Give Gov. Jared Polis credit for bowing to the public’s will. Facing a broad backlash to his out-of-the-blue brainstorm for a pricey pedestrian bridge west of the State Capitol Building, the governor backed out Tuesday. The stiff opposition — including in a poll Polis’ office conducted — was fully justified.

The project, in fact, made little sense and would have tread on hallowed ground, where monuments long have marked the sacrifices of Colorado’s veterans.

Plans for the $28.5 million bridge, spanning Lincoln Street and connecting the state Capitol to Lincoln Veterans Memorial Park, were announced by the Governor’s Office in November with seemingly no public input or explanation as to what purpose it would serve. The footbridge’s meandering design came across like a daydream of the governor’s — a doodle on a napkin — and met with a resounding, “Huh?” followed by an outcry of opposition.

The Gazette reported this week that the state had allocated $8.5 million in tax dollars to start the project; the balance was supposed to be raised through private donations. The bridge’s planned completion on Aug. 1 of next year was supposed to help mark the state’s 150th anniversary — yet the concept’s actual connection to that observance was anybody’s guess.

As ambitious public-works projects go, it had all the makings of a blunder. And even Polis seemed to be having his doubts lately. That was evident from his office’s hastily contrived online poll this week, belatedly seeking public input.

The poll results unsurprisingly were overwhelmingly negative — 94% of respondents were opposed — but substantive concerns raised by significant state and local stakeholders in recent weeks should have prompted the governor to drop the whole idea even earlier.

As The Gazette reported, a broad coalition of Colorado veterans groups had called on Polis to abandon the project.

A joint statement issued by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, Paralyzed Veterans of America and the Gold Star Wives of America declared: “Our sacred spaces are not for sale, not for political show, and not to be paved over. They are to be protected as the living legacy of those who served and sacrificed for the freedoms we all enjoy.”

Lincoln Veterans Memorial Park is “more than green space. It is hallowed ground dedicated to the memory of those who served, sacrificed, and, for many, never returned home,” the statement said. It called the bridge unnecessary and disrespectful, a “symbol of disregard” for the sacrifices of veterans and their families, and said any plan to alter or intrude on the space violates the spirit of commitment made by the state to keep the park as a permanent memorial.

It’s worth noting those same memorial grounds were marred by the summer 2020 riots, and it was the same veterans groups that stepped in to clean up the mess.

Meanwhile, in May, the influential organization Historic Denver denounced the proposal from an aesthetic and architectural perspective.

“It’s a really great, beautiful space. This bridge, we just feel, is very incompatible with those characteristics of symmetry and formality,” Historic Denver President and CEO John Deffenbaugh told The Denver Gazette at the time. “It’s almost the complete opposite.”

Add to those objections the potential for the bridge to become a needless platform for protesters — from which to drape banners, display graffiti and disrupt traffic below — and it would have become not only pointless and disrespectful but also detrimental to the entire area.

Polis, a smart guy by every measure, always has been a big thinker. But this is one bold vision he should have left on the drawing board.

In a news release late Tuesday officially calling off the project amid the pushback, Polis pledged, tongue in cheek, “I will chain myself to the Capitol plaza to prevent (the bridge) from being built and will personally intervene to ensure we listen to Coloradans’ feedback.”

Good to hear. If only he would pivot as readily to heed the public on even more important matters.

the gazette editorial board