Reopening of 2900 Larimer Street Sparks Community Backlash

At noon on May 25, either side of the 2900 block of Larimer Street was cut off by traffic cones. People congregated together in the middle of the street, assembling an impromptu sign-building station. Cyclists biked up and down the length of the block, while others huddled together in chairs and handed out pamphlets for a reading circle.

The number of people there on that day is lower than previous outings, which may be due to the threat of police presence that was sent to the organizers of the protest in advance.

“There are some groups who did not come out this week because of the possible threat of police interaction,” said organizer Spencer McCullough. “There were a lot of people with very valid reasons not to come out.”

The block party, which was supposed to last from noon to 3 p.m., ends nearly an hour early due to a downpour of rain. However, the attendees are not deterred. They will return in a month, just as they have on the last Sunday of every previous month since the street was reopened to cars, with no intention of stopping until the street is restored to its original form as an alternative to car-centric travel.

The reopening of 2900 Larimer Street to car traffic on Feb. 2 seemed to signal the end of the walkable street experiments in Denver’s RiNo district. Other streets like Larimer Square and the 2700 block of Larimer Street in the area had temporarily closed access to cars during the pandemic but have long been reopened. 

In contrast, the 2900 Larimer block remained car-free until 2025, well after traffic resumed on the other streets. However, business owners and patrons alike on Larimer are still working towards restoring the closure and hoping it can still serve as a model for a vision of Denver less focused on cars.

“[The closure] had been here for five years, which for most of us makes it a permanent closure,” said Spencer McCullough, one of the citizens protesting the reopening. “What we’re doing here is taking back this space for pedestrians, meeting other folks who value this, building community, building strength together and trying to figure out how to move forward to make this permanent.”

2900 Larimer Street, situated in part of the River North Art District, is made up largely of bars and restaurants. It was shut off to street traffic in July of 2020 as part of the Outdoor Places Program. This is a pilot program that experimented with closing down streets in order to allow for more convenient pedestrian travel and for businesses to expand their dining space out into the street, an especially pertinent concern during the capacity limitations brought on during the COVID lockdowns. 

Even as lockdown restrictions loosened and eventually were removed, the closure remained as a way to provide more space and community. During this time, businesses on the street expanded their seating options, with one putting together a patio with faux grass.

Potted plants dotted the length of the street, and it became a popular hub for pedestrians and a space to host events. However, the street was reopened to cars in February. 

Despite its popularity with locals, when it came time to renew the permit for the street’s closure, RiNo’s Business Improvement District, which had previously handled the permit, decided against renewing. The decision came amidst criticism from other members of the BID outside of 2900 Larimer, who objected to the use of funds paid by the whole of the art district for the development of plans for the street.

“We didn’t do great communicating, nor did the Art District that they’re paying for the design work because of this large activation of community, and that it is not singling out the individual businesses on the street,” Weaver said.

A nonprofit with the working title Larimer Street Project, Inc., composed of the business owners on the street, has since assumed the mantle of trying to resubmit the petition from the BID, but resistance from those who oppose the closure, primarily coming in the form of businesses around the area, has led to the petition still not being refiled.

“As it was up for renewal, there were a few very disgruntled, very wealthy real estate owners that basically bullied the nonprofit and the art district,” said Kraig Weaver, co-founder of Block Distilling Co., one of the businesses on 2900 Larimer. “It made everyone nervous enough that (there were) threats of lawsuits, and it got so intense that we ended up not renewing to keep the street closed.”

Many patrons of the block since its closure have felt discontented by the reopening. Dozens of pedestrians organized on the street on the day of the reopening to protest the change, and protests have continued through the manual closing of the street by activists on the last Sunday of every month.

“The regulars that live in our neighborhood, that frequent our businesses, vocalized a lot of anger,” Weaver said. “It’s been overwhelmingly positive that people want it back. It really was a community-building aspect of just letting people be there at a slower pace.”

Critics of the closure claimed that the street being closed limited space for getting into the Art District and hurt businesses in the area. Tai Beldock, co-owner of Erico Motorsports, which is also part of the Art District, called the closure an “eyesore” in a city council public forum.

However, the closure was broadly welcomed by many in the area. A community feedback survey regarding the closure conducted in 2023 found that 84.4% of respondents felt that the closure provided a positive impact on the community, with 92% of respondents voicing support for maintaining the closure.

“The city was actually disappointed that we did not apply,” Weaver said. “And so now the fact that we did not reapply has sparked a lot more communication and collaboration between the nonprofit and the city to figure out how to hopefully bring it back.”

The nonprofit run by the street’s business has begun the process of reapplying for a closure through the city and restoring the street as a car-free space.

“My hope is (reopening) is less than six months away,” Weaver says. “But that’s very much a guess.”