Silicon Valley Comparison (Denver, Aurora, Boulder: luxury, travel, job)

[Palindromed]

I presently live in Silicon Valley in the San Jose area. If anyone from Colorado is familiar from this area, I would like to get a sense of comparison.

What cities in Denver can be compared to:

Saratoga
Los Gatos
Campbell
Almaden
Evergreen
Willow Glen
East Side SJ

For example, is Highland Ranch like Los Gatos? Parker like Almaden Valley?
Also, would appreciate rush hour traffic times from:

Parker to Denver Tech
Highlands Ranch to Denver Tech
Brighton to Denver Tech
Aurora to Denver Tech
Broomfield to Denver Tech

Thank you!

[2bindenver]

Originally Posted by Palindromed

I presently live in Silicon Valley in the San Jose area. If anyone from Colorado is familiar from this area, I would like to get a sense of comparison.

What cities in Denver can be compared to:

Saratoga
Los Gatos
Campbell
Almaden
Evergreen
Willow Glen
East Side SJ

For example, is Highland Ranch like Los Gatos? Parker like Almaden Valley?
Also, would appreciate rush hour traffic times from:

Parker to Denver Tech
Highlands Ranch to Denver Tech
Brighton to Denver Tech
Aurora to Denver Tech
Broomfield to Denver Tech

Thank you!

I moved here from Sunnyvale in 1989. Here is different than there.

Parker/south Aurora & HR would be a tolerable commute to DTC, not Brighton or Broomfield - Imagine have to travel thru SJ just to get to Santa Cruz.

[denver_hacker]

Hey there,

My wife and I are in hi-tech (she's IT management, I'm a sw engineer) and moved to Denver in '99. Overall it's a great place to live, but you will miss the ocean, the mix of people (and therefore the mix of food), and the spotlight-on-us-because-we're-changing-the-word quality the valley has. But the mountains, the change of seasons, the lack of focus on wealth status, and the relaxed pace of life are very nice.

One thing that takes a while to get used to out here is that the geography of the landscape doesn't indicate the status of the homes. In The Valley, the foothills define a natural space that is used to generally build nicer homes (LG, Saratoga, Cupertino, Woodside, Atherton, Marin, etc). Here everything is flat and so a luxury development exists soley because someone decided to buy the land and build high-end houses. So if you drive from Geenwood Village west into Englewood, there's nothing except a wall that delinates between the luxury area and the middle class area. Maybe it won't be a big deal for you, but I kept looking at the "high end" areas that were surrounded by "normal" areas and not understanding why they were high end - there's nothing that makes them different except someone built a pricier house. There are areas that have stunning landscapes (Conifer, Evergreen, Morrison) but they are far from the major work centers and their winters suck.

Boulder is also stunning and it has a great tech scene, there are probably more native Californians in Boulder than native Coloradans at this point

Anyway, to your question...

Saratoga & Los Gatos == Greenwood Village, Cherry Hills, Castle Pines, parts of Littleton, maybe Bow Mar. Greenwood Village and Cherry Hills are very exclusive and full of old money. Most of the executives in the area live in these towns. They are also very close to downtown and the DTC (Tech Center). The main downside to them that I see is that they have very boring landscapes and no downtown commercial strips. Castle Pines is also exclusive and newer. The landscape at Castle Pines is much more interesting but it is far (for this area anyway) from downtown Denver and the weather is worse.

Campbell, Willow Glen == Old Littleton. Old Littleton has a neat little downtown that's not high end like Los Gatos or Saratoga. It also has old bungalows and victorians. If you want old brick houses with mom and pop commercial strips, you might want to look at Platt Park and Washington Park in Denver proper - both have decent commutes to the DTC. Parker has an old main street but it is pretty pathetic compared to the others. Morrison also has a little downtown strip, but it's more of a haul to the DTC. Loveland also has a nice little downtown, but it's a very long commute to the DTC.

Almaden, Evergreen == Highlands Ranch, Parker. I don't think there's anything like Highlands Ranch in the Valley (maybe Danville), but these two are probably the closest. Car centered developments all the way, nothing pedistrian oriented. Highlands Ranch is just now developing their last big section called Backcountry, which borders a big open space preserve.

East SJ == East Littleton and parts of Centennial. I'm thinking of 70s/80s homes that probably are dated need some work. If you're thinking of hardcore East SJ, then you're looking at Aurora with gangs and whatnot.

Sounds like you're looking at employment in the DTC and are looking at houses in that area. Parker and Highlands Ranch have very reasonable commutes to the DTC. Depending on where in Aurora you're talking about, that might not be bad either. Southeast Aurora has a lot of nice developments (Saddle Rock, Tallyn's Reach) in the Cherry Creek school district that are close to the DTC. Broomfield and Brighton are a bit far. You're probably thinking about taking 470 around to the DTC, but it's a long haul. And if you're looking at those, you should then look at Ken Caryl Ranch, Chatfield, and Morrison to go the other way around 470. Another idea might be Stapleton, which is in Denver and is a huge new development with lots of walkable commerical strips and pocket parks.

BTW, there are tons of Silicon Valley people out here. You can't go anywhere without seeing Stanford, Cal, UCSB, etc. shirts or license plate frames with Bay Area dealers.

