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My only issues are the lack of Trader Joes and IKEA. How do you people live without IKEA?????
Hilarious, I concur. I'm a Denver native living in the LA area, considering going back to Denver...I might have to stuff Trader Joes and IKEA in my nap sack. LOL. And to answer your rhetorical question, I think they all go to Americas Furniture Warehouse...does that guy still do his own commercials...
So in another thread, and off-topic, this was said:
See, I found the opposite in some ways. In the city I did very little to stay active, but living in the burbs allowed us to get dogs (we have 2 200 lb-ers) so we walk them, we feel more comfortable biking on the weekends (well, before we moved to MD).. it has certainly been more expensive, but that's mostly because I have more room for my hobbies now
In the apt. buildings and houses I've lived in in the city, no one talks to each other. In the burbs back in Pittsburgh, I knew darn-near all my neighbors. We femmes would gather and sip iced tea at one of the stay-at-home-moms houses at the end of the block. If they caught you walking by with the dogs, they'd pull you in and make you sit for a spell. Never ever experienced anything like that in the city proper.
Anyone else wanna weigh in?
I will weigh in. When we first moved here in 1980, we lived in the city, Sloan's Lake to be exact. We knew a few people in our 4-plex, but none of the other neighbors. There was a grocery store (not a supermarket) within a (long) walking distance, but frankly, the quality was not the best. There was a King Soopers up on 44th Ave that we went to occasionally, but really, we did most of our shopping at the malls in Jefferson County. All of which involved driving. I worked as a visiting nurse, so I needed the car for work. DH did ride his bike/take the bus to work occasionally. He rode when he felt like it, and took the bus if his car was incapacitated for some reason. Most of our recreation/entertainment was also done in Jeffco (movies, etc). Occasionally we would go to a Denver Bears AAA baseball game in Mile High Stadium, or something at the DCPA. (See how I date myself?)
When it came time to buy, we looked around our neighborhood, but most of the homes for sale needed a lot of work. We found for the same price we could buy an almost-new house in Louisville in move-in condition. We didn't want to live in the burbs, but Louisville was an old coal mining town turned 'burb. We loved it! We got to know our neighbors, were invited to their homes for dinner and invited them in return. It just felt more "homey". Louisville is walkable, depending on where you live and your tolerance for hills. We live on top of S. Boulder Rd. hill, so it's fun to walk downtown, not so much fun to walk back up. Before we had kids, we did it a lot. If you live on the flats in Lsvl, there is a lot to walk to: grocery store, downtown restaurants, library, pool, parks, rec center. Louisville isn't very big, so you can live a little farther away and bike to all the above. Louisville does a lot of the little "small-town" ish things like an annual Pet Parade in conjunction with its Labor Day festival; free hot-dogs and chips cooked by the City Council on the 4th of July, etc. My kids got to march in the Labor Day Parade with their gymnastics team and the December Parade of Lights with their Girl Scout troops. One of my daughters got a small college scholarship that was for city employees/volunteers (she coached gymnastics for the rec center.) She got to go to a City Council meeting to receive it. You just don't get that kind of stuff in the city.
Hilarious, I concur. I'm a Denver native living in the LA area, considering going back to Denver...I might have to stuff Trader Joes and IKEA in my nap sack. LOL. And to answer your rhetorical question, I think they all go to Americas Furniture Warehouse...does that guy still do his own commercials...
Lol yeah he does. Except there are not as many tigers and cheetahs in them anymore
Katiana: You call Sloan's Lake the city??? Just looking at your description of where things are does not make me think of the city. Maybe I'm jaded or biased or whatever. Here's what I'm talking about: We lived on 6th and Pennsylvania. I walked to work. It was about 8 blocks. The Safeway was on 6th and Corona, about 4-5 blocks up the street.
One thing about your post that had me saying, that's not the city! was this: "All of which involved driving". That's the entire point of living downtown!! Hardly anyone drives everywhere. For us, driving to the Target or a mall was a sort of novelty.
oh yes, and recreation? Well, let's see. We'd ride our bikes along the Cherry Creek path. We'd walk to the Cherry Creek Mall. (actually that was when we lived on Speer and Corona). The Pavillions have movies, shops, bowling, restaurants/bars. Then there's the Botanic Gardens, the Zoo, Elitch's. We rode our bikes to every one of these venues, and this was no effort at all. In fact, Elitch's has a day where you get in free if you ride your bike. They used to anyway.
Katiana: You call Sloan's Lake the city??? Just looking at your description of where things are does not make me think of the city. Maybe I'm jaded or biased or whatever. Here's what I'm talking about: We lived on 6th and Pennsylvania. I walked to work. It was about 8 blocks. The Safeway was on 6th and Corona, about 4-5 blocks up the street.
