Denver long has been one of those places where just about everybody wants to live. The allure is obvious. The Mile High City is the gateway to the Rockies — under perpetually sunny skies. It is hip, educated and cosmopolitan. Its economy is vibrant; its people are friendly.

So, it was disappointing to learn this week that Colorado’s capital city had slipped from 14th to 55th on U.S. News & World Report’s venerable list of Best Places to Live. The annual list’s standings for 2022 were released Monday.

As reported in The Gazette, the rankings were based on an analysis of 150 metro areas using data from the Census Bureau, the U.S. Department of Labor and the FBI. U.S. News measured the strength of each area’s job market, housing affordability, net in-migration and quality of life.

The list based quality of life on factors like a city’s crime rate, quality of education, health care quality and availability, commuting times and air quality.

“The message is out that Denver has big-city crime and traffic problems,” Steven Byers, senior economist with

“The message is out that Denver has big-city crime and traffic problems. People see the way Gov. Polis and Mayor Hancock handled the homeless people and they want to get away from that.”

Steven Byers, senior economist with Colorado’s Common Sense Institute

Colorado’s Common Sense Institute, told The Gazette. “People see the way Gov. Polis and Mayor Hancock handled the homeless people and they want to get away from that.”

Byers said metro Denver is too pricey for a lot of young people starting out in careers and struggling to make their monthly car payments, rent and student loans.

Crime, cost of living, traffic, homelessness — all concerns that are familiar to longtime locals. The fact that they appear to be influencing Denver’s national image — and dimming its luster — ought to serve as a wakeup call to the city’s elected leaders.

All cities face challenges, of course. As in other cities, not all of Denver’s challenges are within the control of policymakers.

It’s also worth remembering even a well-regarded, data-driven list like U.S. News’ still has plenty of subjectivity to it.

Yet, the key concerns raised by the U.S. News standings are real — and have been driven significantly by dubious policies. Some policy shifts could make a real difference.

Here are a few:

• Enforce Denver’s “camping” ban. In theory, addicts and other drifters who insist on living their lives on the streets aren’t supposed to pitch their tents and lean-tos in city parks, along highway off-ramps and the like — forcing their squalor and disruptive lifestyle on everybody else. In reality, City Hall has waffled on enforcement of the ban, owing in part to a bad — and now moot — court ruling, but also to a lack of political will.

• Crack down on public drug dealing. It, too, already is illegal. Yet, as Denver cops will tell you, it’s a movable feast of hard drugs like heroin, meth and, of course, deadly fentanyl. Cops shut down one drug bazaar only to watch it move a block or two away. Most recently, downtown’s historic Union Station has been a hot spot. The state Legislature bears much of the onus here since it decriminalized hard drugs in 2019. And a near-toothless bill this session to clamp down on fentanyl in all likelihood will do little to re-empower police, who now can do little more than write a ticket to those charged with possession. Then — at the least — write more tickets. Harass the drug dealers by all legal means. Make them feel unwelcome.

• Let homebuilders build. A proposal to create more affordable housing, now pending before the Denver City Council, would backfire — and actually drive up the cost of housing for most homebuyers. The city is short on housing. City Hall should quit meddling in the local housing market and let builders meet market demand.

We can restore Denver’s luster. It just takes some willpower.

“A great man is one who leaves others at a loss after he is gone.” Paul Valery, French poet