I am a proud Denverite. I have lived in this city for 35 years (okay...33 1/2 counting my time in Glenwood Springs and Portland). I trust that I know every nook and cranny Denver and the metro area have to offer. I drove down streets before they became up and coming...in neighborhoods where I couldn't quite help feeling a little unsafe. These neighborhoods now are what we call up and coming...or gentrified...or hip. Places like the Highlands, City Park area, Lowry, Five Points were all too scary to drive in at one point, but now they offer coffee shops, restaurants, and cute, renovated houses.
Yesterday I drove through a neighborhood seemingly forgotten by Denver. I felt like I was in another world, or at least in a neighborhood in another city that was new to me. It felt isolated, alien...and I admit I was a wee bit nervous. I am talking about this pocket of residential living close to Washington street and Brighton Blvd. It is a neighborhood surrounded by gas stations, hardware stores, construction companies, the RTD office, a Fed Ex store. 44th, 45th and Lincoln, Sherman, Logan. I think it is called Globeville. I wound up in this neighborhood because of bad traffic on I-25. It wasn't moving so I got off at the 58th avenue exit. I was near my favorite garden center (Paulinos) and knew there was a way to get to Brighton Blvd but I couldn't quite remember. I followed the traffic into Globeville and was immersed in a neighborhood of houses with metal bars on the windows and desperately needed paint jobs. Kids and young men were wandering the streets and cars with dark windows bumped in front of and behind me. I finally found Brighton Blvd and made my way home...but I felt like I just drove through another world. I don't know if this will ever be and up and coming neighborhood. I think 5280 magazine at one point called this a great place to live, but I felt the sense of isolation that only poverty and being forgotten can create.
1 comment:
By the way you speak it shows you have lived a sheltered and privileged life. You fear that neighborhood because you don't know it.But just know that in Globeville live families, elders, wonderful people! Globeville doesn't need gentrifiers such as yourself to deem this neighborhood "up and coming". Globeville already has it's culture and community and it is as much valuable as any expensive neighborhood that has gentrified.
Post a Comment