The Kids Are Alright - Part 2

On Monday I wrote about my visit to North High School in Denver with ABCD Coordinator Aspen Matthews. Our objective was to interview high school students in the neighborhood about the ongoing gentrification in their neighborhood, and what we found was that the students were as aware and opinionated about gentrification as many of the adults.

The freshmen and sophomores we spoke to first were able to identify and discuss the changes happening in their neighborhood, but many of these students incorrectly identified the gentrification as happening within the last year or two. This is a far cry from the a general consensus found during the ABCD project that place the first signs of gentrification around 2007 or even earlier.

The Juniors and Seniors, on the other hand, generally identified the gentrification as beginning five to seven years ago. This is much more in line with our earlier findings.

What was even more interesting is the varied reactions to gentrification. It can be easy to try to over simplify the issue and assume that the Hispanics and Italians, whose families have been in the neighborhood longer, would be against gentrification, while newer whites might be indifferent to it.

However, that wasn't the case.

Since we talked to students in groups, there may have been group think at work, but we ended up talking to a group of white students that hated the gentrification, a group of Hispanic students that liked it, and another group of Hispanic students that hated it.

Furthermore, Aspen talked to a group of students that had a mutual dislike of gentrification, but found that not everyone was comfortable sharing that. When one of the white students she spoke to stated their dislike for gentrification, a group of Hispanic students responded with, "you can say that because you're white."

For these students, the fear is that they will be perceived as being racist for expressing negative opinions about the changes in the neighborhood, since the gentrification is caused by wealthier whites who are culturally different than they are.

If anything, this only adds to the helplessness that these students feel as they are forced to watch the neighborhood around them change, with many low income Hispanic and Italian families are being pushed out due to rising property taxes and outside pressure from real estate agents.

So, what does all this mean?

While I don't have a definitive answer to that, the variable that I imagine would make these students unique - compared with adults we interviewed - is that they have grown up with the gentrification and the consequences of it most of their lives.

For some, gentrification may feel natural and normal. This doesn't necessarily mean that they do or don't like what is happening, but it may explain why we were able to find students that might be more negatively effected by gentrification responding positively to it or why young Hispanics are hyper aware of the perception their opinions might send to outsiders.

These are just some initial thoughts, not hard theories or conclusions. At the very least, we learned that whether or not they have a name for the concept, high school students in Northwest Denver are aware of the changes caused by gentrification, and whether positive or negative - and in fact, it's mostly negative - these students have strong opinions about it.

- John Putnam, The 32^nd Avenue Jubilee Center Episcopal Service Corps Intern

The Kids Are Alright - Part 1

As someone who has worked with teens extensively the past two summers, I can honestly say that I have never met a dumb teenager. Teenagers are usually very intelligent, often much more so than society gives them credit for. Such was my experience when Aspen and I visited North High School this past Wednesday to interview the students during Freshman/Sophomore and Junior/Senior lunch.

I went in without too many expectations, and found two images of the school once I was there. The first came from my own impressions. All of the kids we talked to seemed like fairly typical high school students. In fact, they were all fairly calm and approachable. Chill is the perfect word to describe these teens.

However, another image I received was the ones the students painted of their school. It seems that both the school and the neighborhood has a reputation for being "ghetto" or "hood" - a reputation that the students were not too fond of. I won't make a statement for or against that reputation, but simply want to point out that the language surrounding the school's identity seemed very different from the reality of it.

Aspen talked to a woman who works for the district as a hall monitor of sorts. She goes to different schools throughout the year and acts as a roamer, making sure students get where they need to be going. When asked about her experience at North, she said that the students there were better behaved and easier to work for than any other school she had been to.

Something else we noticed is that what appeared to be at least half of the students were wearing purple North High School apparel on what was just an average day of school - not a pep rally or football day. We asked about the dress code and found out that there really wasn't much of one. It's simply popular to wear North High apparel.

This says a lot about North.

Regardless of what people think about it - and I will admit to only having a limited view - it appears that North does a great job of fostering school spirit, has a well-behaved, active student body, and has students that are proud to be North Vikings.

To the students who described their neighborhood or school as "ghetto" or "hood," I would simply say, "don't." A reputation won't change unless you can change the way you view yourselves. You come from a neighborhood and school that is rich in culture and diversity...

... and you have a lot to be proud of.

- John Putnam, The 32^nd Avenue Jubilee Center Episcopal Service Corps Intern


In part 2 I will discuss our findings from our conversations with the students about the neighborhood and gentrification.