[CapHillboy]

I had been struggling with the comparisons. I think denver_hacker did an excellent job of comparing the Denver and Valley areas. I grew up in San Jose and watched the Valley grow from a collection of farm towns (remember Stanford used to be called The Farm) to Silicon Valley before I left.

I would only add that I don't think you'll miss the mix of food. It's true that the ethnic mix in Denver is not nearly as obvious as in the Valley, but, if you look, you can easily find pretty much what you have in Silicon Valley. There are grocery stores (in some cases, the size of supermarkets) that cater to Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese, Eastern European/Russian, Middle Eastern, and Mexican/Latin American cooks. There are also grocery stores for Swiss, Dutch, French, Italian, and German communities, but I don't recall those being as prevalent in Silicon Valley. And, because these populations exist in the area, so do the restaurants.

You'll have to drive all over metro Denver for them. But that would be the case in Silicon Valley, as well.

[Palindromed]

Thanks everyone for the comparisons.

[RGG13]

Parker's a lot like Danville, San Ramon, Dublin. A bedroom community with moderate to upscale housing. Lots of well maintained tracts and great schools.

But you can get twice the house for half the price.

[oberon]

Palindromed, I've been to the Bay Area (particularly SF, PA, MV, Sunnyvale, SJ, & Berkeley) several times. I'm a software engineer also. However, denver_hacker did a better job than I ever could. Metro Denver is pretty flat compared to the bay. That's not to say there isn't considerable variance in elevation (5100'-5700') or hills, but there aren't as many extreme terrain changes in the landscape. However, 50% of the area is within 20 miles of the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains. Views to the west are better in some areas than others.

That said, here are some approximate commute times, during rush hour (approx. 6:30-9am, 3:30-6:30pm, M-F):
Parker to Denver Tech: about 20-30 minutes.
Highlands Ranch to Denver Tech: about 20-30 minutes.
Brighton to Denver Tech: about 90-120 minutes. Taking E-470 might make a difference.
Aurora to Denver Tech: about 5-20 minutes.
Broomfield to Denver Tech: about 75-90 minutes.

[Palindromed]

Given the comparison with Silicon Valley with DTC Denver, would you characterize the traffic to be bumper to bumper, stop and go kind of traffic in Denver? Or steady progressive movement?

Anyone from Parker? Can you tell me what the commute is like and the route you take to get to Denver Tech and even into downtown Denver, say the tech museum? Bumper to bumper? Stop and go? Smooth flow? Also, in Parker, are there any major shopping malls, things to do there? I don't want to get bored you know :O)

[oberon]

25 between 36 and Santa Fe tend to be congested (i.e. mostly bumper to bumper) in both directions during rush hour, though it will vary some. 225, especially north of Parker Rd, tends to be VERY congested during rush hour. Since I don't live or go to those areas very often, and since there is no public monitoring of the local roads, it's hard to make better characterizations. Anyway, why are you so interested in working at DTC, but not living close to it? Parker and Highlands Ranch are both little more than huge bedroom communities on the outskirts.

[denver_hacker]

Originally Posted by Palindromed

Given the comparison with Silicon Valley with DTC Denver, would you characterize the traffic to be bumper to bumper, stop and go kind of traffic in Denver? Or steady progressive movement?

Anyone from Parker? Can you tell me what the commute is like and the route you take to get to Denver Tech and even into downtown Denver, say the tech museum? Bumper to bumper? Stop and go? Smooth flow? Also, in Parker, are there any major shopping malls, things to do there? I don't want to get bored you know :O)

Do you mean the Nature and Science museum in City Park? It's not really in downtown. That'd be 25 north to Colorado Blvd. north. There's no good public transportation to that museum (or the Denver Zoo next door). There's also a children's museum in downtown Denver, across from the football stadium and next to the Aquarium (that'd be I-25 north to 23rd).

25 has multiple downtown Denver exits, it depends on where in downtown you're headed. For the Pepsi Center, you'd take I-25 north to Auraria Parkway. For LoDo or Coors Field, you'd most likely take I-25 north to 20th. Keep in mind that for either of those, there is light rail service that goes from I-25 and Lincoln in Lone Tree (right next to Parker) to Mile High Stadium, Pepsi Center/Elich Gardens, Coors Field, and the 16th Street Mall.

There's a big mall at 25 and County Line Road called Park Meadows with lots of big box retail around. I don't think there's much of anything in Parker other than housing developments...it has a little Main Street, but as I remember it's very small and doesn't have much...there's the Wildlife Experience as well...

If you're really curious, you could watch the traffic maps on Google to see how the freeways look during commute times. Or come out for a week and do the drive yourself.

My observations are that the traffic here is nothing like the Bay Area. The commute hours are shorter (basically bad from 7:15 to 8:45). The number of people on the roads is much less (the entire state of CO has 4M people, the Denver metro area has about half of that. Compared to the 12M in the Bay Area). And the drivers here are much much more mellow and friendly - lots of "thank you" waves.

I-25 just finished a major upgrade that widened it and added the light rail, so that helps the commute quite a bit. Between the DTC and Parker you're looking at 470, Parker Road, and Arapahoe Road. 470 isn't bad because it's a toll road, but the others are pretty nasty. Those roads have not been upgraded to handle the massive development that's happened in Parker/Douglas County in the last 10 years. Douglas County was the fastest growing county in the country for a while there and is probably still in the top 5.