Denver Mayor Michael Hancock on Monday waded into a gentrification controversy sparked like a powder keg by an ink! Coffee sign in Five Points, calling it “a very serious macroeconomic issue” even as some protesters have targeted their ire directly at him.

“I think it’s wonderful, to be honest with you,” Hancock said during an interview about the opportunity for a broader discussion about gentrification.

Ink’s sandwich-board sign last week described the shop as “happily gentrifying the neighborhood since 2014.” The professionally produced sign, spotted outside ink’s location at 29th and Larimer streets Wednesday in the River North Arts District section of the historic near-downtown neighborhood, immediately sparked a furor on social media, leading to a well-attended protest Saturday outside the shop.

But some attendees turned their fire on Hancock — and that has prompted him to defend his administration’s attention to the displacement of longtime residents and other negative effects of gentrification.

Patrick Traylor, The Denver Post Community activist Tony Pigford speaks during a rally outside ink! Coffee shop on Saturday afternoon Nov. 25, 2017. At least 200 people showed up for a "We don't drink ink" protest and boycott event outside the store.

Patrick Traylor, The Denver Post Sean Glenn of Denver holds his son Ymir, 4, on his shoulders during a rally outside ink! Coffee shop in Denver's Five Points neighborhood on Saturday afternoon Nov. 25, 2017. At least 200 people showed up for a "We don't drink ink" protest and boycott event outside the store. "Gentrification is a dirty word," says Glenn. "It's cloaked in racism and no one ever talks about it."

Patrick Traylor, The Denver Post At least 200 people showed up for a "We don't drink ink" protest and boycott event outside the store on Saturday afternoon Nov. 25, 2017 in Denver.



Patrick Traylor, The Denver Post Five Points resident Musa Bailey, center, holds a sign next to his son Glen, 3, outside ink! Coffee shop in Denver's Five Points neighborhood. At right is JuJu Nkrumah. At least 200 people showed up for a "We don't drink ink" protest and boycott event outside the store on Saturday afternoon Nov. 25, 2017 in Denver.

Patrick Traylor, The Denver Post Five Points resident Musa Bailey, center, holds a sign as he is greeted by Kisha C. outside ink! Coffee shop in Denver's Five Points neighborhood. At right is JuJu Nkrumah. At least 200 people showed up for a "We don't drink ink" protest and boycott event outside the store on Saturday afternoon Nov. 25, 2017 in Denver.

Patrick Traylor, The Denver Post Community organizer Tay Anderson speaks during a rally outside ink! Coffee shop in Denver's Five Points neighborhood. At least 200 people showed up for a "We don't drink ink" protest and boycott event outside the store on Saturday afternoon Nov. 25, 2017 in Denver.



Patrick Traylor, The Denver Post At least 200 people showed up for a "We don't drink ink" protest and boycott event outside the store on Saturday afternoon Nov. 25, 2017 in Denver.

Patrick Traylor, The Denver Post At least 200 people showed up for a "We don't drink ink" protest and boycott event outside the store on Saturday afternoon Nov. 25, 2017 in Denver.

On Saturday, some protesters held aloft signs that appropriated the design and message of ink’s sign board to accuse Hancock of “happily gentrifying the neighborhood since 2011.”

“I think it’s misguided,” Hancock said Monday, “but I cannot allow myself or our administration to get bogged down into that. Because political messages are just as inappropriate as the insensitive branding message that (ink) thought was a joke. Because it distracts from the real opportunity we have here.

“If we get bogged down and worried about what people think about the steps we’ve taken,” he added, “we’ll never move forward.”

On Monday morning, City Council President Albus Brooks, who represents Five Points, similarly was challenged in person about the his agenda and the city’s priorities when he stopped by the store to support the protesters’ concerns.

The reaction has put both Brooks and Hancock on the defensive.

“Haphazardly and, quite frankly, stupidly, ink! has created an opportunity to respond to this communitywide issue,” Hancock said. “(But) we also have to educate ourselves, because if we don’t understand the true cause of gentrification, we can’t address it effectively.”

He called gentrification an economic challenge for which “there’s not one silver bullet that fixes this issue.” And Hancock, who grew up just east of Five Points, in Whittier, said it has pained him to watch the displacement of residents and businesses in the area.

He listed several initiatives that his administration has launched since he took office in 2011, as well as more recent plans that he says will help reduce the displacement of residents by new development. Those include plans for a 10-year, $150 million affordable housing fund fueled by property taxes and development impact fees.

Critics contend city leaders can do more

Hancock has touted the housing plan as bold, but some critics contend that and other programs offer small fixes compared to the scope and reach of Denver’s skyrocketing housing costs.

A group of residents, developers and housing advocates called All In Denver has called on city leaders to put a housing bond on the ballot next year as a way to raise more money to address what they see as a housing crisis that can’t wait for the housing fund to raise money over a decade.

Hancock’s administration so far has questioned the viability of that request.

“The fact that Mayor Hancock has drug his feet on fiscal safety nets for the residents here, he enabled this,” said Theo Wilson, a participant in Saturday’s protest.

The mayor said Monday that “it’s not Mayor Hancock’s agenda” that’s driving displacement, but rather difficult-to-control market forces.

“It’s really a response to what we’ve seen in 2008 and 2009, with the foreclosure crisis,” he said.

Hancock said that as a councilman back then, he watched as the Great Recession and the housing bust resulted in a disproportionate rate of foreclosures in Five Points and other neighborhoods with large numbers of minority residents.

That made real estate cheap — for a few years. It was long enough for outsiders to snap up small retail shops and houses, leaving many former homeowners no choice but to rent homes or apartments until their fortunes changed.

A few years later, during the economic recovery, Hancock said those same people were ready to buy homes again just as they were faced with competition from Denver’s unrelenting influx of newcomers, which has driven up prices.

Other efforts by his administration that Hancock says have made a difference include his “3 x 5” initiative, which provided financial support to build or preserve 3,000 income-qualified apartments and other housing units in less than five years. Another 1,000 units are under construction, he said, and 1,000 more are in the development pipeline.

But as the city’s Office of Economic Development has pointed out in affordable housing plans, tens of thousands of households in Denver are “rent-burdened,” meaning they spend more than 30 percent of their incomes on housing costs.

Hancock said a gentrification study released by his administration last year shed light on the reach of the issue and has informed city initiatives. He said the city has stepped up in recent years by evolving its approach to workforce development programs and by rolling out financial empowerment centers to help families stabilize their budgets.

“We’re moving in with resource fairs to make sure we’re getting that information out, like property tax abatement (options) for our seniors,” he said. “Banking land. Looking at community land trusts — those are all efforts that we’re bringing to this issue.”