Dallas to Boulder/Denver (Lakewood, Golden: neighborhoods, university, to live)

[martynda]

First off, I'm a 24yo male single professional with a good job that requires a LOT of travel. It's important that I live within about an hour of the airport. If I'm not traveling, I will be working form home, so I can pick where I want to live regardless of commute.

I'm looking to move from Dallas to the Denver area and have a few questions:

1)What are some of the more social neighborhoods I should be looking for in Denver\Boulder to meet people? The primary reasons I'm looking to move is for the outdoors (mountain biking and hiking), so some places easily accessible would be a huge benefit.

2)How is the scene for younger professionals in general? I know there are a lot of college age people in Boulder and I would like to stay away from that a bit because I spent 11 years in a college town (Gainesville, FL).

3)I have a rear wheel drive coupe. How badly is this going to handcuff me in the winter, especially if I want to go into the mountains or even around the city? We've had 1 day of snow this year in Dallas and I felt like I was an elephant on ice driving around. Maybe it's time to start looking at Subarus.

Has anyone else been in a similar situation to mine? Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks!

[Katarina Witt]

Please, not another Subaru! LOL!

Seriously, to answer your last question first, 4WD, Front WD, and RWD are probably the order of priority for cars. However, a rear-wheel drive car will work, even in the mtns. When we came here, we had a RWD Camaro, and we did all right. We did not get a 4WD until we had been here 23 yrs, and in those 23 yrs we did a lot of mtn driving, and a lot of general city driving. Many of those years, I worked as a visiting nurse, driving around town.

I am not in your age category, in fact, I have a daughter about your age. She lives in Denver, near the U. of Denver, but not in a major "student" neighborhood. Most of the east side 'hoods have a lot of young adults. My other daughter is an undergrad at CU-Boulder. She lived in an undergrad apt complex. There are undergrads all over Boulder, but they are concentrated near the university. Boulder is about an hour from the airport. Most of the rest of the metro area is closer.

[bouldergranola]

There are a lot of young professionals in Denver. Neighborhoods you should check out are LoHi (Lower Highlands), Berkeley, Capitol Hill, and Platte Park. All these areas are close to downtown and have a lot of young professionals. Wash Park has a nice park with a great trail around it and a rec center but there are a lot more families there.

[martynda]

Thanks for the advice, that's exactly what I was looking for!

[SheridanL]

You state your primary reasons for moving are, the outdoors and, mountain biking and hiking. If I were you, I would stay very close to the foothills/mountains. Boulder is good but, so is Golden, Evergreen, Genesee Park, even Lakewood.
I don't think mountain biking or, hiking would be good anywhere in downtown Denver. JMO.