Reader: You're a Big City Now, Denver...Put on Your Big-Boy Pants!

Artist Lauri Lynnxe Murphy is building a tiny house for her Mayday Experment and writing about it every week here. In her most recent installment, she got into the biggest topic in town right now: growth, and the transplants who are helping fuel that growth. Writes Murphy: "I’ve read any number of comments in Westword talking about how 'mean' and 'unwelcoming' the natives are, and how we’re all just haters who need to get over ourselves. I’ve also written a fair amount about the gentrification problems in this city, and merely pointing them out has earned me the name 'hater' from angry readers as well."

And she's been called a number of things since "The Mayday Experiment: Dear Transplants, We Really Don't Hate You" went live last week. Says Kennon:

Have you ever heard someone say "I'm not racist, BUT!" ... Wel,l that's exactly what you've written. "You don't hate us" but you've provided us with a lengthy (and extremely poorly written, somehow approved) list of reasons why you DO actually hate us. All you're doing is masking it by saying (paraphrased), "It was just better before you were here and we wish it was still like that." It's not our problem if you can't deal with progress and keep with the times... because guess what? No matter where you live or where you go, it's always going to be rapidly changing. Sorry to tell you, that's the day and age we live in. Now stop writing all the negative crap and post some positive things about how beautiful this state is, how awesome the weather can be, or talk about the great food scene that has developed in Denver — which is largely thanks to transplants.

You're a big-boy city now, Denver. Put on your big-boy pants and roll with the punches.

Adds Kandace:

First, the economy doing well is good for everyone; to assert that it's only good for some is ridiculous. This article promotes a divisive line between natives and transplants, which is also ridiculous. Be happy that you live in a booming city, and take what comes with that. There are places in the U.S. that are the exact opposite. You sound like whiners every time you complain about transplants, and yes, I am one.

And Gabe concludes with this:

Goodbye, Westword. I am totally done with the persistent xenophobic articles about how awful transplants are. It's not just elitist, it's also bigoted. Replace these anti-outsider statements with a race and what you promote sounds like any KKK diatribe. Suspicions that every negative aspect is due to out-of-staters is so simple-minded and I will say it again, bigoted, that it is no longer worth following you on social media or picking up the free magazine. I have been here five years and lived in many other places. So I can say your xenophobic rants are unparalleled.

Read many more comments, as well as Murphy's original piece, here.