To be blunt, Denver and Boulder and Fort Collins, they don’t need that much help. The more rural parts of the state are still struggling and some of them have very high unemployment rates up close to 6 percent,” Hickenlooper said. “So we want to try to put energy into those communities and try to make sure that their economy gets a lift as well.”
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Another piece of the puzzle for the Space to Create initiative is the affordable housing component. The governor alluded to the successes of other creative neighborhoods in the state – and the double-edged nature of that success.
“Artists have always been the people that are on the frontier of neighborhoods and communities, usually on the edge of what’s safe – warehouse districts,” Hickenlooper said. “But once they colonize and people see it’s safe and cool, all of the sudden, young people start following them and then pretty much everybody follows them and then the rents go up and the artists can’t afford it anymore. So they get priced out. So, we’re trying to find ways that we can create long term housing solutions for artists who don’t make very much money, without having them get pushed from one place to another.