Johnston's "dream" meets a $250M reckoning
Yes, but: What the mayor largely skipped in his 38-minute speech was the $250 million budget hole that's about to swallow City Hall — and potentially hundreds of jobs with it.
He spent barely a minute on the deficit, pledging to "minimize impact" on city workers and core services while delivering a government that will "work better and cost less."
The big picture: Two years into his first term, Johnston touted historic drops in street homelessness and violent crime, downtown revitalization efforts, and a newly overhauled building permitting process.
Over the next two years, he's setting his sights on tackling long-term support services for unhoused residents, theft and public drug use, stagnant downtown office demand, and a housing market that's pricing teachers and nurses out.
Reality check: How the mayor plans to accomplish his ambitious goals under such severe budget constraints and with staffing slashed is the elephant not just in the room — but squarely in his lap.
Between the lines: Johnston also doubled down on plans to put an $800 million "Vibrant Denver" infrastructure bond on November's ballot — a tough sell in a city facing cuts.
What's next: A formal budget-balancing plan is expected this fall, likely setting off tense negotiations in City Hall. Layoff announcements could start as soon as Aug. 2.
The bottom line: Johnston is urging Denverites to rally around a common vision — but with a quarter-billion-dollar shortfall, it's hard to ignore the realities crowding out the hope.
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Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
NYC transit union threatens to sue GOP mayoral hopeful Curtis Sliwa over ‘defamatory' comments
The politically influential Transport Workers Union is threatening to sue Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa over 'defamatory and false' comments he recently made about the labor group. In a letter sent to Sliwa on Monday, John Samuelsen, the TWU's international president, wrote that the mayoral hopeful engaged in the remarks during a July 24 rally at City Hall organized by NYCLASS, a group advocating for a ban on horse-carriage rides in Central Park. Samuelsen, whose union represents horse carriage riders, wrote he came across Sliwa's speech in a video of the gathering posted on YouTube. 'In this video, you say, 'There is money under the table to the TWU leadership.' This statement is false and defamatory. The statement asserts bribery and/or corruption,' Samuelsen wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Daily News. 'By this letter, I demand that you issue a written retraction of the statement and offer an apology to the members of the TWU whose leadership you have slandered and defamed,' the union big continued. 'If you choose not to act honorably by retracting the false statement, we will commence legal action against you for your actions forthwith. We will seek damages commensurate with the harm done to my reputation and to the reputation of the TWU.' Sliwa, the Guardian Angels founder who has made animal welfare a big component of his mayoral campaign, rejected Samuelsen's demand, saying his remarks amounted to 'First Amendment protected speech.' 'I offered my opinion on an area of concern for New Yorkers regarding the horse carriage industry and the TWU,' he said. 'My statement was generic and not individual specific. I believe Mr. Samuelsen and the TWU have other things to focus on.' In response, Samuelsen told The News that Sliwa's comments aren't 'protected by the Constitution and he will pay for it.' In addition to horse carriage riders, Samuelsen's union represents tens of thousands of MTA workers. His union hasn't endorsed anyone in the 2025 mayoral race, but Samuelsen did appear at a June 14 rally for Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic mayoral nominee, where he praised Mamdani's proposal to make public buses free in the city. The horse carriage industry has long been a source of controversy in New York, with animal rights activists condemning the practice as inhumane, while TWU and other supporters of workers say banning it would destroy livelihoods. The union has also maintained reforms can be taken to ensure the safety of the horses. Last week's City Hall rally was held to call on the City Council to adopt a bill that would ban the local horse carriage industry. The rally came days after a Manhattan jury acquitted a horse carriage rider who was indicted in 2023 on animal abuse charges for allegedly forcing his horse, Ryder, to work in scorching summer temperatures. As the Republican candidate, Sliwa faces long odds in November's mayoral election, given the city's heavily Democratic electorate. Sliwa, who also ran for mayor in 2021, has been especially upbeat about his prospects this year, though, as the field is more crowded than in a typical local election year. In addition to Mamdani on the Democratic line and Sliwa on the GOP line, Mayor Adams, Andrew Cuomo and Jim Walden are running as independents in November's contest, creating a vote-splitting scenario Sliwa hopes might benefit him. Solve the daily Crossword
Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
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L.A.'s bid to rewrite its City Charter starts off with a spicy leadership battle
Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It's David Zahniser, with an assist from Julia Wick, giving you the latest on city and county government. Here you thought charter reform would be boring. A 13-member citizens commission is just getting started on the painstaking, generally unsexy work of poring through the Los Angeles City Charter, the city's governing document, and coming up with strategies for improving it. Yet already, the commission has had a leadership battle, heard allegations of shady dealings and fielded questions about whether it's been set up to fail. But first, let's back up. Mayor Karen Bass, City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson and former Council President Paul Krekorian chose a collection of volunteers to serve on the Charter Reform Commission, which is charged with exploring big and small changes to the City Charter. 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The real work began on July 16, when the commission took up the question of who should be in charge. Many thought the leadership post would immediately go to Raymond Meza, who had already been serving as the interim chair. Instead, the panel found itself deadlocked. Meza is a high-level staffer at Service Employees International Union Local 721, the powerful public employee union that represents thousands of city workers and has been a big-money spender in support of Bass and many other elected city officials. Meza, who was appointed by Bass earlier this year, picked up five votes. But so did Ted Stein, a real estate developer who has served on an array of city commissions — planning, airport, harbor — but hadn't been on a volunteer city panel in nearly 15 years. Faced with a stalemate, charter commissioners decided to try again a few days later, when they were joined by two additional members. 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CBS News
3 days ago
- CBS News
Denver's Cherry Creek neighborhood could be next to establish general improvement district
Another Denver neighborhood is hoping to take it upon itself to address community issues. There are currently five general improvement districts in Denver, with more potentially on the horizon, including Cherry Creek. Regardless of the neighborhood, more and more Denverites are seeking services beyond what the city offers. Councilwoman Amanda Sawyer spearheaded the efforts to gauge interest in a special district in Cherry Creek based on feedback she received from constituents "I started kind of looking into how I could get them what they say they want. Right?" Sawyer told CBS Colorado. "And that is kind of where I came to this tool." There are four buckets of interest collected so far. "The first one is community safety," Sawyer said. In addition to things such as Flock cameras and better lighting, residents have said they want help with the parking situation, neighborhood advocacy and beautification. "Whether that looks like snow removal or whether that looks like flowerpots on a corner, I don't know that's for the residents to kind of decide what they want to do," Sawyer said. The proposed general improvement district would include the Cherry Creek Shopping Center, Cherry Creek North, Cherry Creek East and a triangle just south of the area. Based on initial survey results, there is enough interest in the concept to move forward with creating a final plan. But whether that plan goes to a vote will remain up to residents. "If the residents don't want to do this at the end of the day, then, I don't think we do this," Sawyer said. "It's certainly way too expensive to go to petition and gather signatures and go to a TABOR election for something that residents don't want." Cherry Creek North already has a business improvement district, but those businesses would not be a part of and pay into both improvement districts. A final plan is expected to be formulated by residents and presented for feedback at the beginning of the New Year. How the GID would be funded is also up to residents, who are already saying they're not interested in a tax hike. "What we're not going to do is do this as a property tax," Sawyer said. "We're going to do this in a different way because I think we've heard from the community that that uncertainty is something they're uncomfortable with."
