Urban Removal: The Long-Term Impacts of the Displacement of Denver’s Auraria Neighborhood

Abstract

In the early 1970s, the Auraria Center for Higher Education was developed, displacing a well-established Denver Latino neighborhood, which encompassed a 38-block district at the time, including 155 families, 49 single individuals, and 237 businesses, and clearing the way for the establishment of the Metropolitan State University of Denver, the University of Colorado Denver, and Denver Community College. The implementation of remedial measures for the displacement has fallen short of meeting the needs of displaced residents. The residents were promised affordable education through a program named the Displaced Aurarian Scholarship, which has similarly stated intentions of improving the educational attainment of the displaced individuals and their descendants. In 2022, the Colorado History Museum, as part of its Museum of Memory project, conducted 13 interviews with 21 different individuals who were displaced. This paper seeks to understand the long-term effects of gentrification upon the displaced Aurarians, centering on their social impact, economic impact, and the generational impact on the descendants of those displaced. This study utilises the Displaced Aurarian Memory Project and a theoretical framework, “linked fate,” to contextualise past literature that examines the shortcomings of the remedial measures implemented by Denver authorities. My findings suggest that any remedial measures that provided long-term benefits to the residents occurred despite the actions of the City of Denver and the Auraria Center for Higher Education. These remedial measures required the tedious labor of West Denver activists to develop and implement, with and without cooperation from the institutions involved.