Today is July 18, 2023 and here’s what you need to know:

Mike Johnston is now the mayor of Denver.

Surrounded by his wife and three children, Johnston took the oath of office Monday morning at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, marking the beginning of his administration as the city’s first new mayor in 12 years.

During the ceremony, Johnston spoke of creating a “new Denver.” Though he didn’t touch on specific policy plans or upcoming actions, he vowed to spend the next four years addressing the issues of homelessness, drug addiction, gun violence and the cost of living that have recently plagued the city.

“Today’s question is not how we found ourselves here, but how we find our way out of here,” Johnston said. “Denver is ready for a new dream.”

Before, during and after Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s inauguration Monday, there were plenty of non-ceremony events happening. 

Here’s a small collection.

A new poll shows the property tax measure referred to voters by Gov. Jared Polis and his Democratic allies in the General Assembly is a toss-up.

But when respondents learned more about Proposition HH, support for it markedly dips and opposition mounts.   

“Although the Proposition HH ballot language is relatively easy to understand, its approval would have far-reaching policy and funding implications for every local government, school district, property owner, and taxpayer in Colorado,” said Magellan Strategies, which conducted the poll. 

Magellan concluded that, assuming voters “are relatively informed of the state and local policy changes triggered by Prop HH, the outcome of this ballot measure in November, in our opinion, is a toss-up that could go either way.”

The survey appeared to have oversampled homeowners, who will be among the beneficiaries of Prop HH’s changes to property taxes: 77% of the survey’s respondents identified as homeowners, while only 19%, about half of the current rental rate, identified as renters.

Democrat Adam Frisch raised more than three times as much in the most recent quarter as U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, the Republican incumbent he’s challenging in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, according to campaign finance reports filed over the weekend.

The filings, which cover the three-month period from April 1 to June 30, show Frisch raised $2.6 million, dwarfing the $818,177 raised by Boebert, who is seeking a third term.

In the closest congressional race in the country last year, Frisch came within 546 votes of Boebert in the Republican-leaning district, which covers most of the Western Slope and parts of Southern Colorado, including Pueblo County and the San Luis Valley.

Frisch, who announced in February that he’s seeking a rematch in next year’s election, has toppled off-year fundraising records for Colorado House candidates. For the second quarter, the wealthy former Aspen councilman raised more than the combined total posted by every other congressional candidate in the state.

Cost of living and housing affordability remain top concerns for Coloradans, based on findings from the 4th Annual Pulse Poll commissioned by the Colorado Health Foundation.

Concerns over politics, homelessness and public safety, however, were not far behind. And an open-ended question about top issues of concern for respondents showed that water, climate change and wildfires were of equal concern to the cost of living.

The poll was conducted by two firms working together: liberal-leaning FM3 Research and conservative-leaning New Bridge Strategy.

The Colorado Health Foundation said Monday in a statement that results are consistent with recent polls and analyses that show Denver and cities across Colorado, recently considered some of the most desirable and livable cities in the country, are now falling further down the rankings.

“In the end, the concerns and changes detailed in the 2023 Pulse Poll may provide some insight to the changing face of Colorado in the years ahead,” the Foundation said.

The cost of housing has been a growing concern since 2020, the results showed. 

The survey found housing costs rated as either an extreme or very serious problem rose from 67% to 82% between 2020 and 2023, with 51% of respondents citing it as an extremely serious problem in 2023 compared to just 37% in 2020. Related, the rising cost of living was rated an extremely serious or very serious problem by 85% of those surveyed.