Housing rentals in walkable neighborhoods in North West area? (Louisville: townhome, live)

[Allie84]

Thanks, Katiana!

So, is Olde Towne Arvada a walkable area with young families? Or, is it typical surburbia (as you can tell, I'm hoping to avoid)

Same with downtown Louisville? From some other threads I've read it's seeing a hug influx in popularity.. Oh, and is it green? For me the whole US36 corridor feels so brown, cookie-cutter, and blah. I especially disliked the look of Interlocken/Flatirons area when I lived in Boulder, but maybe it's changed in the past 4 years since I graduated?

[Katarina Witt]

I don't know the demographics of Old Town Arvada. Arvada is large, 108,000 people with this small downtown area.

Old Town Louisville is a little larger, and the rest of the town much smaller (~20,000 people). Again, I'm not sure of the demographics of that particular area. In older areas you do get some older people.

[davebarnes]

Originally Posted by Allie84

Oh, and is it green?

No. Greater Denver sits on a high plains prairie. Annual precipitation is 15 inches. Dry. Brown. You want green, you water (water is expensive).

[davebarnes]

This house is 4 blocks from me
Note price and size
http://denver.craigslist.org/apa/3951762751.html

[Allie84]

Thanks, Dave.

Wow, that's the same size at the 2 bedroom we are renting here in Minnesota, but literally double the price.

I'm open to paying $1500 but yikes.

That's a beautiful bungalow, but we have a dog.

[blackmet]

Originally Posted by Allie84

Thanks, Katiana!

So, is Olde Towne Arvada a walkable area with young families? Or, is it typical surburbia (as you can tell, I'm hoping to avoid)

Olde Town is pretty nice, and very walkable. Has a library, plenty of dining, a few of bars, and lots of cutesy antique stores. There are a lot of young families there, they run farmers markets, street sales, movies at the square, and have a yearly harvest festival.

I lived in that area for about 15 years. It's really gentrified a lot. When I walk through there, I find myself thinking "I would really fall for this part of town...if I didn't know what it was really like." The areas around it are safe and decent, but walking through them on a warm summer night, they do have this weird "time stopped when Nookie became a hit" feel.

The city is also pretty mismanaged. While Olde Town is fairly nice and many of the newer parts in the northern and western parts of the city are in great shape (despite being far more suburban than it sounds like you're interested in), what they're doing to Ralston Road is criminal.

The city tore up a perfectly nice and functional park, complete with an ice arena and swimming pool, to make it into an entirely new park with a pedestrian walkway to get over to, and I quote, "the exciting shopping and nightlife" (Safeway and bad Chinese food?) on the other side of Ralston and Garrison. Except that they ran out of money to finish it, so there's now just huge piles of dirt facing both the main drag of Ralston and the otherwise charming 60's era ran homes on the other side of the park.

They also have been trying to get a Wal-Mart for years. They now want to destroy an admittedly dilapidated strip mall and put it caddy-corner to this huge dirt pile. Never mind that Ralston is a 4 lane road not made to handle Wal-Mart level traffic, it would require them giving Wal-Mart a huge tax break to build there, there's no dearth of discount retail in the area, and it would kill the K-Mart and Safeway, dent the King Soopers and somewhat nearby SuperTarget, and basically make the rest of that strip a ghost town.

[Allie84]

Thanks for all of the info, blackmet!

I did a quick search on padmapper and it seems rentals are scares near olde towne....I will keep looking!!

What does everyone think of Bradburn Village in Westminster?

[Bradburn1]

I was going to suggest Bradburn for you Allie84 since it fits all your criteria but your rental budget is too low, even for our apartment row homes which for 2 bed/2 bath starts at $1590. Townhome rentals are about $1700-1900.

[Allie84]

Well, it's only 90 out of our price range....so if it were worth it, I think we could manage.

I've been on the Bradburn Village website and it seems pretty amazing.

Are there many families with small children? I'm guessing so since there are two daycares right there...

[Bradburn1]

Yes, there are kids everywhere here. Most are elementary age down. I lived in Bradburn Row for six months when my house was being built and thought it was great. You'll easily meet other families if you use the parks in Bradburn. We currently have lots of things you can walk to including restaurants and shops and they are going to shortly break ground on a Whole Foods in Bradburn's downtown (5-10 minute walk from anywhere in here) but it won't open until fall 2014.

Stalk Craigslist to watch for townhome rentals, sometimes you can snag one of those for $1500 if it's one of the smaller units and they are very nice. Bradburn has an urbanish feel but it is surrounded by suburbia, but you would be amazed all of the stuff you can walk to or bike to from here--open space, library, lots of parks, tons of shops.