Across Colorado, communities large and small are diverting cars around main streets to allow more open-air, socially-distanced dining, shopping and strolling.

And now the state is stepping in with a new $4.1 million grant program to encourage more creative uses for public streets as businesses revive after the pandemic shutdown.

Denver, Boulder, Littleton, Louisville, Arvada, Frisco, Breckenridge, Carbondale, Erie, Fort Collins and Estes Park are among the first municipalities to experiment with shifting pavement built for cars to pedestrian-only pockets. 

Gov. Jared Polis’s new multi-agency Can Do Colorado Community Challenge — announced Thursday amidst a flurry of initiatives — is championing those kinds of community efforts with grants that support safer workplaces, more open restaurants and easier remote working. 

Other state agencies involved in the challenge include the departments of labor, local affairs, regulatory affairs, public health, the Regional Air Quality Council, the Denver Regional Council of Governments and the Colorado Energy Office, all working to maintain progress made during the pandemic on issues like traffic and air quality. The agencies are offering a variety of grants, from a $500,000 program that offers e-bikes and e-scooters to low-income workers to commuting incentives for workers and employers that could improve air quality.

The Colorado Department of Transportation is providing “small-scale grants” to cities and towns that can quickly convert parking spots and roads into plazas, using money available in the state’s Multi Modal Options Fund. The agency also is offering micro grants up to $5,000 for communities that promote telework to reduce commuter traffic on local roads.

“The blanket learning we can take from this is that government and business are serious about reprioritizing street spaces for all these different reasons and the effect is that people biking and people walking are just as welcome as people in cars,” said Piep van Hueven with Bicycle Colorado. 

Bicycle Colorado’s Denver Street Partnership in April surveyed 1,400 Denver residents and found the pandemic stirring a growing focus on walking and biking in the city. Nearly 90% of respondents said the city should reallocate street space for people and they suggested more than 200 stretches of downtown streets for closures and bike lanes, many around Capitol Hill. 

The shift away from cars in public space is coming as businesses reopen under strict guidelines for keeping customers spaced 6 feet apart. That’s pushed cafes onto sidewalks and tables into parking lots. 

CDOT communications director Matt Inzeo said the agency is working with different communities coming up with ideas for temporarily changing public spaces built for cars. For example, he pointed to Estes Park considering an adjustment to U.S. 34 through downtown, Fort Collins exploring business and restaurant space in diagonal parking spots and Breckenridge closing its entire Main Street to cars and routing traffic around downtown. 

“The look of this may vary from one community to another,” said Inzeo, who expects CDOT will award “lots of smaller grants” to help communities pay for traffic barriers, paint and staff planning expenses.  “As for bike lanes, there could be a scenario where they come into play but the conversations so far are focused on expanded public spaces near commercial centers.”

For the growing community of biking and pedestrian advocates who have spent the last decade pushing for a better balance of cars and people in local public space, CDOT’s turn toward community-focused space is a welcome opportunity. If pedestrian-friendly streetscapes bustling with outdoor diners and shoppers prove successful, many hope the shift could be more than temporary.  

CDOT is able to do this for communities on U.S. highways based on a temporary waiver from the federal government, Inzeo said, noting that some changes may not be permanent but adjustments made on city and town streets could last longer based on local support.

“This is an exciting experiment to see in real life what happens when you are able to repurpose street space for public space that doesn’t include cars,” said Morgan Lommele, the director of state and local policy for People For Bikes. “What if we are able to use the current circumstance to find shared values and understand there is very likely enough room for cars even if we take cars off select street to expand other types of access to public places?”

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Democrats in the Colorado legislature on Thursday introduced an 11th-hour bill that seeks to ask voters in November to raise taxes on cigarettes and start taxing other products that contain nicotine.

House Bill 1427 would ask voters to gradually — but significantly — raise the taxes over the next seven fiscal years.

Whereas taxes on a pack of cigarettes are now 84 cents, the bill would ask voters to allow the state to raise that amount to $1.94 starting next year. Starting in July 2024, taxes on a pack of cigarettes would then rise to $2.24 a pack. Then in July 2027 and moving forward, the taxes would be $2.64 a pack.

Nicotine products, including vaping devices and fuel, would be taxed at 50% of their manufacturer’s list price starting next year if voters sign off. Starting in July 2024, that would rise to 56% of the list price. Then in July 2027 and moving forward, the taxes would be 62% of nicotine products’ market list price

Vaping products aren’t currently taxed in Colorado.

The bill was introduced Thursday, a day before the legislature was originally supposed to adjourn after returning for three weeks following a two-month-plus coronavirus pause. It appears lawmaking will stretch into the weekend now in order to accommodate House Bill 1427 and other last-minute legislation.

The measure was introduced with such haste that its 43 pages of text hadn’t been posted on the legislature’s website before it was scheduled for its first committee hearing on Thursday afternoon.

Another sign of how fast it was introduced: Despite its wide-ranging impacts, only two people showed up to testify on the bill during the 20-minute hearing. They both advocated for the measure.

“I know that it’s all come kind of fast and furious,” Rep. Yadira Caraveo, a Thornton Democrat who is leading the push for the bill, said during the hearing.

