Amid looming staff layoffs, a $250 million budget deficit and a host of other challenges, Mayor Mike Johnston outlined an optimistic vision for Denver on Monday in his second State of the City address.

Marking the halfway point of his administration, Johnston addressed an audience of about 400, which included Gov. Jared Polis and former Denver Mayor Federico Peña, in the Seawell Ballroom at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

Comparing the city’s past and present, Johnston offered a theme of immigrant contributions in his city that has billed itself a “welcoming” community to the roughly 43,000 individuals who arrived in Denver after illegally crossing the southern border. 

The city’s “welcoming stance” strained finances, forcing Denver at one point to cut city services and institute a hiring freeze. Although the city has received some state and federal funding, Denver taxpayers assumed the bulk of the nearly $90 million cost.

Johnston also turned his attention to the Trump administration.

“Today, we face a federal administration that is cutting health care for the sick and food for the hungry, banning books, pulling people off the streets and sending them to prisons without lawyers or hearings,” the mayor said. “Threatening to cut funding for roads and bridges if we teach the stories of Look Young and Sand Creek. Withholding money for terrorism prevention and wildfire response because Denver believes — just as we did in the 1860s — that immigrants can help write the next great chapter of this city.”

Johnston was referring to the White House’s campaign to defund “sanctuary cities,” a label that many apply to Colorado’s most populous municipality. Denver prohibits “city employees from collecting information on immigration or citizenship status; prohibits the sharing of any other information about individuals for purposes of immigration enforcement; and, memorializes predominant practices by prohibiting use of city resources or city cooperation with civil immigration enforcement.”

Denver has been on the radar of the Trump administration, particularly after the Denver mayor suggested civil disobedience as a proper action against a federal mass deportation campaign. 

Back on the domestic front, Johnston had declared an emergency on his first day of office to speed up the deployment of resources for his program tackling the city’s growing homeless population.

Now, halfway through his term, Johnston said the city will continue to focus efforts on ending the cycle of homelessness by connecting people in need with “high-quality and long-term support services.”

The mayor has often touted accomplishments in his homelessness initiative.

The latest numbers show that, although fewer people are sleeping on the streets in Denver, the total number of homeless individuals in the city grew. This year, a total of 7,327 people were counted as homeless — a number that grew by 788 over 2024, according to the newest annual point-in-time (PIT) Count released by the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative.

Meanwhile, Johnston said public safety remains a top priority, although violent crimes in the city are trending downward.

“Now that encampments are gone and violent crime is among the lowest this century, we are turning our focus to the quality of life crimes — like theft or public drug use — that impact many of us on a daily basis,” he said.

Because “nearly half of all Denverites can’t afford to live in the city they call home,” Johnston vowed to bring on 5,000 additional housing units each year through his recently announced middle-class housing program.

“As a city, we cannot lose sight of this challenge, and together, we must find a path to create the housing supply we need,” he said.

When it comes to the environment, Denver will continue to move aggressively away from fossil fuels and toward renewable electric power through electrifying buildings, pushing to electrify city-owned vehicles, and expanding the charging infrastructure to support Denver’s transition to electric vehicles.

Johnston said the city will take bold steps toward building both a “carbon free” downtown and a “carbon neutral” airport by converting the gas-powered steam loop that powers downtown Denver into a “state-of-the-art district energy system.”

Critics have pushed back at the speed with which Denver — and the state — are pursuing decarbonization goals. Supporters have argued that Colorado and the country need to wean themselves from fossil-fired energy quickly.  

Last month, hoteliers, apartment owners and other building operators refiled a lawsuit targeting carbon initiatives issued by the state of Colorado and Denver, calling them unworkable and unfairly expensive.

Both sets of regulations have required sweeping reductions in energy use and greenhouse gas emissions by larger commercial buildings.

Looking to the future, Johnston plans to expand more programs for youth, both after school and during the summer, he said.

Regarding infrastructure, the mayor noted that his administration plans to ask voters to approve a new general obligation bond estimated to be approximately $1 billion.

“Some people ask why a city would be making new capital investments in a moment of economic crisis. This is the critical moment to leverage public investment to spur economic growth as these investments create jobs, and deliver critical infrastructure that accelerates more private investment,” Johnston said.

The mayor also promised to follow through on the revival of downtown, beginning with filling more than 7 million square feet of empty office space.

Approximately 4 million square feet of that space would be converted into middle-class housing, he said. 

“We will work with businesses to ensure the tenants we have downtown stay downtown and introduce new incentives for start-ups and small businesses to bring others back,” Johnston said.

Along with projects, such as the new professional women’s soccer franchise and a new purpose-built stadium, investments in the National Stock Show triangle, the city will continue to identify ways to “dream big,” he said. 

As for the Denver Broncos’ new stadium, Johnston told The Denver Gazette that he is very excited about the progress and the city’s top priority is to keep the team in the city.

The second priority, the mayor said, is that regardless of where the stadium is built, a “comprehensive community experience” can be created around it.

Johnston made no mention of the city’s looming $250 million budget deficit or city employee layoffs, which are expected to begin in August.