We don’t know how long the closure will last.
Hart Van Denburg / CPR News
The city of Denver plans to close Civic Center Park through September 15 to address public health and safety issues. Although the park will not be completely closed to the public for another week, workers were able to set up large barricades and cordon off some areas of the park as early as Tuesday.
The city topped a long list of reasons that led to the shutdown, including litter, rotting food, dozens of rodent burrows, human and animal litter, and improperly discarded needles. The press release also identified graffiti and fire damage to park structures that would require professional restoration.
The closure could take up to two months, according to a report from CBS Denver. However, the city did not provide any further information about the timing of the closure. “When the work is complete and all public health issues have been mitigated, the Civic Center Park and surrounding areas will reopen,” a city press release said.
Civic Center Park has been the focus of the Denver Police for months and is one of the five crime hotspots the department identified earlier this year.
Last month, police officers said that one of their new approaches to calming violent crime in the park had begun.
The press release reiterated these issues: “The park and surrounding areas have become a hotspot for violence, crime, drug sales and substance abuse, and are jeopardizing the public’s ability to safely enjoy one of Denver’s prized outdoor spaces,” it said.
Hart Van Denburg / CPR News
Hart Van Denburg / CPR News
We know that from DPD’s crime data.
Violent crime rages across the city. There were 337 murders and aggravated attacks in Denver in July, most in one month since January 2016. We haven’t adjusted to population growth, but violence has escalated in Denver and other US cities since the arrival of COVID last year acute problem.
Source: Denver Police Department
We only evaluated DPD’s crime data for the area that includes the Civic Center Park and found two homicides reported there this year. They’re the only two in the books since 2016. Even so, serious attacks in the park have not risen to the highest level ever.
To get a better idea of how the number of violent crimes in the park compares to a larger area, we looked at the murders and assaults in Civic Center Park relative to the total numbers in the four surrounding neighborhoods: Capitol Hill, North Capitol Hill, Central Business District and Civic Center (which is essentially the “Golden Triangle”). Violent crimes in Civic Center Park accounted for around ten percent of all assaults and murders in the four neighborhoods in July and August.
Compared to 20 percent in June 2020 when the park accounted for the largest amount of violence in the area.
Source: Denver Police Department
Drug crime is a different story. The crimes registered in Civic Center Park accounted for a larger proportion of the total number of the four neighborhoods in 2021 than in most of the past six years. In June, DPD logged more drug-related crime in the park than ever before – a tactic to curb violence that, according to Chief Paul Pazen, was fueled by illegal business.
Source: Denver Police Department
This is a development story and will be updated.
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