Golden or Columbine/Littleton area? (Denver, Lakewood: apartment, crime, how much)

[pauljk]

My situation is that I may be moving into the area from Vegas to go work up in Black Hawk, and will be looking for a 1 br. apt. or a rented room-shared house-type deal off craigslist, as I'm not fully committed to staying in the Denver area for the long haul just yet.

I'm also looking to cutdown on the commute, if possible, but also be in an area where I'm relatively removed from the sketchy element. In skimming the forum, I see the southwest is the place to be, but was also curious about Golden.

So to the question at heart, is Golden a solid spot as far as being away from sketchyness? How much more/less should I expect to pay in Golden than in the Columbine/Littleton area? Which area would be more recommended in my situation?

With Columbine/Littleton, I'll be looking to be as close to 470 as possible. I will also be considering using the bus service up to Black Hawk once or twice a week or so if its in the cards as I'm sure there'll be nights I'd rather nap out on the way home.

[nele]

By "the sketchy element" do you mean Republicans? Just joking! Golden's a nice place to live, not known for crime, pretty because it's right next to the foothills - part of it is IN the foothills actually. It's the county seat of affluent Jefferson county. Golden is also HUGE, with the southern part being essentially a Denver suburb and the north being close to Boulder. It would be way closer to Central City than Columbine / Littleton, and you would have more commuting options in nicer weather (north/west backroads). You are in for a heck of a commute either way. It's good that you have a shuttle option. If you had that option from Golden, that IMO would be the best choice.

[subsound]

I can't think of crime happening in Golden, it can be a bit far removed from Denver but that's all the negative things I can think about it. You might get some weird kids from The School of Mines if you're near it, but these are top flight engineering kids.

It's great if you want to be near open space and some fantastic trails.

[tfox]

Golden is probably a lot more expensive than SW area -- it's great if you can afford it. If not, you could settle for the Green Mountain area of Lakewood as an alternative -- close to Golden and much cheaper.

Neither are anywhere remotely near "sketchy" -- the engineering students at CSM are going to be inside studying all the time anyway; it's not exactly a "party school."

I wouldn't really consider SW metro as all that convenient to I-70 / Black Hawk, to be honest. At least you have C-470, that's true, and the section between 285 and 70 doesn't have much traffic (unlike the rest of C-470). S

[DOUBLE H]

I always thought Colorado School Of Mines was one of the top engineering schools going. Anyhoo, the Green Mountain certainly is a decent area. I like Golden, though. One thing about Golden, don't EVER refer to it as a suburb of Denver to its townspeople, you'll be told otherwise and very emphatically too! Tfox is right about 285/70. It's doable.

[livecontent]

"Sketchy Element"... well, you need to see that there are very, very few areas of the Denver Metro that fit that description.

Ya, know, I would work this backwards. I would look at the Casinos online. Perhaps you already have a job at a Casino which may be wise considering the economy. Most of them will provide free transportation to their Casinos for their employees. I would also check if they arrange for lodging, if you at leaving work, and the roads are closed. If they do not provide any benefits, I would not work for them--they would be misers--not worth the effort.

Find out what bus companies they contract for the employees and the public; get the information on the stops and try to live closer to these locations. Late at night, off shift, tired; bad weather and it can be bad in Denver, especially the western foothills; driving back to you apartment......you know how that is.....

It is not the safest roads when winter comes to the mountains. In addition, even in good weather, casinos attract people who drink too much and drive too fast. These curvy mountain roads are the areas that are the "sketchy element". You may use the bus more often than you planned.

Livecontent