Negative changes in Denver

My wife and I first moved to Denver in 1995, settling in Cherry Creek for over a decade before relocating to a downtown condo in 2006. Throughout our time in the city, I worked for an international accounting firm while my wife served as a museum director and curator.

In 2019, we sold our downtown condo and moved to Maine, though we continued to maintain a home in the mountains. We have returned to Colorado several times since then, but our most recent visit in August 2025 was especially troubling.

During our five-day stay at a downtown hotel, we were struck by how difficult it had become to navigate the city. A combination of significant homelessness, convoluted bike and bus lanes, pervasive construction cones, and light rail traffic created a chaotic environment.

Few people seemed to use the bike lanes—with their concrete dividers—leaving us wondering how city workers manage snow removal in the winter. Scooter traffic was another concern; many riders ignored traffic rules, often riding against traffic, on sidewalks, or even in the street without helmets. At one point, we saw two people riding a single scooter down Colorado Boulevard in traffic.

Confusing signage for cars, bikes, and light rail only added to the disorder downtown. We also noticed that public green spaces were poorly maintained and lacked regular upkeep.

All these factors contributed to feelings of unsafety during our stay. We chose to remain inside the hotel, eating meals there, and only venturing out by car. The current state of downtown Denver deeply saddened us and made us feel unsafe walking outside.

Cherry Creek, where we have many fond memories, appeared neglected as well. Overdevelopment of high-rises has diminished the area’s sunlight, and the state of Cherry Creek along Speer Boulevard was disappointing. Once-beautiful paths that we enjoyed for years were left messy and untended. We heard that city budget cuts have impacted maintenance, but allowing Cherry Creek’s decline is a disservice not only to residents but also to visitors. The lack of maintenance projects a negative image and diminishes the neighborhood’s appeal and sense of security.

A well-cared-for neighborhood fosters a sense of safety and pride among its residents. Investing in social infrastructure—like bike and walking paths, parks, and vibrant retail areas—can sustainably improve the daily lives of those who live there.

When you live in a city, gradual changes may go unnoticed day to day. However, for returning visitors, especially after several years, negative changes are glaringly obvious.

We hope city leaders will take meaningful action to address this decline and restore the city we have known and cherished.

Robert C. Troccoli

Scarborough, ME

What a horrible idea

First: Congratulations to Jake Fogelman for his excellent refutation and condemnation of the proposals to adopt a progressive, graduated income tax in Colorado (“A ‘Progressive’ Tax Will Backfire,” Sunday, Sept. 28).

Backfire indeed! What an absolutely horrible, stupid idea.

Fogelman did a great job laying out the benefits of Colorado’s existing flat income tax and the Taxpayer Bill of Rights and the faults and fallacies of a progressive, graduated income tax.

The word “progressive” alone is a red-siren signal of a bad idea. Everyone who files a federal income tax return already knows what a nightmare and how punishing the “progressive” U.S. tax code is. So how could anyone possibly think that adding multiple income-tax levels to Colorado’s tax system would be a benefit to individual Coloradoans?

These “progressive” proposals are reminders of two salient points:

• 1) Whenever the government intervenes, it makes things worse. The late, great Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises concisely spelled this out in “Interventionism: An Economic Analysis.”

This is undeniable and proven day after day. Adding more layers of government to Colorado’s tax system will improve nothing; only make life worse.

• 2) Individual personal incomes and state economies always rise faster in states with falling tax burdens than in states with rising tax burdens.

Economist Arthur Laffer, economic policy expert Stephen Moore and economist Jonathan Williams have documented this fact for 18 consecutive years in their annual “Rich States, Poor States” report for the American Legislative Exchange Council (see: richstatespoorstates.org).

What’s more, Coloradans should be alarmed by the following: At the Colorado Springs mayor’s State of the City address Sept. 25, Johnna Reeder Kleymeyer, CEO of the Colorado Springs Chamber & EDC, rattled the business audience when she reported that of the 16,000 new jobs created in Colorado in 2024, 60% of them were government jobs. Kleymeyer also reported that Colorado experienced more people moving out of the state in 2024 than moving in.

Those two facts are clear indicators of a state heading in the wrong direction — growing government and fleeing population.

Having lived in Florida for 45 years (and part-time in Colorado Springs for 10), I can tell you three essential ingredients to Florida’s economic miracle: 1) no personal income tax; 2) population growth (it is the fuel for every state’s economic engine); and 3) low, rational business regulation.

I own businesses in Florida and Colorado, and I know from first-hand experience the business regulations in Colorado, compared to those in Florida, are onerous, burdensome and uninviting.

Progressive, graduated income tax? Ha. Just look at which states have that. They are all states from where people are fleeing.

I hope the Gazette reprints Jake Fogelman’s column again and again. Bury the graduated income tax idea, and shame the proponents of it into oblivion.

Matt Walsh

Colorado Springs/Sarasota, Fla.