good and bad parts of denver area?

[KyleT]

Wife is interviewing next week at a place off of MLK blvd and Colorado Blvd. (just northeast of downtown, and ya, I get the vibe of a street named MLK...)

Been looking online at rent houses, but not getting too far... what are some decent neighborhoods to look at and what areas should me stay away from?
budget is under 1500ish. Looking for 2-3bd and 2 car garage. house not apt, kinda wanting more freedom to run a grinder.

30 mins ish is a good distance. School me.

Whats a good website too? or does anyone know of anything that we could drive by when we are there (next wed/thurs)

 

[Roverrocks]

There are no good parts to Denver/Colorado Front Range or any other City I've ever had the misfortune of passing through. Like all large Metro areas it is endlessly enormous, endlessly and 24/7 noisy, totally light polluted, and full of endless millions of people/ants I hope to never see, hear, or smell on the Western Slope of Colorado where I eek out a poor existence while trying desperately on the weekends to escape to Utah/Colorado solitude.

 

[JohnB]

Is that right where MLK hits Hugo Chavez Avenue.


Why do we have to change street names.

Never been to Denver. Sorry

 

[jim-00-4.6]

There are no good parts to Denver/Colorado Front Range or any other City I've ever had the misfortune of passing through. Like all large Metro areas it is endlessly enormous, endlessly and 24/7 noisy, totally light polluted, and full of endless millions of people/ants I hope to never see, hear, or smell on the Western Slope of Colorado where I eek out a poor existence while trying desperately on the weekends to escape to Utah/Colorado solitude.

wow.
thank you for staying on your side of the hills.

 

[KyleT]

wow.
thank you for staying on your side of the hills.

I knew there was someone near denver on here... :bigok:

 

[jim-00-4.6]

Wife is interviewing next week at a place off of MLK blvd and Colorado Blvd. (just northeast of downtown, and ya, I get the vibe of a street named MLK...)

Been looking online at rent houses, but not getting too far... what are some decent neighborhoods to look at and what areas should me stay away from?
budget is under 1500ish. Looking for 2-3bd and 2 car garage. house not apt, kinda wanting more freedom to run a grinder.

30 mins ish is a good distance. School me.

Whats a good website too? or does anyone know of anything that we could drive by when we are there (next wed/thurs)

when we first moved here, we had a 4BR 3BA house 2-car attached for $1500, in Golden.

MLK runs through a ghetto.
MLK from quebec east past colorado blvd is not very nice.

my personal opinions:
avoid:
everything north of denver between the city and I70.
commerce city (dog food factory, refineries, very stinky)
west of downtown until you get past wadsworth
everything east of the city until the Kansas line
south of downtown until you hit littleton/englewood

OK:
northern suburbs, Westminster, Broomfield, thornton, etc.
west: lakewood is starting to slide a bit but parts still really nice, west of there (golden, etc) still nice
west: applewood is OK, older, established community, Arvada is OK
south: not super familiar with it until you get outside the 470 loop, then highlands ranch is the world's perfect model of suburban sameness. i think every street has the same name there.

i live in genesee. more than the 30 minutes to MLK & Colo. also more than your target amount, assuming you can find a rental which isn't really likely.

do you have kids?
if so, you probably don't want to be in Denver Public Schools.
My kids are in Jeffco (Jefferson County) schools; good academic programs, honors programs, lots of AP choices.
I don't know about their sports programs, my kids are into academics not athletics.
Adams 12 district is good, Cherry Creek is better. Lots of money in Cherry Creek.

Colfax Avenue (US 40) east of the city is not nice. unless hookers & drug dealers are in your "nice" category; they're not in mine.

I have friends up in Westminster, in Denver (near Denver University, not downtown), and in Littleton (yes, Littleton, as in Columbine High School)
I like the relative quiet of the suburbs, not the "urban lifestyle" of city living.

your mileage may vary.

 

[MarkP]

Depending on what end (East/West) of MLK your wife will be on she will have access to I25 or 225. Bev's company has a Denver office in roughly that same area and most of the people she knows either live on the West, Southwest or Southeast side. In general that would be Parker/Castle Rock or Littleton/Highlands Ranch. Northglenn, up towards Longmont, would also be an option. There may be some ok areas in Denver but I'm not aware of them.

 

[KyleT]

No kids, and my 30 min dream was destoyed by the same thread post over on PBB ;(

I would love to live on the western side in the foothills. we have a few rentals we are going to drive by north of 70.

Jim, thats about what we are looking for. 1500/mo or less.

 

[gabriel]

I lived pretty much on the corner of Colorado and Colfax for 4 years, 12th and Birch in the Hale/Bellevue neighborhood (south of colfax, east of colorado, west of quebec, north of 6th). Inexpensive neighborhood w/ 2/3 bd room bungalows and 1/2 car detached garages. It was a great area. Good schools because its part of cherry creek. City park is a few blocks away. Downtown was very easy to get to. Best pizza in denver is Enzo's End just west of National Jewish at colfax and Madison. The wife and I got to know Denver pretty well.

