What's Aurora Really Like? (Denver, Highlands Ranch: middle-class, apartments, city hall)

[maciesmom]

Most of Aurora is perfectly fine. The bad parts won't be as bad as you are thinking and the nice parts will most likely be much better than you are anticipating. My son used to play at least one youth football game in Montbello every year. I never felt unsafe or creeped out. Compared to "the hood" in many larger cities, it's just not that bad. Are there neighborhoods I'd avoid on a Saturday night? Sure. But other than that, I don't give it much thought. It's not like you risk your life if you make a wrong turn.

[aroddy]

I think Aurora gets a bad rap because the lower income parts are close to busier parts of Denver so that's what a lot of people see. Also it's somewhat bland, so not many people make it to the nicer southern parts of town. I used to live in a 'bad' part of town (Alameda & Peoria) in an apartment complex for 4 years, with my Harley parked outside uncovered, and nobody messed with it. I had no problems living there whatsoever. However, and I may be contradicting myself, I feel safer now in the southern part of town. There are gradients - generally as you move south, from Mississippi to lllif, Hampden, Quincy, Orchard, etc. it gets progressively better. I would avoid the Colfax area altogether, though.

[2bindenver]

Bad news travels faster than good news. I think the people of Aurora wouldn't mind getting rid of the baseless (all of Aurora) bad rep.

Aurora has lots of very nice suburban communities, from entry level to luxury.

[mp127001]

My wife and I are moving to Aurora or as my wife likes to call it, "Almost Kansas." When we decide to move to the Denver area she had no interest in moving there, but after looking around and seeing what kind of house our money can buy versus what we could buy in our new community, it was an easy decision. From where our house is being built, it was a 19 minute drive to Coors Field. Having easy access to I70 and the airport is another huge plus. We have grown accustomed to driving 15-30 minutes to get to malls and entertainment, so this is no big deal for us. Honestly, I see some comments on this forum stating that a 30 minute or more commute is like a death sentence, where I believe it is a part of life. This is just my opinion, so don't shoot me. Trust me, I grew up on Long Island NY and have lived in Atlanta. I know traffic and what horrible commutes are like. I will take that kind of drive and buy a nicer house any day. In other words, you have to decide what is important to you, and plan your life accordingly.

[mic111]

I agree, the reputation of Aurora being a 'bad area' is quite silly today. Many of the gentrified areas in Denver were much worse than the worst part of Aurora today but today they are hot and commanding high prices. You can see in the posts for new comers, everyone wants to avoid the 'bad areas'.

Colfax was a 'bad area' but today is the happening spot for the hipsters (I learned this recently) when all along I thought it was the yuppy happening spot.

Over the years I visited Aurora, frequented businesses there, driven through many parts and have yet to see an area that looks worse than a run down area in Boulder where people let their properties get overrun with weeds or worse than the gentrified areas of the Highlands.

There are lower income areas all over the metro area and high income areas all over the metro areas. The lower income areas all tend to look alike as do the higher income areas. Were very fortunate in that we don't really have 'bad areas' like alot of cities along the coasts.

[Mezter]

Southern Aurora is probably one of the nicest, safest, newest, and cleanest areas of the Denver Metro. I wish people realized that most of Aurora isn't bad at all.

[davidv]

Originally Posted by Mezter

Southern Aurora is probably one of the nicest, safest, newest, and cleanest areas of the Denver Metro. I wish people realized that most of Aurora isn't bad at all.

I agree with this, HOWEVER, it is worth mentioning to all who consider living in Southern Aurora that it is an extremely long and arduous commute to downtown. If you work downtown (especially between 7:30 am and 5:30 pm) then you can expect a commute that is at least 45 - 60 minutes on a good day and 90 min to 2 hours on a snow day.

Southern Aurora is nice, safe, clean, and the schools are very good, but from Southlands it is a good 24 miles to downtown, 30+ miles to C-470 and US 285 (one way into the mountains) and almost 40 miles to C-470 and I-70 (which is the main entrance to the mountains/skiing), and 23 miles to the airport. All of these routes use E-470 which is a very expensive toll road. If you avoid E-470 than you save money, but you lose lots of time.

Southern Aurora is great for people who work at home, people who don't mind paying tolls, or people who work in Inverness/Meridian or the Tech Center.

[TigerLily24]

Originally Posted by davidv

I agree with this, HOWEVER, it is worth mentioning to all who consider living in Southern Aurora that it is an extremely long and arduous commute to downtown. If you work downtown (especially between 7:30 am and 5:30 pm) then you can expect a commute that is at least 45 - 60 minutes on a good day and 90 min to 2 hours on a snow day.

