tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8920445775757996516.post2731700243053745600..comments2024-03-23T09:00:33.784-05:00Comments on Holy Mountain: A Blog about Our Common Life: New Year's resolutionsBruce Nesmithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10484290040791147593noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8920445775757996516.post-64863279486629100252015-01-30T19:26:27.075-06:002015-01-30T19:26:27.075-06:00Wow! Thanks for your thorough and impressive comme...Wow! Thanks for your thorough and impressive comment. I think these issues are a struggle everywhere. A CR friend who writes and blogs for the CR Gazette recently did a favorable profile of Benedict Park Place, a new development in the Five Points neighborhood. Rental housing there is capped by income, but around it is a more trendy area. That sounds from a distance like a start toward connecting with the poor, maybe?Bruce Nesmithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10484290040791147593noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8920445775757996516.post-23721819271672339382015-01-30T14:13:41.610-06:002015-01-30T14:13:41.610-06:002. Denver really sucks at including the poor. In f...2. Denver really sucks at including the poor. In fact, we pretty much outlawed being homeless a few years back (camping ban) and our mayor’s new five year plan for affordable housing claims that a single person should be able to pay $1150 in rent. The mayor and governor both seem to think the solution to homelessness is to move the homeless away… preferable somewhere no one will see them. <br />I know being poor and being homeless is not the same thing, but in Denver, it seems the poor are treated with the same regard. My sister just recently moved to an “up and coming” neighborhood on East Colfax. She communicates with her neighbors who are privileged enough to have access to smartphones/ computers through an app called Next Door. Next Door is like Facebook, but it actually verifies your address through mail so that you only have access the profiles and posts of people in your neighborhood. It’s pretty easy to tell from the posts that my sister’s gentrifying neighbors can’t wait to move all the poors out. <br />Her area has a lot of old motels right on Colfax that house poor people who can’t pass background checks or otherwise don’t have the means to leave. The City has succeeded in moving the poor to these far reaches of the city, but with increasing home prices, tons of people moving in and gentrification of the area where my sister lives, it won’t be long before they are pushed even further. It’s clear that a lot of the people moving out there don’t see these folks as their neighbors. They are an issue and they need to be addressed. <br />I hope that CR succeeds in being a place that includes the poor as it grows. I see so much potential in a city the size of CR. Denver is ruled by business. If the business development districts want homelessness to be illegal, they’ll figure a way to do it. If they don’t want a mental health clinic or homeless resource center downtown, where all the public transportation leads, it won’t be considered. Obviously business needs a voice and a seat at the table, but there has to be a way to include both the poor and business owners. <br />3 And 5 Denver’s pretty good on transit. We have light rails and a lot of buses. But we do have disparity in some of the poor neighborhoods. There are neighborhoods that need more bus lines but it would take more than just a new bus to get the residents in these neighborhoods to rid. They need safer bus stops with better lighting, cheaper bus passes and probably better childcare options to be able to ride comfortably. <br />We have a pretty solid regional council, called DRCOG (Denver Regional Council of Government—doctor COG it’s called) that has worked really hard to gather data about where people live and work and how to get them there on public transit. The program is called Way to Go. The council is over 50 years old, and while it’s definitely got its weaknesses, I’ve always been impressed with the work they do on transit.<br />I’m not as familiar with how they handle business poaching and urban growth, but I read about them being referee to a lot of regional disputes as Denver expanded in the last half of last century in my public administration classes. <br />it's the hippy undertoneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10482084316253129163noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8920445775757996516.post-68207265644374834312015-01-30T14:13:04.753-06:002015-01-30T14:13:04.753-06:00Last year, I was volun-told by my supervisor that ...Last year, I was volun-told by my supervisor that I would be the HR representative in charge of putting together a list of recommendations for the Mayor of Denver for improving our employees' ability to commute to work via alternative modes of transportation. Being that I am a total nerd when it comes to policy and mobility, I was pretty excited to learn more about our employees’ barriers to alternative transportation. I ended up learning a TON about mobility but also all the issues that are tangential to it. <br />With that background and my experiences living here, as I read your list of priorities, I couldn’t help but make comparisons between Denver and CR. Just some thoughts on the topics… <br />1. Denver has been a big-ish city for a pretty long time, but I would say we still don’t have a real, 24 hour downtown. I take a boxing class downtown on Mondays that ends at 7:30 and every night when I walk back to my bus stop that is about four blocks from the gym, I’m amazed by how dead downtown is. Very few pedestrians, little traffic, quite businesses. There are always people in the hotel restaurants and bars that I walk by, but I’m generally surprised to even see two people at my bus stop by the time I get there. <br />I think Denver’s issue stems from people still fearing our downtown. It’s been a very dangerous place to visit in the past, and it’s been hard to shake the reputation. You are much more likely to see people out and about further away from downtown on the two big streets, Colfax and Broadway than downtown. <br />it's the hippy undertoneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10482084316253129163noreply@blogger.com