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Week of February 23, 2023
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DENVER, COLORADO
A publication of
VOLUME 96 | ISSUE 14
Documenting Denver in the ‘80s and ‘90s Labor market,
affordability collide
BY BRUCE GOLDBERG SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
He’s been legally blind since the 1990s. Weinberg uses the latest technology to make the most of the little vision he has remaining to take photos, to get around on his own and to help other people learn how to live with blindness. “The World in Denver: The Photography of Robert Weinberg” exhibit opened Jan. 20 and will be on display for one year in the second-floor mezzanine at History Colorado. It features eight photos from his decades of photography. “It’s kind of unbelievable,” Weinberg said. “Not only that it’s showing my work, but for a whole year.” In a History Colorado first, each exhibit photo will be accompanied by a sign written in Braille to better serve those who are sight-impaired. “History Colorado means a great deal,” Weinberg said. “It’s one thing to archive your work and know it has a home. But showing the works you’ve done in the past, it gives (validation) to my work.” But Weinberg, 75, has been through tough times as the world showed less and less of itself as the blindness advanced. “I went through hell,” he said. “I was clinically depressed. It was years before I could go through all the training (to regain some sight). I did take a long time to learn a lot of things that help me.” And help is available out there. A text-reading software named JAWS (Job Access With Speech) helped Weinberg become a touch typist, easing the writing process. “Now I can write all sorts of stuff, use email and read websites,” he said. “It’s the best and most expensive text-reading software. When I first started losing my sight, a doctor SEE DOCUMENTING, P7
INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 12 | CALENDAR: PAGE 11
Realtor summit notes large number of job openings in Colorado BY TAMARA CHUANG THE COLORADO SUN
“Kenny” by Denver photographer Robert Weinberg. A collection of Weinberg’s photos COURTESY OF WEINBERGPHOTOGRAPHICS.COM are on display at the History Colorado Center in Denver.
Housing and jobs are so connected that it was difficult to avoid the intersection of the two at an economic summit held last week for the Colorado Realtors Association. Jobs in Colorado? So, so many job openings. Two for every unemployed person in the state. Available houses for sale? So, so few houses are available at affordable prices, whatever those may be. That disconnect tempered the positive outlook that some had about the better years ahead and what the real estate industry can expect in 2023 and 2024. “Affordability, or lack thereof, will remain our biggest hurdle. And people won’t come here and the jobs won’t move here, the companies won’t be here if we don’t offer some kind of affordable housing,” said Kelly Moye, a Realtor at Compass Real Estate. “So, we’re trying to figure out how we do that. The regular market, with the way it works with supply and demand, just pushes prices up or down. That’s the way it goes. But is there anything that we can do as a city, as a state to help create a situation where everybody can live here?” The data-heavy conference pointed to a possible reason for Colorado’s limited supply of workers: Not SEE COLLIDE, P8
BLACK HISTORY IN PRINT Paging through a newspapers legacy, for good and bad
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