Raksha Vasudevan: Rocky Mountain Ways

Denver, Colorado's majestic mountains, green space, and reputation as an ecologically advanced city draw people into this growing metropolis. But there are some unwanted byproducts that result from the influx of humanity, for example air pollution and gentrification. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to Raksha Vasudevan, a freelance journalist and contributing editor to High Country News about the transition of Denver from a remote Rocky Mountain town to a booming metropolis. We learn about the city's industrial history, discuss how its transportation system has evolved, and look at the paradoxes and unintended consequences of major green infrastructure projects. Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise. Raksha Vasudevan (RV) | 00:26 - It really is like an unfortunate paradox of, of more people moving you here and of the city growing, is that there's more traffic jams, of course, to get to the mountains. And there are two highways that run through GES. So the people living in that area and people living adjacent to many highways absorb sort of the costs of people trying to access green space, but they don't really get to enjoy any of the benefits. Narrator | 00:54 - Denver, Colorado's majestic mountains green space and reputation as an ecologically advanced city draw people into this growing metropolis. But there are some unwanted byproducts that result from the influx of humanity, for example, air pollution and gentrification. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to Raksha Vasudevan, a freelance journalist and contributing editor to High Country News about the transition of Denver from a remote Rocky Mountain town to a booming metropolis. We learn about the city's industrial history, discuss how its transportation system has evolved, and look at the paradoxes and unintended consequences of major green infrastructure projects. Alex Wise (AW) | 02:00 - I am joined now on Sea Change Radio by Raksha Vasudevan. She is a freelance journalist and contributing editor at High Country News Raksha. Welcome to Sea Change Radio. Raksha Vasudevan (RV) | 02:08 - Thank you so much for having me. Alex Wise (AW) | 02:11 - So you have a piece in the December High Country News, or it's, it's, it was published December 1st, 2023 entitled North Denver's Green Space Paradox. And I thought it was a good launching point for a larger discussion about Denver and the environmental issues facing the entire mountain West. You focus on this Globeville Elyria-Swansea or GES community in North Denver. But why don't you first give us a little bit of a history of this region, because you provide that quite well in the piece. RV | 02:47 - Yeah. So this particular community in Denver, but Denver as a whole, one of the reasons for its founding and its growth was because it served as an important link in the Transcontinental Railroad. So it was kind of this frontier town in the west, and of course, when that railroad was built, it displaced the original inhabitants of the area, which was the indigenous people who lived here. But the railroad and the stop in Denver specifically opened a lot of opportunities for Denver. It became more than just a place to pick up your mail on the way out to California. It really became a city in its own right. And soon after the Transcontinental Railroad was built through Denver, um, there were also many iron and ore smelters that were built in the area because of the proximity to the railroad and to, to mines across the country. AW | 03:47 - This is like in the Reconstruction Era, like 1870 to 1890 era, I'm guessing.  RV | 03:53 - Yeah, around then, exactly. And so that attracted a lot of new people to this area, especially eastern European immigrants, to come work at these smelters. And eventually it also led to a livestock center and a livestock marketplace, um, which is still around, there's still an annual livestock show in Denver,