I saw this in Denver Post, talking about the City of Denver's concern about "gentrification."
"What Denver officials, from the mayor on down, want to avoid is the unraveling of the historic, cultural and demographic identities of a community that results when residents are pushed out, he said."
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_29...trification-without-displacing-residents
Of course one person's gentrification, is another person's realization of a long term investment. A minority home owner in Highland who sells their home at 5 X what the paid for it 1985 might think gentrification a good thing.
Of more fundamental concern, though, is the apparent city policy, or at least desire, to preserve the "demographic identities" of the community.
Just think about that term.
What would happen if the mayors of Castle Rock, Parker, or Cherry Hills said they were "worried" that the "demographic identities" of those cities might change and that cities would actively adopt policies to discourage any changes? Wink. Wink.
I'll tell you what would happen, the US Justice Department would file a Civil Rights suit against those cities so quickly their heads would spin.
I understand concerns about affordable housing, and in my view, that's a legitimate issue for cities to consider and find ways to address. But preserving "demographic identities"? What a clever way for the city to openly pursue race/ethnic based housing agendas. If a city can properly say "we think this neighborhood should be predominately hispanic, and this neighborhood should be predominately black" there is no principled basis to prevent the same or another city from saying "in order to preserve its historical demographic identity, this neighborhood should be predominately white."
Ironically, many of the Denver neighborhoods that are being "gentrified" today, resulting in some displacement of lower income minority residents, were themselves once dominated by other ethnic groups (Highland and much of west/northwest Denver was once our "Little Italy") back in the day. If the City had preserved "demographic identities" in those areas 40 to 50 years ago they may never have become predominately hispanic neighborhoods in the first place.
The best way for Denver to help all of its residents is to focus on smart, sustainable growth that creates jobs and business opportunities for all its residents. Focusing on preserving historical racial and ethnic housing patterns is not a legitimate public policy objective.
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