Imagine a metro area where residents of farflung jurisdictions tax themselves to build a regional transit system, a new airport and downtown sports venues that ensure their city core remains strong.
It may seem a fantasy in metro Atlanta, but it’s reality in Greater Denver.
The Denver area exhibits a degree of regional cooperation – in politics, business recruitment, transportation and downtown development — unusual across America. Over the last three decades, voters across the 10-county region have voted repeatedly to tax themselves in what Ken Schroeppel labels the region’s “collective civic ambition.”
“There’s this sense that we are really a single large community in competition with other cities around the country, therefore, we have to stick together,” said Schroeppel, a professor of urban planning at the University of Colorado’s in-town campus.
This weekend's installment of Atlanta Forward 2015 looks deeply at how Denver pulls it off, and what lessons metro Atlanta can learn.
Read Dan Chapman's full report on Denver here in a vibrant, immersive format.
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