Gentrification and Involuntary Displacement in Denver, Colorado: Understanding Why Historic Five Points Is Changing and the Need for African American Reparations by Theodoric Manley Jr., Ph.D. Department of Sociology California State University, Los Angeles
In the City of Denver, Colorado, the concept of gentrification currently surrounds public and private discussions on urban change, development, and growth. A report by the City of Denver’s Office of Economic Development (2016) titled “Gentrification Study: Mitigating Involuntary Displacement” describes the correlates and consequences of gentrification. Gentrification is generally defined as a city’s public and private investment in underdeveloped land typically located in low-income areas (Smith, 1996; Goldstein, 2017; Moskowitz, 2018; Taylor, 2019). This occurs in urbanized areas throughout the United States and the world (North, Central, and South America; Europe; Asia; and Africa). Historically, the roots of gentrification began with the Federal Housing Administration’s banking and real estate practices of the 1930s (Hirsch, 1983/2021; Massey & Denton, 1993). There were a set of interlocking linkages and practices between private and public, local, state, and federal agencies to systematically deny homeownership to African Americans and other people of color. A policy of anti-integration called redlining endorsed the rise of white suburbanization while making the Black ghetto a permanent reality of public housing confinement and entrapment for a vast majority of African Americans excluded from the private housing market. A dual housing market arose because of these federal, state, and local private and public practices—a housing market for whites wherein access to traditional homeownership loans and equity was secured, and for Blacks, a housing market of confinement to inner-city rental markets with inflated rents and no equity to allow for accumulating wealth for the next generation like their white counterparts (Hirsch, 1983/2021; Massy & Denton, 1993; Taylor, 2019). The historical legacy of public and private federal housing, banking, and real estate discrimination relates to the pace and depth of gentrification in downtown Denver, demonstrated by the city’s national rankings listed on the Downtown Denver Partnership (DDP; 2021) website. Some of these rankings include best commercial real estate market in the U.S., largest increase in college-educated residents, second-best place to launch a start-up business, third-best city for small businesses, and sixth-fastest-growing metro area. In 2022, Denver is the largest city in 39
