Race, Poverty and Living In Floodplains
When I began working in the floodplain management program at the Colorado Water Conservation Board, it did not take me long to see connections between ethnicity, poverty and floodplains in Colorado.
In farm towns in northeastern Colorado, mining (and former mining) towns in the mountains and on the Western Slope, cities and towns in “The Valley” (the San Luis Valley), or trailer parks in Ski Country USA, I observed similar tendencies.
Blacks and Latinos and people of all ethnicities who live in poverty live in Colorado’s floodplains at a disproportionate rate. Those images were reinforced later, when I went on a relief trip to the Gulf Coast of Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina
I don’t intend to lay blame for the past. However, from right now, I challenge myself, and all of you reading this, to help change this reality going forward.
There are plenty of places in Colorado I can point to where ethnic minority communities and/or communities with high rates of poverty face more deadly flood hazards than hazards faced in Greater Park Hill. But I live in Park Hill. This is where I am focusing my energy.
Watershed Equity
In my mind, it does not matter much whether you are upstream or downstream in your watershed. It is the responsibility of everyone in a watershed (black, Latino and white) to provide a share of the care needed by that watershed.
Stormwater comes from somewhere and it goes somewhere. It is not magic or mysterious. Meet your watershed neighbors upstream and downstream and join forces. That idea is consistent with the history of our great neighborhood, at least as I have learned and personally experienced that history.
Let’s talk about Greater Park Hill and the distribution of flood hazards within the Park Hill Creek watershed in the three neighborhoods within our community. Consider the breakdowns of who lives where in Park Hill, along with the maps, at left, that show flood hazards.
Ethnicity in Greater Park Hill
Ethnicity |
South Park Hill |
North Park Hill |
Northeast Park Hill |
Black |
7.62% |
38.77% |
50.00% |
Latino |
7.21% |
3.72% |
12.85% |
White |
76.31% |
48.93% |
16.99% |
Poverty in Greater Park Hill
South Park Hill |
North Park Hill |
Northeast Park Hill |
|
% of Persons Living in Poverty |
8.00% |
10.20% |
32.87% |
Notes:
• All data from The Data Initiative, funded by the Piton Foundation in 2013
• Greater Park Hill extends from Colorado Boulevard to Quebec Street (west-east), and Colfax Street to Smith Road (south-north).
• The boundary between South Park Hill and North Park Hill is 23rd Avenue
• The boundary between North Park Hill and Northeast Park Hill is Martin Luther King Boulevard
South Park Hill
75 percent of South Park Hill is in the Montclair Creek watershed. I have written extensively about the Montclair Creek watershed and will continue to do so in the future.
About 20 percent of South Park Hill (mostly between Monaco and Quebec) is in the East Park Hill Creek watershed, with an additional 5 percent of South Park Hill in the West Park Hill Creek watershed.
Before I continue, please recall that these watersheds and the various channels within them were in place for a very long time before any portion of Greater Park Hill was platted or subdivided.
That having been said, portions of Magnolia Street and Niagara Street from roughly 17th Avenue to 23rd Avenue – along with part of the schoolyard at the Philips Elementary campus at Montview and Monaco – were platted in/on one of the primary channels in the East Park Hill Creek watershed. Additional development activity has occurred on tributary channels.
Brian Hyde is an expert in floodplain management and stream restoration. He wants your feedback at westerly_connect_brian@comcast.net or 720-939-6039.
North Park Hill

Northeast Park Hill

Flood Hazards in Northeast Park Hill
