Colfax just east of Colorado? (Denver, Aurora: salon, insurance, homes)

[chandraskye]

How is the area just to the east of Colorado Blvd on Colfax? Moving to Denver soon, this area intrigues me.

Thanks in advance!

[CruisingUSA]

It's urban...more people walking along the street and such than other parts of Denver. I go there weekly to a salon near Colfax and CO but just to the west of it. It's fine but it can get congested at times. Personally it's not my favorite area but you're close to Cherry Creek, Downtown so not bad at all. May wanna drive around and get a feel of the other areas to see if it's for you.

[DRocKeR]

Personally I would say that area is getting into the ghetto... But that's just me...

[tfox]

Colfax isn't the ghetto, at least not until you get quite a bit further east than that. But I do think the portion to the West of CO Blvd is more interesting than that to the east of it.

I will say that I love all the Ethiopian restaurants along that section of Colfax. And despite Colfax's reputation, the neighborhood just to the north, Park Hill, is a highly sought after neighborhood.

[bikinmikein]

There is a new Merzycks going in near Elm. City Floral is on that stretch and so is Deluxe Burger. This area is not a ghetto by any means.

Colfax gets poorer once you cross Yosemite and are in old Aurora but never bad and once you get out towards the new hospitals near 225 it has really been getting nice lately.

[XAFLOC]

That's a great area to live! In fact, the housing is so nice it would be out of a lot of folks' price range. There are mansions along 17th Avenue Parkway and Governor Hickenlooper lives over there somewhere. In the 2 blocks between 17th and Colfax there are tons of nice places that are smaller and may be more within most people's price range. That stretch of Colfax near Elm is poised to be the next hot spot with many cool businesses having moved in over the past few years.

Don't listen to the nay sayers and Colfax haters. If the Brown Palace was located on Colfax (it almost is) they would tell you to stay far, far away. These views are based on ignorance and outdated assumptions of America's longest main street.

[livecontent]

I agree with the previous poster "...Dont't listen to the nay sayers and Colfax haters..." Many people only see Denver from the car and as they speed by on the highways. To see a city, you have to get out and walk.

The area east of Colfax is a very aluring city neighborhood with many good businesses. One of the neighborhoods in the city is Montclair, just south of Colfax, east of Colorado. It includes a sub-neighborhood called Mayfair. This is considered a good city neighborhood. This is the link to their neighborhood association
Mayfair Neighbors Inc. - Denver (http://www.mayfairdenver.org/About.html - broken link). It has close walkable shopping as well as the major buses on East Colfax.

This is area that is near Park Hill, Hale and Hilltop, as well as Montclair which are good areas to live. At Colorado and Colfax is the well regarded National Jewish Hospital which is expanding further in ther area. It is interesting to note that in the Hale Neighborhood, just south of Colfax (15th ave.), at 9th and Colorado is the old Medical school campus. This has recently been sold to be redeveloped into a new urbanist neighborhood of residential and shops. Hilltop as well as East Montclair have exclusive large housing for the wealthy. So, the area is not in decay and certainly not a ghetto.

This is map of all the Denver neighborhoods to help you appreciate Denver

http://www.denvergov.org/denvermaps/...ghborhoods.pdf

Livecontent

[sunsprit]

While it's been a few years ago that I lived in Park Hill just off the Colfax/Colorado Blvd location,
I found it to have a lot of class with nice older homes. Mine was a Denver Square built in 1890, and it had a lot of interior trim work that wouldn't be found in more modern homes.

It was cool in the summer and warm in the winter due to a very heavily built all brick foundation (18" thick!) and solid brick walls. It's biggest drawback was the floor plan had 5 bedrooms and one bathroom, which we remodeled a main floor hall closet (BIG!) into another bathroom when we popped a kitchen wall and created a smaller pantry than the original walk-in pantry. Our backyard, with mature landscaping, gave us a great deal of privacy.

It was centrally located to downtown and a lot of restaurants, shopping, parks and city recreation. The offset was the noise levels from two major streets with emergency vehicles passing through at all hours.

A few blocks away were some very much more upscale homes than ours, so ... if anything ... we had the lower end of the housing spectrum there.

[Z3N1TH 0N3]

I travel Colfax ALL THE TIME, as it is part of my commute to work. I walk and ride my bike down it all the time. Compared to Detroit, where I'm from, it's a walk in the park. Otherwise, it can be shady in some areas for those not used to the "urban life". I've seen a lot of suspicious looking people hanging around that street, some that appeared to be drug dealers and prostitutes. I've also been offered drugs several times on that street. I think a prostitute even tried to sell herself to me haha.

There are strips of Colfax that are pretty cool, OTOH. There are some nice bars down around Humboldt and Gilpin, if I remember correctly. As you first pass Colorado, I don't think it's all that bad. That part of Aurora does tend to have a shady reputation though. Be prepared to pay high auto insurance if you have a car, since Aurora has one of the highest rates of auto theft in the state.

In all honesty, I'd personally avoid living on or near Colfax just because of the shady crowds that tend to gather there, the traffic, and the noise from the bars.

[XAFLOC]

Z3N1TH 0N3: When you say you'd avoid living near Colfax, which part of this 26-mile long street do you mean? That would be like me saying that I would highly recommend living near Colfax. Although I certainly would highly recommend living near some stretches of Colfax, others I could take or leave. At over 26 miles long, it's not all bad and it's not all good. But it is, in general, much better than some people make it out to be.

Also, from Capitol Hill to Quebec street and then again by the Anschutz Campus in Aurora, Colfax is getting better all the time. You'd have to walk these neighborhoods on a weekly basis to take in all the positive changes.