The Denverite crew set out camping chairs and a banner on 16th Street last weekend, hoping to grade the success of the city’s $175 million reboot of the pedestrian mall.
We had a great time — and talked to plenty of you Denverite readers, along with lots of other Denver old-timers, transplants and visitors.
Here’s what we heard and saw as thousands of people visited the newly (mostly) reopened mall for the 16th Street Summer Kickoff.
Back, and it feels mostly pretty good
We met lots of long-time Denver residents, some of whom hadn’t visited the mall in years.
Like other children of the ‘80s and ‘90s, Brian Goffinski remembered the mall as a place you could spend a whole day. But concerns about violence, a rise in homelessness and years of construction had driven him away.
“Just before they started to revamp this, it got so bad down here. I wouldn't come down here on the weekend evening,” said Goffinski, visiting with LeElla Cabral.
Nancy Batty, a Denver resident of 30 years, has been mourning the old mall.
“It used to be a place that I could come with my friends to enjoy shopping and all kinds of entertainment, all of which is gone now,” she said. “It’s been really sad to feel it fall.”
Many visitors on Saturday had heard about the reopening through local news and decided to give it a chance. That’s exactly what the mayor and downtown boosters were hoping for — to get people back in the habit of visiting 16th Street.
The crowds and nice weather seemed to do the trick for many people, at least for the day.
"I kept coming down here because I love it, and I remembered what it was, and I wanted to see it be that again," Batty said. "You feel that hope. Well, look at how many people have turned out today. Clearly, so many other Denverites have missed it and have wanted to be able to come back."
In all, the Downtown Denver Partnership reports that about 40,000 people visited its kickoff event over the weekend, including about 26,500 on 16th Street, 9,400 in the kids zone and the beer garden, and 3,500 at the climbing competition.
What actually changed?
It was easy to enjoy 16th Street with mild spring weather and contented crowds. But we kept hearing a question: What really changed?
Fair question. In a lot of ways, the mall felt the same. It’s still a pedestrian mall. And since no shuttle buses were running, it was easy to miss the big change to the layout: The two bus lanes now are clustered in the center of the strip. (In the old design, the lanes were separated, creating an island in the middle.)
We’re interested to see how that changes the feel of the street. Back in 2016, Denverite set up a booth on the mall for the day. We were stuck between the two lanes, and the noise and fumes from the buses (all gas-powered at the time) were incessant.
Having the buses in the center might reduce their impact on the pedestrian experience, as might the switch to electric vehicles back in 2017.
The other big change was the installation of nearly one million new pavers that make up the surface of the street. The original “rattlesnake” design by I.M. Pei was celebrated but hard to maintain. The new, smaller pavers pay homage to the original design, but are meant to be easier to keep up.
The project also adds touches like seating areas, mini-play structures for kids and newly transplanted trees. The street also features more public art, including stainless steel aspen trees and an upcoming “canopy” of translucent acrylic material at 16th and Glenarm Place.
Another change that visitors won’t be able to see: the city gutted the street, modernizing underground water, sewer and fiber infrastructure.
“I like the fact that they've got more security guards and police officers. I like the fact that they have more seating,” Cabral said.
For one Denverite staffer (Andy), it felt like a remastered film or video game. It looks how you remember it — but if you were to go back at the old version, you would realize it had been freshened up.
“It's actually amazing,” said Yolanda Neal, who grew up in Denver and lives in Thornton. “And I'm thinking, I'm gonna come back tomorrow with the rest of my family, with my husband.”
There’s still work to be done: The city is wrapping up construction on several blocks on the Civic Center end of the street — leading to quite a few jokes about how “done” the street really was.
No bathrooms, and watch the curbs.
Cabral and Goffinski saw one thing still missing: public restrooms. Indeed, one event staffer said that a lack of restrooms was the top complaint from visitors.
“There’s no restrooms,” Goffinski said. “There's none really, even on the mall to use, that are they're public.”
The mall’s only permanent public restrooms are at Skyline Park by the clocktower.
Others took issue with a small but significant design choice: the curbs surrounding the depressed bus lanes. There generally aren’t any markings on the curb, and the color and pattern of the lanes is pretty much identical to the areas around them, making it harder to spot the transition.
Perhaps they’ll be more obvious when the bus lanes aren’t filled with people and vendors, but we heard that complaint a number of times (and saw a few people stumble).
One more thing we missed: The old street pianos are gone.
The boomer crew
The cliche is that young hipsters live downtown. (Do we still talk about hipsters?) But some of the most enthusiastic people on Saturday were past retirement age.
We met quite a few couples who had moved in from the suburbs to live downtown — often because they now had the money and lifestyle to make it work.
“I've been watching up and down the mall during the construction and every weekend they got one more block finished. They got one more block finished. So this is great,” said Lynn Buschhoff, a retired schoolteacher.
“We like the energy, we like the choices that we have here. A lot of variety,” her husband, Fred, added. “We're very excited to see the upturn that's occurring along the mall and in downtown Denver in general.”
Can it last?
The weekend seemed a success, with big crowds on 16th Street and a sold-out audience at the well-reviewed Outside Festival, plus a climbing competition.
“It does feel … especially today, more like the 16th Street Mall used to feel on a weekend,” Goffinski said.
But the question lingered: What about the rest of the year?
John and Katrina Zaunders, of Australia, told us they had also visited on a weekday — and were left wondering where everyone was.
“All the office blocks, we didn't see anyone going in and out,” he said. “We just didn't see anyone.”
He’s right: Office vacancies downtown are at an astounding 27 percent. He and Katrina also noticed that one in three storefronts stands empty on 16th Street itself.
“Yeah, they're mostly empty or available for lease,” John said.
The decline of in-person office workers and the lack of restaurants and stores may be a challenge for a 16th Street comeback.
“It seemed alright when I was there Saturday. Vendors didn’t appeal to me and wish there were more food options out because the restaurants on 16th kinda suck,” one commenter noted on Reddit.
And, as Goffinski pointed out, 16th Street has a lot more competition these days.
“There weren't a whole lot of things going on in Denver when I was a kid. So this was kind of, you know, a big deal to go do on the weekend,” he said. “Now, there's so many other things to do around Denver in the surrounding areas.”
Cabral said time would tell just how successful this reboot is.
“I would have to come back next weekend when all the vendors are gone, and just see how it feels, what it looks like with nobody here,” she said.
Leo Falcone said the city has to keep crowds coming with events and programming — which city boosters insist they’re doing. The Downtown Denver Partnership has a summer calendar of small and large events.
“I would wish for it to be like this on 16th Street multiple times a month,” Falcone said as crowds streamed by.
Still, Falcone said, going out has gotten so expensive.
“Everything costs money. But as far as taking a walk goes, it's nice.”
