Hampton/Kennedy area neighborhood in Denver - safe? (Aurora, Parker: apartment complex, rental) - Colorado (CO) - City-Data Forum

starcheckered · 07-28-2011, 11:40 AM

Hi everyone!

Me and my husband are moving to Denver in the beginning of January. I've been apartment searching for awhile and I found something that seems to fit our needs and price range: Dayton Crossing Apartments.

Depending on where you look they're located in Aurora, or just at the edge of Denver. This neighborhood is called Hampton (or maybe Kennedy? It seems to be in the middle of a few neighborhoods) - right next to Cherry Creek country club and a little above the lake and 225.

Is this a safe neighborhood?

The apartment complex has a relatively good rating on ApartmentRatings.com - 58% and safety gets a 2.6 out of 5. I've been reading up a lot on Denver and see that the crime is pretty low, but rapes are high. This is why I've become more cautious about neighborhoods. We are visiting Denver a second time next month but I feel like I'm not going to get a good feel of the neighborhood when I get my apartment tour in the middle of the day.

I scanned some other threads in here and someone gave a link to a great website called something like NeighborhoodScout but it isn't free, in fact it's $40 for one month so I was unable to use that. If there's anything else out there that's like that but free, please let me know! I'd love to use it.

Thanks for help in advance!

P.S. I am moving from Baltimore City so really... I assume there aren't even neighborhoods around Denver that are anything like they are here... but just checking anyway.

vegaspilgrim · 07-28-2011, 12:43 PM

The area you're looking at is in the southeast part of the city of Denver. The actual neighborhood with the houses is a good older neighborhood, but the apartment complexes located off Hampden & Girard are run down and a little sketchy, IMO. I live about 2 miles away, if you'd like I could check the place out for you some time this weekend during the late evening and let you know if it passes my "smell test."

starcheckered · 07-28-2011, 12:59 PM

That would be absolutely fantastic.

I am going to be visiting soon but I just don't think I'll get a good idea of the area from just a short tour. I've read in the reviews that it looks kind of run down (and I looked at google image street view and it kind of does) but that the insides and the neighborhood are nice. Don't know if that's true though.

Like I said though, I'm from Baltimore so if there aren't obvious gang bangers and hookers on the street corner, it's probably going to pass my test. I am looking for something a BIT nicer than that though...

vegaspilgrim · 07-28-2011, 05:57 PM

Sure, no problem.

What's your monthly rental budget-- and where will you be commuting? Knowing that we can help steer you in the right direction.

starcheckered · 07-29-2011, 07:34 AM

In terms of rent - we can afford probably up to 700 (not including utilities) at the most, but preferably a little lower. We are moving without jobs and are attempting to get them when we get there so we are bringing 3 months of saved money to pay bills/buy food etc. After that trial period if we get good jobs we can always move to somewhere nicer. But since we don't have jobs - it really doesn't matter where we go. That's the beauty in it.

I'm an nanny so I'll just be commuting to someone's house, and I have a car so it doesn't really matter where. As for my husband, he's an administrative assistant right now but he can really work anywhere. We picked the Dayton Crossing Apartments area above some others because there's a Trader Joe's & Whole Foods close by and he's worked at both so the chances of him being able to get a quick job there are good.

Prodigal Native · 07-29-2011, 12:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by starcheckered

I'm an nanny so I'll just be commuting to someone's house, and I have a car so it doesn't really matter where. As for my husband, he's an administrative assistant right now but he can really work anywhere. We picked the Dayton Crossing Apartments area above some others because there's a Trader Joe's & Whole Foods close by and he's worked at both so the chances of him being able to get a quick job there are good.

There are no Trader Joe's in Colorado.

vegaspilgrim · 07-29-2011, 11:09 PM

I drove around like an idiot today around the Hampden/Dayton intersection area 3 times (that's where I assumed it was), couldn't find a place called "Dayton Crossings."

I was wondering if they had changed their name? Just looked this place up online, turns out I was mistaken where it is-- it's actually on the street that starts off as Yale Ave heading west from Havana, then curves around and turns into "Dayton St" (NOT contiguous with the other Daytons) then connecting into Iliff.

I'll check it out some time tomorrow, but when I was looking at apartments last year I looked at Glenbrook, a similar looking place right next door to the place in question and owned by the same property management company. Not impressed. After seeing that place I decided I definitely did not want to live in a building with interior hallways and elevators. The "neighborhood" is really just one curvy street that is lined with different apartments and condos. There's a bridge going over the Cherry Creek which connects to the Cherry Creek trail which is pretty nice during the day time. It's a very diverse, lower-middle class area. Maybe the most diverse neighborhood in the entire city. It's where all the cab drivers in Denver live (not exaggerating). My overall impression is the area is "kinda sketchy." There are definitely nicer places to live in both Denver and Aurora, but there are far, far worse places as well.

It's next to a Denver city park called "Babi Yar" Park which is actually a nice piece of open space, but also has a small Holocaust memorial (not sure when/how/why the City of Denver decided to do that). Probably a non-issue for most, but the name kind of creeps me out personally. Neaby at Parker & Havana there's a bunch of car dealerships, some major bike shops & ski shops, a huge Korean grocery store and a lot of Korean bars and restaurants as well, as well as Indian, Vietnamese, & Middle Eastern markets & restaurants. Overall it's a very convenient area for accessing the east, southeast, or southern parts of the Denver metro area.

Count David · 07-29-2011, 11:39 PM

I think OP would be alright over there, with a rent budget of $700/mo, you really can't do much better than that.

starcheckered · 07-31-2011, 01:50 PM

Prodigal Native - Oops. Thanks for the heads up. I did a google maps search on my iPhone of "Trader Joes" and it said there was one just a mile or two away but it was actually mapping a farmer's market and I didn't realize that... at least there is still Whole Foods!

VegasPilgrim - Thanks SO much for checking it out. When I talked to the people at Dayton Crossing on the phone they told me that they share their pool, fitness center and business center with a complex next door so I am assuming that is the one that you looked at. Ugh. Looks like my search will continue? I'll still check it out because I think compared to inner city Baltimore it is probably very safe, and the fact that they have ANY terms of lease is very inviting, we can just lease month to month until we secure good jobs and then move on up to a better place. Thank you so much again!

vegaspilgrim · 07-31-2011, 02:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by starcheckered

Prodigal Native - Oops. Thanks for the heads up. I did a google maps search on my iPhone of "Trader Joes" and it said there was one just a mile or two away but it was actually mapping a farmer's market and I didn't realize that... at least there is still Whole Foods!

VegasPilgrim - Thanks SO much for checking it out. When I talked to the people at Dayton Crossing on the phone they told me that they share their pool, fitness center and business center with a complex next door so I am assuming that is the one that you looked at. Ugh. Looks like my search will continue? I'll still check it out because I think compared to inner city Baltimore it is probably very safe, and the fact that they have ANY terms of lease is very inviting, we can just lease month to month until we secure good jobs and then move on up to a better place. Thank you so much again!

I biked over to the actual place yesterday. Didn't go inside any of the buildings. The place looked relatively clean on the outside, didn't see a whole lot of trash in the parking lot, which is a good thing. I saw the pool area, it actually looked pretty good. However, the outside parking lot is absolutely chock full of smashed up, junked up, ghetto-ized cars-- not a good sign.

When I toured an available unit in Glenbrook last year I noticed the hallways smelled like urine and the toilet was broken.

Yeah, at this point you might have to just take what you can get until circumstances improve. Once you can prove income, I think you can get more value for your rent $$$ by renting a condo from a private landlord instead of at a big commercially owned apartment complex.