Windsor Diaries Chapter 3

So, my landlord on Windsor bumped up my rent. I found a better deal in Denver, and decided to move.

I like it in Denver. I'm a lot closer to my friends. I can go on Nextdoor and find a lot more neighbors who actually care about the American Dream.

Suburban Purgatory

The American Dream is this idea that a poor person can step into town, find work, and build a life for themselves here. In other words, it's a ladder.

At some point in the past, Windsor decided to destroy the bottom rungs of that ladder, to allow those steps to decay and rot.

I assume that many of the locals used to be poor. I assume that once they climbed up and secured themselves a nice, comfortable single-family home, they stopped caring as much.

So you can't have affordability without density. A local cannot claim to be fighting for the American Dream if they're okay with keeping apartments illegal in half of Windsor [show zoning map], or with stopping their neighbors from building density.

The locals, they have a choice to preserve the socioeconomic ladder by building more homes, by having smaller lot sizes, by allowing more density.

Instead, they're chosing to let that ladder rot. So if you're poor, you can

1. Wait two years on a waitlist for the few affordable housing units there, or
2. Spend most of your income on rent
3. Know someone who already lives in Windsor and is willing to offer you a low rate

For all intents and purposes: In Windsor, Colorado, the American Dream is dead.

Limousine Liberalism

I am disappointed in the liberals of Windsor. When I first moved here and I saw that these liberals had money, I thought to myself, "Great! These people are privileged! It should be no problem getting them to sacrifice just a bit of their own comfort to do the right thing."

Because density is good! It's good for the environment, it's good for affordable housing, it's good for desegregation -

And here was a slam-dunk idea: you take a dirt parking lot that's near a bunch of million-dollar single-family homes, and build a bunch of apartments on there.

The town board then pays some nearby businesses to open their own empty parking spots to the public.

Then came the objections from the liberals.

Them: But it's not affordable housing!

Me: What if it was?

Them: Still no.

And so they went, handing out flyers to fearmonger against the apartments, working alongside the very same people who have said horribly bigoted things against my race and my gender identity.

Around 8000 votes were cast in a special election to decide the fate of those apartments. Around 6000 of them voted to make it illegal to build them on that dirt parking lot.

The Rich Liberal

I spoke to one of the guys who owned one of the million-dollar lake homes. He said the apartments would ruin the view, and that they're not even affordable. I tell him that you can't have affordability without density. If you build those apartments, people will move in, and they won't have to bid up the rents in the surrounding areas. You know, basic supply and demand. If there aren't many expensive cars, then the price of cheap cars are higher.

He ignores me. He says he wants density, just not here.

I've never seen him anywhere to advocate for density. In fact, the only time I've seen him was at a meeting to fight the apartments.

The Racist Signs

The first thing I noticed when I moved to Windsor was that some of the stores and homes had signs that basically said, "Stop The Great Wall Of Windsor". Immediately, I assumed that it was about the apartments.

I met the guy who started the phrase, specifically to incite people against the apartments. We're still on good terms, I think.

Me: "Jim, listen - I know you're not a racist. But this 'Great Wall of Windsor' thing - it's a bit racist. There's a reason why 'The Border Wall Of Windsor' or 'The Mount Rushmore Of Windsor' don't jive as well, it's because they're American concepts, and the Great Wall is foreign."

Jim: "I can promise you that I didn't mean anything racist, and I haven't been using it for a year."

Me: "No, I get it but you gotta realize, the people using this phrase now in [local's] NextDoor group, they don't like the Chinese. One of them implied my parents were illegals."

Me: "It's spread. Words carry meaning, even if we ourselves don't mean it."

The Flour People

From my research in Windsor, there has been only one prominent person of color in town in the last five years. She was a Black woman who was a pastor at a local church. She was run out of town after constant harassment from the locals, including receiving pictures of nooses.

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Months of online racism from locals, things like:

1. Being called an "illegal" by someone who wanted mass deportations.
2. Being told that the Chinese are infiltrating the government
3. Being asked if my parents were "illegals" by someone who also wanted mass deportations
4. Being told to "shut the fuck up or go back to Asia"

So one day, I decide I've had enough. I walk down main street with a Home Depot white board, saying "[Local's Name] told me to go back to Asia". I do that for a few days, sometimes wearing a rice paddy hat.

Of course,the locals find out.

Of course, the conservatives of Windsor pretend that the real victim was the racist local.

On the bright side, the person running the liberal group of Windsor stops short of concurring.

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There's a store owned by some German-Americans who have been in Windsor for generations. I go in to pitch public transportation. I end up having to listen to the owner rant about the Jews and the Chinese for an hour before I give up and leave.

I shouldn't have expected so much from a guy who had the "Great Wall" sign on his storefront.

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I'm glad to be out of Windsor. Most of my time in Nooseville has been dealing with racist conservatives, and latte liberals.

It's been depressing, living somewhere my friends cannot afford, knowing that you could fix that by legalizing density.

It's been humiliating, having to explain the economics to the locals throwing snide remarks about me being Chinese.

It's been degrading, doing all this for free, for people who have enough money to put them in the global 5%.

This town's liberals has managed to make me ashamed to call myself a liberal. They have money. I thought that money was supposed to make them more thoughtful, courageous people.

I leave this town in disgust. And I hope I never need to come back to this whitefloated town.

I've learned all I could from these people. I've seen what little they have accomplished with their abundance of privilege, and I know I can accomplish much more with much less.