What is Denver Missing? (Boulder: house, construction, organic)

[BrandonT]

Better drivers.

[davidv]

Originally Posted by denverian

Streets and freeways are generally horrible here! I mean, seriously. Pot holes on freeways? And what the hell with the 2 lane freeways like 470, 76, 270, and 225? They're always backed up, yet have plenty of space to add lanes. I realize the 225 is currently being widened, which will help.

Part of our problem with these was our rabidly anti-growth governor Dick Lamm (1975-87).

His anti-growth policies started while he was in the state legislature where he led the movement to choke off any public funds to host the 1976 Winter Olympics, which led to Denver being the only city to ever give up the Olympics.

He killed the I-470 beltway which would have been built mostly with federal funds as part of the Interstate Highway system. The plan was later resurrected as C-470 (built with state money), but limited to 2 lanes each way or he would have vetoed funding.

The other highways were built with 2-lane bridges (lack of foresight). Now that the bridges are nearing the end of their useful life, they are being replaced with wider versions which is helps facilitate the widening of the highways, but the widening projects cannot be completed until all the bridges are widened.

[davidv]

I am very ambivalent to the chains from other parts of the country. Most of the time they are overrated and successful here only because they are frequented by the people who moved into Denver and want to make it into the place they left.

What does Denver NEED?

1. Better east-west arterial streets: Belleview ends near Platte Canyon, Arapahoe ends at Broadway, Orchard disappears in the mansions of Greenwood Village, Bowles/Littleton Blvd ends at Broadway, Hampden ends at Havana, Evans ends at Sheridan, Alameda ends near Cherry Creek, 6th ave ends at Lowry, downtown Denver's different grid swallows MLK, 38th Ave and 44th Ave, and there is not a through street above Colfax until you get to 110th Ave/Church Ranch Rd./104th Ave or to 120th Ave.

The same could be said of the North-South arterials as well, but I always find my self having a harder time traveling east-west than north-south.

[TechMike]

Originally Posted by denverian

Streets and freeways are generally horrible here! I mean, seriously. Pot holes on freeways? And what the hell with the 2 lane freeways like 470, 76, 270, and 225? They're always backed up, yet have plenty of space to add lanes. I realize the 225 is currently being widened, which will help.

Maintenance improvements are good. If a freeway gets expanded, it should include a rail line.

[OakAve2OakLand]

Originally Posted by denverian

• We got our IKEA, now we need Trader Joe's!!!

Seeing as Trader Joe's and Aldi are both owned by essentially the same German family trust...if you get one, you probably get the other.

I probably do 80%+ of my food shopping between the 2 stores. If you're looking to get high-quality food (& wine) at very reasonable prices, it's a good 1-2 punch.

I don't know what's holding TJ's up from expanding into Colorado...maybe the distribution network / transport.

[KaaBoom]

Originally Posted by Mezter

What are some things that you think Denver should have?

Ocean beaches with lots of sand, big waves, and surfing.

[LisaBoulder]

1 - More jobs
2 - Infill to replace the remaining surface parking lots downtown and in the surrounding neighborhoods (so the people working the jobs requested in number one have a place to work, live and spend their money)
3 - FasTracks fully built out
4 - More direct flights to Europe and Asia
5 - Bloomingdale's, Zara and other destination retailers downtown

[KaaBoom]

Originally Posted by davidv

I am very ambivalent to the chains from other parts of the country. Most of the time they are overrated and successful here only because they are frequented by the people who moved into Denver and want to make it into the place they left.

What does Denver NEED?

1. Better east-west arterial streets: Belleview ends near Platte Canyon, Arapahoe ends at Broadway, Orchard disappears in the mansions of Greenwood Village, Bowles/Littleton Blvd ends at Broadway, Hampden ends at Havana, Evans ends at Sheridan, Alameda ends near Cherry Creek, 6th ave ends at Lowry, downtown Denver's different grid swallows MLK, 38th Ave and 44th Ave, and there is not a through street above Colfax until you get to 110th Ave/Church Ranch Rd./104th Ave or to 120th Ave.

The same could be said of the North-South arterials as well, but I always find my self having a harder time traveling east-west than north-south.

Over all I'd have to say that the Denver Metro street grid is pretty damn good. The lengths of Colfax Ave and Wadsworth Blvd. without interruption are pretty much unprecedented anywhere in the US.

I do agree about Alamerda Ave. and 6th Ave. Thats just stupid anti-traffic NIMBYism from residents in East Denver, and very counterproductive at that. Alameda was built with plans that it would have a bridge over Cherry Creak, but residents fought against it. 6th Ave actually ran straight through Lowry AFB. But when the base closed East Denver residents fought to get the street broken in two. If both streets ran straight through it really wouldn't add that much more traffic then there is now, and it would greatly relieve the traffic problems on 1st Ave in Cherry Creak. It doesn't make sense to channel all that unnecessary through Cherry Creak.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by KaaBoom

Over all I'd have to say that the Denver Metro street grid is pretty damn good. The lengths of Colfax Ave and Wadsworth Blvd. without interruption are pretty much unprecedented anywhere in the US.

Colfax Avenue - HISTORY - ColfaxAvenue.com (http://www.colfaxavenue.com/history.php - broken link)

While Colfax Avenue is commonly considered to run east-west along U.S. Highway 40 through the Denver metro area, the road extends much farther. As U.S. 40 bends east of Aurora and follows I-70, U.S. 36 picks up the Colfax name as a virtually seamless route to Watkins, Bennett and Strasburg. Farther east in Byers, some residents continue to use East Colfax in their addresses, though the name is rarely, if ever, used beyond the town. This makes Colfax Avenue the longest continuous commercial street in the United States.

[bentstrider]

It's perfectly fine the way it is, has everything that I'll ever need when it comes to urban necessities.
In fact after the past 8-9 months of bringing the truckloads of Nestle water up to there from SoCal, there's plenty of things there that my current area has and probably won't ever.
Bike-paths, rivers going through the city that look like actual rivers, outdoorsy folk that rock the small-arms.

I still consider the city a nice and even mix of everything that each side of the country has to offer, with a view of the mountains to top it all off!!

Then along came that dumb Wendys commercial that had to tout off the beach, but that's another story/thread.