Border Street: Turnover sabotages city's hopes for its neighborhoods

By Tina Griego, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Thursday, November 30, 2006

With the departure of the Legal Permanent Resident, the number of people who have moved from Border Street - a single Denver block - since late April surpasses 35. This represents 11 families. It includes six homeowners who have either sold, lost or walked away from their homes.

"In seven months? Wow. Really?" says the Teacher's Father, whose reaction is shared by the Border Street Cop and the area's City Council Member, both of whom realize the damage this kind of churn does, not just to a single block but to the larger neighborhood as well.

House No. 1: The Mexican grandma, her boyfriend, three sons, two daughters-in-law, six grandchildren. Total occupants: 13 people. Status: Owned, but abandoned.

House No. 2: The Legal Permanent Resident. In the spring, he lived in the house with his wife; two sons; his younger brother, also known as the Fugitive Boyfriend; the brother's girlfriend, Maria the younger; and their newborn. After everyone but the Legal Permanent Resident departed, another of his brothers and another man moved in. Total occupants: Nine. Status: Owned, but abandoned.

House No. 3: One-half of a duplex owned by and formerly home to the American "hoochie mamas and white trash." Total occupants: Unknown. Reasonable guess: At least three. Status: In foreclosure.

House No. 4: A duplex once owned and occupied by an American man, his wife and their daughter. Total occupants: three. Status: Sold to a Spanish-speaking family.

House No. 5: Duplex apartments. Total occupants: nine, four of whom moved to another apartment on the street. Status: Rental property, now vacant.

House No. 6: Townhome. Number of occupants: Five. Status: In foreclosure.

Total: 38

As with all accountings on Border Street, this is an estimate. It does not include, for example, the comings and goings at the eight taxpayer-subsidized apartments, which are in constant flux.

This kind of turnover mocks the city's comprehensive plan for its neighborhoods, which begins: "For the quality of their lives Denverites depend on their neighborhoods more than any other part of the city. Residents are sensitive to change, especially in those things about which they care most."

This statement is prefaced by a quote from writer and urban planner Lewis Mumford, who says the relationship of neighbors need not be deep to be real: "A nod, a friendly word, a recognized face, an uttered name - this is all that is needed to establish and preserve in some fashion the sense of belonging together."

By this definition, Border Street is not a neighborhood at all, but a collection of dwellings, something like a way station, or perhaps, an airport runway.

Most of those who have left have not been replaced by others. Most of those who left are Spanish speakers. They have moved to Littleton, Lakewood, Mexico. Roughly one-third of the street's housing stock is now vacant.

For each departure, there is a story - a lost job, illness, trouble with the law, family members striking out on their own or moving to join other family in an attempt to save money. It is likely, too, that the street has been swept up in larger forces, the wave of foreclosures, the crime that continues to plague the larger neighborhood, the demographic changes that have brought in more immigrants and more poverty.

The City Council Member wonders, too, whether Colorado's toughening stance against illegal immigration is reaching into neighborhoods now, prompting people to look for more hospitable ground.

Both the Border Street Cop and the City Council Member say the turnover on Border Street is higher than average, but not unique, that the neighborhood has pockets of instability.

"If people are just in and out, we can never offer the full benefits of Denver life," the City Council Member says. "We can't ever help the block improve because it's just like mercury."

The City Council Member is well acquainted with Border Street, with the frustrations of its longtime residents and their sense of powerlessness. The City Council Member once attempted to address the Fed Up Neighbor's irritation with the Legal Permanent Resident's habit of hanging wet laundry on their shared fence by offering to bring a clothesline to the Legal Permanent Resident. This was not what the Fed Up Neighbor would call a satisfactory solution, and it prompted the Teacher to ask whether taxpayer dollars would be spent on the rope.

"It didn't address the problem," says the Fed Up Neighbor, who many months later is still steamed by the offer. "Someone has just got to put their foot down. We live by rules in the city. I'm expected to obey them, but people are moving in and out and they don't give a damn. If the rules were enforced, we might just get some stability here."

The churning of Border Street, the breaking apart of a neighborhood, scattering families, leaving empty houses that lower property values, sweeps outward, touches upon the schools, on classrooms and students. Some of the kids of Border Street will transfer from school to school. It will be easy for them to get lost.

griegot@RockyMountainNews.com