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Originally Posted by Cirrus
Saying none of that matters because "Denver isn't coastal" is an abortion of rational thought, made because sticking one's head in the sand is easier than admitting the long-accepted way we've done things causes massive structural problems.
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Take a deeeeeep breath.
There's things you're overlooking which is caused by tunnel vision.
As many millions of people continue to migrate from the Rustbelt and NE to the Sunbelt and SW are you certain they all need to live in a fictional 'Curtis Park' or is it possible they just want a good job and an affordable place to live?
Downtown Denver is growing rapidly, that's true and the number of jobs downtown is also growing. That said, while downtown may have the best job density it still only has about 10% of the metro area jobs. Is it possible that 90% of the population doesn't give two chits about living in Curtis Park?
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Originally Posted by Cirrus
Saying "Denver has a lot of room for infill" is like saying "there's unlimited room for growth east of Aurora." It's true, but it ignores critical factors that affect the market and contribute to the current state of un-affordability. Denver is expensive not because it lacks room for growth anywhere, but because it lacks room for growth in the places where demand is highest.
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I wouldn't consider 'east of Aurora' to be infill. But that has been a factor.
With the most intense development focused on the city center you're necessarily talking about a lot more expense. The way land costs have escalated in 'sprawling' RiNo demonstrates this and that development in this part of town will be much more costly than on the fringes.
The bigger problem has been that developers have been uninterested in building new affordable housing further out until now. It was like having an oligarchy in your midst as only upscale housing (for the most part) was all builders were interested in over the last ten years.
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Originally Posted by Cirrus
That is how--and why--gentrification flows over the city. Everyone wants to move as close to X as they can. If they can't move to X, they move to Y, the next best option. And if they can't move to Y, they move to the next best option, Z. The entire city is covered in an ever-enlarging wave of unaffodability, as growth flows downhill to the next best option after the next best option.
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I agree with you to an extent. But the question remains what percentage of the population needs or wants to be downtown. In any case INFILL is expensive.
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But so very much of it could be avoided if all those people who actually just want to live in X were allowed to. It's an inherent problem to cutting off growth in any city's "oldest neighborhood;" that neighborhood is the oldest because it's in the most prime location.
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I'm uncertain what you specific zoning proposal for Curtis Park would be and how many units could be added as a result. But again it will not be affordable housing; it will not move the needle enough to satisfy those willing to pay up for housing. It's like chasing your tail.
You are totally overlooking all the land already available for denser development in the city center.