{"id":1893,"date":"2012-09-08T09:00:23","date_gmt":"2012-09-08T15:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/?p=1893"},"modified":"2012-09-09T13:24:22","modified_gmt":"2012-09-09T19:24:22","slug":"remedying-blight-in-black-and-white","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/?p=1893","title":{"rendered":"Remedying Blight, in Black and White"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was a nice story<\/a> in last Sunday\u2019s Denver Post<\/em> about how community members in my neighborhood of Park Hill banded together to install a basketball court and paint a building on the site of shopping center that was burned out by gang violence in 2007.\u00a0 The basketball courts join a previously constructed playground, with benches and gazebos to be installed in the coming weeks. \u00a0Construction will also soon begin on new community center, courtesy of funding from The Anschutz Foundation<\/a>\u00a0that was secured by the Boys and Girls Club<\/a>. \u00a0A quote from 8 year-old volunteer worker Nyla Pollard captures the ethos:<\/p>\n

I came to help my community build a park. We should have a place to play<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A subsequent house editorial<\/a> in The Post<\/em> commends Nyla\u2019s activism and applauds her community for restoring pride in their neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Nyla Pollard Painting (Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post)<\/p><\/div>\n

Compare Nyla\u2019s constructivism with the obstructionism of Redshirted, Anti-Walmarteering adults<\/a> at another blighted site located just south of where I live, at 9th<\/sup> and Colorado<\/a>.\u00a0 There\u2019s a time and place for heels-dug-in resistance, but I\u2019m not sure this is one of them.\u00a0 History and context make a difference. The site is on its third developer. The second one proposed a high-density development more consistent with the Redshirts\u2019 desires, but it couldn\u2019t close the financing gap and bailed on the project after assuring neighbors that it would be around for the long haul.\u00a0 I\u2019m still puzzled that no one seems interested in that story and what it might suggest about the likelihood of achieving, at a location like 9th<\/sup> and Colorado, a high-density utopia in-filled with unique boutiques and chef-driven restaurants. It could be that the pro<\/em>-Walmarteers in the area<\/a>\u2014and their numbers could be significant\u2014have better instincts about this than the rest of us (see also here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

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Questioner at 9th and Colorado Public Meeting (Karl Gehring, The Denver Post)<\/p><\/div>\n

If it\u2019s the case that you really do need an appropriately-scaled Big Box anchor to make the site work, and if Walmart is the only taker, why not negotiate<\/em><\/a> in hopes of achieving a solution that would satisfy all<\/em> parties? \u00a0As it stands right now the key event that’s likely to determine the fate of the project is a vote of Denver City Council on\u00a0tax increment financing (TIF)<\/a>. \u00a0Most Council\u00a0members have no direct stake in the project. \u00a0It’s not clear how many of them are dedicated to an urban vision that promotes compact, walkable, and inclusive<\/em> neighborhoods. All of them are politically-motivated. On a scenario that has the Council as the ultimate decider\u00a0some<\/em> stake-holding demographics stand to be disenfranchised, most likely the ones that are un-represented at public meetings or that lack a place to put a\u00a0bright red yard sign<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Alas, the Redshirts aren’t interested in compromise. They might not have any constructive ideas that would lead to one anyway. \u00a0Witness this week\u2019s latest public meeting<\/a> at Hill Middle School. \u00a0The agenda was to talk traffic, not tenants, and to clarify the widely misunderstood concept of TIF. \u00a0But the Redshirts were all about Walmart.\u00a0 The Post<\/em> reports that the meeting was \u201ccivil\u201d except for a couple of outbursts. But in the back row where I sat there was near continuous boo-birding, cat-calling, at least one vulgar play on developer Jeff Fuqua\u2019s last name, and not much actual listening. In fairness I should also point out that\u00a0very reasonable questions about neighborhood demography and site plan<\/a>\u00a0directed to the developer, city councillors, and Walmart representative have gone unanswered. \u00a0In recent weeks there’s been a very serious deficit of good public discussion about this project, and the blame for that can be widely shared.<\/p>\n

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9th and Colorado Public Meeting at Hill Middle School, September 6 (D. Saitta)<\/p><\/div>\n

The criticisms of Walmart\u2019s business practices are well-known, well-deserved, and especially well-rehearsed in the debate about 9th and Colorado. But as many observers have pointed out, Walmart isn\u2019t the only member of its particular species of hyper-competitive capitalist enterprise.\u00a0 We knowingly or unwittingly patronize (and\/or own stock in) many others without giving a second thought to workplace safety, living wages, health benefits, unionization rights, and third world exploitation. \u00a0A sizable majority of surveyed Congress Park residents confess to shopping at Walmart<\/a> while they simultaneously oppose construction of one in their neighborhood. An article<\/a> in today’s New York Times<\/em>\u00a0suggests that some of the same hypocrisy is afoot in Los Angeles, where an urban-scaled Walmart is proposed for Chinatown. \u00a0Even if the Redshirts succeed in achieving a Walmart-free infill utopia at 9th and Colorado one certainly doesn’t get the impression that they would willingly yield the site’s “upscale” public spaces to other<\/em>\u00a0outspoken critics of corporate greed like, say, those scruffy and often disorganized\u00a0Occupiers of Denver<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/strong>Perspective has a way of changing once you get what you want.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I think the objections to Walmart in this case are primarily about image and status (for a remarkable, internally-contradictory account from a neighborhood association president that conflates multiple issues, see here<\/a>).\u00a0 There\u2019s currently no room in the public debate for the positive<\/em> stories that can be told about Walmart\u2019s practices and intentions in the areas of philanthropy<\/a>, sustainability<\/a>, and what appears to be growing support for small American farmers<\/a>.\u00a0 Perhaps there aren\u2019t many of these positive stories, but there might be enough to work with and to which the company can be held accountable. \u00a0In the meantime we still wait for any signs of openness from the Redshirts to the reality that Walmart is a company capable of compromising and to the likelihood that it can deliver\u2014by virtue of its anchor status\u2014some excellent amenities for the surrounding neighborhoods.\u00a0 And not just amenities for image-conscious adults but also for those\u2014like Nyla Pollard\u2014who have very simple needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There was a nice story in last Sunday\u2019s Denver Post about how community members in my neighborhood of Park Hill banded together to install a basketball court and paint a building on the site of shopping center that was burned […]<\/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":[3,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9th-and-colorado","category-denver-urbanism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1H2bI-ux","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1893","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=1893"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1898,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1893\/revisions\/1898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}