Reader: Gentrification Is Nothing New on the Northside

Bobby LeFebre's new web series, Welcome to the Northside, satirizes gentrification in northwest Denver, a red-hot real estate area that got its start back in 1860 as the town of Highland. The show just debuted on March 31, but it's already stirred up debate over that piece of Mile High turf.

By Westword Staff

April 2, 2017

Bobby LeFebre (left) stars as Mikey Gonzales in Welcome to the Northside. Welcome to the Northside

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Bobby LeFebre's new web series, Welcome to the Northside, satirizes gentrification in northwest Denver, a red-hot real-estate area that got its start back in 1860 as the town of Highland. The show just debuted on March 31, but it's already stirred up debate over that piece of Mile High turf. Says Tess:

Love the idea of what Bobby is doing. To be fair, though, the Northside was a community of Irish, Polish and Italians before the Chicanos. Will you be speaking on that "gentrification"?

I am third generation Northside. And I am both Hispanic and Polish. It doesn't seem/feel "honest" to say that this was just the Chicano 'hood and Chicanos are the ones to feel this harder than others, when history shows Chicanos gentrifying this community they came into all those years ago..

Adds Geoff:

Well, I'm sure the even older residents of the Northside will be relieved to find out that when they, a generation ago, complained about the demographic shifts in the neighborhood and the influx of taquerias and the "changing values" of the neighborhood, they weren't bigoted old coots but rather satirists ahead of their time.

But then there's this from Santos:

The Highlands are only a very small portion within the Northside. Go read the signs...it's very small , so get over it already. The Highlands are within the Northside!

What do you call northwest Denver? What do you think of the development there?

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