Park Hill is nice but expensive, much bigger homes. Congress Park is a mix of big and small homes and give you the opportunity to walk to just about anywhere. Lowery is very nice but also expensive.

The commute into denver from the west side SUCKS! I reverse commuted from denver to lakewood and laughed everyday at the suckers, stopped in traffic, heading into denver while i zipped by at 65/75 heading west. Commuting from the Tech Center SUCKS!

Stapleton is really nice on MKL and Quebec. And i do have to say MLK between Colorado and Quebec is not that bad. Aurora and Lakewood have much rougher areas then that section of MLK.


Send me some cross streets in denver and I'll see if i can give you some info.

Gabriel

edit: city and county of denver has an ok site: http://www.denvergov.org/CityofDenverHome/LivinginDenver/Neighborhoods/tabid/436206/Default.aspx

 

[jim-00-4.6]

The commute into denver from the west side SUCKS! I reverse commuted from denver to lakewood and laughed everyday at the suckers, stopped in traffic, heading into denver while i zipped by at 65/75 heading west. Commuting from the Tech Center SUCKS!

negative.
when i worked downtown & lived in Golden (just into Golden on the western side of Lakewood), my distance was 12 miles from my garage to the garage at work.
20-25 minutes.
that didn't seem bad to me.
I25 is about as unpleasant a drive as I've ever seen.
Within 10 miles north & south of downtown, it just CRAWLS.

Stapleton is really nice on MKL and Quebec. And i do have to say MLK between Colorado and Quebec is not that bad. Aurora and Lakewood have much rougher areas then that section of MLK.

not a fan of stapleton.
single family homes right next to subsidized housing multi units.
its nice now since they're still building it, in 5 years, probably not.
"mixed use urban re-development"
except there's no grocery stores.

when we moved to genesee, a guy i know said something about living in stapleton.
"What's the matter, Jim? Don't you want to live near poor people?"
"No. I don't."
but you ARE close to the new Denver County jail, so it has that going for it.

Saudi Aurora is close to the bottom of my personal list.
The eastern side of Lakewood, where it touches City of Denver is the shitty part.

As I said, I'm not the "urban" kind of guy.

 

[jmonsrvr]

move to boulder

 

[Roving Beetle]

Art Vigil, who I bought my RRC from lives there, ColoRover or something like that on here - SUPER nice guy! He could help you out to.

 

[KyleT]

move to boulder

i wouldnt fit in with two rovers and short hair.

 

[Roverrocks]

Golden is the best place in the Denver area. Small town atmosphere, college town , nestled in a valley where the Coor's plant is located. You absolutely don't know megaDenver is just over the Flat Tops on Golden's east side. Easy and great access to the high Rockies and foothills up against which Golden lies. My son is a student at the Colorado School of Mines which is in Golden. It's the ONLY place I want to visit or see if I absolutely have to go to the Denver area. Check out Golden.

 

[MarkP]

i wouldnt fit in with two rovers and short hair.

Can't see a Texan living in Boulder :rofl:

How is the families snow driving skills? That will also dictate where you live.

 

[KyleT]

drove by one in golden that might work, it is off of hwy 6 north of i70, southwest of golden downtown.

looking at others around denver, some are pretty crappy for sure.

 

[MarkP]

A commute consideration:

The closer you are to the foothills the deeper the snow during upslope storms. West of I25 can see 12"+ to over 2'. During that same storm East of I25 would get 6". Just depends but that is a fairly common front range storm.

'Sometimes' the Eastern plains are the favored areas. Monument Hill just North of me is always a favored area.

 

[Ballah06]

While not being familiar with Denver proper, the name MLK blvd. brings thoughts of other similarly named streets in other cities/towns that are usually 99% ghetto.

 

[KyleT]

A commute consideration:

The closer you are to the foothills the deeper the snow during upslope storms. West of I25 can see 12"+ to over 2'. During that same storm East of I25 would get 6". Just depends but that is a fairly common front range storm.

'Sometimes' the Eastern plains are the favored areas. Monument Hill just North of me is always a favored area.

good to know on the snow. how is i70 as far as snow removal? pretty good?

i am also going to look in the park hill area near where she works, and ya, mlk is all it is cracked up to be..... :smilelol:

 

[KyleT]

A commute consideration:

The closer you are to the foothills the deeper the snow during upslope storms. West of I25 can see 12"+ to over 2'. During that same storm East of I25 would get 6". Just depends but that is a fairly common front range storm.

'Sometimes' the Eastern plains are the favored areas. Monument Hill just North of me is always a favored area.

good to know on the snow. how is i70 as far as snow removal? pretty good?

i am also going to look in the park hill area near where she works, and ya, mlk is all it is cracked up to be..... :smilelol: