Platt Park in Manageable Bytes -- Part 1 -- Broadway Station and B'way / Louisiana area (Denver: real estate)

[MobyLL]

Hello again City-Data... I received some nice PM's regarding the Platt Park photos I recently put up and a suggestion that I split it up into more manageble parts. I had thought of that but then rejected it b/c that is entirely too logical, but on second thought I decided to go ahead and do that.

So this is part one of a four part series of Photos of Platt Park and what I like to call Nearly Platt Park (like the Broadway Light Rail Station).

Here in Part 1 we cover the somewhat gritty NW quadrant of Platt Park including the Broadway Light Rail Station and the area around Broadway and Louisana.

In Part 2 -- we cover the quite gritty Acoma Street and then go south of Lousiana on Broaday into the Antiques District.
http://www.city-data.com/forum/denve...-part-2-a.html

In Part 3 -- we have some residential shots and then cover the southern business district of South Pearl St.
http://www.city-data.com/forum/denve...-part-3-a.html

In Part 4 (which is the last part, I promise) -- we cover the northern part of South Pearl St. (which is the primary commercial area) and then some more residential shots, some school shots and end up with a few shots outside of Platt Park (Wash Park and Downtown Skyline)
http://www.city-data.com/forum/denve...-part-4-a.html

Parts 3 and 4 cover nicer residential and upscale commercial areas than parts 1 and 2.

So just a brief history of what led to this photothread -- I hadn't done any for quite a while, but my family and I recently took a trip and I got into the habit of taking photos again and when we got back to Denver I ran across this info ( Walkscore City Rankings )

and this map:


and so I decided to do a more comprehensive photo tour of the Platt Park / South Broadway / South Pearl Street area where I live. The red outline is the neighborhood boundary, not the route I walked. Green indicates a better area for "walkability", red less so. Denver is no NYC or Chicago, but several neighborhoods have a fairly good amount of commercial and business life within walking distance of residential areas. There are flaws with all of these walkability rankings, but this one struck me as better than most, though I personally would have the Washington Park area more green and the Colorado Blvd. corridor more red. Anyway, I posted some photos of Platt Park a couple years ago, but this thread is more comprehensive. All of the areas pictured are within a 10 minute walk (at most) of my humble abode, with the exception of the Part 4 Washington Park area, which is about a 15 minute walk away and the Part 4 skyline shots which are not within walking distance.

Almost all the photos were taken during the month of Feburary 2009.

Optional Soundtrack

YouTube - Tribe - Outside

First, let's start off with the basic necessities of life at the corner of Broadway & Louisiana--

Pizza


and Beer and Donuts




These next few shots are from a couple blocks north near the intersection of Broadway and Mississippi








K WH T S UR N MB R?


This is the old Gates Rubber plant, it was supposed to be torn down and a huge mixed use development built (of which the condos in the preceding photos are a part). With the economy it may be awhile before much more is built. I guess the old rubber plant is too contaminated or too far gone structurally, but it would have made for some nice lofts.






North Side of Gates from Broadway Light Rail Station







OK, back toward Broadway / Louisiana for some more pics




This is a bus stop, yes believe it... you will see


The Spicy Pickle is a local Denver chain




Watch out for the fine print


I ate here once, but it annoyed me that they used fake newspaper to wrap up their fish and chips... I guess I'm easily annoyed... prob more sanitary than using the London Guardian or something but that was what I was expecting. The food was... OK; it's pretty popular for lunch.




This place is supposed to be very good... I'll be checking it out soon






The economy is tough everywhere




See I told you it was a real bus stop










Continue on to part2 -- Acoma Street and then to the Broadway Antique District here:
http://www.city-data.com/forum/denve...-part-2-a.html

[MobyLL]

I ran across a good video of Platt Park that was produced by channel 8, which I think is the local government channel here in Denver.

In the video they interview the owners of several businesses including the Sushi Den and Flossy McGrews. My favorite line from the video is from the owner of Flossy... "Gorillas...we always have to keep gorillas in the house because people buy gorillas all year long."


YouTube - Discover Denver Neighborhoods - Platt Park

There is another video on the Highlands neighborhood

YouTube - Discover Denver Neighborhoods - Highlands

Both are about 5 minutes long and recent... maybe more neighborhood videos will follow. They are much better than the typical neighborhood videos put on youtube by Real Estate agencies.