COFFEE SHOP’S ROASTING
Reaction to ink! “gentrification” sign
Finally! Vincent Carroll expressed what many are thinking regarding the absurd reaction to the ink! Coffee gentrification sign. The expressions of outrage expose once again the unfortunate omission of the teaching of basic economic principles in our country, both at home and in our public schools.
How far away are we from the reality of re-education camps currently employed in China when protesters and city officials call for the owners of ink! and its employees to be forced to attend cultural education training, or worse, illegally confiscate their property to then use it as a “community center”? These reactions are juvenile and uninformed. Thank you, Mr. Carroll, for your well-written and nuanced editorial response. David Marberry, Centennial
Stephen Covey, the author of “7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” wrote: “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”
From Vincent Carroll’s lengthy, finger-wagging tirade, it would seem that neither ink! Coffee unveiling its tone-deaf advertisement nor Vincent Carroll considered, much less acted upon, this principle.
Is gentrification such a binary issue that Five Points’ only alternatives are to blossom into the Rino neighborhood or fail into “urban decay and recession”? Are its longtime citizens simply collateral damage from zoning and development policies promoting growth and “improvement”?
Did Carroll spend any time in the neighborhood and with the people who are offended by the ink! campaign? Did he talk to them to discover the “ugly” opinions he ascribes to them? Did he seek to understand? How does scolding those who are offended, while encouraging them to suck it up and go somewhere else to live, promote a solution? I find this op-ed embarrassing in its condescension. Nancy Francis, Denver
What’s Vincent Carroll smoking? Did he actually think that Denver’s Five Points community would allow some marketing agency to rub their noses in the painful displacement from their own neighborhood? He obviously doesn’t know us very well. Westside, Northside, Five Points, we strike back. We’re from Denver and represent generations of families and neighbors who made those places special in the first place. We are welcoming to all, but don’t get in our face about it. Daniel Salazar, Denver
Amen to the article by Vincent Carroll. Give the ink! Coffee shop a break. “PC” has run amok, with some people making the proverbial mountain out of a molehill. You don’t like the way some business conducts its business? Don’t shop there! Barbara Vetter, Broomfield
Vincent Carroll’s column overlooked a few key points. Namely: If the ink! Coffee owner did not understand what “gentrification” means, what did he think it meant? If he didn’t know what it meant, why did he use the term at all? What kind of advertising agency would not understand the words it uses in the messages it creates? James Keyworth, Denver
Vincent Carroll’s defense for ink! Coffee reflects the very level of of sublime neglect that continues to gentrify (read erase) the richness of our beloved city. Of course white small-business owners don’t have to know that black-owned businesses in Five Points have been erased by eminent domain. Of course mainstream journalists can bully the voiceless and subvert the true story — we are not his audience. The Denver Post does not cover the stories/plight of the thousands of homeless people swept aside every night — they are the invisible byproduct of gentrification.
But what ink!, The Denver Post, City Council member Albus Brooks or the mayor cannot do is force us into silence. This city has, over the past 10 years, sold out the community in part because we the people have been asleep at the wheel. I am grateful for the owner of ink! for waking a sleeping giant. Until lions have their own historians, we’ll only have tales that glorify the hunter. P.J. D’amico, Denver
I am a longtime fan of Vincent Carroll. His column on gentrification, however, ignores the value of stable urban neighborhoods, especially low-income neighborhoods. The support of naturally occurring living communities cannot be undervalued. We can deal with our social issues with the natural support of communities or we can hire cops, social workers, mediators and the full panoply of social services to attempt to cure the lack of such communities. I doubt that the newcomers can be considered a stable neighborhood when the first sign of economic collapse will be accompanied by a mass exodus of residents who will move “home” or to a new city. Tom Morris, Denver