topic Re: When did Denver become a pile of poo? in SmorgasBoard

When did Denver become a pile of poo?

tcbofade — Sat, 07 Jun 2025 10:31:28 GMT

I'm in Denver for a few weeks for work.

Haven't been here since the late 80s, early 90s.

It WAS beautiful.

It has been overrun by the homeless.

What happened?

Yesterday, I needed gas in the truck. Stopped at a gas station with a convenience store and went inside to make a purchase.

FOUR interactions with homeless to complete the process.

One getting out of the truck, one going into the store, one while making a purchase, and another when returning to the truck.

It's awful.

What happened?

Re: When did Denver become a pile of poo?

Thomas_Thumb — Sat, 07 Jun 2025 14:29:39 GMT

Looks like you stumbled into the wrong part of town. If the homeless make you uneasy, probably best to avoid downtown San Diego.

Re: When did Denver become a pile of poo?

Horseshoez — Sat, 07 Jun 2025 14:39:15 GMT

@Thomas_Thumb wrote:
Looks like you stumbled into the wrong part of town. If the homeless make you uneasy, probably best to avoid downtown San Diego.

Or San Francisco, or any number of other large cities for that matter.

Re: When did Denver become a pile of poo?

FicoMike0 — Sat, 07 Jun 2025 15:26:41 GMT

History tells us all civilizations fall and usually from within.

On the brighter side, I noticed one of the small towns near me made panhandling illegal. No more people standing on the street corners begging.

Re: When did Denver become a pile of poo?

crystal626 — Sun, 08 Jun 2025 06:48:44 GMT

It's been pretty bad for years but as other places become less friendly to the homeless, they come here instead.

@FicoMike0 wrote:
History tells us all civilizations fall and usually from within.
On the brighter side, I noticed one of the small towns near me made panhandling illegal. No more people standing on the street corners begging.

Honestly making it harder for homeless people to exist doesn't stop homelessness, it just increases the likelihood of them committing crimes to survive. Instead of panhandling they might start robbing people or stores or turn to prostitution, dealing, or any other number of activities that are worse for society than them panhandling.

Re: When did Denver become a pile of poo?

BearsCubsOtters — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 00:01:26 GMT

Homelessness is an issue in most cities these days and Denver is not immune. Mental illness and drug addiction are the largest contributors to homelessness. In addition, Denver is not an affordable city/Colorado is not an affordable state. Ranks in Top 10 of unaffordable states. When tech moves in, affordability takes a hit. Makes it hard for those earning a meager income to live and the result is that many become homeless.

Colorado was unfortunately discovered in the mid 1990s and grew out of control for decades. One cannot spit in Colorado without hiting a native Californian or Texan. Trash from other states converged and have further contributed to outrageous costs, increased traffic, increased homelessness and increased crime. It may be leveling out though, as 2024 was the first year in decades that there were more people moving out than in.

But...I believe it was the legalization of recreational marijuana in 2013/2014 that really made things bad in Denver. A lot of people flocked in, made housing even more expensive and a lot of less educated individuals just moved to Denver with no consideration of where they would live or work. They just wanted to come for the pot. Despite huge growth for 20 years, it really was felt after that passed in 2013/2014.

I am a native Coloradoan relocated to Utah. There are other factors that I cannot go into in this forum. Just to say, be careful who or what you vote for.

Re: When did Denver become a pile of poo?

Meanmchine — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 02:25:08 GMT

2 words

Pot legalizatin

Re: When did Denver become a pile of poo?

TrapLine — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 03:32:38 GMT

@Meanmchine wrote:
2 words

Pot legalizatin

Com'mon ... you know all about the "Sunshine State" ...

Re: When did Denver become a pile of poo?

Gregory1776 — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 06:21:36 GMT

@tcbofade wrote:
I'm in Denver for a few weeks for work.

Haven't been here since the late 80s, early 90s.

It WAS beautiful.

It has been overrun by the homeless.

What happened?

Yesterday, I needed gas in the truck. Stopped at a gas station with a convenience store and went inside to make a purchase.

FOUR interactions with homeless to complete the process.

One getting out of the truck, one going into the store, one while making a purchase, and another when returning to the truck.

It's awful.

What happened?

Oh boy.
All the folks from LA / California? Yeah they moved to Colorado because they couldn't live with their consequences.

You'll see this in Texas, Idaho, Tennessee.

Like a plague.

Re: When did Denver become a pile of poo?

Gregory1776 — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 06:28:25 GMT

@BearsCubsOtters wrote:
Homelessness is an issue in most cities these days and Denver is not immune. Mental illness and drug addiction are the largest contributors to homelessness. In addition, Denver is not an affordable city/Colorado is not an affordable state. Ranks in Top 10 of unaffordable states. When tech moves in, affordability takes a hit. Makes it hard for those earning a meager income to live and the result is that many become homeless.

