Thoughts on Northfield/Stapleton (Denver, Aurora: top neighborhoods, crime, house)

[COcheesehead]

To the east is the prison. To the north and west is the refinery and sewage plant...that you can smell, trust me. To the south is the hood. C’mon man. So many better places to live. In all seriousness, look elsewhere. Stapleton is an urban in-fill in a crappy part of town. Check out the crime rates. Go to the King Soopers grocery store. Nasty part of town.

[Norrov]

Originally Posted by COcheesehead

To the east is the prison. To the north and west is the refinery and sewage plant...that you can smell, trust me. To the south is the hood. C’mon man. So many better places to live. In all seriousness, look elsewhere. Stapleton is an urban in-fill in a crappy part of town. Check out the crime rates. Go to the King Soopers grocery store. Nasty part of town.

Agree with this word for word. I have no idea why everyone loves that area so much.

[JoePatterson12]

Which hood is to the South?

[Gorges]

Originally Posted by JoePatterson12

Which hood is to the South?

I'm guessing they mean the area south of Montview down to Lowry, including the Colfax strip. Older ranch-style homes and apartments, a low income area.

[COcheesehead]

Originally Posted by JoePatterson12

Which hood is to the South?

And actually to the east too, but I think you get my point. The area around Stapleton is "rough".

If you really are looking for newer construction and want to be sort of in that part of town, go further south to Lowry. That is a bit more buffered from some of the things I mentioned. It also has some good restaurants.

[Augie Daugie]

Originally Posted by Dreaming of Hawaii

Isn't the drinking water provided by Denver Water Board? Maybe you could do some research with them on water quality in that area.

Drinking water is provided by Denver Water, so it isn't sourced from the RMNA. For all new builds, the developers have buyers sign a disclosure about possible soil contamination and it is recommended that you don't grow any food directly in the soil at the site of your home.

[Augie Daugie]

Originally Posted by COcheesehead

To the east is the prison. To the north and west is the refinery and sewage plant...that you can smell, trust me. To the south is the hood. C’mon man. So many better places to live. In all seriousness, look elsewhere. Stapleton is an urban in-fill in a crappy part of town. Check out the crime rates. Go to the King Soopers grocery store. Nasty part of town.

Eh, I lived there for three years and never had any issues with the surrounding neighborhoods. In fact, I made a good number of friends who lived in Aurora, directly to the south who were quite pleasant, took pride in their homes, and would be the opposite of nasty. If you like authentic ethnic food, there are some amazing restaurants in the area...which I like a lot better than bland trendy fusion cuisine that keeps popping up all over the city. The biggest complaint I heard while living in Stapleton was the amount of petty crime. Mainly as a result of garages left open and Amazon packages on front porches, which is a problem in all Denver neighborhoods. I basically kept my stuff locked up and didn't have any issues, just as I did while living in any other Denver neighborhood.

[JoePatterson12]

Originally Posted by COcheesehead

And actually to the east too, but I think you get my point. The area around Stapleton is "rough".

If you really are looking for newer construction and want to be sort of in that part of town, go further south to Lowry. That is a bit more buffered from some of the things I mentioned. It also has some good restaurants.

Isn't Lowry next to Aurora though?

[JoePatterson12]

Originally Posted by Augie Daugie

Drinking water is provided by Denver Water, so it isn't sourced from the RMNA. For all new builds, the developers have buyers sign a disclosure about possible soil contamination and it is recommended that you don't grow any food directly in the soil at the site of your home.

Thank you for that information. Glad to hear that water isn't sourced from RMNA but it scares me to think that the soil could be contaminated by deadly chemicals. Don't want to be breathing chemicals used to make nerve agents.

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by JoePatterson12

Thank you for that information. Glad to hear that water isn't sourced from RMNA but it scares me to think that the soil could be contaminated by deadly chemicals. Don't want to be breathing chemicals used to make nerve agents.

There's a host of contaminated sites throughout the Denver Metro Area that are leftovers from Cold War weapons manufacturing sites and the regions rich mining legacy. I wouldn't be terribly concerned about contamination risks as the agents that were manufactured were heavier then air agents (sarin and VX) and there's not a terrible risk of air or surface water contamination due to that factor and the topography of the Arsenal. If you're looking at the North End you're literally at the tippy-top of Denver proper and have a ginormous wildlife refuge that provides a buffer from a lot of the negative elements that have been mentioned so they're pretty much non-factors.

Bottom line, it's the last new-build urban-infill, primarily single-family home neighborhood in Denver. The schools in Stapleton pretty much kick the ass of every other DPS school, the community aspect is pretty great, it's upper middle-class, has a petty crime problem because of being so wealthy, has some troubling issues with diversity, but overall is a pretty damn good place to live.