Enrique Penalosa was mayor of Bogota, Colombia, the one-time cocaine capital of the world, a city once synonymous with murder, inequality, slums and danger.

Penalosa came to Birmingham in 2012 as a consultant. He climbed on a bike and pedaled through Titusville and Elyton, and when he was done he offered this assessment.

"What I saw today was one of the most depressed areas I have ever seen," he said.

Depressing.

That was five years ago, when Birmingham had been in free-fall. It had lost 10 percent of its population in a decade, some 2,400 people a year.

It was before the so-called renaissance of Birmingham, when Railroad Park was new and the rebirth of Avondale still sorta secret. It was before the Barons moved downtown, before the cranes showed up for condos and apartments and renovations to age-old buildings, before the population loss stopped.

I can't help but think of Penalosa now. Now that people are willing to flock downtown to pay $15 for a biscuit and a cup of coffee.

I can't help think of him when I hear candidates for mayor and council make "gentrification" a central issue in campaigns.

Because we have a choice. We can improve the city. Or we can let it go to ... Bogota.

Avondale Park (Mark Almond)

I understand it's a bigger deal than that.

Residents, particularly those of color who have seen enough history to know money wins and they too often lose, fear growth in places like Avondale and downtown and Ensley and Woodlawn and Southtown will bring higher rents and escalating taxes and force the poor from their homes. I get it. I do.

Mayor William Bell has announced a task force to deal with the consequences of gentrification, and most of the serious candidates have made their cases for guarding against the evils of progress. Which is great. It needs to be on our minds.

But it's not the real problem.

Gentrification is, by another name, the same thing as urban revitalization. If you're opposed to revitalization, you simply accept that the place Penalosa saw is the place Birmingham will remain.

Much of what has been done to breathe life into Avondale and other neighborhoods has been done by entrepreneurs risking their capital. It has been done in spite of the government, and not because of it.

Gentrification is not the issue. Inequality is the issue. Access to opportunity is the issue.

Black businesses don't get the support they need, the capital to operate or survive. In Jefferson County in 2012 there were 11,871 firms with paid employees, according to the census. Of those, only 477 - or 4 percent - were owned by black people.

That's a problem. And it's not just about race.

Jobs overall are hard to come by because Birmingham has not been able to compete for industry, in part because of its reputation as a place worse than, well Bogota.

It's a city that had to restore its downtown and its entertainment districts before it could prove to itself and to the world it was worth a second look. It had to invest in its living room if it ever wants to lure the jobs that will help the whole household.

Birmingham must prosper if all its people are to prosper.

The problem is not that some Birmingham neighborhoods have been revived. The problem is that others haven't.

That's where the focus must be. Not in demonizing places where there has been investment, but in helping others do the same.

Fixing up neighborhoods can't be a bad thing. If it is, we are dead already.

And that really is depressing.