A team of 18 unarmed ambassadors is starting all-day patrols of the neighborhood around Coors Field today.
It’s part of an effort by a new community group to deter crime, offer services and clean up an area where baseball stadium crowds and thousands of residents mingle among many of the city's homeless facilities.
The ambassadors will patrol dozens of blocks near the stadium from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week. The project is funded by the Ballpark District, a community organization that recently activated a seven-figure budget for services like this.
“The focus is … crime prevention and trying to stay on top of the issues down here,” said Jamie Giellis, who works with Ballpark and other communities around the country as they organize and fund neighborhood services.
The new program is drawing concern from some advocates, who fear the “ambassadors” could act more like private security, putting pressure on homeless people to move along. But Giellis and the organizers say their focus is on helping out people from all walks.
All the new Ballpark ambassadors will be trained in hospitality, and none will have firearms.
If people are lost, the ambassadors will help them find their way, and even escort them if they feel unsafe. In rain storms, they will offer umbrellas. When people want a brew or a slice, the ambassadors will tell them where to go.
The team also includes several groups of specialists:
- Security ambassadors will try to deter crime and de-escalate tensions — like by helping drunk Rockies fans minimize their drama or assisting people having mental health crises.
- Outreach workers will try to build relationships with unhoused people in the neighborhood and coordinate with service providers, the organizers said.
- Others will clean up trash and graffiti
The ambassadors will track what they do, and where, and share that information with the city. Local police, health and housing officials are working with the organizers on the project.
The Ballpark District — a slice of Five Points near Coors field — created a General Improvement District in November.
The new organization, funded by a fee on property owners and private money, was meant to address all the issues the city wasn’t working on fast enough for the 3,200 residents and the property owners’ taste.
Property owners in the Ballpark District pay a fee into the GID’s budget each year based on the value of their properties.
In the first year, the GID estimates it will collect $1.3 million. About $1 million of that will pay for the ambassador program. The group also will get $100,000 per year from the Colorado Rockies and additional money from businesses and social service providers.
All that funding will go to “safety and security, homeless outreach and engagement services, cleaning and maintenance, beautification and investments in the public realm and building and branding the identity of the neighborhood,” according to the organization
This is one of several GIDs, quasi-governmental organizations, that have popped up around Denver to take matters into their own hands and fund additional local services.
No other Denver GID has offered this sort of ambassador program. But others nationwide, including in Boulder, have done so.
The district is anchored by Coors Field in the northwest. Most of the district is bordered by 20th Street, Welton Street and Park Avenue, with another segment extending northeast from the stadium to about Broadway.
Homeless advocates respond.
Cathy Alderman, a spokesperson for the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, said her organization had early talks with the GID and supported the group’s shared goal to keep the neighborhood safe and clean.
She’s grateful the GID is collaborating with nonprofits like hers.
But other private street outreach teams have had mixed results over the years, she said.
“I appreciate them saying that it’s going to be more about connecting people with services than enforcement,” she said. “But sometimes we see these private outreach teams turn into more enforcement over time. I just want to caution against that happening.
Amy Beck, a community activist, had a less optimistic view of the program.
“It's a dangerous slope that Denver is going down when it tries to just have citizens enforce on other citizens,” she said. “I think it's a huge liability for the city and frankly, I don’t support it.”
The neighborhood organizers insist their program is about support, not enforcement.
But instead of trying to manage the effects of homelessness, Beck added, it would be better if the city prevented it in the first place.
