Desperately seeking four seasons

[denverian]

Based on your criteria, I think you'd love my neighborhood in Denver. Stapleton is a new urbanism community about 6 mi. east of downtown, so it's within 15 min. of all the cultural ammenities in Denver. It has good schools, thousands (I'm pretty sure I mean that literally!) of babies/toddlers, good schools (also has an Arts and Music high school and Science and Technology high/middle school), very social, fairly liberal, and a good number of bi-racial couples with children. There are row homes/town homes and two builders build smaller (1200 - 2000 sq. ft.) cottage type homes on courtyards, so you'd have little or no grass to mow. All the yards here are small, but you're always within walking distance of a park. I think they've built over 4000 homes so far, but you can find re-sale homes or go with brand new.

Here's the website where you can find more info: Stapletondenver.com

[72degreeboredom]

@denverian
Stapelton is on my radar, as are several of the new urban and redevelopment communities, but I am concerned that (a) these places won't fit into our budget and (b) that the community makeup might be too affluent and privileged. It's very important to us to raise a child who doesn't act entitled; and I'm not sure how easily I can convey that message if our entire community is surrounded by life's conveniences.

What is the community like socially? Would you describe it as competitive at all? How connected does it feel to the city as whole? Or would you describe it as its own little world?

[sportsfangal]

Aha! thank you for the clarification!

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

SAHM is a Stay At Home Mom.

I'm sure the Denver metro area is where the OP needs to be, especially for the mass transit option.

The OP is to be COMMENDED for reading the old threads and then starting a new and intelligent thread. The RTD thread in the index will help anyone get up to speed on the light rail system and its nearby neighborhoods.

[zenkonami]

Disclaimer: I don't live in Denver (yet)

Arvada maybe? Or is that a little too sleepy? Should be nice when the rail is done over there, but as I understand it the bus service is quite fine now. livecontent has posted mercilessly (j/k) on Arvada, and it sounds quite nice for family living, has some older housing, is fairly quiet but only a few miles outside of Denver and a few miles from the foothills, has a pleasant "small town" downtown and seems to have a pretty reasonable cost of living from my research. Also numerous parks (though near as I can tell you can throw a ball anywhere in the Denver metro area and it'll land in a park.)

I don't know how cultural diverse Arvada is, but like most of Denver's suburbs it kinda flows right into Denver and the other suburbs and it does seem to be an easy city to get around in. Frankly somewhere in the Denver metro area does sound like a good fit for you from my perspective, but then like I said, I'm an outsider and despite a lot of research may not have entire accurate information here.

Anyway, I hope that at least opens up one more avenue to explore.