Food Gentrification in North Denver

Yesterday at the Jubilee Center our ABCD pilot project held our second small community discussion. Our first meeting was on education and youth, this one focused on a challenge that many have not yet admitted is happening in Northwest Denver: gentrification. However, throughout our one-to-one interviews with community members, we have heard quotes talking about gentrification such as:

“I worry that people are living here because it’s trendy and cool and they don’t have a commitment to where they live.”

“One time we had a community meeting at Our Lady of Guadalupe – it was the first time Italians were in a Mexican church. People are drawn through the history and culture. If you capitalize on the people who were here, who have that history and culture, there is a point of equalizing.”

“Younger metropolitan group doesn’t have historical connection, instead want access to downtown.”

It is clear that the influx of people into Northwest Denver is part of people’s thoughts when they are discussing their neighborhood. At our second community meeting, we had a more in-depth discussion on gentrification. As we prepared for that meeting though, we stumbled across articles about something called food gentrification, which refers to previously inexpensive or unpopular foods becoming the new “foodie trends”. This means that the higher the demand, the higher the prices because there is a shortage in supply and willingness to pay more.

The food that tends to come to mind when talking about popular new vegetables is kale, a leafy green that has been dubbed a superfood. In 2011, kale was sold in 4,700 stores in the United States. Now, it is sold in 50,700 stores and during that time increased in price by 25%. In 2013, Entrepreneur wrote an article dubbing 2013 as “the year of kale”. Everyone is talking about kale, blogging recipes centered around it, and sharing on social media when they eat it. Whole Foods recognized the takeover that kale had in the food industry and at the beginning of 2014, wrote an official blog post and marketed in store the idea: Collards Are the New Kale. This is where the food gentrification began.

Collard greens have been a staple of working class Black and White Southern American’s meals for centuries. When a high end grocer decides to market collards by likening them to the status of kale, prices undoubtedly increase to accommodate the surge in demand, leading to less availability and affordable prices for the people that had already “discovered” this vegetable. The life of collards may soon mirror that of kale’s to be a booming fad across the country.

Through our work in North Denver, we thought about this idea of food gentrification a little differently. Here, food gentrification manifests itself differently than by increasing prices in grocery stores. Rather, our change in prices has come through an abundance of restaurants. Gossip around the neighborhood states we have about 65 restaurants within a two mile radius. Many of these restaurants offer a variety of cuisines and the prices in these establishments tend to be on the higher end. Such an incredible number of options to dine out implies that the people of the neighborhood have that leisure time as well as the disposable income to choose which restaurant they are in the mood for. What does that mean for restaurants that have been in the neighborhood for years?

This neighborhood is very good at dining out, enjoying the social scene, and hosting community events around food and leisure. Knowing about food gentrification and its implications on the prices and availability of food, how do we welcome new restaurants into our community? In what ways can restaurants bring us together? How do we appropriately manage this influx of higher end cuisine in our neighborhood while also having local grocery stores and restaurants that cater to lower income families?

Curiosity and judgement cannot live together in the same space

This past weekend the Jubilee Center presented at the 127th Annual Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado on Asset Based Community Development. The presentation was a way to share our story of implementing ABCD work in a community, including first steps, asset mapping, and continuing conversations. We met people from Episcopal churches across Colorado that were looking to begin community building initiatives in their church or out in their neighborhoods.

The Jubilee Center used this workshop as a way to begin organizing our own thoughts about ABCD and the work we have done. As a pilot project, we are responsible for completing a "how-to" manual to share our processes, including how we structured our project and what worked well for us in our neighborhood, which is in a state of constant change. The workshop had three different sections: an overview of ABCD, an appreciative inquiry exercise that led into preliminary asset mapping, and a description of how we are using ABCD in North Denver.

Attendees were active participants by conducting "one-to-one" interviews with partners to discover gifts and assets in their stories. They shared answers to one of the following questions: What is something you did to prepare to come to Convention? or What is something you left behind when you came to Convention? Participants observed that it was easy to begin connecting right away with their partners and found that their conversations began to delve deeper into more than simply answering the question. This allowed attendees to start thinking of the gifts both they and their partners have. Then participants began the mapping process of their gifts. This was an individual exercise in which attendees wrote their individuals gifts, associations they belong to, and institutions they are part of in their communities. They also wrote what they are most excited about for convention, which goes on what Aspen (our ABCD intern) calls the themes board, which helps to organize people by their passions and interests.

The attendees gave great responses to the mapping exercise and had many questions on how it works and how to implement it for themselves. We were very excited about their interest in the project and how we can continue to share our own story.

If you are interested in seeing our presentation slides or learning more about how we're using ABCD in North Denver, please contact the 32nd Avenue Jubilee Center at aspen.matthews@jubilee32.org.