Highly urban towns around Superior, Louisville, Broomfield (Denver, Lakewood: crime, homes)

[2bindenver]

Stay in Boulder, Broomfield, Louisville or Lafayette. Grow where you are planted. Most of the metro area is suburban in nature. The Republic of Boulder is your only option for slightly urban.

[OhioToCO]

Boulder is not urban, and neither is Denver. If we are talking urban like NYC, than it's not here in Colorado.

Longmont is very suburban, as well as Arvada and Golden.
There are some "artificial islands of urbanity" as I call them throughout Denver metro - Bradburn in Westminster, Arista in Broomfield, but they are indeed artificial. They are planned communities with a mixture of houses/row homes/apartments/office building/shopping.

Boulder is your best bet as far as being a town and not a conglomerate of subdivisions with a downtown area. Plus commute to Rock Creek is not bad - it's mostly reverse commute, and not very far.

Which buses did you take and what time of day? Weekends are not going to have characteristic traffic patterns.

[smihaila]

Originally Posted by 2bindenver

Stay in Boulder, Broomfield, Louisville or Lafayette. Grow where you are planted. Most of the metro area is suburban in nature. The Republic of Boulder is your only option for slightly urban.

Ok, thanks for the good advice. Btw the statement about "grow where you are planted" does not characterize me :-) If I happen to find better places (or at least new things in life), in resonance with what we personally like, we tend to move there. Otherwise we wouldn't have made this big move - crossing "to the other side of the pond" :-)

[smihaila]

Originally Posted by OhioToCO

Boulder is not urban, and neither is Denver. If we are talking urban like NYC, than it's not here in Colorado.

Longmont is very suburban, as well as Arvada and Golden.

There are some "artificial islands of urbanity" as I call them throughout Denver metro - Bradburn in Westminster, Arista in Broomfield, but they are indeed artificial. They are planned communities with a mixture of houses/row homes/apartments/office building/shopping.

Boulder is your best bet as far as being a town and not a conglomerate of subdivisions with a downtown area. Plus commute to Rock Creek is not bad - it's mostly reverse commute, and not very far.

Thanks a lot for the wise advice!

Originally Posted by OhioToCO

Which buses did you take and what time of day? Weekends are not going to have characteristic traffic patterns.

During the weekends, it was mostly BV (taken near Broadway or Boulder Transit Center), and it was around 2-3PM. With final destination = US36 & McCaslin PnR.

Leaving Boulder around 8am and returning around 5pm during weekdays - would you consider that fine?

[philberf]

Originally Posted by smihaila

We were visiting the Denver city core, and that indeed seemed urban to us, with modern architectures, smartly organized/very functional and quite clean.

It is too bad that moving there would make it too far from my workplace. Oh, did I mention that I'm not even having a car? Hope to have that situation changed soon.

How urban are you looking for? Are you looking for the population density? Are you looking for a lot of stuff to do/eat/see within walking distance?

Unfortunately, unless you live in Denver, there probably isn't the infrastructure to support a no-car lifestyle for a family. A 1-car lifestyle, for sure, but not a no-car lifestyle. or if you were single/married with no kids, then you could maybe pull off the no car lifestyle and bike lots of places, use zipcar/uber/some other carsharing service.

Conceivably, you could live in Denver proper, like maybe Wash Park/Congress Park/Hilltop and commute with 1 car, and walk/bike kids to school/parks/etc. or maybe live in Boulder, bike to work, leave the car for the family?

[2bindenver]

Originally Posted by smihaila

Btw the statement about "grow where you are planted" does not characterize me :-)

You are welcome. Grow where you are planted, means do the best you can with what you have at the moment. You can chase your "ideal" locale for the rest of your life and not ever be satisfied with your life.

[WhereTheSidewalkEnds]

Well unfortunately, your job being in Superior puts you in a very boring, bland area. I agree that Denver is the only place that even remotely fits your urban criteria.

So frankly, if you want to be close to work, you will have to settle. And many homes will be in HOAs here. Longmont has had a very up and coming revitalization of its downtown but we certainly are not urban by any stretch. The homes in old town are not in HOAs and are walkable to Main Street.

I will have to say that the fiber 1gig internet is awesome. But it's not everywhere yet. My husband commutes to his job in Broomfield and it's not bad. We considered moving closer but really dislike any of the surrounding areas.

[smihaila]

Originally Posted by philberf

How urban are you looking for? Are you looking for the population density? Are you looking for a lot of stuff to do/eat/see within walking distance?

It's the later (amenities, public works, municipal infrastructure, culture).

Originally Posted by philberf

Unfortunately, unless you live in Denver, there probably isn't the infrastructure to support a no-car lifestyle for a family. A 1-car lifestyle, for sure, but not a no-car lifestyle. or if you were single/married with no kids, then you could maybe pull off the no car lifestyle and bike lots of places, use zipcar/uber/some other carsharing service.

Conceivably, you could live in Denver proper, like maybe Wash Park/Congress Park/Hilltop and commute with 1 car, and walk/bike kids to school/parks/etc. or maybe live in Boulder, bike to work, leave the car for the family?

We can ultimately get a car, but so far, back in Europe, and even in Canada, we didn't feel a need for it.

Btw, the company I'm currently working for has another branch (it is in fact its headquarters) located near Inverness Terrace, in Englewood. From a logistical and urban perspective, do you think it would make more sense to be in Englewood than near Superior/Boulder?

Thank you for your thoughts.

[smihaila]

Originally Posted by 2bindenver

You are welcome. Grow where you are planted, means do the best you can with what you have at the moment. You can chase your "ideal" locale for the rest of your life and not ever be satisfied with your life.

I perfectly understand where you're coming from. Although, it can be easily noticed that the older we grow, more conservative/less open towards change we get, and begin to "like" stuff at the place we're currently in, as opposed to getting to have exposure to new socio-economical systems i.e. seeing outside the box.

Out of curiosity, what was your most significant/farthest move ever?
Thank you.

[smihaila]

Originally Posted by WhereTheSidewalkEnds

Well unfortunately, your job being in Superior puts you in a very boring, bland area. I agree that Denver is the only place that even remotely fits your urban criteria.

So frankly, if you want to be close to work, you will have to settle. And many homes will be in HOAs here. Longmont has had a very up and coming revitalization of its downtown but we certainly are not urban by any stretch. The homes in old town are not in HOAs and are walkable to Main Street.

I will have to say that the fiber 1gig internet is awesome. But it's not everywhere yet. My husband commutes to his job in Broomfield and it's not bad. We considered moving closer but really dislike any of the surrounding areas.

You are so right about Superior & co. It is exactly the feeling we are experiencing right now.

And not only you have the sub-urban factor, but even those $500-700k houses - they look good on the outside, but there is nothing special about them on the inside: most do not even have a finished basement (even those with walk-outs), and not too much renovations/improvements (you can see faucets and sinks the way they were 25 years ago, from the builder etc). Oh, and what is up with this type of indoor plan that lacks a common-sense hallway and entrance closet!? It is so disturbing - I for one prefer to "cross through something" prior to getting to the living area or kitchen. Here, it looks like you just open the main entrance door...and you are in the living room!??