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Council approves minimum wage hikes Hourly rate will reach $15.87 by beginning of 2022 BY DAVID SACHS DENVERITE.COM
on Broadway and Lincoln as two phases of one project. The transit organization has left the outreach to the city due to it being a highly residential area, said Laurie Huff, a senior specialist of public affairs with RTD. However, the organization supports the project, she added, in the hopes that it will draw more riders and get cars off the road. “We’re supportive of any change that can improve the speed of the service,” Huff said. “Anything we can do to attract more ridership is a good thing.” She added that buses along the Lincoln corridor currently spend about 20% of the time stuck in congestion without a designated lane.
Denver’s government will guarantee that workers in the city will receive a base hourly rate of $15.87 when the clock strikes 2022. The minimum wage will rise each year before then — and after, too. The city council voted 11-0 to raise the wage Nov. 25, just two months after Mayor Michael Hancock and City Councilwoman Robin Kniech publicly pitched the idea. City Councilmembers Chris Herndon and Stacie Gilmore were absent. Business owners will absorb the hike over three years. Workers who currently make the minimum wage of $11.10 will make $12.85 starting Jan. 1, 2020, and $14.77 in 2021. After the minimum wage reaches $15.87 in 2022, it will be pegged to the consumer price index. In other words: as life costs change — transportation, food, healthcare — the minimum wage will change with them. It’s important workers start earning higher wages “right away,” Kniech said, “because they were so far behind the cost of living in Denver.”
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SEE WAGE, P13
People wait at the I-25 and Broadway bus station. The station is toward the end of where Denver staff want to increase the hours of the bus lane on Lincoln Avenue. People can connect to other bus routes as well as the light rail. KAILYN LAMB
Changing for efficiency Residents voice concern over parking in Lincoln Street bus lane transition BY KAILYN LAMB KLAMB@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
A new proposal to switch to a designated bus lane on Lincoln Street from Interstate 25 north to Seventh Avenue has residents concerned that they will lose out on parking in front of their homes, while Denver staff argues the lane will improve bus efficiency and traffic flow in the area. As Broadway runs through the Baker neighborhood in south Denver, the three lanes of one-way traffic whiz
by a selection of local businesses and restaurants, even a few new apartment buildings. A fourth lane on the far right side of traffic on the roadway is a dedicated bus lane, stretching from 17th Avenue in Uptown all the way to Exposition Avenue in south Baker. Broadway’s counterpart, Lincoln Street, features the same bustling traffic on three lanes, with a fourth lane on the right that alternates between a bus and parking lane from Seventh Avenue south to I-25. But instead of businesses, that portion of Lincoln is mostly lined with residences — houses and the occasional apartment building with even fewer businesses scattered amongst them. Both the Regional Transportation District and the city of Denver have considered the designated bus lanes
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Denver typically gets about 8 inches of snow in December, making it the thirdsnowiest month of the year. Source: National Weather Service
VOICES: PAGE 8 | LIFE: PAGE 10 | CALENDAR: PAGE 9 VOLUME 93 | ISSUE 4