Special Event
East Colfax Assessment
Tuesday, March 12, 2024, 6pm-8pm
at Counterpath (7935 East 14th Ave.)
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Join friends of Counterpath and the East Colfax Neighborhood Association on Tuesday, March 12, 2024, 6-8pm, at Counterpath (7935 East 14th Ave. in Denver) for an overview and community discussion of urban planning policy affecting the East Colfax neighborhood, presented by Stefan Chavez-Norgaard and Victor Chen for their Counterpath Residency. We intend to critically engage planning and other local government policies through a lens of community concerns such as displacement. Light refreshments to be served. We plan to discuss the following:
Overview of planning and local government policies and programs affecting Denver communities, engaging their recent history and today:
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Redlining and Mapping Inequality
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Property tax and Urban Renewal primer
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Housing value trend analysis snapshot from 2015-2019
Critical study of specific historical plans and planning processes that affected the neighborhood, and of contemporary planning and governance issues affecting this area:
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Theorizing the impact of Bus Rapid Transit
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Alternative Planning Processes: what can we learn from other communities?
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As we go through these issues, there will be opportunities for group discussion so that we can learn from local residents and the neighborhood association about the community and specific planning and local-government policies of interest.
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Stefan Chavez-Norgaard is a PhD Candidate in Urban Planning at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP). His research interests include urban and planning theory, local-government and planning law, and mixed-methods research focused on planning practice and urban governance in the related but distinct late-liberal contexts of South Africa and the United States. Stefan is passionate about participatory democracy and how cities’ public/private arrangements affect equitable urban development. His dissertation examines areas of apartheid-era forced relocation in South Africa and how master plans have been implemented and repurposed in these geographies by residents and planners.
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Victor Chen is a community researcher and local musician. He works as a Finance and Research Analyst at the Colorado Department of Local Affairs where he works with local governments all over Colorado on financial issues such as budgeting, property tax, and water system financing. He volunteers with two local nonprofits: the Spring Institute for Intercultural Learning, which serves our immigrant and refugee community, and also Soul Stories, whose mission is to use storytelling to facilitate human connection, personal healing, and social change. He is also a pianist and keyboardist who has performed at local venues such as Mozart’s Lounge, Dazzle, and on-air on KUVO.
