In a small meeting room in a church in northern Denver, Mayor Michael Hancock fielded questions Saturday from a concerned and at times contentious audience about the future of the city and their neighborhood
“We were appalled to hear the mayor call ‘migration’ what he has witnessed over the last 30 years: the slow exile of the Denver black community via gentrification that he has sponsored,” said Amy Emery-Brown, co-lead of Black Lives Matter 5280.
Like most in the nearly all-black audience, Emery-Brown was worried about the economic future of Denver’s black community. The town hall meeting at New Hope Baptist Church was held on the edge of Park Hill.
A plethora of questions about affordable housing, rising housing values and assistance from the city were discussed, with Hancock at times referring the audience to more knowledgeable city officials in attendance.
But getting better jobs for black residents was a topic the audience wouldn’t let him easily avoid.
“But we have got to have some intentionality about it,” an audience member interrupted — to applause from the room — after Hancock said the city wants all people to have jobs.
That exchange came after Hancock described a process of “evolution” among racial demographics.
“This started in the 1990s — (African-Americans) had Montbello, and then started moving into Green Valley Ranch and Aurora. Latinos then started to move east to Montbello, and then to Aurora,” Hancock said.
He took a brighter view of racial housing patterns than some at the meeting, which was organized by Denver’s branch of the NAACP and the Urban League of Metropolitan Denver, from 1998-2003.
“We should not be frightened when people want to cash in on their opportunities (and move),” he added. “That is what people fought and died for us to be able to do. But we do have to make sure people who want to stay have the ability to.”
With about 4,500 new people moving to the metro area every month according to Hancock — 1,000 of them to Denver alone — audience members feared that they will be pushed out.
Historically, Park Hill was once a white neighborhood and was kept that way by . Over the last half century, it became mixed and many areas have black majorities, according to neighborhood histories at the Denver Public Library.
Hancock attempted to calm some fears by discussing the to create and preserve more affordable housing, which has prompted two other in recent months and will be voted on by the city council at the end of August. He echoed points from his July 11 , standing up and engaging the audience closely throughout the meeting.
On issues like small business assistance, housing and tax rebates for the elderly and disabled, Hancock and Paul Washington, executive director of the city’s Office of Economic Development, largely hit the mark with the audience. But members of Black Lives Matter 5280 felt that their questions were ignored.
“We were ignored and silenced here as we have been at numerous public meetings (Hancock) has invited us to before,” Emery-Brown said. “When you’ve had your hand up for an hour, (itap unfair).”
Sasha McGhee, co-lead of the group, said the mayor and Washington seemed to be benefiting from gentrification and development, but the people at the meeting were not.
NAACP Denver president Sondra Young was largely satisfied with the meeting, but said she’ll be bringing more questions to the mayor in the future.
