Possibly Moving to Denver (work in Englewood) (Littleton: home, neighborhoods)

[xmansmom]

My boyfriend is being relocated to an office in Englewood, CO. We are in our mid-30s and have a 16 month old son and a border collie. Currently, I am a stay at home mom, but will eventually look for work once our son is around 2-3 years old.

I looked at the map and it looks like the commute could easily be 30-40 minutes from Denver to Englewood. We are looking for a more urban neighborhood where we can walk to restaurants and shops and also nearby parks. But we don't necessarily want to deal with a long commute if that means the only way we can get a walkable neighborhood is by living in downtown Denver. Ideally, we would like no more than a 20 minute commute. And public transportation or biking option would be even better.

Any suggestions of neighborhoods in the general Denver area or suburb that may have some sort of main shopping street/urban feel to it and close to parks. If anyone is familiar with the Pearl District in Portland or Ballard area of Seattle, that is kind of the area we are looking for. Also, we'd be interested in being near a good K-6 area school (even though our son is not school age yet, but might as well get a head start). I've read several other threads and there just seems to be so many options. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

Englewood could be the city, or it could include the much larger postal address. Do you have a specific location?

[xmansmom]

Thanks for getting back to me Dreaming of Hawaii. The zip code is 80112. I just saw a posting about the unique postal addresses city/county boundaries of the Denver area. Oy vey!

[Count David]

I'm pretty stumped here, because you won't find anything like Seattle's Ballard in Denver (my sister actually goes to Ballard HS {when she shows up, anyway}).

I'm going to recommend Washington Park, and the DU area, or all of zip codes 80209 and 80210. Easy commute (could be 20-25 minutes in light/moderate traffic) either by car or light rail down I-25 to 80112 (I actually work there 1/2 the time myself).

You could also consider Cherry Creek, Capitol Hill, the Speer neighborhood, etc (zips 80206, 80203) but the commute gets a little longer, but it wouldn't be that bad.

[Dorthy]

I would look at Old Littleton which has more of a small town feel then a city one but has a really nice downtown with shops, restaurants, nice rec center, library, parks, etc. It's on the light rail so you could get to downtown Denver without having to drive. It would be a quick commute to work.
Historic Downtown Littleton

After that I'd say your next best bets would be the Washington Park and Platte Park neighborhoods.

[2bindenver]

A job in Englewood could be Santa Fe and Hampden or 1-25 and Arapahoe.

What else is important to you in a community?

[xmansmom]

Thank you for all the replies. We hope we can take a visit soon and check out all these great-sounding neighborhoods. In response to 2bindenver, we are looking for laid back neighborhood, friendly/social folks. Having lived in the Pacific Northwest for the last several years, it can be harder sometimes to enjoy the outdoors because of the rainy weather so we are really looking forward to being outside as often as we can. We have been very fortunate to live in an area where our neighbors look out for each other (we have a neighborhood watch and hold a block party annually) and we'd really love to have that again and develop close relationships. We love to go to farmer's markets, long walks at the dog park, visit museums once in a while, listen to live music and we love to eat out. We would love to live in a neighborhood that's diverse in terms of incomes, ethnicity and age groups. Since we now have a toddler, it would be nice to be around other young families. Don't know if that is possible, but here's to hoping. I am in love with all different types of architecture, but prefer to live in older neighborhoods vs. new developments.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by xmansmom

Thank you for all the replies. We hope we can take a visit soon and check out all these great-sounding neighborhoods. In response to 2bindenver, we are looking for laid back neighborhood, friendly/social folks. Having lived in the Pacific Northwest for the last several years, it can be harder sometimes to enjoy the outdoors because of the rainy weather so we are really looking forward to being outside as often as we can. We have been very fortunate to live in an area where our neighbors look out for each other (we have a neighborhood watch and hold a block party annually) and we'd really love to have that again and develop close relationships. We love to go to farmer's markets, long walks at the dog park, visit museums once in a while, listen to live music and we love to eat out. We would love to live in a neighborhood that's diverse in terms of incomes, ethnicity and age groups. Since we now have a toddler, it would be nice to be around other young families. Don't know if that is possible, but here's to hoping. I am in love with all different types of architecture, but prefer to live in older neighborhoods vs. new developments.

Well, you want a lot. I'd say you could probably find 90% of your wants in most any neighborhood in metro Denver! Diversity of ages and being around a lot of young families at the same time could be difficult. Every community and some Denver neighborhoods have farmer's markets. Lots of older neighborhoods you could visit.