I was finally able to take a bike ride to downtown Denver and back yesterday morning after almost two years. I brought the Trek bicycle I have owned for many years down to our condo in Stuart, Florida back in the fall of 2024, and planned to have the bike I inherited from my brother-in-law George, tuned up the following spring, which wound up being this spring, instead. But no matter. I finally have a bicycle here once again and today was reminded what a great town Denver is for cyclers. I remember one of our work study students at the University of Denver Bookstore once said that he preferred biking in Denver than back home in Paris. I didn't think he could be serious at the time but am now wondering if maybe he was right after all.
And for the first time, I was able to get a look at the swan boats out on Smith Lake in Washington Park on my way downtown. And I must say, I have to take partial credit for the swan boats now there, one of which can be seen in the background of the photograph on the right. Several years ago, I wrote several blog posts about how Denver's City Park had swan boats on its lake and wondered why Wash Park had to make do with boring utilitarian models. Was this some kind of slight by the city? But now here they are, the city no doubt influenced by my blog post. No thanks necessary - happy to have made an important difference in the lives of the people of Denver.
After riding through Washington Park, I headed through the older neighborhoods of Denver to downtown's 16th Street (formerly the 16th Street Mall), which underwent a three-and-a-half year, $176.7 million renovation that was completed this past October. That project had a major impact on the businesses along that 13-block stretch, many of which went out of business during the renovation, which came on the heels of the Covid-19 pandemic. But I am happy to report that the mall is now looking really good, with lots of people sitting under tree-shaded restaurant patios having lunch and strolling around, checking out the stores and local bistros, many of them new. All this on a Tuesday morning. And the city is not finished with improving the district even further. They recently purchased the Denver Pavilions, a multi-level open-air mall right off 16th Street, as seen in the photograph on the left, and intend to make it a mixed-use hub for Upper Downtown. And just this past week, the University of Colorado Denver announced they were purchasing Independence Plaza, a 25-story office tower on 17th Street, with a block long frontage on 16th, for $29.8 million and will transform it into a multi-use hub for both educational and commercial purposes. I just hope they reintroduce those Friday night summer concerts they used to have on their 16th Street patio, which I used to bike to religiously back in the day.
All in all, it was a very good bike ride, and I was very impressed with the new vibrancy of the area. For years now people have been bemoaning downtown Denver, complaining about the store vacancies, the empty office buildings, the homeless situation, you name it. Although it is not as busy as before the pandemic, it has definitely turned a corner. And it is now a place where you might see a friendly, abnormally tall cowboy moseying down the street, such as the one in the photograph on the right. And no, I have no idea why he was there, if he was being paid to be there, or if he was just another eccentric, for which Colorado is world-famous.
