A Message to Our Members: Standing Together for Community Ownership
July 22, 2026
Dear Members of GES Coalition,
Thank you to everyone who attended the July 16 city-led Triangle meeting. GES Coalition and Tierra Colectiva members, homeowners, and neighborhood leaders made up a clear majority of the room, and your presence and voices on behalf of our collective work meant everything.
We know the meeting was tense and stressful. It revealed the depth of anger and distrust created by more than a century of city decisions that have taken neighborhood land, displaced families, concentrated environmental harm, underfunded community needs, and repeatedly failed to keep promises to Globeville, Elyria, and Swansea. That anger is valid, and was felt across the room.
Some inaccurate claims were also made about GES Coalition and Tierra Colectiva (TC). We must respond clearly and confidently, while recognizing that many questions come from neighbors who are facing the same pressures of gentrification, displacement, and lack of resources that brought our organizations into existence.
The meeting also showed why direct conversation matters. Raymunda, Mercedes, Alfonso, Nola, and other members spoke powerfully about how this work began, who it serves, and why community ownership matters. Some who had been skeptical began to see Tierra Colectiva differently. We will continue to pursue these conversations, looking for ways to unite as neighbors who care about our communities and resist the divide-and-conquer tactics used by those in power to cause harm.
Tierra Colectiva was created through years of resident organizing to keep neighborhood land and homes permanently affordable. Our Food Forest at 4790 Josephine is thriving. Today, 55 people live in its 14 homes. All Tierra Colectiva homeowners were previously at risk of displacement from the neighborhoods; the majority are women as the head of their household, and more than half of the residents are children and youth. These families are able to gain financial stability and intergenerational wealth while Tierra Colectiva collectively fights gentrification and protects our neighborhoods from predatory developers. Tierra Colectiva makes homeownership more affordable today while preserving that affordability for future neighborhood families.
We are excited to share that the strength of our community power continues to deliver opportunities for neighbors; Tierra Colectiva will add 24 homeowners and 170 affordable apartments in the next 2-3 years, launch a commercial kitchen, and continue to grow our capacity. Community ownership of the Triangle through Tierra Colectiva would allow us to support hundreds if not thousands of GES families.
This work is part of a six-year campaign to ensure that the publicly owned land at the National Western Triangle benefits the people whose community was taken to create it. Together, we developed the Triangle Vision Plan, pushed the city to begin scenario planning and a community vision process, and secured a commitment from Mayor Johnston to community ownership. That progress did not happen on its own. It happened because residents stayed organized and kept showing up with the GES Coalition.
When movements gain real power, they cause friction. Our responsibility is to stay grounded in the truth of our work, remain open to honest questions and criticism, build stronger relationships with neighbors across GES, and keep the city accountable for its commitments. Public land must not once again become a source of displacement or private extraction. It must create permanent community benefit and community control.
While our own coalition meetings are spaces of productivity and community building, showing up to harder public spaces is just as vital to protecting our work. Thank you for your courage, your patience, and your deep commitment to these neighborhoods.
Stay strong, stay together, and keep showing up.
In solidarity,
GES Coalition Staff