Tag: Mike Coffman
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EDITORIAL: Aurora’s template for success on homelessness
With homelessness more or less unchanged over the past year in Colorado’s largest urban centers — numbers released this week show a slight dip in metro Denver and a small uptick in the Colorado Springs area — it’s worth another look at the innovative approach underway in Aurora. Colorado’s No. 3 city has been ramping…
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Aurora is ‘strong and getting stronger,’ mayor says in State of City speech
Aurora is “strong and getting stronger,” the city’s mayor said on Tuesday, citing successes in a new homeless navigation campus. Mayor Mike Coffman said he leaves work every Friday and goes straight to the Regional Navigation Campus, where he then sleeps in the low-barrier homeless shelter and helps serve breakfast in the morning. The navigation…
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Denver, Aurora and Colorado Springs mayors list competency, AI among priorities for legislative session
The mayors of Colorado’s three largest cities — representing a combined population of about 1.5 million — are urging state lawmakers to tackle some of their communities’ most pressing challenges in the upcoming legislative session, notably in the areas of crime and regulation. In a letter to Gov. Jared Polis and the Colorado General Assembly,…
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EDITORIAL: Don’t backtrack on Aurora’s big strides
Aurora already has been down the well-beaten path toward urban despair. Crime, both serious and petty, proliferated in some neighborhoods in the not-too-distant past. The city’s streets teemed with chronically homeless substance abusers, who littered public spaces with their tent camps and their very public use of drugs and alcohol. As the pandemic set in,…
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Aurora homeless navigation campus welcomes 176 people on first day
Aurora’s homeless navigation campus opened its doors to 176 homeless people Monday two weeks after its official ribbon cutting. The navigation campus — formerly a Crowne Plaza hotel — at 15500 E. 40th Ave., has been in the works for more than a year after the city purchased the building in May 2024 for $26.5…
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Aurora mayor offers ‘deal’ to Denver after mutual aid lawsuit
Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman celebrated the upcoming opening of the city’s regional navigation campus and other city successes in his State of City speech Tuesday, June 24, during which he also talked about immigration and addressed a lawsuit against Denver. In October, Coffman held a similar speech, in which he also celebrated success but honed…
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Colorado governor signals willingness to sign bill inoculating immigrants from Trump policies | ANALYSIS
Gov. Jared Polis said that while he had “major problems” with an earlier proposal that sought to inoculate immigrants from federal policies, the bill now includes “workable language,” thereby signaling his intent to sign it. The governor reiterated he is still reviewing the proposal, which underwent several changes before its final passage during the 2025…
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DOJ lawsuit puts spotlight on Denver’s ‘sanctuary’ policies
The U.S. Department of Justice has sued Colorado and the City and County of Denver, alleging their policies are interfering with the job of immigration officers in a case that could have ramifications for enforcement nationwide. The lawsuit filed Friday in Colorado District Court claims both the state and Denver have enacted “sanctuary laws” in…
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Aurora mayor points to homelessness report to reinforce city’s ‘tough love’ approach
Aurora’s top elected official cited a think tank’s report on Thursday to reinforce his belief in the “work-first” approach to homelessness, insisting that the “housing-first” approach used in Denver does not work. The Common Sense Institute report, authored in part by former councilmember Dustin Zvonek, compared the two broad approaches to homelessness. The report said…
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Aurora student represents Colorado in Scripps National Bee
Vedanth Raju won the Colorado State Spelling Bee earlier this month