Author: Denver Gazette Editorial Board

Alarming and tragic data reported by The Gazette this week on our state’s overdose epidemic offer a potent reminder of what is really driving – and destroying – the homeless population on our streets. Don’t blame economic injustice; no one has stacked the deck against the drifters who pitch their tents and lean-tos in parks…

Here’s a species that urgently needs to be reintroduced into Colorado’s ecosystem: condos. Years ago, they were a staple of new residential construction. Sometimes high-rises, sometimes townhomes built side-by-side, the once-affordable alternative to single-family homes have been disappearing from new housing stock across the state. Why? Lawsuits – made all too easy to file by…

January is traditionally the month of renewed resolve – reining in excesses, realigning priorities and restoring vigor. It’s why so many people vow on New Year’s Eve to hit the gym more often. It’s also why it has become a month for tapping the reset button on holiday overindulgences of food – and especially drink.…

After spending half a year and $45 million in tax dollars, freshman Denver Mayor Mike Johnston surprised no one this week when he declared he’d met his goal of moving some 1,000 of Denver’s diehard street dwellers indoors by year’s end. He seemed bound and determined to fulfill that much-publicized pledge – made last July…

An in-depth analysis by The Gazette’s news team this week on the economic impact of illegal immigration in Colorado underscores the need to restore balance to immigration policy. Notably, it’s not a matter of picking economic opportunity over border security, or vice versa. That’s a false choice. In truth, our state and nation can have…

It was refreshing to hear the mayor of Colorado’s largest city join his counterparts from Chicago and New York in placing responsibility for the nation’s ongoing border crisis where it belongs: on the Biden administration. They didn’t put it in those words, of course, in their video news conference Wednesday. Mayors Mike Johnston of Denver,…

It could have been any noisy animal-rights activist from the political fringe, publicly denouncing someone who dares to disagree with the controversial introduction of wolves into Colorado. Only, this particular animal-rights activist happens to be Colorado’s official first gentleman, Marlon Reis, spouse to Gov. Jared Polis. And the target of his vituperation is respected journalist…

It was only weeks ago Gov. Jared Polis exhorted Colorado’s counties and other local governments to cut property taxes. That was shortly after the bruising defeat of Proposition HH – the phony property tax cut Polis had championed on the Nov. 7 ballot – and right after a special legislative session that was supposed to…

Many if not most of Denver’s diehard street dwellers are addicted to drugs or alcohol. Their addiction is, by and large, what keeps them on the streets. To acknowledge that is considered impolite in some circles, but it’s not intended as an indictment or even a “judgment.” It’s just being realistic. And it is why…

More blowback from our state’s soft-on-drugs policies: A new study ranks Colorado first among the states for addiction. Researchers commissioned by Canada-based online pharmacy Universal Drugstore crunched wide-ranging public-health data on the percentage of illicit drug users, excessive drinkers, vape users and tobacco smokers in each state. Colorado came out overall “as the state with…