Denver Ghettos (Colorado Springs, Aurora, Federal Heights: crime, motels, neighborhoods)

[CTownNative]

Does Denver have any neighborhoods that could be considered ghetto?

[2bindenver]

Define "Ghetto"

[Micktooth]

Judging from most of your posts, you seem to be obsessed with crime and bad parts of town. Any particular reason for this? Do you need to compare Cleveland with everywhere else?

[MadisonM]

I don't really care why you're asking, I'll just try to answer your question based on what I have read or personally observed. The ones that come to mind from checking out Denver PD's crime stats include Five Points, Federal Heights, Capitol Hill and most of Colfax Ave. Much of Aurora is what most people would define as ghetto, however, SE Aurora is very nice.

[CTownNative]

Yes actually that is kind of what I am doing,I am trying to find out what other cities problems are like compared to Cleveland my hometown.I mean Denver isn't even on Cleveland's leval for crime and poverty but I was still curious about it.And anyway right now I reside in Colorado Springs so I thought that while I was here I would ckeck Denver out to see if they even had a ghetto.I've been up there before and it didn't really look like they had one but I was only basically in Downtown and on Colfax Ave.I don't know why Colfax gets such a bad rep either it really wasn't ghetto or anything,it wasn't as nice as parts of the Springs but it looks like a pretty decent area to me.

[tfox]

Colfax is changing a lot. In several stretches in both Denver and Aurora, there's been concerted efforts to get rid of the ubiqutious cheap motels that tend to attract crime, and enforce higher design standards on the corridor. The cops are out in force every night in Colfax in an effort to clean it up. It's surely not the squeakiest-clean part of town, but it's not what it used to be.

As for Five Points, it's also a lot different now than it used to be from its "Harlem of the West" days, and IMO not all the changes are necessarily positive.

It's not so much that crime metro-wide has decreased much, it's just that it's a lot more diffused today than the old days. No longer can crime be reliably confined to a few inner-city "bad areas." Rather, pockets of poverty and crime exist in neighborhoods and cities across the metro area.

[BlueWillowPlate]

Originally Posted by tfox

It's not so much that crime metro-wide has decreased much, it's just that it's a lot more diffused today than the old days. No longer can crime be reliably confined to a few inner-city "bad areas." Rather, pockets of poverty and crime exist in neighborhoods and cities across the metro area.

I wholeheartedly agree with this.

[DanFromSoDak]

I disagree with the statement that much of Aurora could be considered Ghetto. There are some questionable areas, but overall there's nothing bad. I'm a "small-town farm boy" from the midwest, and I have yet to see anything in Aurora or any of the Denver metro that would scare me.

[bullfish15]

No there are no ghettos. I lived in Youngstown Ohio. That is ghetto. First of all, whoever thinks Federal Heights is ghetto is living a sheltered life. Sure there are some sketchy areas through there but it is not bad by any stretch of the imagination. As far as parts of aurora, colfax and federal... these areas aren't cherry hills village, but even the worst of the worst in Denver is better than some of the "ok" sides of Youngstown Ohio, Cleveland, Pittsburgh... any rust belt city that has all but fallen down. I wouldn't hang out at the Federal and 6th ave freeway at 3 in the morning, but I would not think twice about walking through there in the day. A ghetto is somewhere you won't drive through at night or even walk through in the day. Denver just doesn't have any of those areas. At least not buy "back east" standards.

[steveindenver]

As for Five Points, it's also a lot different now than it used to be from its "Harlem of the West" days, and IMO not all the changes are necessarily positive.

I could not agree more. Back around 2000 I remember a newpaper article wherein they interviewed a young white couple who had moved into the area recently. The young couple said something like "we are happy to be a part of helping 5 points come back!" -- to which a long time neighbor responsed "coming back from what? Us black folk?"

A ghetto is somewhere you won't drive through at night or even walk through in the day.

So East St Louis then ...