Give Mayor Mike Johnston some credit for pushing back at the Denver City Council last week after it voted to let the city’s street dwellers freeze outdoors when temperatures plummet.
You read that right: “Progressive” council members voted 7 to 6 to prohibit closures of illegal homeless encampments whenever temperatures fall below 32 degrees. You’re not alone if you are scratching your head over that one. Rest assured, the reasoning behind the vote is just as mystifying.
It seems shutting down the squalid and dangerous camps and moving their largely alcohol- and drug-addicted denizens indoors — as the Johnston administration has been doing since last summer — is somehow “inhumane,” “cruel” and “damaging” when it’s below freezing.
That’s according to the proposal’s ring leader, at-large council member Sarah Parady. She was elected last spring with an endorsement by the Democratic Socialists of America.
On Friday, Johnston vetoed the council’s handiwork. His mild and conciliatory veto letter to the council explained their new ordinance, “would restrict the city’s ability to do this life-saving work for approximately four months of the year.” He then thanked the measure’s sponsors for their “open and ongoing engagement.”