{"id":1409,"date":"2012-06-28T15:58:45","date_gmt":"2012-06-28T21:58:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/?p=1409"},"modified":"2012-09-28T14:52:18","modified_gmt":"2012-09-28T20:52:18","slug":"developing-9th-and-colorado-part-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/?p=1409","title":{"rendered":"Ethnic Diversity and the &#8220;Spirit of Community&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There\u2019s been some big news and some big controversy since <a href=\"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/?p=1057\">last reporting<\/a> on this very interesting Denver infill project (for the whole series of reports and opinions go <a href=\"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/?cat=3\">here<\/a>).<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1410\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/FuquaSign.rev_.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1410\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1410 \" title=\"FuquaSign.rev\" src=\"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/FuquaSign.rev_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/FuquaSign.rev_.jpg 640w, http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/FuquaSign.rev_-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1410\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">New Sign at 9th and Colorado Indicating the Change in Development Company (D. Saitta)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>First, the developer Jeff Fuqua broke away from Sembler and started his own company, <a href=\"http:\/\/fuquadevelopment.com\/\">Fuqua Development<\/a>, taking several Sembler personnel with him. \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/business\/ci_20278341\/redevelopment-former-university-colorado-hospital-site-moving-ahead\"><em>The Denver Post<\/em><\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bizjournals.com\/denver\/print-edition\/2012\/05\/04\/new-firm-takes-over-redevelopment-of.html?page=all\"><em>Denver Business Journal<\/em><\/a>\u00a0have the story.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.traderjoes.com\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-1411\" title=\"Logo_static\" src=\"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Logo_static-150x150.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>Second, the California specialty grocery store chain <a href=\"http:\/\/www.traderjoes.com\/\">Trader Joe\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0announced that it intends to purchase a property at the corner of 8<sup>th<\/sup> and Colorado, just across the street\u00a0from the development site chronicled here. This will be the first Trader Joe\u2019s store in Denver. \u00a0The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bizjournals.com\/denver\/news\/2012\/05\/04\/trader-joes-picks-denver-site.html\">Denver Business Journal<\/a> has the story.\u00a0 \u00a0Trader Joe&#8217;s impending arrival has been hailed as good news by everyone I&#8217;ve heard comment on it.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/1gal_walmart3.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1419\" title=\"1gal_walmart\" src=\"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/1gal_walmart3-300x225.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/1gal_walmart3-300x225.png 300w, http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/1gal_walmart3.png 340w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Much less welcome is Fuqua Development\u2019s very recent announcement of the identity of the Big Box anchor tenant for 9<sup>th<\/sup> and Colorado: a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.walmart.com\/\">Walmart<\/a> store, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.governing.com\/topics\/economic-dev\/gov-walmart-makes-its-urban-debut.html\">appropriately down-sized<\/a> to fit with the scale of the development. \u00a0\u00a0Herein lay the controversy, which erupted big time at a special public meeting that the developer held with local neighbors this week. The meeting was called when news about the Walmart choice \u201cleaked\u201d to the press. Representatives from Fuqua, the City of Denver, the University of Colorado, and Walmart joined an overflow crowd of over 200 people for a presentation and Q&amp;A at <a href=\"http:\/\/christchurchcolorado.org\/Welcome.html\">Christ Church United Methodist<\/a>. \u00a0Stories are in <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/business\/ci_20946520\/walmart-plan-old-cu-medical-campus-draws-crowd\">The Denver Post<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bizjournals.com\/denver\/news\/2012\/06\/26\/mostly-opponents-listen-to-wal-mart.html\">Denver Business Journal<\/a>. Among the \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/stopwalmartcolorado.com\/\">citizen concerns<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Walmart\u2019s presence doesn\u2019t reflect the desire of neighbors for independent, \u201cupmarket\u201d retail establishments;<\/li>\n<li>Walmart\u2019s reputation for questionable business ethics and practices.