Moments after he took the oath of office to become the city’s 46th mayor, Mike Johnston asked all Denverites to take oaths as well.
“An oath to dream, to serve, and to deliver,” the 48-year-old told an audience inside the Ellie Caulkins Opera House during his inaugural address Monday. “To dream a Denver bold enough to include all of us, to serve our city above ourselves and to march on shoulder to shoulder, undeterred by failure, until we deliver results.”
From the time he jumped in the race last fall, Johnston’s campaign focused on presenting a hopeful vision for the city’s future. Riding that hopeful message — and with an avalanche of outside spending supporting him — Johnston separated himself from a crowded field to be elected the city’s first new mayor in a dozen years in June. That vision calls for a future in which families return to a bustling downtown and don’t think twice as their children play on a sidewalk along the 16th Street Mall. It also calls for a city where firefighters, teachers, nurses and construction workers can afford to buy a home and raise a family in the city limits.
Now officially sworn in, Johnston will be tasked with carrying out the vision and delivering on big campaign promises like ending street homelessness in his first four-year term in office.
Dressed in a dark suit, a black and white striped tie and a metallic belt buckle with the city flag on it, Johnston started his inaugural address by describing some of the painful scenarios that have played out across the city in recent years whether it was watching older loved ones lose their lives to COVID-19 or watching others fall into a life of addiction and homelessness.
But Johnston emphasized the city can overcome its challenges with him at the helm and residents all pulling in the same direction.
“Our dream of Denver is that when you land at your lowest, without a job or a place to stay, shackled by addiction or struggling with mental illness, we will not judge you or abandon you. We will not give up on you. We will get you a home. We will get you help. We will get you healed,” Johnston said.
The new dream of Denver was the main theme of Johnston’s address. It’s a refrain he returned to when describing a city that is affordable and supportive for working-class people and again when talking about reinvigorating a downtown area struggling to stay relevant amid shifting tides of modern work.
“Today, we dedicate ourselves to two essential American ideas: That every problem we face is solvable and we are the ones to solve them,” Johnston said.
The former school principal and state senator takes the reins from outgoing Mayor Michael Hancock at a time when a recent rise in crime and growing homelessness have many Denver residents feeling uncertain about the future. At the same time, sky-high home prices and rising rents threaten a cost-of-living crisis for working-class people.
His address did not get into specifics about policies and actions Johnston plans to take to make good on his campaign pledges but more of that is coming soon, he vowed. The new mayor said that the 28 advisory committees he convened during the post-election transition period to offer perspective on issues and priorities for city departments all turned in reports on Sunday. He’ll be reading those and getting ready for his next steps over the next few days. A press conference is planned for Tuesday.
“We’ll start fast,” Johnston told reporters in a post-inauguration question-and-answer session Monday. “We’re ready to get to work tomorrow and we will be coming back to you tomorrow morning with some plans for our first 100 days.”
The new City Council and re-elected Clerk and Recorder Paul López and City Auditor Timothy O’Brien were also sworn in on Monday. City Council President Jamie Torres highlighted some of the milestones reached by the new council during the inauguration ceremony.
In addition to incumbents Torres, Amanda Sandoval, Kevin Flynn, Amanda Sawyer, Paul Kashmann, Chris Hinds and Stacie Gilmore, six new members were sworn in Monday. They are district representatives Diana Romero Campbell, Flor Alvidrez, Shontel Lewis and Darrell Watson and at-large members Sarah Parady and Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez.
Torres pointed out that that group includes six Latinas, the most Hispanic members of City Council of any gender in Denver history. It also includes the first two out LGBTQ Black members ever in Lewis and Watson. Finally, with nine female members, women now hold a super majority on the council, Torres said.
“Which coincidentally is the number needed to override a mayoral veto,” she said with a smile.
“Everyone on this stage is here today because as community members we felt compelled to serve, to solve problems and to find solidarity for improvement somewhere in this city,” Torres said. “And I know we can because we have and because it’s the only way that we have moved forward on some of the most dire issues and for our often overlooked and underserved communities.”
Later in the day, Torres was re-elected for another year term as the council president and Sandoval was re-elected as council president pro tem.
On Monday evening, people were invited to celebrate Johston’s inauguration at a celebration dubbed the Denver Vibes Festival outside Union Station. The free festival was set to feature musical performances by Denver artists including Isaac Slade, former frontman of The Fray, Flobots, The Motet and more. It was the party before the hard work begins.
Johnston, who as a child used to memorize and recite speeches by Martin Luther King Jr. in his family living room, closed his inaugural address with a call for unity in the face of the city’s challenges.
“The essence of democracy is that it calls on our ability to do something that feels unnatural: to love those who are different than us. To believe in them, to work with them, to sacrifice for them, to deliver for them,” he said. “That is our dream of Denver. That is our promise to our people. That is our pledge to each other. That is how we put our arms around those stuck in a cycle of hurt and it’s how we pull this city back into a cycle of hope.”
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