'76 Blog

Randal O'Toole of the Cato Institute, author of the new book Gridlock, spelled out the fiscal folly of Denver's light rail plans at Issue Monday, Feb. 22, hosted by the Centennial Institute at CCU's School of Business.  The mounting deficit is obvious as far away as London, where The Economist recently took note of RTD's woes. Yet Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, now a candidate for Governor of Colorado, continues to brag on the project, as noted in this video report from Kelly Maher of the new website WhoSaidYouSaid.com.

('76 Editor) You have to read closely to see it, so elegant are the euphemisms, but the company that owns the company that owns the Denver Post is taking bankruptcy to get out from under $1 billion in loans it can't repay. ("Pact lets Post's owner cut debt," Jan. 16.)  I note this with sadness, not any sort of pleasure, because Denver and Colorado need the Post -- all the more so after we lost the Rocky Mountain News a year ago -- and because I admire press lord Dean Singleton, whose MediaNews Group is the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher in terms of circulation and who is one of the world's true visionaries about where journalism is going in the digital age. As today's story explains, MediaNews is in relatively better shape than most other struggling or bankrupt newspaper owners, and given Singleton's proven virtuosity there is reason to think he can pilot the company through current storms into sustainability when industry trends smooth out.  For Colorado's sake and in the interest of informed self-government, let's hope so. Disclosure: I am a Denver Post columnist.

('76 Contributor) Since moving to Denver from Houston in October, I've found it been impossible not to pick up on the love affair this city has with the Broncos. It's a topic that everyone has an opinion on, and everywhere you go on gameday you feel the team's presence. Unfortunately, on this "day after," the city is asking itself one thing: What happened to the Broncos?. They entered the year with low expectations from those outside of Denver (including, at the time, me) due to the chaos within the team's lockerroom and the fact they had a rookie head coach in Josh McDaniels who seemed to be losing control of his team before the season even began. Six weeks into the season, the Broncos seemed well on their way to proving all the naysayers wrong with a 6-0 start and impressive victories over Dallas, San Diego and New England. The win against the Patriots provided fans with the lasting image of McDaniels pumping his fist and screaming in celebration. After Sunday's last-second loss to the lowly Raiders on their home field, the Broncos had receded back to mediocrity and McDaniels is searching for a reason why his team is in a 2-6 funk. How could the Broncos defense, which had made a stellar goal line stand early in the fourth quarter, not shutdown Raiders backup quarterback JaMarcus Russell, the most beleagured quarterback in the NFL? Russell drove down the field on the game-winning drive, at one point converting a first down on fourth-and-10, and picked apart the Broncos secondary. The Raiders receivers kept finding holes in the defense and Russell made the plays when it counted most. The Broncos offense struggled the majority of the game and Kyle Orton showed Denver fans what many Chicago Bears fans already now, that he can't get it down in crunch time. After running for an average of 5.1 yards per carry in the first quarter, the Broncos' running game was shutdown by the maligned Raiders defense and gained just 29 yards the rest of the game. Hardly the key for success when you have Orton under center. McDaniels now has his biggest task of his career in front of him, try to turn things and push his team through the increasingly shrinking window to the postseason.