

What's in the district: Five Points, Lower Downtown, Globeville, Elyria, Swansea, Whittier, River North, Auraria, Cole, Clayton, City Park, and City Park West.

Who's still in it: Incumbent Albus Brooks and Candi CdeBaca.

  • Brooks is running for his third and final term. The self-described urbanist sponsored a bill that gave developers extra height in exchange for affordable housing and helped establish the city's first affordable housing fund. He's seen the construction of more than 5,200 attainable homes in District 9, according to the Office of Economic Development. That figure does not account for the number of affordable homes lost to higher property values and redevelopment, however. The councilman says displacement from gentrification in his district is a result of a long-entrenched systemic failure, not a direct result of his governance.
  • CdeBaca is a fixture in District 9 because she's lived in Swansea most of her life. She led the fight against CDOT's I-70 expansion and runs Project Voyce, an organization dedicated to engaging kids in civic life. Her top issues are housing and wages, traffic and pollution, and accountability and transparency. She couples those things together because you can't have one without the other, she said in an interview. The first-time candidate is a vocal critic of Brooks, who she says short-sells neighborhoods when it comes development. For example, she says Brooks' building height incentive is a bad deal for Denverites.

These are the area's biggest concerns: Homelessness, gentrification and displacement are big topics, as well as development in general.

These were the results on May 7: This race was the closest of any City Council race that night. CdeBaca earned 43.06 percent of the vote compared to Brooks' 44.75.

How former opponents feel: One-time challengers David Oletski and Jonathan Woodley both endorsed Brooks.

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