PRIORITIES
Inclusive Development For Working Families and Renters
Cost of Housing
District 10 must prioritize the development of middle-income housing along with solid multi-modal transportation options. We can do this while preserving and intentionally growing the character of our neighborhoods. Hence, renters and first-time home buyers have a chance to build a life in our city. Our community will benefit from the inclusion of teachers, first responders, librarians, and the thousands of individuals who keep our city running. We must look at ways to create housing for Denver's modern working class.
Denver's "perfect ten" was built for walkable living and access to multiple levels of economic status. We must embrace that and use it as a model as development continues in a growing city. Our zoning must embrace accessory dwelling units and find opportunities to grow new housing types that make sense while keeping the integrity of our charming neighborhoods.
We must build creative and accountable private/public partnerships to ensure increased density focused along public transportation. The city can acquire defunct lots and develop vital community infrastructure that makes neighborhoods welcoming and walkable. Downtown can be reimagined with residential conversion of empty office space, increasing supply of housing and revitalizing the Downtown core, stimulating the economy and adding to the city’s tax resources. We need new programs to help subsidize down-payments on homes for Denver's essential workers. There is a way to provide necessary housing in our desirable city while maintaining and growing its character. It means helping the city aspire to inclusive, creative, and sustainable development.
Investing In Training, Transparency, and Accountability
Public Safety and Policing
Denver needs a public safety approach that addresses the conditions that lead to crime and Denver's law enforcement needs adequate training and resources to serve our city better. Trust between police and the community they serve must be a core pillar in our plan forward. Our city services will be better when Denver makes thoughtful investments in data collection, community policing and engagement, and building on successful, but incomplete, reform–to protect the vulnerable and provide for public safety.
Our city needs to address the modern demands of law enforcement and evaluate how we train, supervise, and improve. Evidence-based innovations like Denver's STAR program, a mental health first responder initiative, must be the city's guiding principle.
Addressing Need and Enforcing Laws by Building Coalitions and Providing Stability
Homelessness
We must invest in additional social workers and mental health professionals to augment our police forces and provide excellent service to residents. Denver should be a national leader in collecting and analyzing data from different agencies responsible for public safety. Building stronger relationships with service providers can address the conditions contributing to crime helping law enforcement work in concert to address risk. We build stronger community relationships when we hold officers accountable to ensure effective and equitable practices. Denver deserves a police department they trust to protect our most vulnerable and the community.
We must invest in law enforcement with evidence-based training, communication skills, community engagement, de-escalation tactics, and weapons training. This investment will save lives and create a hiring incentive for Denver's Police Department, which has seen significant reductions in district-level officers. This deficit of officers harms our equity goals, as the neighborhoods experiencing the highest crime rates are those that see response time increases. We want our officers to be the best the city and country offer. That means investing in proven strategies that attract and retain the best.
Image by Michelle Christiance
The next city councilor for District 10, which sits at the nexus of Denver's housing crisis, must advocate for everyone in the district. That means understanding the traumas and challenges facing individuals experiencing homelessness while creating a space for constructive dialogue with owners and renters to balance the community's needs. Living on the street is a public health and safety hazard for both housed and unhoused. Folks living on the street are often victims themselves of theft and violence. Law enforcement should be empowered to enforce laws that keep the city safe for us all.
Our city must provide creative and compassionate solutions to our mental health and housing needs.
Increasing funding for affordable housing and codifying rental assistance in a city this expensive is essential to any comprehensive solution to our homelessness crisis in District 10. But to talk seriously about street-level homelessness, we have to examine the conditions that lead to—and keep—someone living on the street.
Since 2020 Noah has worked as a core member of Headwater Protectors, which offers a weekly connective service and trash and water support to the unhoused. This experience has given him a direct perspective on the needs and varied circumstances represented on the streets of Denver–and the many agencies seeking to support them.
We must work together to provide wrap-around supportive housing, using inventory such as hotel/motel acquisitions projects, creating spaces with well-resourced case management and specialized programs. The city must provide stability, build relationships, and address needs, while enforcing laws. When encampments are removed, the city needs to implement action plans for the displaced individuals. We cannot tolerate a system that moves individuals from one street to the next. If elected, Noah's office will be present and active in engaging the unhoused in district ten, like Noah has done on his own for years.
Supporting Students, Teachers, and Families With After School Programming and Housing
Denver's Kids
Our responsibility to nurture and support Denver students does not end at the school's door, nor do the needs of our young people. Noah's experience working as a public school teacher and an after-school facilitator gives him insight into how to build relationships with the diverse families of Denver. The city's Office of After-School Programs and the Department of Child Affairs can offer more childcare support for working families. A generation of young people can be engaged by the city and obtain valuable skills.
By investing in a more robust collaboration between schools, families, and the city, Denver can build programs that invigorate student ambition to find community, passion, and purpose here in Denver. By building community partnerships, Denver can show our young people the many dignified and viable paths forward in life by creating and encouraging a new generation of: vocational programs, speech and debate training, STEM education, and other professional development tracks.
Teachers should have a professional pathway to homeownership in the neighborhoods they work. As an educator in Denver's district ten, Noah understands how difficult it can be to plan for the future in Denver. We need to do more to incentivize the best educators to build lives and families in Denver. In a state that ranks close to last in teacher pay, the city can do more to help recruit and keep the best teachers in the country by innovating down payment assistance programs.
Reduce Waste, Lower Emissions, Reimagine Transportation Systems
Climate Action and Sustainable Infrastructure
Denver voters have consistently called for improvements in how the city manages its eco-footprint and the investments it is making in a more sustainable future. With a new era in the city, a higher bar for achievement should be set. Our city must evaluate goals and set new standards for all sectors, particularly regarding waste management and mobility. Denver's recently established Office of Climate Action, Sustainability, and Resiliency needs leadership and partners on Council who have history in this work and will make our environment a priority. Noah's involvement in
efforts to reduce waste and keep Denver's streets, parks, and waterways clean of pollutants makes him a leader in this area. Noah has the research background, relationship strengths, rooted vision, and proven drive to facilitate strong efforts on climate.
Waste & Energy
Denver needs a strategic approach to composting, recycling, and landfill management. Efforts made here can drastically reduce our city's waste and methane emissions while supporting a wider-reaching and more resilient system. We can improve the city’s waste diversion, and capitalize on our own success by supplementing yards, parks, and gardens with city compost. With a concerted effort, this practice would provide for better drought resilience, water filtration, and opportunities to grow Denver’s tree canopy and combat heat island effect. Furthermore, methane capture technology utilized at Denver’s Municipal Landfill can decrease emissions and feed energy back into the grid; this technology should continue to be developed and implemented. Noah would like to see energy performance contracts that create standards of sustainability for large buildings and new developments (and city-operated structures must lead on this front). Noah would support Pay as You Throw programs, which incentivize minimizing waste, and partnering with schools to train a new generation of workers in a sustainable economy.
Integrated Multimodal Transit
The city should take prompt action in creating spaces where people can walk, bike, and roll safely. Noah will enthusiastically pursue the reinstatement of District 10 Shared Streets, which prioritize safe biking, rolling, and walking. By establishing bike & scooter infrastructure along these avenues, and additional protected bike lanes that connect them with Bus Rapid Transit and Denver’s light rail, we can make it easier for Denverites to get from A to B safely without using a car. To increase ridership, Noah will fight to see each DPS student and their families have access to free public transportation. Additionally, more equitable E-bicycle rebate programs and funding for other clean transportation methods should be supported, in order to transform Denver’s transit culture, encouraging a new generation of multi-modal users.