Adams County leads the metro area as a relocation destination.
Adams County leads the metro area as a relocation destination. (AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post)

Perception is not reality.


Who wudda thunk?

As someone who toiled in suburbia for many years, I can assure you that the big-city politicians and the nation's elitist social scientists have been hanging a bad rap on the 'burbs for a long time. And they got away with it.

To hear them, we live in "bedroom communities" where only narrow-minded bigots flee in order to avoid their social and cultural responsibilities. To the social engineers, everyone is supposed to live in the Mother City and put their minivans up on blocks.


To the people in suburban agencies who help provide services to the impoverished, this is not news. For instance, in the Jefferson County school district, the state's largest, a third of the students qualify for free or reduced-cost lunches under federal guidelines.



Thus, citizens of Adams, Arapahoe, Douglas and Jefferson Counties may cast aside their heavy yoke of guilt. You are not just the financially comfortable who care only about yourselves. Even the compassionate souls of Boulder County no longer need to "reach out" to the needy. They are right there.



What now?

• The state legislature should pay more attention to the suburbs when it doles out money for education and welfare programs. As the Brookings report notes, many suburban counties don't have adequate "safety nets" for needy families. They should have them.


• The RTD should provide more bus lines in suburbia because, according to Brookings, the less-fortunate there often don't have a way to get to and from work. The transportation district gets most of its money from the 'burbs but gives most of its attention to Denver.


Suburbanites, arise! You don't have to be second-class citizens any longer.

Dick Hilker ( of Loveland is a retired suburban Denver newspaper editor and columnist.