One thing about your post that had me saying, that's not the city! was this: "All of which involved driving". That's the entire point of living downtown!! Hardly anyone drives everywhere. For us, driving to the Target or a mall was a sort of novelty.
oh yes, and recreation? Well, let's see. We'd ride our bikes along the Cherry Creek path. We'd walk to the Cherry Creek Mall. (actually that was when we lived on Speer and Corona). The Pavillions have movies, shops, bowling, restaurants/bars. Then there's the Botanic Gardens, the Zoo, Elitch's. We rode our bikes to every one of these venues, and this was no effort at all. In fact, Elitch's has a day where you get in free if you ride your bike. They used to anyway.
Sloan's Lake is within the city limits of Denver. We lived on 24th Ave and Osceola St. Believe me, I know where I paid my taxes. We were about a mile from the Denver/Jeffco line. It was actually closer to drive to Jeffco to grocery shop, etc than to do so in Denver. To clarify, I was a visiting nurse. I had to use the car at work. It wouldn't have mattered if I had lived next door to the office (which was in Arapahoe Co in the city of Sheridan). My DH worked in Golden. That is one of the problems with this "city life". You can't always put all the pieces together so you can walk to shopping, job, entertainment, and such. We did walk to Mile High to see those baseball games. Eltiches, at the time, was near our home, on the west side of town. However, I have never been a big amusement park person. There is no mall over there like Cherry Creek. If I had wanted to go to Cherry Creek, I would have had to drive the car. There was a little shopping area along Tennyson (now gentrified I hear) which we occasionally rode our bikes to. Also the library was within biking distance. The Botanic Gardens and the Zoo were several miles away over I-25. There was no pedestrian walkway at the time, just the sidewalks on the roads. Yes, I rode the bikeway to the Health Sciences Center occasionally when I took classes there. I'm not really sure what you're getting at. The city is more than the "hip" east side.
My daughter lives near DU and is a student at the HSC, which just moved to Aurora. Even when it was in Denver, she drove her car. She takes light rail downtown, and walks to stuff at DU, but for everything else, she drives.
Katiana: ok ok, not trying to ruffle your feathers really. I guess when I read your post I was thinking of my own lifestyle. I agree that you are right, you lived within Denver city limits. It's just that by my own personal thoughts, I don't think of Sloan's as the "city". No need to argue over semantics, it's just my own opinion and certainly doesn't have to be yours. Don't take offense either. It wasn't meant as a put down.
See when you talk about how you drove to the grocery, I think, well, we walked. Oh, and I got it earlier about you being a visiting nurse, obviously you drove for your job!
This one sentence I disagree with (it's in quotes), only because I just (above) talked about how we walked to every one of these venues you named: That is one of the problems with this "city life". You can't always put all the pieces together so you can walk to shopping, job, entertainment, and such. This is the sentence "That is one of the problems with this "city life". You can't always put all the pieces together so you can walk to shopping, job, entertainment, and such." Just reread my post and you'll see how I talk about walking to my job, entertainment and all.
Elitch's is kind of smallish compared to the other big amusement parks. We hardly ever go these days. I really miss the old one where they actually had gardens. We'd take coolers filled with food and drink and could even leave it tucked away on one of their picnic tables, go to the rides and come back and have lunch. It's nothing like that now.
We walked to the Denver Public Library all the time. We laughed at all the people who had to drive to the events and pay outrageous parking. Now that's us.
This sentence confuses me: "The city is more than the "hip" east side." I thought I was clear when I have repeatedly said "downtown". Not a burb, not Sloan's, not east, but "downtown". Literally. I guess we could argue as to where the borders of downtown exist, but that's silly. I'm sure you know what I mean.
So basically, my initial post about Denver burb life vs. Denver downtown life was just that. I'm comparing the burb of Thornton vs. downtown. Maybe we've gotten away from that. And it's just my opinion, I know a lot of people disagree.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Katiana
Sloan's Lake is within the city limits of Denver. We lived on 24th Ave and Osceola St. Believe me, I know where I paid my taxes. We were about a mile from the Denver/Jeffco line. It was actually closer to drive to Jeffco to grocery shop, etc than to do so in Denver. To clarify, I was a visiting nurse. I had to use the car at work. It wouldn't have mattered if I had lived next door to the office (which was in Arapahoe Co in the city of Sheridan). My DH worked in Golden. That is one of the problems with this "city life". You can't always put all the pieces together so you can walk to shopping, job, entertainment, and such. We did walk to Mile High to see those baseball games. Eltiches, at the time, was near our home, on the west side of town. However, I have never been a big amusement park person. There is no mall over there like Cherry Creek. If I had wanted to go to Cherry Creek, I would have had to drive the car. There was a little shopping area along Tennyson (now gentrified I hear) which we occasionally rode our bikes to. Also the library was within biking distance. The Botanic Gardens and the Zoo were several miles away over I-25. There was no pedestrian walkway at the time, just the sidewalks on the roads. Yes, I rode the bikeway to the Health Sciences Center occasionally when I took classes there. I'm not really sure what you're getting at. The city is more than the "hip" east side.