<\/li>\n<li>Fears about increases in crime, decreases in property values, and the closing of mom-and-pop stores that allegedly follow Walmart into a trade area;<\/li>\n<li>Walmart\u2019s tendency to\u00a0 attract a particular \u201celement of people\u201d to the neighborhoods where it is found;<\/li>\n<li>Exacerbation of traffic problems on Colorado Boulevard, which is already functioning at full capacity.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div id=\"attachment_1456\" style=\"width: 442px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/issuu.com\/tdberland\/docs\/loch_july_12\/1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1456\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1456  \" title=\"PropWalmart\" src=\"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/PropWalmart.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"432\" height=\"315\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/PropWalmart.jpg 432w, http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/PropWalmart-300x218.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 432px) 100vw, 432px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1456\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Proposed Walmart Location (from Life on Capitol Hill, July 2012)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The exchanges around these concerns were generally respectful, but the public outrage was palpable. Fuqua and Walmart representatives did their best to address them. \u00a0Although Walmart was not in the early discussion of Big Box possibilities, Jeff Fuqua noted that at the end of the day it was the only big box retailer willing to comply with significant <a href=\"http:\/\/denvergov.org\/cpd\/Planning\/CompletedPlans\/9thColoradoGDP\/tabid\/432649\/Default.aspx\">General Development Plan<\/a>\u00a0constraints and costs. \u00a0And, that development of the site as a whole depended on anchoring it with a big box store like a Walmart.\u00a0 He also noted that Sembler\/Fuqua developments have increased property values wherever they appear and that there\u2019s no reason to believe that things would be different at 9<sup>th<\/sup> and Colorado.\u00a0 The Walmart representative was armed with talking points to counteract the widespread public perception that Walmart is a particularly ruthless corporate predator that leaves human devastation in its wake.<\/p>\n<p>The traffic concern is also widespread and will require a separate public meeting. However, I couldn\u2019t help but note a bit of citizen hypocrisy on this point. \u00a0The traffic load on Colorado Boulevard is a real and compelling concern.\u00a0 \u00a0But interestingly there was no mention of the very strong likelihood that Trader Joe\u2019s\u2014whose presence seemed to be unanimously welcomed by the assembled citizens\u2014will \u00a0attract significantly more people and cars to the neighborhood than a Walmart or any other retailer at 9<sup>th<\/sup> and Colorado (a debate is <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.westword.com\/cafesociety\/2012\/05\/trader_joes_2.php\">here<\/a>). \u00a0The Trader Joe\u2019s customer base is likely to come not only from the greater Denver metro area but also from \u00a0a good bit of eastern Colorado and western Kansas.\u00a0 Is there a double standard at work here?<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1415\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/cu\/ci_20946520?source=bb\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1415\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1415\" title=\"forsale\" src=\"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Walmart-meeting-Pic.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"369\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Walmart-meeting-Pic.jpg 600w, http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Walmart-meeting-Pic-300x184.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1415\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Public Meeting to Discuss Development of 9th and Colorado, Tuesday, June 26, 2012 (Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I\u2019m interested in this development because it&#8217;s near my house and I drive past it often. Thus, I\u2019ll patronize it. \u00a0As previously expressed on this blog it would be nice to see an infill development that breaks the architectural mold (e.g., see <a href=\"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/?p=248\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/?p=492\">here<\/a>), but I don\u2019t have a dog in the hunt. \u00a0I don\u2019t like what I know about Walmart\u2019s business practices and I consciously avoid the place. At the same time, the Walmart representative acquitted himself very nicely in front of a very hostile audience.