Stapleton - We are the 1%

I will cut right to the chase. If the goal for Stapleton was to retain middle income families in Denver and have them contribute to the social fabric of Northeast Denver, an analysis conducted by the Washington Post examining education and income levels of the nation's zipcodes suggests that Stapleton may not have achieved that goal. In fact, Stapleton may be one of the most exclusive communities in the nation.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/local/2013/11/09/washington-a-world-apart/

When first considering these issues and this blog - this visual from the Washington Post's web page on "Super Zip Codes" definitely caught my eye. Super zip codes are the 650 zipcodes in the country that rank between the 95th and 99th percentile in median income and percent of adults with college degrees. The data are collected from the American Community Survey of the US Census. 

Stapleton, in fact, is one of approximately 130 zip codes that are in the 99th percentile or the top 1% of zip codes in the nation in terms of median income and education level. With a median household income of almost $123,000.00 per year and 78% of adults with a college degree, Stapleton is among some pretty elite company to include the likes of:

Zip___ City            _________                        Median Income____% College Grads 
94707   Berkeley, CA                                     $130,000                             83%
94129   San Francisco (near the Presidio)        $118,000                             82%
02110   Downtown Boston, MA                       $123,000                              78%
10069   Upper West Side of Manhattan            $165,000                              92%

By this measure (and indeed it is just one measure), Stapleton has become one of the most elite zip codes in the nation. A far cry from the original vision in the Green Book of creating a neighborhood that would retain middle income families in Denver.

Despite the best laid plans of the Green Book, we should ask whether having 80238 be one of the most economically and educationally advantaged zipcodes in the nation is necessarily a bad thing for Northeast Denver? Is it possible that the surrounding neighborhoods are benefiting from 80238 or does the contrast in education and income levels exacerbate the very problems Stapleton was designed to remedy?  These are the questions we will explore in this blog.

Next time, we will look beyond the boundaries of Stapleton to the zip codes that border 80238. We will consider how those neighborhoods compare with Stapleton and other similar communities throughout the nation. We will also examine whether the contrast in income and education levels between Stapleton and the surrounding community is common place around the country or an anomaly.