My daughter lives near DU and is a student at the HSC, which just moved to Aurora. Even when it was in Denver, she drove her car. She takes light rail downtown, and walks to stuff at DU, but for everything else, she drives.
I think so, but I'm sure Katiana will say. Seems someone said said that when they decided to buy, they realized that the homes were all old in that area and they could spend just as much in Louisville and get a bigger nicer home. But then, I'd think Sloan's Lake and Louisville are definite worlds apart.
I had friends living in that area long ago and I remember it as the classic bungalows or denver squares with alley access. Personally I don't consider this as suburban but rather an urban neighborhood of denver with a more compact walkable feel as opposed to the 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
Katiana: ok ok, not trying to ruffle your feathers really. I guess when I read your post I was thinking of my own lifestyle. I agree that you are right, you lived within Denver city limits. It's just that by my own personal thoughts, I don't think of Sloan's as the "city". No need to argue over semantics, it's just my own opinion and certainly doesn't have to be yours. Don't take offense either. It wasn't meant as a put down. It sure sounded that way. You say I wasn't in the city. You don't think Sloan's is the city, even though it's inside the city limits.
See when you talk about how you drove to the grocery, I think, well, we walked. Oh, and I got it earlier about you being a visiting nurse, obviously you drove for your job! Well, good for you to walk to the grocery. I do that here in Louisville sometimes. The grocery has to be close enough for you to do that, and carry the stuff home. The closest grocery, in Denver, was the Safeway at 26th and Federal, about 20 blocks (~2 miles) away.
This one sentence I disagree with (it's in quotes), only because I just (above) talked about how we walked to every one of these venues you named: That is one of the problems with this "city life". You can't always put all the pieces together so you can walk to shopping, job, entertainment, and such. This is the sentence "That is one of the problems with this "city life". You can't always put all the pieces together so you can walk to shopping, job, entertainment, and such." Just reread my post and you'll see how I talk about walking to my job, entertainment and all. Perhaps you should re-read mine and see how we couldn't do that. One could live in downtown Denver and still have to drive their car as a visiting nurse. My husband couldn't walk the 7 miles to his job, either, which would be more like 10 miles from LoDo. Re-read my post and you will see he sometimes rode his bike. I just checked MapQuest and we were 5 1/2 miles from the Denver Botanic Gardens. Kind of a long walk. If I wanted to walk that far, I'd go for a hike on a hiking trail, not clomp through the city.
Elitch's is kind of smallish compared to the other big amusement parks. We hardly ever go these days. I really miss the old one where they actually had gardens. We'd take coolers filled with food and drink and could even leave it tucked away on one of their picnic tables, go to the rides and come back and have lunch. It's nothing like that now.
We walked to the Denver Public Library all the time. We laughed at all the people who had to drive to the events and pay outrageous parking. Now that's us. Well, I don't think you should make fun of people who choose a different lifestyle.
This sentence confuses me: "The city is more than the "hip" east side." I thought I was clear when I have repeatedly said "downtown". Not a burb, not Sloan's, not east, but "downtown". Literally. I guess we could argue as to where the borders of downtown exist, but that's silly. I'm sure you know what I mean. Well, you talk about walking to Cherry Creek Mall. That is on the east side.
So basically, my initial post about Denver burb life vs. Denver downtown life was just that. I'm comparing the burb of Thornton vs. downtown. Maybe we've gotten away from that. And it's just my opinion, I know a lot of people disagree.
Did I say something about Thornton? I did work there at one time, but I don't recall mentioning that.
Quote:
Isn't the sloans lake area a stock of older housing? Not really comparable to modern Cul-de-sac types
It's a mixture of a lot of different ages of housing, but most of it is older. There are Victorians, bungalows, not so many two-story "Denver Squares". Our 4 plex was built in 1960, perhaps something had been torn down to build it. When I was a visitng nurse for Lutheran Hospital, I had a lot of elderly patients in that area. Most had moved into their houses when they were newly built in the 1920s.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wanttomoveeast
I think so, but I'm sure Katiana will say. Seems someone said said that when they decided to buy, they realized that the homes were all old in that area and they could spend just as much in Louisville and get a bigger nicer home. But then, I'd think Sloan's Lake and Louisville are definite worlds apart.
If you would re-read MY post, you will see that I said the older houses in Sloan's Lake needed a lot of work. It was something we couldn't afford at the time. We were able to buy a 4 yr old house in move-in condition for about the same price as was being asked for some of the older homes in Sloan's Lake. I said nothing about larger. Our first house was 1300 sq. ft, and by the time we sold it, we had four people living in it. 325 sq. feet a person, probably less than many childfree couples have in their lofts in LoDo.
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