Equity.
That's the main focus of Brad Revare's campaign and part of the reason he's decided to run for the District 8 City Council seat, which covers northeast Denver.
"I had the sense that the city wasn't working for a lot of people in District 8 and they felt like their voices weren't being heard," Revare said. "I think everybody, regardless of your background or your socioeconomic status, should have the opportunity to thrive. One of the most important pieces of work that's going to come with a new mayor and a new city council in 2023 is how do we advance equity so that so many different life outcomes are not dependent on your background or your zip code."
Revare is a Central Park resident who has served on the Central Park United Neighbors Board of Directors and the Impact East Colfax Steering Committee, an advisory committee put together by the Urban Land Conservancy and The Fax Partnership to help guide development and avoid gentrification on Colfax. Currently, he's a director at Colorado Succeeds, a non-profit coalition of business leaders that advocate for education improvements.
He also represents District 8 on the Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee through the mayor's office.
Revare said one of the most consistent issues he hears in the district is unsafe streets and congestion, so one of his campaign focuses is transportation equity, which he said comes in two-folds, making Denver streets more multi-modal and ensuring that all neighborhoods have access to the same modes of transportation.
On his first point, Revare said Denver streets are currently "designed to move cars not necessarily people." He said the creation of more sidewalks, rapid bus lanes and safer bike paths are essential in making Denver streets safer for people to walk, ride their bike or wait for the bus. On his second point, all neighborhoods should have sidewalks and connecting bike paths.
"If you're walking in Central Park, there's no gaps in the wide sidewalks that everyone can use," Revare said. "But if you go over to Park Hill, East Colfax and Montbello, you see things like elders...walking in the bike lane or moms pushing strollers on the street because there is no sidewalk. We need to make sure everybody has real options to get around. If they want to drive, that's great but you should also have real options if you'd like to walk, bike or take public transit."
Revare said another issue he's hearing about in his district is safety concerns. He said the city should expand the STAR program and continue to invest in "youth violence prevention activities." He added that building better relationships between police and residents is vital to lowering crime rates.
"Everybody deserves to feel safe in their neighborhood while also making sure we take a real community-oriented approach to public safety," Revare said.
Revare said his main campaign pillar is "equitable investment in the neighborhoods" of District 8. Revare said "equitable investment" means listening to residents, finding out what assets and resources they need and working to "make that a reality." He noted that for example, the East Colfax neighborhood doesn't have a cooling center. The nearest library is in Aurora and the nearest recreation center is in Montclair. He said adding simple things like that to the neighborhood is an equitable investment.
"Looking at different neighborhoods in District 8 and really across the city, it's apparent that it's unequal for everybody," Revare said. "Again, your zip code shouldn't affect different life outcomes."
The northeast Denver seat will be unoccupied come April 2023, as current Councilmember Chris Herndon terms out. Revare is currently running against Tyler Drum, Christian Steward, Leslie Twarogowski, Shontel Lewis and write-in Rita Lewis.
Revare said with the change in leadership in the mayoral office and possibly across council, he wants to pursue "a reset."
"I want to bring that new mayor and those new department heads to District 8 to have a real conversation around what's working," Revare said. "For things that are not, let's have an honest conversation and talk about what we can do over the next four years to address those issues. It's really important that people, especially when we have new leadership, feel heard and they're being visited and talked to. One of my most immediate hopes is to convene that and make sure people in District 8 feel like they are being heard by the new leadership in the city."
Editor's note: This story has been updated with the finalized candidate list that will appear on the 2023 municipal election ballot.
