best "central" location for living around Denver-area job sites

[vegaspilgrim]

I don't think old native Denverite terms like "east Denver," "north Denver," etc are going to be very helpful to newcomers who don't have a clue what those labels mean (which like "north Denver" aren't always intuitive). There's nowhere on the map that says "east Denver." Not to mention that large parts (not all, but parts) of east Denver are a dump.

Ranakaits, if you do end up moving to the big, bad, inner city (j/k, it's not really as scary as you think ) of Denver, the place I suggested for you might be a really good central location, just what you're looking for. Potential neighborhoods would be City Park, Congress Park, Park Hill, and Hale. Basically, on your map look at where Colorado Blvd runs through between Colfax and 6th Ave. Anywhere around that vicinity.

If you sincerely have to have quote-unquote "suburban" areas with giant garden style apartment complexes, try Aurora-- specifically central Aurora. I've posted many times about good and bad (can be subjective) places in Aurora. (Do a search for posts that I've responded to from the poster pcollins22). It will be a very fast commute to your actual Aurora work location. Getting to Westminster won't be so bad, you just take 270 to 36, bypassing downtown entirely. Getting to central Denver isn't that hard either from Aurora, there are multiple east-west streets you can take. Aurora to Littleton would be kind of tricky though. To do that you'd want to take Havana down to Hampden, west all the way to Santa Fe Dr (turns into a semi-freeway), then south to Littleton.

[tfox]

Ugh, your first rotation sounds awful, particularly the Colorado Springs bit. I would never recommend you commute from Denver to Colorado Springs -- for starters, I-25 is often closed in winter between the two cities at Monument, which tends to collect a lot of snow. When you're working in Springs, I'd recommend trying to find a short-term thing down there.

For your first rotation, you have Westminster, Wheat Ridge, Denver, Aurora, and Littleton -- there's really no good place to live that will accomodate all that. I'd try to find a place right off I-25, between I-70 and Santa Fe -- but unfortunately, other than the stretch between 38th Ave and 23rd Ave in the Highlands area, the I-25 pretty much runs through an industrial area. You do have a few options if you are trying to maximize centrality. The eastern part of Highland or Jefferson Park might be a good but increasingly expensive option. Baker, just West of Broadway near Alameda, might be a good, central location, as would somewhere near 6th Ave and Broadway, in the south part of Capitol Hill. Platt Park, which would be east of Santa Fe, south of I-25, might also be a reasonably good central locatoin. All these are "city" locations, of course, but generally good city neighborhoods.

Your second rotation is quite managable. You have only Aurora and Denver, so I'd look directly east, perhaps Congress Park area or Park Hill for that one.

[ranakaits]

Yeah, I've pretty much accepted that I'm not going to be able to find one good place. Next year is going to involve a ton of driving for me for all my rotations though, so I've just realized that and know it's something I'm going to have to do.

I have a "Backup" plan for CO springs for days when the weather looks really bad. I met someone out here in the midwest who is from Colorado originially, and she told me that if I looked into somewhere more south of Denver it would be do-able, just a lot of driving. She mentioned Lakewood, Littleton, Englewood, or Centennial to me, but I'm curious as to what the commute time is from those areas to Wheat Ridge, Westminster, and Aurora because it seems like Aurora is not fun to get into. I'm used to driving an hour one way each day to get to work, so I didn't know if would be around that or if we're talking a lot more.

Thank you so much to everyone for all your advice. I've definitely taken it and have started to look into different areas recommended, and it is very much appreciated. I can use all the clarity I can get regarding this!

[ranakaits]

One other question regarding the commute times...I know Google Maps lists driving time and then times "with traffic" in their calculations. How accurate are those numbers?

[tolife]

Hello, I was a single female coming into the area couple years back with similar requirements to yours.

I think 6th and Colorado is a nice area, but I also strongly considered Lowry neighborhood. Very clean apartments there.

But, I ended up in Washington Park, and it was a great way to spend my first year in Denver! It's very central and you will find a lot of folks your age in that area. The problem is the housing is less traditional, not a lot of apartment complexes. But, you will find interesting Wash Park options on craigslist.

Also consider anything along the 6th Ave corridor.

[Scott5280]

Brief description of some Denver neighborhoods and other info.
Denver Neighborhoods