Gentrified

Inspirational song: Masquerade (Phantom of the Opera)

I've been thinking about the person I was in the 1980s a lot today. By the mid-80s, I had moved to Colorado, and was spending a lot of time in downtown Denver, mostly on the weekends. My brother lived in a condo right in the heart of downtown, steps from the pedestrian mall on 16th St and fancy shopping center located there (back in the heyday of shopping malls, when that was the ultimate place for teenagers to want to spend time). The Tabor Center mall is still there, but I'm not sure in what capacity. I haven't set foot in it in so many years I can't remember my last trip there. Same with the condo building. Whenever I find myself on that mall, I remember those halcyon days, living like a yuppie and sneaking into bars and clubs with my older brother, rarely being carded when I ought to have been. I used to imagine I'd be able to afford a condo across the street from my brother, in Writers Square. I loved being down there. By the time I graduated college and started a family, I'd fallen out of love with the idea of living downtown in a big city like that, but it's still fun to remember when it seemed cool.

This afternoon we made an enjoyable trip downtown, my BFF and I, to see another play at the DCPA. This weekend's offering was the Phantom of the Opera. I have never seen it live before. I've only seen the movie once, if I am not mistaken. I don't know why, but I missed out on the Phantom craze when I was a teenager. There were some musicals I really loved in the 80s, but that one and Les Mis went right past me. It has only been in the last ten years that I started really paying attention to the songs, and realizing that they were pretty cool. I have a few issues with the plot of the play (and apparently so does my daughter, I have learned), but I could not find even a single tiny flaw with the singing, instrumentation, costumes, dancing, or set design today. I was riveted. I believe the proper term for how my BFF and I reacted was "Squee!" I tried to sneak a photo of the chandelier at the end, before we filed out of the theater (and when it was too late to get kicked out if they caught me taking a picture inside). I just flicked the camera up, tapped the button, and closed the phone. I didn't look and see how the photo came out until later. It was absolutely unusable. Just a blur.

We have been wanting to take the new train into downtown for a while. We intended to do it for the last play, Beautiful, the Carole King Musical, but I arrived too late to catch it from the new station. My friends have been eagerly awaiting the opening of this particular train station. They had invested in rental property very near this station, and have been monitoring progress, knowing that it was going to raise their property values. They bought on the assumption that gentrification was coming and that the neighborhood was going to be totally revitalized. They just had to hang on and survive the bumpy ride at the beginning. It was a scary, stressful process for them, but they are finally seeing the return on their investment of blood, sweat, and tears. And as I rode the train for the first time, I saw how close this area is to its gentrified goal. The station is still under construction, getting new street access and parks and fountains all around it, but it's running and functional. New homes were being built along the route. It took us straight to Union Station in about 10 minutes, as smooth and easy as you could want. I couldn't stop saying how pleased I was to see all the progress Denver has made toward efficient, pleasant public transportation. Now if the light rail would only come to Boulder county, like it has been promised for years and years. Instead, Boulder got an expensive new toll lane on the highway leading up to it, gobbling up all of the right of way where a train ought to have gone. Such progress on one side, such money grubbing BS on the other.