Cole / Whittier / Skyland (Denver: crime, house, neighborhoods)

[zenkonami]

Anyone live in or near these neighborhoods? Any anecdotal thoughts and opinions on the area? Looks grittier than some neighborhoods, but certainly not ghetto. Also seems to have a wider demographic living there and lower housing costs. From what I've been reading, property crime seems to be the leading problem.

Statistics tell one story, but I wanted to get the view of people that live or work in or near those neighborhoods. Thanks!

[Count David]

IMO, those neighborhoods are what they look like.

[cowboyxjon]

I've read the Cole Neighborhood Memoirs and the guy who created the blog also has a Twitter account. I considered that area for a little while during my house search but decided against it. Just not my cup of tea, but might be a good fit depending on what you're looking for!

[davebarnes]

Originally Posted by zenkonami

Statistics tell one story, but I wanted to get the view of people that live or work in or near those neighborhoods.

Your profile says you live in Denver.
Drive to these neighborhoods, park and spend some hours walking around.

[zenkonami]

Originally Posted by davebarnes

Your profile says you live in Denver.
Drive to these neighborhoods, park and spend some hours walking around.

I have, actually, but sometimes there's more to the story than what is visible on the surface. Was just hoping to hear from some people that have really spent some time there, though.

I completely agree with the attitude that you've got to "go there", but it's nice to dig a little deeper, too, once you have. A friend of mine was looking for a house in another part of town and was surprised to find it was built on a landfill...that wasn't a big deal, but apparently the landfill hadn't been properly covered and was sinking, quite rapidly. Walking around the neighborhood revealed it to be hilly, but we're not foundation specialists or anything and would not have known if she hadn't talked to some people that *lived* there.

[awarren09]

Nice mature neighborhoods with character and history. They are also much more diverse than other neighborhoods to the south. I really like them, but they are not always known to be the safest and are not everybody's cup of tea.

[maximusmgm]

My wife lived near the border of Whittier and Cole for about a year before we got married. From what the neighbors were saying things have been improving over the past few years but there is definitely still crime in the area. Shootings were not uncommon in the area and if you called the police for anything less than shots fired they weren't interested and wouldn't show. We woke up to a pool of blood on the sidewalk by the local bus stop one morning...called the non-emergency number and were told there was nothing they could do. Two doors down it seems the neighbor kid got mixed up in the wrong crowd...and someone did a walk by shooting (no one was injured).

It might have been a bad block (or a few bad blocks) but my experience definitely was colored by the crime. I did feel safe walking around during the day....but at night that changed a bit.

The housing is nice and priced well compared to areas to the south. Transit access can be decent as well depending on where you are located within the neighborhood.