\u00a0 I found myself keeping an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theatlanticcities.com\/neighborhoods\/2012\/02\/why-town-big-box-stores-might-not-be-awful-you-think\/1191\/\">open mind<\/a> about the company\u2019s intentions to adopt a position of \u201cco-tenancy\u201d with other retailers and to stock higher-end merchandise that would serve some local desires.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1449\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bizjournals.com\/denver\/news\/2012\/06\/26\/mostly-opponents-listen-to-wal-mart.html?s=image_gallery\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1449\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1449 \" title=\"Walmart11thAlbionWeb\" src=\"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Walmart11thAlbionWeb.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"453\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Walmart11thAlbionWeb.jpg 700w, http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Walmart11thAlbionWeb-300x194.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1449\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Conceptual Rendering of Walmart Store at 11th and Albion (SEM Architects)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The comment about the kind of human \u201celement\u201d that Walmart attracts is of particular interest to us urban anthropologists. This was the rhetorical flourish that provoked the most interesting exchanges of the meeting.\u00a0 One attendee pointedly asked what &#8220;element&#8221; meant. \u00a0Are we talking code for black and brown people? \u00a0That suggestion was vigorously shouted down.\u00a0 One respondent suggested that \u201celement\u201d simply refers to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/breakingnews\/ci_20933323\/details-come-denver-police-officer-shooting-one-custody?IADID=Search-www.denverpost.com-www.denverpost.com\">the kind of person who would shoot a Denver police officer<\/a>. \u00a0These were awkward moments.\u00a0 Only much later in the meeting did one speaker lecture the crowd to avoid \u201celitism\u201d and stay focused on Walmart\u2019s business practices. This was good advice, especially given the institutional setting: <a href=\"http:\/\/christchurchcolorado.org\/Welcome.html\">Christ Church United Methodist<\/a> is\u00a0committed, among other things, to &#8220;cultural inclusiveness.&#8221; But\u00a0the damage had been done.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/denveneighborhoods.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1416\" title=\"denveneighborhoods\" src=\"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/denveneighborhoods.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"729\" height=\"541\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/denveneighborhoods.gif 729w, http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/denveneighborhoods-300x222.gif 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 729px) 100vw, 729px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The demography of the crowd was striking. It was overwhelmingly white (say, 95%) and, by all indications, well-heeled.\u00a0 This picture is consistent with the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.piton.org\/index.cfm?fuseaction=CommunityFacts.Summary&amp;Neighborhood_ID=897\">Hilltop<\/a> neighborhood located just to the south of the development site which, according to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.piton.org\/census2010\/\">Piton Foundation<\/a>\u00a0census data (which I cross-checked against other sources of census data), is 85% white with an average household income of $117,835.\u00a0 The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.piton.org\/index.cfm?fuseaction=CommunityFacts.Summary&amp;Neighborhood_ID=891\">Hale<\/a> neighborhood located just to the north, however, is nearly 30% non-white, with an average household income of $54,830 (a bit below the overall Denver average of \u00a0$55,129). About three times as many individuals and families live in poverty in Hale as compared to Hilltop. Thus, Jeff Fuqua has a point when he suggests that the public meeting drew a particular segment of the local population.\u00a0 The local census data lend credibility to Fuqua&#8217;s claim, reported in <em>The Denver Post<\/em>, that his pro\/con emails are running \u201cabout 50\/50.\u201d \u00a0 The data also suggest that there\u2019s a demographic&#8211;both white and non-white&#8211;in the immediate area that would welcome and sustain a Walmart. It\u2019s also important to keep in mind that public meetings of the sort held this week are probably not the kind that would attract strong minority participation. \u00a0Thus, it\u2019s imperative that the developers and planners set up meetings in other venues and in other forms by which citizen input from a broad cross-section of neighbors can be solicited.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, I was struck by the frequent appeals of attendees to the \u201cspirit of community\u201d\u00a0 and how Walmart is in deep conflict with that spirit.