Denver's outgoing Mayor Hancock started out on a promising note, but Denver needs to new blood, including a new Mayor who will be selected in this June's municipal runoff election. For whatever the reason was Hancock's has really stumbled on multiple fronts, especially in the second half or so of his service.
There are the corruption issues. But also there has just been a decline in bread and butter management of things from trash collection to contract management in connection with DIA to continued weak building code/zoning administration (especially in terms of just having the staff and processes that are capable of getting it done in a timely and careful fashion), to stumbling in terms of getting the police to behave, to failing to build a cohesive relationship with city council.
His handling of the pandemic wasn't horrible but wasn't exemplary (like the liquor store closing fiasco, that at least he didn't dig in his heels about, and poor communications about what the city would do next or was doing in the present), and he's been a follower tugged in one direction and then the next without the leadership we need on homelessness. His handling of just defeated Denver ballot issue 2O, and the Park Hill golf course issue more generally, has not been politically astute.
Yes, we're spoiled by having had a string of very good mayors from Pena to Webb to Hickenlooper who were supported by other good city level elected officials. Yes, the latest rounds of land use reforms have been a net improvements and some issues like drainage in North Denver have finally gotten addressed. Yes, we haven't had to deal with the clusterf**k that GOP controlled places have seen. Yes, he's done a decent job responding to the migrant influx of the last six months or so.
No, his service as a whole has not been a total failure. But, he's run out of steam overall and the quality of his service has discernibly slipped. Four more years of Hancock would have been worse than his last four years. Term limits have been a good thing in this case.
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