Colorado was unfortunately discovered in the mid 1990s and grew out of control for decades. One cannot spit in Colorado without hiting a native Californian or Texan. Trash from other states converged and have further contributed to outrageous costs, increased traffic, increased homelessness and increased crime. It may be leveling out though, as 2024 was the first year in decades that there were more people moving out than in.

But...I believe it was the legalization of recreational marijuana in 2013/2014 that really made things bad in Denver. A lot of people flocked in, made housing even more expensive and a lot of less educated individuals just moved to Denver with no consideration of where they would live or work. They just wanted to come for the pot. Despite huge growth for 20 years, it really was felt after that passed in 2013/2014.

I am a native Coloradoan relocated to Utah. There are other factors that I cannot go into in this forum. Just to say, be careful who or what you vote for.

I visited Colorado in '19. Desired to move there desperately, I LOVE the mountains.
Just made a spontaneous trip to Spokane (wrong place) was beautiful but very much like home (Hudson Valley).
I cannot and will not move somewhere I won't be able to put roots down and raise a family (kids) with without being harassed by the government or divorced **bleep**. I love the convenience of being 90 minutes from a city, but I want nothing to do with them.

Legalization absolutely become a disaster. I know personally (my dad).

Re: When did Denver become a pile of poo?

coldfusion — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 12:26:47 GMT

The migration from California to Denver was already in full swing by the late '90s. Even back then it was a running joke that it was easy to pick out the expats from all the cars and SUVs that ended up in a ditch after each snowstorm.

The 2 most lasting of my many memories of Denver are from the bartender that tried to use Coors Lite to make me a Black & Tan (uhhhh....no) and witnessing the mayhem up close in and around LoDo when the Broncos won Super Bowl XXXIII.

Re: When did Denver become a pile of poo?

dfwxjer — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 17:33:25 GMT

It's terrible to see. Denver used to be a great city to visit.

Last time we were passing through and stayed at the Kimpton Born Denver (I think they rebranded) it was unbearable to even walk out the front door. This was an Amex FHR property and when we walked out we were met with people doing drugs (real drugs not pot), and within 30 feet of the entrance was a dude defecating next to a pillar. I had to turn my children around and we chose to eat at the hotel instead.

I've been traveling to Denver/Boulder/Vail since my parents took me as a kid in the 80s. It's gone significantly downhill since they legalized marijuana and became a sanctuary city. I won't go back and instead we'll stick to Durango/Silverton.

Re: When did Denver become a pile of poo?

Gregory1776 — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 00:03:17 GMT

@dfwxjer

Thanks for sharing that. I have to check those areas out! Silverton looks like it gets a lot of snow. Must be beautiful!

Small towns will beat out a City in my book all day long.

Re: When did Denver become a pile of poo?

dfwxjer — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 15:09:51 GMT

@Gregory1776 wrote:
@dfwxjer
Thanks for sharing that. I have to check those areas out! Silverton looks like it gets a lot of snow. Must be beautiful!

Small towns will beat out a City in my book all day long.

Durango/Silverton are great! I highly recommend taking the train between the two, and staying on Lake Vallecito in Durango. Denver doesn't compare...

Re: When did Denver become a pile of poo?

tcbofade — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 16:53:42 GMT

Safely back in the green, green grass of Kansas.

If I ever get the chance to visit Denver again, I'll pass.

Yuck.

Re: When did Denver become a pile of poo?

crystal626 — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 03:22:53 GMT

As a Colorado native, I can tell you that things were changing long before weed became legal. Californians were already moving here because they screwed up their state and the Denver Tech Center was started being built in the 60s, which started attracting high dollar tech jobs to Denver, which exacerbated the California migration problem. We have also had NIMBYs going all the way back to the 80s that have put in regulations as to what density of housing can be built and where. Boulder went further than anyone else did, which made it the most unaffordable place in the state very quickly, but it was going all around the suburbs to varying degrees as soon as migration started. Couple that with the fact that TABOR passed in 1992, which strangled the ability for the state AND local governments to grow with the demand for services and instead constrained it to an arbitrary formula that was specifically designed to NOT keep up with demands by the people, and we had a dumpster fire brewing long before legal weed.

Also keep in mind that while we were the first legal rec state, many medical states had such flimsy regulations in their medical program that anyone with $100 could smoke all the weed they wanted anyway.

Migration to Colorado is unfortunately expected to explode in the coming years as Colorado is ranked one of the places that will be least affected by climate change. Couple that with the fact that a huge chunk of the state's parks is going to be up for the highest bidder thanks to the Senate's draft bill putting up over 3 million acres for sale for mining and drilling with express permits and next to no environmental oversight and yeah... Might be time to think hard about moving away.