For the third time, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston answered questions from anonymous users on the public forum, r/Denver on the platform Reddit.

The Denver Gazette scanned his “Ask me anything”  comments.

Here are five key points:

Cherry-picking questions

Johnston answered 19 questions during the one-hour session, but it was interesting to note which questions he chose to answer.

In a traditional “ask me anything,” the host sets a time when the audience can ask questions in hopes of fostering community and transparency. The community can “up-vote” the top questions to give them more visibility on the forum. The response was overwhelming, with more than 700 comments on the original post. So, it’s probably not reasonable to expect the mayor to answer every question.

Though the public found out which Denver burger is Johnston’s favorite — a  Cherry Cricket burger with pepper jack cheese, jalapeño and an egg — it was notable to see which questions went unanswered, such as the following queries.

“What does your administration plan to do about dangerous drivers?” Reddit user u/MonroeBot asked. “Denverites are fed up with excessive speeding, expired registration, road rage, red light running and street racing.”

It was the top “up-voted” question that went unanswered. Many other users chimed in about street safety. Johnston addressed some aspects of the topic during the hourlong session.

Another user, u/Hour-Watch8988, asked about the housing crisis in Denver, citing articles, real estate forecasts, Johnston’s campaign website and even a past AMA. The user asked about the mayor’s push for “transit oriented” up zonings in hopes of increasing housing supply. The user asked if Johnston would acknowledge the issues, if he had plans to reverse course, or if there was any hope for large “transit oriented” up zonings.

Another user, u/TheyMadeMeLogin, asked the mayor if he would pledge to physically fight Douglas County to keep the Broncos in Denver.

“The first rule of fight club is we never talk about fight club,” the mayor jokingly replied.

Johnston defends record on homelessness

Johnston promised to end homelessness in his first term as mayor during the campaign and the topic surfaced in the Reddit AMA. User u/Silenceofthecam called homelessness one of the most visible and troubling situations in Denver and said it feels as though it is only getting worse.

The Reddit user asked Johnston to share his concrete steps to address homelessness and how his administration intends to measure progress.

“Why should taxpayers continue to shoulder higher costs with the promise of improvement, when it often feels like current policies are enabling the problem?” the user asked.

Johnston defended his actions, saying the city had made progress getting people off the streets.

“In the last two years, we have cut street homelessness by 45%,” Johnston wrote. “That is the largest multi-year reduction of street homelessness by any city in American history. We have closed all large encampments and connected people services, we’ve brought 7,000 people indoors and 6,000 people to permanent housing and we’ve become the largest city to end street homelessness for veterans.”

Johnston went on to say that many of those left on the streets are struggling the most and that the city is working to connect them with services through the “Roads to Recovery” program.

Although the mayor focused on the “unsheltered” numbers in his Reddit response, a recent point-in-time count revealed the overall number of homeless individuals in Denver actually increased from 2024 to 2025.

How Denver would respond to the National Guard

Following immigration raids in California in June and the deployment of National Guard troops in Washington, D.C. this month, many Denver residents wanted to know what Johnston would do if the National Guard was deployed in Denver in a similar way. It was the top “up-voted” question overall.

“The militarization of our cities by President Trump is unprecedented, dangerous. Any first year law student in America could tell you that deploying the U.S. military on the streets of American cities in times of peace to enforce domestic law is clearly illegal,” Johnston wrote. “Denver does not need any help from the National Guard as we are seeing the largest decrease of violent crime of any top 50 city in the country. We will be prepared to take them to court on Day 1 if they threaten to do so. Bringing in the National Guard to occupy our neighborhoods is never the right way to address challenges — it only escalates tensions instead of solving problems.”

Bike lanes remain a hot topic

Several questions were raised about the removal of bollards from protected bike lanes around the city, which affected both pedestrians and cyclists.

“Why did you change your stance on bike infrastructure from before you were elected to now?” Reddit user u/Campbully asked. “What informed this decision (policy, statistics, otherwise)?”

That question went unanswered.

Another user, u/DenverCycle, who works with the Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Committee (MBAC), said people had tried to meet with Johnston since the removal of the bollards, and asked: “When and how can we get you on the calendar to show up to a meeting of the Mayor’s Bicycle Advisory Committee?”

Johnston replied that he had chatted with a member of the committee last week and is in the process of scheduling a visit.

Reckless driving in Denver

At least a dozen Reddit commenters wanted to know about reckless driving in Denver — in addition to issues like expired tags, excessive speeding, road rage, red light runners and street racing.

“Why are our roads so dangerous? The constant car + bike/pedestrian crashes this summer has me scared to ride my bike,” user u/chicago_hokie commented.

Another commenter, u/CravenTaters, asked about why car registration isn’t enforced when it helps to pay for roads and with enforcing mandatory insurance laws — to which other commenters attributed a hike in insurance rates in the state.

Johnston responded to one commenter about driving conditions, saying he had increased the number of red light and speeding cameras around the city.

He also addressed the license plate issues, saying that the city occasionally performs “surge” enforcement on unregistered tags — giving people a month’s notice before they are ticketed.

“This has been very successful in registrations going up 30-40%,” Johnston wrote. “This allows us not to use officer time to respond to these minor issues, but still insists that people follow the law. DPD has issued nearly 19,000 total traffic-related citations this year, so we are still enforcing.”

For the full Ask Me Anything, visit the r/Denver subreddit.