Southern Aurora is nice, safe, clean, and the schools are very good, but from Southlands it is a good 24 miles to downtown, 30+ miles to C-470 and US 285 (one way into the mountains) and almost 40 miles to C-470 and I-70 (which is the main entrance to the mountains/skiing), and 23 miles to the airport. All of these routes use E-470 which is a very expensive toll road. If you avoid E-470 than you save money, but you lose lots of time.

Southern Aurora is great for people who work at home, people who don't mind paying tolls, or people who work in Inverness/Meridian or the Tech Center.

I commute from SE Aurora to downtown (Logan, near Colfax) every day. From where I am to my office is between 18-21 miles depending on which route I take.

Yes, it can be a long commute - drive time usually runs about 45 minutes door-to-door, bus takes about 90 minutes rain, snow or shine.
I generally try to take the bus several times a week since what I save in gas and parking costs, particularly since my employer subsidizes my public transit costs (as do many employers in the Denver metro), is well worth it, and, I love having the time to read.

I do have the option of taking the light rail from Nine Mile, but, it is such a circus getting in and out of there AM and PM, I prefer to take my local bus to Centerpointe and go downtown that way. And, I don't have to do the uphill walk from Civic Center. Big bonus when the streets/sidewalks are slippery.

What I found is that in order to have a decent car commute, one never, ever, ever gets on I-225/I-25.
Mornings I take Tower to Buckley to Colfax, evenings I either do the same in reverse or take Colfax to Quebec to Alameda to Tower or Buckley depending on whether I want to stop at Albertson's on Buckley and Mississippi. Best thing about getting off of the highway is actually getting to know where I live.
I highly recommend it.

When it snows, I don't drive. Period. Granted, I am lucky because I am within walking distance of an RTD bus stop. Made sure of that when I was looking at houses.

The one time I flew out of DIA since I've been here, I took the streets to the Parking Spot where I left my car. Took about thirty minutes. It was still faster than any other airport commute I've ever had - Las Cruces to El Paso International was an hour, North Jersey to Newark, usually an hour, Brooklyn or Manhattan to any area airport, an hour plus.

As for the time it takes to get to the mountains, not an issue for me as I don't drive to the mountains. My younger family members, however, have never been discouraged by the amount of time it takes to get up there from SE Aurora/Centennial and they are the reason I moved there in the first place. For them the school system, family-oriented neighborhoods and quality housing stock trumps everything else.

Of course, commuting is not for everyone, but, as someone who has pretty much always commuted, excepting when I did work from home, this one is a piece of cake.

[ilyeana]

I grew up in central-ish Aurora and went to high school in North Aurora. I've never felt like it deserves its bad reputation - North Aurora is certainly poorer and more racially diverse than other suburban areas in Denver, and I think people/the media like to draw conclusions based on that alone. Maybe the crime rate is slightly higher than in other suburban areas, I'm not even sure. I do know that in 18 years of growing up there, I never witnessed or knew anyone who witnessed a single violent crime - in contrast with the upper-middle class area of Minneapolis where I currently live.

That said, North Aurora is older and feels more run-down than what you'd typically expect in a suburb. If you're looking to live somewhere that feels typically suburban, the further south and east you go, the "better" it gets. (However, the further south and east you go, the further from downtown you get. :/)

Another thought: if you're merely renting, and you don't have kids, I'd suggest looking in the Aurora Public Schools district rather than the Cherry Creek district (the border is Hampden Ave. through most of Aurora). Cherry Creek Schools have a much better reputation than APS, meaning the housing there commands a small premium compared to the housing in the APS district. If you look at the far southern end of the APS district, the neighborhoods will be almost identical to across the border in the Cherry Creek district, but I suspect you'll pay a bit less.

[cory81]

While Aurora can be very low income and seedy at times, I don't find it to be particularly "dangerous". Perhaps if you go north of Colfax, it gets a little closer to that. However, between Yale Avenue and Colfax, it's just rather bland, poor and blighted. The minority population gets much higher, which may make white people cautious because they associate minorities with criminal activity. Truth is, the criminal activity is fairly petty compared to the perception Aurora has. I have worked in Aurora for over three years, and I do a job which allows me to meet a tremendous number of its residents. I can tell you that it's very low income, a fairly significant population of people who have English as either a second language or who do not even speak English, but I don't find it to be a hotbed of drug or severe criminal activity