In times long past, Denver had a well-known skid row in the vicinity of Larimer Street. At some point it underwent "urban renewal". Don't know how it looks now.
Bruce Phillips (aka U. Utah Phillips), who once spent a good amount of time bumming on freight trains, preferred it the old way. He even wrote a song in his displeasure:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suzr_hIjhagBruce's lyrics:Your bulldozers rolling through my part of town
The iron ball swings and knocks it all down,
You knocked down my flophouse and you knocked down my bars
And black-topped it over to park all your cars.
Chorus:And where will I go and where can I stay?
You knocked down the skid row and hauled it away,
I'll flag a fast rattler and ride it on down, boys,
They're running the bums out of town.
Old Maxie the tailor is closing his doors,
There ain't nothing left in the secondhand stores,
You knocked down my hock shop and the big Harbor Lights
And the old Chinese cafe that was open all night.
You ran out the hookers who worked on the street
And built a big club where the playboys can meet.
My bookie joint closed when your cops made a raid,
But you built a new hall for the stock market trade.
These little storekeepers they don't have a chance
With the big uptown bankers a-calling the dance,
With their suit-and-tie restaurants that's all owned by Greeks
And the counterfeit hippies and their plastic boutiques.
Now I'm finding out there's just one kind of war,
It's the one going on 'tween the rich and the poor.
Don't know a lot about what you'd call class
But the upper and middle can all kiss my ass.
