Biking Past The Burlington

The day before yesterday, I took a bike ride from my condo across the street from the University of Denver to the 16th Street Mall, Lower Downtown (LoDo), and the River North (RiNo) neighborhood - damn those acronyms, I might add. On my way back, I biked down Upper Larimer Street, which was once Denver's skid row, but in recent years has become pretty upscale. You are much more likely to run into gaggles of hipsters instead of winos these days.  I took the photograph on the left as I passed by the Burlington Hotel Building, which houses the Whiskey Bar on the first floor, along with other upscale bars and shops, and apartments on the upper floors.

However, back in the 1970s, The Burlington was Denver's most dangerous flop house, where according to historian Tom Noel, in his book Denver's Larimer Street, men were killed for a bottle of wine or the change in their pockets.  The photograph on the right comes from that book and shows The Burlington as it was back in the 1970s.  And how did Upper Larimer become skid row? Because Lower Larimer Street was skid row back in the 1950s and 1960s, and to solve this problem, the city used urban renewal funds to bulldoze the entire area, including many of Denver's most historic buildings. Developer Dana Crawford was able to save a single block, now known as Larimer Square, which these days is one of the city's most popular destinations.  The bums and winos who had lived there simply moved a few blocks north. And where are they, and the rest of the homeless, now? Everywhere.