The Denver Way

Growing up in Colorado and living as an adult in Boston, New York, San Francisco and now New Jersey, I have always admired the State of Colorado and its cities like Denver for having decent, effective, well-run governments that are able to make decisions and execute projects to promote civic improvement. As a young, western city without the types of entrenched establishment interests and ethnic tribalism that exist in some older locales, Denver seems to exhibit an openness to newcomers and new ideas.

Economic development gurus like Richard Florida argue that a key to attracting the creative, information savvy workforce needed to power the economies of today and tomorrow is openness to ideas, lifestyles, cultural variety, ethnic and racial diversity and other differences among people.

The election of Michael Hancock as Denver's 44th Mayor is instructive. The city's last four elected Mayors come from diverse backgrounds: African American, Caucasian, and Hispanic. The fact that two of the last three people elected mayor of Denver have been African American, in a city in which only 11% of the population is black, is particularly striking and strong evidence that Denver is a relatively open and tolerant city.

It seems to me that a repeated willingness of a citizenry to elect leaders from different racial and cultural backgrounds to top level positions, is a compelling example of openness and tolerance and will go a long way toward promoting the "Denver brand" to the creative class.