Living in Aurora, yay or nay? (Denver, Bow Mar: rent, crime, daycare)

[Florida2014]

In general most of Aurora I'd consider "bad." It's just an ugly, plain urban sprawl with a lot of low-income areas to steer clear of. Even the neighborhood we purchased in (ave: $300K at the time) went to sh()t. Someone could come here and say "What about this and that restaurant/neighborhood" and they might be right, there are some nice things here and there, but IN GENERAL it's just not a great place to live...this is my opinion only, likely not shared by everyone.

[bluescreen73]

Originally Posted by davebarnes

2. I call it Saudi Aurora because it is part of barren prairie all the way to Kansas City. Similar to the famous Empty Quarter.

The part of Aurora I live in is 800 feet above you Denver "flatlanders."

Originally Posted by davebarnes

3. A small part of Aurora is horrible. In fact, the worst section of all of greater Denver. It is small. Every city has crappy parts.

East Colfax is no picnic, but if you think it's the worst part of Denver you've obviously never been to Montbello, 5 Points, or Park Hill, or Swansea, or Globeville. Hell I can keep adding if ya like.

[robertgoodman]

Originally Posted by bluescreen73

East Colfax is no picnic, but if you think it's the worst part of Denver you've obviously never been to Montbello, 5 Points, or Park Hill, or Swansea, or Globeville. Hell I can keep adding if ya like.

Keep adding and we will tell you when something even comes close to being as bad as North Aurora.

So far you've named two working class neighborhoods with low crime, two gentrifying neighborhoods, and one neighborhood with a crime problem relative to the rest of Denver -albeit better than North Aurora- however it isn't blighted like North Aurora.

[sidburn]

Originally Posted by bluescreen73

The part of Aurora I live in is 800 feet above you Denver "flatlanders."



East Colfax is no picnic, but if you think it's the worst part of Denver you've obviously never been to Montbello, 5 Points, or Park Hill, or Swansea, or Globeville. Hell I can keep adding if ya like.

Wait, you think that Park Hill is one of the worst parts of Denver?! I've lived there briefly and some of my friends from the nicer suburbs said they were jealous of me. We also have people from other parts of the city carpool to our neighborhood to trick or treat on Halloween. It is within close proximity to Colfax, though.

[Florida2014]

Park Hill is not that bad, there are parts of Park Hill with million dollar mansions and at a minimum that neighborhood is within walking distance to downtown Denver, can't say that about any parts of Aurora.

I would rank Montebello right up there with Aurora in terms of the very worst places in/around Denver to call home. I wouldn't live in either.

[TigerLily24]

The area I am in, very near to the Aurora Movie Tavern, is perfectly livable. Great schools, family-oriented, safe and very quiet, well, unless the neighborhood kids are playing outside.

It's no different than any large city - there are good areas and not-so-good areas. To paint the entire city with one wide brush is lazy, ignorant or both.

[davebarnes]

Originally Posted by TigerLily24

To paint the entire city with one wide brush is lazy, ignorant or both.

How about:
Lakeside
Bow Mar
Federal Heights
Mountain View
Columbine Valley
Foxfield
Garden City

I am pretty sure that you don't even need a wide brush for these cities.

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

Originally Posted by davebarnes

How about:
Lakeside
Bow Mar
Federal Heights
Mountain View
Columbine Valley
Foxfield
Garden City

I am pretty sure that you don't even need a wide brush for these cities.

What the heck do you mean, Dave? Painting Foxfield, Bow Mar and Columbine Valley with the same wide brush is close (large, expensive homes on large lots), but how do you include Federal Heights and Lakeside?

Please explain! Either things have changed DRASTICALLY since I was last in Federal Heights, or you need to back off of the drugs.

[Florida2014]

Originally Posted by TigerLily24

The area I am in, very near to the Aurora Movie Tavern, is perfectly livable. Great schools, family-oriented, safe and very quiet, well, unless the neighborhood kids are playing outside.

It's no different than any large city - there are good areas and not-so-good areas. To paint the entire city with one wide brush is lazy, ignorant or both.

Note my post said "IN GENERAL" - and I did indicate there were some decent parts of Aurora. But IN GENERAL, I'd never live there again due to the reasons I listed.

The area you live in is decent, for certain. But that is the exception vs. the rule.

[mic111]

Originally Posted by davebarnes

How about:
Lakeside
Bow Mar
Federal Heights
Mountain View
Columbine Valley
Foxfield
Garden City

I am pretty sure that you don't even need a wide brush for these cities.

To help people understand why many small areas can be painted with a narrow brush.
Lakeside - population 8
Bowmar - population 892
Federal Heights - population 11,794
Mountain view - population 512
Columbine Valley - population 1,301
Foxfield - population 714
Garden City - population 241

So yes you can paint most of these places with a pretty narrow brush.

Compare that to Aurora with 339,030 people. Aurora is more comparable to Denver with 634,265 people.

Denver median income - $47,371 (153 sq miles)
Aurora median income - $49,593 (Like Denver, Aurora has alot of really nice areas in its 142.5 square miles)
Lakeside medium income - $76,620 (.19 sqr miles)
Bowmar median income - $159,698 (.72 sqr miles)
Federal Heights median income - $33,528 (1.8 sqr miles)
Mountain View median income - $30,764 (.09 sqr miles)
Columbine Valley median income - $123,421 (1.02 sqr miles)
Foxfield median income - $102,621 (1.29 sqr miles)
Garden City median income - $18,864 (.11 sqr miles)

Just like Denver, Aurora has some bad areas and those seem to mostly border Denver bad areas. There are many nice areas in Aurora.