Legislative fiscal analysts believe the proposed tax hike would net the state about $86 million in the 2020-21 fiscal year, which begins in July. In the following fiscal year, the state would collect more than $173 million.

State Rep. Julie McCluskie, a Dillion Democrat and prime sponsor of the bill, said she hopes the bill will help bolster the state’s ailing budget, which has taken a major hit as a result of the coronavirus crisis. At first, revenue generated by the taxes will go toward backfilling the state’s coffers.

After that, revenue from the taxes would be distributed to fund health care, tobacco education, preschool and other programs.

If voters approve the tax increase, it will start being enforced in 2021.

Supporters of the measure say it will help drive down tobacco use.

The bill passed its first hurdle, the House Finance Committee, within about 20 minutes and on a 6-to-5 vote. Republicans voiced opposition to the speed at which it was released.

 “We got this bill after we even sat down in here. It’s 43 pages. I just can’t support it right know. It sounds good but I just can’t support it right now,” said Rep. Janice Rich, a Grand Junction Republican.

The bill comes after a similar attempt to ask voters to raise cigarette taxes and enact a nicotine tax last year failed. Democrats in the Colorado Senate rejected the bill in the final days of the 2019 lawmaking term, in part because of concerns that it was regressive.

Last year’s legislation had the support of Gov. Jared Polis. The tobacco industry lobbied heavily against the measure.

This is a developing story that will be updated.

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The wide-reaching Colorado police accountability bill nearing passage in the state legislature would ban officers from using controversial carotid pressure holds, which were central to the death last year of a 23-year-old man in Aurora after an encounter with law enforcement. 

The ban on the maneuver, in which officers apply pressure to both sides of someone’s neck, cutting off blood flow, was added to Senate Bill 217 in an amendment made just before midnight on Wednesday as the measure advanced at the Capitol. 

The Aurora and Lakewood police departments this week already announced they were outlawing the use of carotid pressure holds. Elijah McClain died in August after he was stopped by Aurora police officers, who used a carotid hold on him.

There were 13 total amendments made to the bill on Wednesday night, some of which add substantial new reporting and policy requirements for law enforcement agencies. The amendments would require:

• Grand juries to issue a report when they decide not to indict an officer in a law enforcement-involved death
• Prosecutors to notify the public if they are referring an investigation into a law enforcement-involved death to a grand jury
• That families of those killed by law enforcement receive an advanced copy of any body camera footage of their loved one’s death before it is released to the public
• Police to document and report every time officers unholster their weapons or fire them

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Some of the changes made Wednesday night were around the use of body cameras, which the bill requires every law enforcement agency in the state to use. Among the alterations are mandates that officers notify crime victims they are being recorded and clarifying that jail guards, courtroom officers and the governor’s Colorado State Patrol detail do not need to wear the devices.

Law enforcement, under the bill, would now have 45 days to release body camera footage related to an ongoing investigation into a police officer’s actions, up from 30 days as was originally written in the measure.

Finally, officers would be required to test their body cameras at the beginning of the shift. If the devices don’t work after being checked, the bill now says, officers would not be held accountable if they malfunction during an incident. 

Additionally, law enforcement agencies would have until September to train their officers on the changes proposed under the bill, though that timeframe could be extended. 

Senate Bill 217 passed out of the House Finance Committee on Wednesday night by a 7-4, party line vote after hours of emotional testimony, including from the parents of people who were killed by police officers in Colorado. 

Laura Sonia Rosales, whose 17-year-old daughter, Jessica, was fatally shot by Denver police in 2015, told lawmakers that a part of her heart died when her child was killed. Jessica, who was driving a stolen car, was unarmed and with several other children. 

“My life is gone,” Sonia Rosales said in Spanish.

Viola Jacquez, whose 27-year-old son, Jack, was killed by a police officer in Rocky Ford in 2014, urged lawmakers to take action. Jack was unarmed and hadn’t committed a crime. The officer who killed him, James Ashby, was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to a prison term. 

“I feel for every mother out there that feels like me,” Viola said. “It doesn’t go away, even though they say it’s supposed to get better. It gets worse. The pain. The hurt.”

Senate Bill 217 will likely be heard on the House floor Thursday. More changes to the legislation are expected.

Republicans on the House Finance Committee said they support the goals of the measure, but have concerns about policy details they hope will be worked out in the coming days. GOP lawmakers in the Senate have already endorsed the bill.

Law enforcement organizations say they, too, support the bill, but would like to see changes before its passage.

The legislation also would allow police officers to be sued in their individual capacities, ban chokeholds and require vast data collection and reporting on race and use of force. It also would change the standard under which law enforcement can legally use deadly force.

MORE: Colorado’s sweeping police accountability bill now requires officers to face imminent threat before using deadly force

The Senate must approve the changes made in the House before the measure heads to Gov. Jared Polis’ desk. The governor says he supports the legislation.

The bill was brought by Democrats in response to the May 27 death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis. Floyd died after an officer kneeled on his neck for almost nine minutes in an encounter that was filmed and widely viewed.
The death prompted protests across the nation, including in Denver.

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