The Evolution of Goss Grove

There have been rising tensions between the old community members who wanted to keep Goss Grove in its roots. The neighborhood of Goss Grove has 2,214 houses, with the largest group being college-age residents ages 20-24 making up 926 residents of Goss Grove. The rapid demand from the students, increased rent, and the cost of living in the neighborhood have forced some people to move out and become landlords, putting up their houses for rent for college students.

“It is the elephant in the room that nobody wants to address,” Montoya said, “We’re not, you’re not, going to make us move. I’m in for now, and I’m still dug in.”Part of Montoya’s effort to maintain Goss Grove’s roots is keeping the tradition of community gardens that once flourished throughout the neighborhood, reminiscing about when gardens were present in many neighbors’ yards and the pocket parks but are now paved for busy car-filled roads.

Montoya’s house was one of the first in the Goss Grove area. It is one story and 1,118 square feet and is one of the few original homes in Goss Grove that has survived the effects of the neighborhood's gentrification.

At one point, the house was a hardware store, and Montoya shared that some remnants of those memories were found in the basement. A worker recently found small bottles of vanilla and nails amongst the cobbled foundation.

Montoya says the store was sold to the family's sons, who wanted to have their families closer to them, as they lived near Erie, Colorado. 

One of the sons even married in the house and specially built the window box for this purpose. To keep the theme of tight-knit families that Goss Grove used to have, the sons and their wives wanted their parents close by, so they decided to build the house next to Montoya’s and have their porches face each other. 

The level of community and tight-knit families Goss Grove once boasted drew Montoya to keep her roots there. Part of Montoya’s effort to maintain Goss Grove’s roots is keeping the tradition of community gardens that once flourished throughout the neighborhood, reminiscing about when gardens were present in many neighbors’ yards and the pocket parks but are now paved for busy car-filled roads.

Despite the increased traffic flow and noise levels, Montoya still feels comfortable in her home and chooses to stay there because she grew up there as an adult, getting her nursing degree and starting her family.

“It really means something to a mom and a dad to be in a place where your children ran up and down the street and learned to ride a bike, and you had birthday parties here, and prom came, you know?” Montoya said. 

Although Montoya has fond memories of raising her children and seeing the neighborhood change, something that cannot be ignored is the neighborhood's history and where it started as a predominantly Black community that once took home to the houses in Goss Grove. 

The area was initially divided into two sections: the Culver’s Subdivision, housing predominantly white middle-class families, and “The Little Rectangle,” where black and migrant families often lived. While the area was not segregated, the defining line between the two sections was 19^th Street.

Everything East, until 23^rd Street, and bordered by Water Street (now Canyon Boulevard), and Goss Street, was known as “The Little Rectangle.” Everything West, until 15^th Street, was the Culver’s Subdivision. 

Eventually, Boulder’s Black population declined, and a new community of Italian and Hispanic residents moved to Goss Grove around 1960. 

This new demographic wave marked a significant change in the Goss Grove community, both in terms of who lived there and how the area was maintained. 

"They not only redlined the single-family homes, pushing Mexican Indigenous families out of here to Lafayette, Longmont, and back toward Erie, but they also developed the area into big multi-unit apartments. With that came pavement, covering the gardens, chopping down the trees, with no consciousness about preserving a historic neighborhood," Montoya said.

This development was just the start of the neighborhood's change, as multiunit apartments would soon replace many family homes, attracting more renters. The cost of living in Goss Grove also began to skyrocket by the thousands every year.

In the 1980s, Goss Grove was known for its more affordable, modest homes and student rentals. By the 2000s, prices began to rise as Boulder’s overall housing demand grew. The booming community that has slowly started to take over the neighborhood consists of college students from the University of Colorado Boulder. The demand for housing has skyrocketed in the past decade as the school's popularity grows. 

On average, the university has been letting in an additional 857 students yearly for the past 10 years, causing some to move into off-campus housing their first year as students, as the dorms are not built to accommodate the increase. Moreover, despite the university boasting 24 residence halls on campus, students are essentially required to live off-campus after their freshman year, pushing students into neighborhoods. The only exception to this is if students can secure housing in Bear Creek or Weber Hall, the two main options for non-graduate level students to live in university-run housing, but even then, only 1,621 continuing students were given rooms for the 2024-2025 school year compared to the over 22,000 students that live off-campus after freshman year. 

Michael Vanner, a senior attending CU, lives in an apartment on 21st St. in the Goss Grove neighborhood. His apartment building primarily caters to upperclassmen, graduate students, and young professionals, with no families in the immediate complex. Before moving to Goss Grove, Vanner had previously lived in two other Boulder locations, where he didn't feel the same sense of community that he does in Goss Grove. 

“It seems like there's more focus on connecting with your neighbors and making it feel like one neighborhood, as it should,” Vanner explained.

While he feels this strong sense of community, he also sees the conflict between students and long-time residents. As a student, he views it as a difference in lifestyles, such as noise levels. 

