Here's an email from one of our followers:
“Like many around the globe, we have experienced the maddening noise and pollution from construction in our established Denver neighborhood as the small, affordable historic homes in our neighborhood fall to development. For the past 7 of the 10 years we've lived in this home, we've had three affordable neighboring homes destroyed by investors and replaced with giant homes and garages. Many of the beautiful healthy, mature trees on these properties have been cut down to make room for garages and much larger homes. Construction crew trucks puff outside our windows idling for hours and filling our home with diesel exhaust when we have our windows open or use our evaporative cooler on hot days. Our privacy has been lost as these new taller homes have windows that look down into our formerly private backyard and windows. It's driving us crazy and affecting our health (my husband just had a heart attack at age 54), and we dream of selling our home and escaping the city. But, I grew up here and have family here, so it's hard to figure out where we can afford to move that will grant us peace and quiet and sanity once again but be close enough to see my parents and sister without having to fly or drive super long distances. I'm sad to see Denver (and cities across the world) growing exponentially and getting more and more polluted and hot with the extreme temperatures due to all the construction and concrete covering all of our former green spaces and neighborhoods. The population explosion and destruction of our planet is why we decided not to have kids – we didn't want to add more poor souls to our stressful, overcrowded, polluted and noisy world. All I can do is try to consume as little as possible, ride my bike everywhere, grow food organically, volunteer in the community to help others, and make the best of our little spot in the heart of the ever-growing metropolis.”
We are truly sorry that so many Denver residents (and people around the world) are having to live through the noise and pollution of construction.
Indeed, living through the loud noises of jackhammering, tractors and the coming and going of construction dumpsters filled with former homes while witnessing the fall of beautiful, well-built historic smaller homes are an every day occurrence in Denver as investors buy small homes formerly owned by lower-income families to raze them and build giant McMansions that cover every inch of space allowed by the city. And one by one, our affordable homes are replaced with unaffordable cheaply-built but unaffordable new ones. It's a terrible thing to witness.