I-70 Widening

Greenhouse gas emissions from autos increased 102 percent in the Denver Metro over 1990 levels. The news comes one day before 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg will lead a Fridays for Future Strike in Denver.

To honor this second Global Climate Strike today, Gov. Jared Polis and Mayor Michael Hancock must commit to stop building new roads and expanding the ones we have.

This is a special edition to our series of interviews with candidates for Denver mayor in the May 2019 municipal election.

Why is Denver still expanding I-70? The move to tear down I-980 in Oakland shows that forward-thinking officials elsewhere get it: The problems associated with mega-motorways in urban neighborhoods outweigh the benefits.

This is the third of a series of interviews with candidates for Denver mayor in the May 2019 municipal election.

A new report calls for the removal of America's 10 worst urban highways, including Interstate 70 through Denver’s mostly Latino neighborhoods of Elyria, Swansea, and Globeville. Local activists see the report as a chance to renew their calls to stop the project — especially after electing Gov. Polis, who campaigned on cutting vehicle emissions and increasing mass transit.

The Colorado Department of Transportation should not be allowed to widen I-70 before the courts have ruled on the project, say advocates fighting the highway expansion, and they have a new piece of evidence to bolster their legal case.

The safe and easily navigable streets of Denmark's largest metro area are not some magical accident in a far away land. They're the result of pragmatic decision-making.

To have the Post tell it, widening an interstate through city neighborhoods is actually a community connector, a jobs program, an affordable housing solution, an investment in our children, and a boon for outdoor recreation. That must be why so many cities are solving their problems these days by spending billions of dollars on traffic-generating, sprawl-inducing highway expansion projects.