Vanner further explained that these conflicts are arising as more students move into the neighborhood and more apartments replace original Goss Grove homes. Vanner acknowledges the preservation value of the historic properties of the neighborhood and criticizes the role of property management companies in driving up rent prices. However, as a student, he also recognizes Boulder’s housing crisis and the need for more student accommodations. 

While the university offers resources for student housing, it fails to acknowledge what students may or may not be able to afford. Even when students with a low budget are able to find affordable housing, it lacks basic necessities, making it almost unlivable. 

“I've lived in situations that did not feel habitable, specifically last year, at a house with a lot of issues like pests, flooding, and mold, and it was just awful,” Vanner said.

Apartments and houses often become inhabitable because properties owned by bigger management companies are often neglected and not properly taken care of. This is a major concern for the properties in Goss Grove that large management companies are taking over because it’s important to maintain the historical neighborhood and keep it a desirable place to live. 

Residents of the neighborhood are sure to address these concerns in their frequent Goss Grove Neighborhood Association meetings. Patty, a member of the association, mentioned that she often sees the lack of maintenance or unnecessary changes that these large management companies make to the homes that neighbor hers. 

“There used to be trees growing along between the street and the sidewalk. They've cut about three of them down. And it's just from what I can tell, like, ‘how do we make the most money off this property?’ Put the least amount of money into maintaining it,” Patty explained. 

Destroying original homes of the neighborhood to build large apartment complexes isn’t where these management companies stop. The additions often take up far more lot space, which strikes longtime residents as uncaring. “We moved away for a little while to work abroad and teach, but we rented out our house, and a lot of development happened when we were gone,” Montoya said. “And I wish I'd have been here because I would have put more pressure on certain ways that things were built because they're against code. They're illegal, but I wasn't here to fight for it.” 

With the influx of students and demand, prices have soared in the neighborhood. According to Redfin, houses like Montoya's, which she bought in 1974 for $32,000, are now valued at $905,000. She has been asked and denied many times to sell her house to private renting companies, wanting to profit more from students. 

The neighborhood also has one of the lowest vacancy rates in the U.S., with only 0.8% of properties available, further driving up demand and prices. For example, a four-bedroom home on Arapahoe Ave sold for nearly $1 million, and a multi-family property on 23rd Street sold for $1.85 million in 2024.

“My daughter lives five blocks away in a little duplex. They wanted to stay in the neighborhood, and they thought when they got a divorce, they were going to have to get rid of that place,” Montoya said, “But I could not find a place for her anywhere around here to move in with my grandson. And doesn't it just seem like someone who's lived here since the 70s, doing all this community work, that I should be able to find a cute little place to tuck my daughter and grandson into?”

Not only is maintenance a concern for these properties, but the sense of community in the neighborhood is also at stake. 

Homes that used to house families and people who stayed in the neighborhood for years to watch their kids grow and flourish in their communities are now rented to loud and not as neighborhood-friendly college students who come into these historical houses for a couple of years and then leave. Students living in apartment buildings that come and go within a year or two don’t have the same interest in building a community the same way that a single-family home would. 

Pen Volkmann is a former resident of Goss Grove who has become a landlord. He rents his old home on the corner of Goss St to college students as he and his wife no longer enjoy the busy and noisy atmosphere of the neighborhood. Volkmann moved into his house on the corner of Goss St. in the 1980s. As the neighborhood became noisy and busy, he and his wife no longer wanted to live there, so they moved out with their family. However, the house still holds memories and meaning to Volkman's wife, so they decided to rent it out to college students to keep the home. 

Volkmann has seen the lot, the good, bad, and ugly, when it has come to his tenets. “The folks here have been wonderful. They've kept things up very well, which I can't say about all the other tenants that we've had.” 

Moving out and turning their homes into rentals is common among long-time residents. In recent years, it has gotten better as the Goss Grove Neighborhood Association has been working hard with the university to change policies and implement rules and regulations for the university to aid in residents coexisting with the students. 

Michele, a longtime resident of Goss Grove and member of the Goss Grove Neighborhood Association who requested her last name be kept private, has tried to change the issues her neighborhood faces, such as the rise of students moving into homes, which is raising prices. 

She tries to get to know the younger ground and sees them as equal to the neighborhood rather than as an issue that needs to be dealt with. “Anything that helps the relations between the students and the neighbors, talking to them and introducing yourself. I'm not saying, ‘I live here and expect you to be quiet. But Hi, how are you?’” she said. 

Michele mentioned that the current tension is caused by the noise levels in the neighborhood. Younger residents, as well as non-residents, race their loud cars up and down the street, causing major disruption for the neighbors and sometimes involving the police. 

It was in the ‘80s when developers came to Goss Grove and started tearing down small wooden houses to build larger apartment buildings, Michele explained. The neighborhood has been able to decrease this development over the years, but because of the economic advantage the developers have for building new and larger, more expensive houses, it's hard to see a true end to it. 

As many of the long-time residents age, there is concern for the fate of Goss Grove. Michele's views don't emulate negativity. She sees the importance of the historical Goss Gove, and it's not going away, with more communication with the university and with the students who currency and plan to live in the neighborhood.