3 Valverde Movement Project: Regenerative Mapping in Action

To illustrate the practical application of these tools in struggles against gentrification, we offer a case study from the Valverde Movement Project (VMP)iv in Denver, CO. VMP is a collaboration between more than 25 partners including neighborhood leaders from the Valverde Neighborhood Association (VNA), advocacy organizations, university researchers, and staff from city and regional governments united in a quest to undo redlining by re-imagining mobility investments to advance equitable, community-rooted health and wealth.

Motivation for VMP is three-fold:

1. Past transportation investments in many urban neighborhoods have eroded structures of health and wealth by contributing to infrastructural racism and forced displacement (Fullilove, 2004; Fullilove &

Wallace, 2011);

2. Historically redlined neighborhoods often lack safe, integrated access to dense, frequent and reliable transportation options (thereby limiting access to jobs, education, goods, and services needed to support health, wealth, and resistance to gentrification); moreover, growth in new mobility investments (e.g., bicycle lanes, light rail, and Bus Rapid Transit) in these neighborhoods often triggers gentrification (Zuk et al., 2017); and

3. The Valverde Neighborhood – a historically redlined neighborhood located less than 4 miles west of the Colorado State Capitol and Denver’s Central Business District, but cut off on all sides by major arterial roads and highways (see Figure 1) – not only represents these general challenges, but also benefits from neighborhood leaders and a host of academic, public, civic, and private sectors partners who are motivated to collaborate on research, design, action, evaluation, and adaptation.

Figure 1 Context Map & Demographics: Valverde Neighborhood, West Denver

Valverde Denver Ratio

Latino population 77.3% 29.0% 267% Under 18 population 30.0% 20.0% 150% One parent households 28.0% 13.9% 201% Attended college 25.0% 71.0% 35% High school drop-out 34.0% 12.0% 283% 2019 Income <40,000 43.8% 29.3% 149% Median income $ 46,736 $68,592 68% Median home value $190,400 $ 390,600 49%

Source: ACS 2019 (5-Year Est.); U.S. Census Bureau

Valverde Denver Ratio

Latino population 77.3% 29.0% 267% Under 18 population 30.0% 20.0% 150% One parent households 28.0% 13.9% 201% Attended college 25.0% 71.0% 35% High school drop-out 34.0% 12.0% 283% 2019 Income <40,000

43.8% 29.3% 149% Median income $ 46,736 $68,592 68% Median home value $190,400 $ 390,600 49%

Source: ACS 2019 (5-Year Est.); U.S. Census Bureau

Research shows that although major investments in transportation (e.g., through transit-oriented development) often trigger displacement, those that have proven to be equitable have frequently been in communities with traditions of community organizing and movement building, and where public planning processes have engaged the participation of these community leaders and generally incorporated the political, social, cultural, and financial capital that already exist in these communities into the planning and implementation process (Sandoval, 2018; Sandoval & Herrera, 2015). Core to VMP’s theory of change is our understanding that improving freedom of movement - within, to, and from a neighborhood - depends on the power of intersectional movements and asset-based community development.

Supported by an NSF Civic Innovation planning grant spanning February through May 2021,v VMP partners set out to develop and implement an intersectional, asset-based, transdisciplinary, communityrooted approach to mobility system research and design, drawing on black feminist (Crenshaw, 2017; hooks, 2001; Lorde, 2013), critical indigenous (Harjo, 2019; Smith, 1999), environmental justice (Angotti & Sze, 2009; Corburn, 2005), and regenerative design (Hes & Plessis, 2014; Regenesis et al., 2016) scholarship. VMP’s approach calls us to practice liberty, reciprocity, and integrity by employing

(1) a decolonial gaze to name, expose, and disrupt intersectional and infrastructural oppression, (2) an appreciative gaze to recognize and appreciate diverse strengths and desires, and (3) a compassionate gaze that helps us engage suffering in ways that allow us to construct liberating structures in support of the desired visions of community members. This culturally responsive approach is designed to name harm, center joy, and build on collective strengths of numerous individuals and organizations – especially those leading on the frontlines of community resilience. VMP’s potential is rooted in organizing efforts of the VNA. Under the leadership of President Adriana Lopez, VNA has served as an active voice and emergency response force for Valverde neighbors during the pandemic, launching a new electronic newsletter, creating a brand, organizing food drives, hosting events, talking to the news media about the correlation between redlined neighborhoods and COVID-19 (given that Valverde had the highest COVID-19 hospitalization rates in Denver (Minor, 2020)), and working with the State to host a special clinic for Valverde neighbors, which led to the vaccination of 950 neighbors in the area. The VMP team has designed all community engagement related to its mobility system research in ways that amplify VNA’s communitybuilding and organizing efforts.

The four regenerative mapping methods outlined previously have been central to our intersectional, asset-based research approach. We used these and other collaborative approaches in multiple languages to strengthen civic capacity in Valverde while guiding investments in contextually appropriate mobility solutions. In the following sections, we present a summary of the regenerative mapping methods we have applied, with a focus on the four-month planning period in general, and the Valverde Movement Fest (VMF) in particular.

Held April 24, 2021, VMF was a COVID-safe, outdoor, intergenerational, multilingual community celebration attended by more than 100 residents and several nonprofits – including an antidisplacement coalition focused primarily on affordable housing strategies that incorporate a community land trust, and a coalition that supports refugees displaced from their homes in other nations. Folklorico dancers, prizes, and free food from a local food truck set a celebratory tone, while interactive, intergenerational regenerative mapping and story activities engaged neighbors in collaborative efforts