Debating Democracy, RTD’s Rough Week, and Indian Restaurant Ripoffs

It’s Friday, and we’re digging into the biggest stories of the week. First, local multimillionaire Kent Thiry is bankrolling a new campaign to reform Colorado’s elections, and the signature-gathering kicked off this week. Will you give the DaVita founder’s ideas your John Hancock? Plus, public transit riders face “mounting disruptions” as RTD struggles with outages and maintenance issues, according the Denver Post. Colorado Newsline senior reporter Chase Woodruff and our politics and green chile correspondent Justine Sandoval join producer Paul Karolyi to break down those stories and, of course, share our wins and fails of the week.  Confused about how ranked choice voting works? Check out the explainer we published in our newsletter this week.  Paul referenced Chase’s excellent analysis of how effective Kent Thiry’s last few election reforms and suggests this longread from The Lever on Kent Thiry’s political ambitions. He also referenced CoLab’s recent Voter Voices survey, and the John Oliver clip of Kent Thiry.  Justine talked about Sony Pictures buying Alamo Drafthouse and the labor organizing at local Live Nation venues. Paul highlighted this BusinessDen article about Indian restaurants. Chase talked about the new Denver museum and Manny Barella.  What do you think about ranked choice voting? Would you prefer voting that way? Or not? Text or leave us a voicemail with your name and neighborhood, and you might hear it on the show: 720-500-5418‬ For even more news from around the city, subscribe to our morning newsletter Hey Denver at denver.citycast.fm. Follow us on Instagram: @citycastdenver Chat with other listeners on reddit: r/CityCastDenver Support City Cast Denver by becoming a member: membership.citycast.fm/Denver Learn more about the sponsors of this episode: Meow Wolf Monarch Casino PineMelon Looking to advertise on City Cast Denver? Check out our options for podcast and newsletter ads at citycast.fm/advertise