Crime in Stapleton? (Denver, Westminster, Sheridan: rental homes, crime rate, houses)

[denvertransplant]

My husband and I are moving our family (two daughters ages 3 and 5) to Denver in the coming months. We visited last week and really liked Stapleton. Easy commute for husband as well as a decent school and lots of children for my girls.

At dinner our last night there, we met several couples currently living in suburbs just outside the city. All of the couples agreed that we should take Stapleton off of our list due to the high-level of crime. Now, my husband and I both have lived in sketchy neighborhoods in NYC and Philly in the past, but what the couples said did unnerve us a bit.

Is crime a really big issue in Stapleton?

[Count David]

Originally Posted by denvertransplant

Is crime a really big issue in Stapleton?

I wouldn't think so, but it is an infill development surrounded by less-than-average neighborhoods on all sides.

There was a string of auto vandalism in Stapleton recently, but I believe they were all committed by the same group of teens who were visiting from the suburbs.

There are a few Stapleton residents here on the forum, so hopefully they'll chime in. I personally don't think you'll have anything to worry about. Some people around here have a different definition of the words "crime" and "safe", if you know what I mean.

[Bradburn1]

I live in a new urbanist neighborhood similar to Stapleton but north of downtown Denver (by 30 minutes) and smaller called Bradburn Village. Several of my neighbors here have moved from Stapleton and we've talked about this issue. They all have said that they were concerned about crime in Stapleton but also said they personally did not have any problems themselves.

Crime happens everywhere, even here in Bradburn which is a walkable, mixed-use neighborhood like Stapleton but surrounded by rather spendy suburban subdivisions (by crime I mean vandalism, car theft, petty theft and we've had one house break-in in the 5 years I've lived here). I don't think Stapleton has a much higher crime rate than other neighborhoods, but I think that people may perceive that it does because of the neighborhoods that surround it.

I wouldn't cross Stapleton off your list, people that I know who currently live there love it and don't feel it's unsafe at all.

[Bradburn1]

Well I get up this morning and see this on the news which ended in Stapleton's WalMart:

Wild Police Chase Ends With 2 Suspects Hurt - cbs4denver.com (http://cbs4denver.com/crime/police.chase.stapleton.2.1824339.html - broken link)

BUT--individual crimes do not a higher crime rate make, so take with a grain of salt. Also hardly Stapleton's fault if a chase ended there.

I did see another thing in the news recently about Stapleton that would concern me more if I were looking to buy in Stapleton soon--problems with a rising water table in some parts of the neighborhood:

Stapleton residents battle rising groundwater - KDVR (http://www.kdvr.com/news/kdvr-stapleton-groundwater-txt,0,1386969.story - broken link)

Check the sump pit of any house you look at and make sure that 1. they have a sump pit and a sump pump. and 2. That is has very little or no water in it.

[denverian]

We've lived in Stapleton for 5 years now and no crime issues. Of course we don't leave our garage door open, park cars in the garage, and don't leave valuables strewn about our yard!

I would expect higher crime here due to some surrounding neighborhoods. I think the worst thing that's happened near our house was last winter when someone had gone around chopping off people's sprinkler systems from their houses to sell the copper. The houses they got had their sprinkler systems in easy access areas where someone could get at them easily.

I just make the assumption that I live in an urban area and take standard precautions regarding crime. I don't feel unsafe, and neighbors watch out for one another. There's no doubt we're an easy target, but I doubt if crime is any worse in Stapleton that Park Hill, Cap. Hill, City Park area, etc.

As for the water, that's a strange issue. We have a couple neighbors on our block who've had their sump pumps going non stop for over 3 years. We had ours checked to make sure it was ok, and it was, but it's never pumped any water out, so we have no issues. It seems very sporadic throughout the development, but if you have the problem, it's a big problem.

[denvertransplant]

Thanks so much for the replies. The crimes we're hearing about really doesn't concern us as much. We were more concerned if the crimes were violent crimes or assaults. We're early in our search and considering renting for the first 6-12 months to truly get a feel for the area. Are there some decent rental homes in Stapleton?
Also, to Bradburn, where do you reside? Is it a long or difficult commute into downtown daily?

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by Bradburn1

I did see another thing in the news recently about Stapleton that would concern me more if I were looking to buy in Stapleton soon--problems with a rising water table in some parts of the neighborhood:

Stapleton residents battle rising groundwater - KDVR (http://www.kdvr.com/news/kdvr-stapleton-groundwater-txt,0,1386969.story - broken link)

Check the sump pit of any house you look at and make sure that 1. they have a sump pit and a sump pump. and 2. That is has very little or no water in it.

Wow that was a lot of water coming out of the pipe in the video. I think I'd want redundant pumps if I lived there. I'd hate to have my pump fail while I was gone for a week. Maybe its time to xeriscape the place.

[Bradburn1]

Originally Posted by denvertransplant

Also, to Bradburn, where do you reside? Is it a long or difficult commute into downtown daily?

Bradburn is on 120th ave between Federal and Sheridan in the city of Westminster. The downtown commute is about 30-40 minutes in rush hour but what most of my neighbors do who work downtown (and my husband did for a long time) is take the express bus from the park-n-ride on 120th which runs constantly during rush hour and is 25 minutes to downtown.

There's been a discussion in the past regarding Bradburn versus Stapleton which you can find in these threads:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/denve...-bradburn.html

http://www.city-data.com/forum/denve...stapleton.html

As to the rising water table issue, man I feel bad for those folks. That is a difficult issue to resolve especially considering they think it's due to development (irrigation where there was none before) and Stapleton is no where close to finished yet. I'm not sure what kind of mitigation they can do to fix that on a large scale, pumping from the table maybe? Is bascially a nightmare senario I think (but I don't know much about the physics of water tables, maybe it's not that big of a deal--hope so!).

[denverian]

Originally Posted by Bradburn1

Bradburn is on 120th ave between Federal and Sheridan in the city of Westminster. The downtown commute is about 30-40 minutes in rush hour but what most of my neighbors do who work downtown (and my husband did for a long time) is take the express bus from the park-n-ride on 120th which runs constantly during rush hour and is 25 minutes to downtown.

There's been a discussion in the past regarding Bradburn versus Stapleton which you can find in these threads:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/denve...-bradburn.html

http://www.city-data.com/forum/denve...stapleton.html

As to the rising water table issue, man I feel bad for those folks. That is a difficult issue to resolve especially considering they think it's due to development (irrigation where there was none before) and Stapleton is no where close to finished yet. I'm not sure what kind of mitigation they can do to fix that on a large scale, pumping from the table maybe? Is bascially a nightmare senario I think (but I don't know much about the physics of water tables, maybe it's not that big of a deal--hope so!).

They've put together some committee to investigate it and bring in professionals, so we'll see. Some of the homes affected only have issues in summer. Then there are a few that run all winter too. It caused problems a couple winters ago when it stayed below freezing for an extended time and caused ice to build up on the street, higher than the curb. Those houses now have pipes that take the water underground directly into storm sewers, so it fixes the ice problems. I was wondering when this issue would finally hit the news. But I still find it odd how it's so "hit or miss". By far it's a small minority of homes with this problem.

[OneMoreMove]

I think you need to compare the real crime stats (available online) with the crime in the areas you are accustomed to. Everyone has a different idea of what is 'safe' and people in Denver seem to be a bit jumpy about crime.

It doesn't take much crime for there to be discussion about it in Denver, while in NYC you'd need to have an axe murderer running around before people start wondering about the neighborhood. So, if you look at the numbers you may be pleasantly surprised - most the Denver area is quite safe.