Denver/Boulder area & Capitol Hill (Craig: apartment, crime rate, motels)

[giecz24]

Hi!

I'm a 26 yr old male who is moving to Colorado for Grad school. I got accepted to the University of Colorado in Boulder but I will have a year off until school starts. In the mean time, I'm looking for a good place to live in Colorado for a year and since Boulder is a bit more expensive, I was looking to live somewhere else for that first year. I'm just looking to find a studio apt as cheap as I can, work on my writing and then move to Boulder after a year.

I really don't care about what is available in the area that I live in, I just need something that is cheap and preferably safe. I have been looking at Denver and the different suburbs, the little towns around Boulder (superior, etc.), and around the Ft. Collins area. I was just wondering if anyone has any suggestions about cheaper places to live.

Also, I was looking at Capitol Hill in Denver but I was wondering if anyone knew how safe it was? I have heard from both sides of the spectrum and it seems like it used to be fairly dangerous but has gotten a lot better. I'm from Chicago so it is not like I'm not used to crime, but I just spent the last 2 years living in Madison, WI where the crime rate is really low and it was soooooo nice not having to work about it! I mostly keep to myself and don't go looking for any trouble, just to let you know. Any thoughts?

Thanks for the help!

[tfox]

Originally Posted by giecz24

Hi!
Also, I was looking at Capitol Hill in Denver but I was wondering if anyone knew how safe it was? I have heard from both sides of the spectrum and it seems like it used to be fairly dangerous but has gotten a lot better.

It has gotten better -- a lot better, but it's still not crime free. Around the capitol building, in civic center park, and on Colfax itself you will be offered drugs in the open on a regular basis, although this doesn't really happen so often on the side streets in the neighborhood. Although I don't like to see drug activity going on, it doesn't bother me personally -- I'm not a user and I don't pay attention. The stories about the streetwalkers are a little out of date -- I think that some of that goes on discreetly in the small motels on Colfax but the police have mostly swept it off the streets. In fact the police presence in this area is much higher than ever -- the city is determined to get the criminals out of the civic center area. As you get further east (toward Cheesman) and further south (towards the Governor's Mansion) things get a lot quieter and attract far fewer crimes. There are some scary crimes of course, but frankly parts of northeast and southwest Denver are far more crime-ridden than Capitol Hill. Capitol Hill has a lot of people in its surroundings, so per-capita the number of crimes isn't really THAT bad.

You do have to consider the advantages of Capitol Hill. For one thing, it's cheap -- an apartment in Capitol Hill is as cheap as you'll find anywhere in town. For another thing, you can walk to every spot in downtown, so it's the only place you could reasonably live without a car and do just fine (though I'm not sure I'd recommend that). And finally, the attractions, nightlife, etc is tops there.

That being said, I should mention that I don't live in Capitol Hill, and if I did, I would probably prefer to live around Cheesman rather than closer to the capitol building -- mainly because I'd rather live in a quieter neighborhood.

[BlueWillowPlate]

I concur with Tfox.
The closer to Cheesman, the better.
Check out Craigslist or Couchsurfing.
Also Westword.