A recent New York Times article, "A Notorious Main Drag, in Line for Big Changes", about Colfax Avenue starts off with the usual Colfax references of  Kerouac, Every Which Way But Loose, Pimps and Poets but moves into ruminations of Colfax's future by Colfax business owners and Neighborhood activists.

Historically speaking, Colfax was the Rocky Mountain Regions answer to Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco and Greenwich Village in New York - but while these areas have been gentrified, Colfax is still a little scummy.

I kind of like it that way, and so do a lot of others. The article refers to the new zoning laws that will help Colfax drum up business and attempt to limit criminal activity by making it Denver's Main Street. The concern is that the new laws will 'sanitize' Colfax and take away from the charming yet distressing allure. I was under the impression that 16th Street Mall, 25 years ago this year, was Denver's attempt at forming a Main Street. And while that might have started off charming, it's pretty distressing now.

Though I like Colfax the way it is, I obviously don't like driving by crime scenes at fast food restaurants two blocks from my house - only to find a small little blurb in the following day's newspaper about a fatal shooting. But high profile shootings happen, even in Lodo, Denver's most charming 'hood.

So, I agree, while Colfax can definitely use a pick-me-up, it can't at the expense of it's personality. I don't know how you go about achieving this. With Denver's new zoning laws, development decisions are made in a formulaic manner by labeling neighborhoods at 'places of change' or 'places of stability' - but what do you do to a neighborhood that has stability (even if it's gritty), but needs change too?

Phil Goodstein, author and Cap hill tour guide, probably says it best, "Just let Colfax be Colfax."

Photo from New York Times article, "A Notorious Main Drag, in Line for Big Changes"