Bad news: Inflation continues in Denver metro area

Good news: It’s slowing

BY SARAH MULHOLLAND COLORADO PUBLIC RADIO

ere is a little bit of good news for consumers who’ve watched prices for just about everything tick up dramatically — prices are now rising more slowly in Denver as federal regulators try to keep in ation in check.

An index that measures prices for everything from gasoline and groceries to airplane tickets and housing increased by 6.4 percent in January compared to 2022, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics. at’s down from an annual increase of 6.9 percent in November, the last time the rate was calculated. At this time last year, prices were surging more than 9 percent in Denver. e trajectory mirrors the national trend, with U.S. prices up 6.5 percent in January. at’s good news for consumers that have watched the bills for everyday items grow unabated for more than a year. But still, in ation is stuck far higher than the government’s target rate of between 2 percent and 3 percent.

In the Denver region — which includes Adams, Arapahoe, Broomeld, Clear Creek, Denver, Douglas, Elbert, Gilpin, Je erson and Park counties — prices for a lot of things remain stubbornly high, even if they’re not rising as fast as a year ago. For instance, fruits and vegetables cost almost 13 percent more than they did at the same time last year. And household energy bills are up more than 13 percent. On the ip side, used car prices have fallen more than 10 percent. is story is from CPR News, a nonpro t news source. Used by permission. For more, and to support Colorado Public Radio, visit cpr.org.

Since November, prices for food broadly speaking are up 2 percent and used car prices are down about 4 percent.

Newly released data on spending in the U.S. shows that retail sales jumped in January, meaning people remain largely undeterred by how expensive things are. While that’s good news for the overall economy, it’s not great news when it comes to putting the brakes on in ation. e persistent price increases mean the Federal Reserve is likely to keep raising interest rates, making it more expensive to borrow money and slowing demand for large purchases that many people take out loans to buy. e central bank’s efforts have already slowed demand in the housing market. Home prices in Denver, Colorado’s largest housing market, are down about 1 percent since last year, after a record-setting run of double-digit gains during the pandemic.

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“ is is not a normal season,” Wittern said. “We have gotten a lot of snow this year — a lot of snow.” e city’s “ice cutting criteria” is used to identify the highest priority locations for the service. e criteria includes ice buildup in the travel lane, or ice forming in the gutter and forcing water onto the sidewalk, per the city’s website. e city will come out and evalu- ate the ice buildup to determine if something needs to be done, Wittern explained. In the case that the city determines it should remove the ice, then the location will be added to the list.

According to the National Weather Service, the snowfall measurements in Denver this season have been higher than the seasonal normal. For example, the normal amount of snowfall for the month of January is typically 6.5 inches, but this January totaled 13 inches.

“It’s just been cold this year, and so, that’s a huge part of it, too. Normally it’s gone in like, at least a week or two,” Wittern said.

How does the ice removal program work?

If residents have a large block of ice they want the city to remove, there are two ways to apply — by calling the city’s Citizen Response Center at (303) 325-8000 or lling out a form on the city’s website at bit.ly/iceapply.

“It is rst come, rst serve, so to speak. But, for right now, I want to say that if we have a bunch in a certain area, we try to go that route,” Wittern said, adding that certain criteria are also considered.

“And then we follow up with that person and let them know, ‘Yes, we will plan on coming out around this time,’” she said. “And then if it doesn’t meet (the criteria), we’ll let people know that as well.”

Part of the reason for letting the resident know if the ice removal process will happen is so they can make sure there are no vehicles in the way and there is room for the city to bring in its ice removing tool.

“We do have this piece of equipment called the Arctic Shark … and it basically grinds up the ice,” she said, describing it as a big construction truck.

To her knowledge, the city only has one Arctic Shark machine.

“ ere’s some times that we go — we’ll put de-icer on and then we’ll go cut some other place, and then go back and check and see if … progress has been made,” Wittern said.

“We’re trying to be as e cient as possible,” she added. “But making it as safe as possible, as well.” e amount of time it takes for the city to inspect a request that comes in varies, as it is based on the amount of requests the city has and what the weather is like, Wittern said.

