Lifestyle Differences in Denver Burbs? (Aurora, Lakewood: landscaping, neighborhoods, buy)

[DenverLawGal]

HA! That cracked me up. What you just said is what I equivocate to burb. I think of Sloan's as much better than burb (Thornton), but still not quite urban. Just from Katiana's description, the driving part makes me think of a not so walkable area. It is up and coming over there, I thought it was called Highlands area. Anyway, there are stores and restaurants and such I'm sure you can walk to, but not nearly what I was describing.

Originally Posted by steveco.

mindless miles after miles of mind numbing, vinyl-siding, cul de sacs seperated by (insert 100 of your favorite chain restaurants and strip malls) and split between miles and miles of endless highway. Give me downtown any day

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by wanttomoveeast

HA! That cracked me up. What you just said is what I equivocate to burb. I think of Sloan's as much better than burb (Thornton), but still not quite urban. Just from Katiana's description, the driving part makes me think of a not so walkable area. It is up and coming over there, I thought it was called Highlands area. Anyway, there are stores and restaurants and such I'm sure you can walk to, but not nearly what I was describing.

However, he also said that was not what he saw in Sloan's Lake. If you'd read my post, ****it, you'd see that we lived there "pre-gentrification". Yes, there were restaurants we could, and did, walk to. Highlands is to the north. It's not clear exactly where the boundary is, as it's not defined, but probably 35th Ave. or so. We were about two blocks from the lake.

[steveco.]

http://www.denvergov.org/Portals/144/images/DENVER_NEIGH_Map.jpg (broken link)
Here is a map of neighborhoods you can see highlands is considered dirtectly north of sloans lake

[DenverLawGal]

Wow, did I make you mad? It sounds like it or that's how I'm reading it. I'm very sorry, that was not my intention at all. I did read your post, I'm sorry I missed parts of it.

Originally Posted by Katiana

****it

[DenverLawGal]

Steve: ah, I see, I think I had the two areas swapped in my mind. Thanks for the map!

[Katarina Witt]

Yes, thanks, steve, for clarifying.

[enigmakairos]

Yeah, um, I think I do see some ruffled feathers. How about we all put this aside and go back to lamenting about the lack of IKEA?

I would visit some friends occasionally in some newly renovated REAL townhomes in the soon-to-be-completely gentrified South Side and South Side Slopes area of Pittsburgh. I would get jealous that they could walk to Giant Eagle (grocery) and another block or two to get to numerous bars, shops, and other entertainment. Then I remembered that a) they have to deal with the traffic and noise from those popular nearby hot spots, as far as Giant Eagles stores go, it's a cruddy skanky one, and their house will probably fall off the side of that hill any year now, renovations or not (you'd have to see them to understand). And that would help me appreciate life in the 'burbs again.

That having been said, my dogs can't WAIT to get out of this postage-stamp sized yard ASAP.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by enigmakairos

Yeah, um, I think I do see some ruffled feathers. How about we all put this aside and go back to lamenting about the lack of IKEA?

That having been said, my dogs can't WAIT to get out of this postage-stamp sized yard ASAP.

Since we've never had IKEA, I don't miss it. Though my bro got a neat bookshelf for his apt in Moon Twp, PA (sub Pgh). Oh, well.

[tfox]

Originally Posted by vegaspilgrim

I'm starting to think that Aurora may in fact be different. Aurora seems to contradict a lot of held "truths" about what Denver and Colorado is all about.

Interesting post, vegaspilgrim. You probably know Aurora better than any of us. I've lived in a number of places in Colorado, but honestly Aurora is one place I've never lived in.

From an outsider's perspective, Aurora seems to me to be more a amalgamation of suburban areas than a single "place". In fact, much of the older parts of Aurora inside of I-225 seem to have more in common with neighboring parts of Denver than they do with much of the rest of Aurora. And in far southeast Aurora, it's built to service DTC commuters, much like Eastern Centennial or Parker, and the residents likely feel more connected to the other south metro suburbs than to Denver or even North Aurora.

As for going to the mountains more or less often, part of that likely has to do with cost. Aurora has a lot of families on a budget, and so playing in the mountains every weekend may be out of their budgets. Many of my international co-workers from India, East Asia, or the Middle East live in Aurora. Most of them aren't all that big into mountain recreation. Why did they choose Aurora? Several reasons. First, they could buy or rent more for their money. Second, there were lots of people from their respective countries already there. Third, ethnic markets, restaurants, and places of worship (i.e., the mosque) were in Aurora, so they can get their needs met close to home. They care about that kind of stuff far more than being close to the mountains.

I've often thought that of all the metro area communities, no two cites are as tightly intertwined as Denver and Aurora, so much so that one wonders why the two cities don't merge into one large city (Denver-Aurora or something like that). Seems like a win/win -- Denver is the 800 lb gorilla with the lion's share of the resources, but with nowhere to grow -- Aurora has all kinds of room to grow. It definitely won't happen -- the Poundstone Amendment was passed in the 1970s to essentially make it impossible for Denver to change its boundaries, plus there's no way parents in Cherry Creek School District are going to let Denver Public Schools take over their district. Nevertheless, it's interesting to think about. Even though unification is never happening, Denver and Aurora leadership should be thinking of themselves as one city rather than two when making decisions.

As for whether Aurora is "mid-western" -- well, I don't know exactly, since I've spent very little time in the mid-west, and don't pretend to understand it. However, Denver doesn't resemble any midwestern city that I can think of, but reminds a lot of other western cities in Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, etc (just much larger). Aurora fits in pretty closely as an extension of Denver, from what I can tell. Every city has its working class suburb, and for Denver, that's Aurora.

[Katarina Witt]

As for whether Aurora is "mid-western" -- well, I don't know exactly, since I've spent very little time in the mid-west, and don't pretend to understand it. However, Denver doesn't resemble any midwestern city that I can think of,

My DD went to college in Minnesota, grew up in Louisville. She thinks Denver and Minneapolis are very similar. From what I've seen of Mpls, I would agree.

On the subject of working class suburbs, there is also Thornton. My co-worker from Thornton said it is not common there for people to go to Mexico, Disneyworld/land, etc every school holiday, like it seems to be in Boulder/Louisville. Our pediatrics office is usually very quiet during school breaks, esp. spring break.