\u00a0\u00a0 This reminded me of the geographer\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/wsm.wsu.edu\/stories\/2008\/Spring\/1harvey.pdf\">David Harvey\u2019s classic statement<\/a> about the rhetoric of community that\u2019s used by some planners and developers (e.g., the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/?cat=16\">New Urbanists<\/a>) to justify a particular kind of \u201curban village\u201d development.\u00a0 Harvey\u2019s words\u00a0 seem pertinent given what was expressed at the public meeting (emphasis added):<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Community has always meant different things to different people\u2026the idea\u00a0<\/em><em>attracts, drawing support from marginalized ethnic groups, impoverished and\u00a0<\/em><em>embattled working-class populations&#8230;as well as from middle- and upper-class\u00a0<\/em><em>nostalgics who view it as a civilized form of real estate development encompassing\u00a0<\/em><em>sidewalk caf\u00e9s, pedestrian precincts, and Laura Ashley shops.\u00a0 <strong>The darker side of this communitarianism remains unstated<\/strong>: from the very earliest phases of massive urbanization through industrialization, <strong>\u201cthe spirit of community\u201d has been held as an antidote to any threat of social disorder, class war, and revolutionary violence. \u201cCommunity\u201d has ever been one of the key sites of social control and surveillance, bordering on overt social repression. Well-founded communities often exclude, define themselves against others, erect all sorts of keep-out signs (if not tangible walls)&#8230;<\/strong> \u201cRacism, ethnic chauvinism, and class devaluation&#8230;grow partly from the desire for community\u201d such that \u201cthe positive identification of some\u00a0<\/em><em>groups is often achieved by first defining other groups as the other, the devalued\u00a0<\/em><em>semi-human.\u201d As a consequence, <strong>community has often been a barrier to rather than facilitator of progressive social change\u2026 All those things that make cities so exciting&#8211;the unexpected, the conflicts, the excitement of exploring the urban unknown&#8211;will be tightly controlled and screened out with big signs that say \u201cno deviant behavior acceptable here.&#8221;<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/David_Harvey_(geographer)\">Harvey<\/a> goes on to suggest that the rhetoric of community and its associated \u201cplace-based civic pride and consciousness\u201d serves those who don\u2019t really need it, while those who\u00a0<em>do<\/em> are abandoned to their \u201cunderclass\u201d fate.\u00a0 Harvey&#8217;s analysis might be a little over-the-top for the conversation about what should happen at 9<sup>th<\/sup> and Colorado. \u00a0But then again it might be spot-on, given (1) comments made at the public meeting about the kind of person who shops at Walmart, (2) the tacit assumption of many citizens who spoke at the meeting that they spoke for <em>the<\/em> community, as if community is a singular thing, and (3) the expressed desire by some in the crowd that they\u2019d like to see 9<sup>th<\/sup> and Colorado become another <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cherry_Creek,_Denver\">Cherry Creek<\/a>.\u00a0 Only a couple of citizens at the public meeting invoked the spirit of <em>compromise\u00a0<\/em>that\u2019s required to get anything done these days, including the task of replacing a decrepit and rapidly decaying hospital campus with an active public place. \u00a0Indeed, writing at the same time as Harvey the great American pragmatist philosopher <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Richard_Rorty\">Richard Rorty<\/a> suggested in his <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Achieving_Our_Country\"><em>Achieving Our Country<\/em><\/a> that adherence to fixed principles can, at times, be as much a problem as philosophical wishy-washiness. He notes that in democratic societies \u201cyou often get things done by compromising principles in order to form alliances with groups about whom you have grave doubts.\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/www.governing.com\/gov-institute\/funkhouser\/col-walmart-cities-urban-areas-employment.html\">Compromise<\/a>\u00a0might in fact be the most appropriate spirit to carry forward if the <em>multiple<\/em> <em>communities<\/em> that have a stake in what happens at 9th and Colorado are to be served.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There\u2019s been some big news and some big controversy since last reporting on this very interesting Denver infill project (for the whole series of reports and opinions go here). First, the developer Jeff Fuqua broke away from Sembler and started [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9th-and-colorado"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1H2bI-mJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1409"}],"version-history":[{"count":42,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2987,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1409\/revisions\/2987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}