“Because when we’re doing ice, we’re not doing snow. And so, if it’s snowing, then they’re plowing,” she said.

Currently, as the city faces a long list of ice removal requests, the process of going to locations and evaluating them for ice removal is taking longer than it normally would, she said.

“And then we keep getting these snow storms on top of it, which means the people that would go out to evaluate the ice are actually out plowing the snow,” she said, describing it as a cycle.

Understanding city’s snow plow routes

In determining the snow plow routes for Centennial, which is equipped with 20 snow plows, the city has categorized its streets into three di erent levels of priorities.

e rst priority is major arterial roads such as those that have four or more travel lanes, according to the city’s website. e second priority is minor arterial streets, which Wittern described as side streets that feed into the larger system.

Streets that are categorized under either of those priorities are maintained for all snow events, the city said on its website.

“In general, it’s a huge city, huge amount of miles to cover,” Wittern said. “We currently plow and provide ice control to roughly 578 lane miles for the P1 ( rst priority) and P2 (second priority) streets, for every storm.”

“ e crews that are out there plowing … they’re doing 12-hour shifts,” she added.

All remaining local streets, such as the roads in neighborhoods, are categorized as the third priority, which are only maintained when authorized by the city manager, according to the website.

“ e economic and environmental cost to maintain every street for every storm is not justi ed because warmer weather typically follows a storm and melting occurs naturally within a short period of time,” the city said on its website about why it does not typically plow residential streets.

When determining whether to authorize snow plowing of these streets, the city manager considers three guidelines: if the forecasted street snow accumulation is 6 or more inches; if the forecasted temperatures are below freezing for an extended period of time after the storm; and if there are forecasted additional snow events within the next day or two.

“ ere’s a lot that goes into that decision just because you have to mobilize more, additional crews,” Wittern said. “We don’t do it very often.” e last time the city manager authorized the priority three plowing was during the Jan. 17 through Jan. 19 snow event, Wittern explained, adding that the city tries to perform residential plowing when the storm is winding down “so residents can receive the most bene t.” e plow that comes through for residential plowing is not big, as it is a pickup truck with a plow attached to the front of it, Wittern said. ese residential plows take one pass from the center of the street. e plowing can also cause issues sometimes for residents, as it pushes the snow to the side of the road.

“ e standard is for us just to clear any loose snow,” she said.

De-icer is also not used for residential plowing, she said, and neighbors likely will not see bare pavement after the residential plow comes through.

“ at’s frustrating for residents, because if they do shovel their sidewalks and their driveways, chances are that if the plow does come through, it’s gonna put the snow on the sidewalks,” she said.

Something Centennial resident Wally Goodby complained about to the city council was how the city plows East Easter Avenue, explaining he thinks that if the city changed the direction of its plow on a portion of the street, it would lessen the buildup.

Wittern, however, said in a Feb. 16 email that she does not think the city can change the plow direction for safety reasons.

Given the weather and the list of people waiting for ice removal, Wittern said she appreciates people’s patience.

“I want to make sure that people know that we take it very seriously, and we are doing the best we can with the resources that we currently have in place,” she said.

She encouraged residents to “be a good neighbor” and help each other by doing things like shoveling the sidewalks of people who may struggle to do it themselves, such as an elderly person.

Residents who want to learn more about the city’s snow and ice control plan can visit: bit.ly/snowqa.

Turn To The Colorado Sun For News Across The State

The Colorado Sun is a journalist-owned, award-winning news outlet that strives to cover all of Colorado so that our state — our community — can better understand itself.

In this way, The Sun contributes to a more vibrant, informed and whole Colorado.

The Sun, launched in 2018, is committed to fact-based, in-depth and non-partisan journalism. It covers everything from politics and culture to the outdoor industry and education.

Now, The Colorado Sun co-owns this and other Colorado Community Media newspapers as a partner in the Colorado News Conservancy. The Sun is CCM’s partner for statewide news.

For Colorado Sun stories, opinions and more, and to support The Sun’s misssion as a member or subscriber, visit coloradosun. com.