*********************************
There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
*********************************
With its explosive amenity-driven growth, the Denver metropolitan region is emblematic of much of the American West. While growth brings tremendous economic opportunities, it is often accompanied by significant challenges, such as: housing supply shortages and increasing housing costs; land consumption and loss of open space; increasing exposure to natural hazards; traffic congestion and delay; inability to scale transit to meet demand; lack of coordination between jurisdictions; inequitable public education; sectoral imbalance in the economy; gentrification; and congestion of amenities. But amidst these challenges, regional growth also offers valuable opportunities for cities to redefine, re-invent, and revitalize themselves. In Denver, for instance, we see a renaissance in infill development and an overall increase in density, walkability, mixed use, and traditional design elements in the urban core—accompanied by a reverse migration of many back from the suburbs to the city. This reinvestment in central places has brought with it a vibrant mix of uses and allowed transit to become feasible in places where previously it was not, opening up a less automobile-intensive lifestyle to large numbers of people. Yet, such development must be carefully managed to avoid uneven development, gentrification-induced displacement, out-migration of poor and minority resident from urban cores to under-invested suburbs, and loss of public goods.
How do we create a more inclusive strategy to leverage opportunities from growth to promote a sustainable, equitable, and healthy metropolis? Our theme welcomes discussion of all these tangled threads that form the complex tapestry of growing and changing metropolitan regions.
