Which Neighborhood is best for us? Lesbian moms with twin toddlers (Denver: apartment, to rent)

[joyfulgrrl612]

Hello! Our family may be experiencing a move to Denver in the next couple of months. I have been perusing the boards for awhile now, but our circumstances are unique so I am hoping to get some input on our particular situation. As my title states, we are a lesbian couple with twin sons, age 2. We would love to live in a family-friendly neighborhood that is ALSO gay-friendly. Good schools are important, as is safety. Local farmer's markets, organic food markets, natural health practitioners, parks, etc. are a bonus.

We are looking to rent, at least initially, and are open to either a house or an apartment.

Work location will be near 13th Ave & Speer. A short commute (preferably via public transit) would be great but is not necessary.

Please tell me your thoughts about how well you expect our family would be received and opportunities to thrive in:
-Stapleton
-Uptown
-Washington Park
-Anywhere else that you would recommend!

Thanks so much!!

[Scott5280]

All those neighborhoods should be just fine..Add in,Highlands,Governors Park, Platt Park...You can hit a great Farmers market in Cherry Creek offered on Wed. Sat. mornings.. Denver proper is generally pretty gay friendly and tolerant acording to my gay friends/family members.Cheeseman Park, City Park should be to your liking as well.. Good Luck enjoy moving here to the Mile High City..

[denver_hacker]

Stapleton is very kid friendly with a good GLBT family community (it's aka gaypleton).

Gaypleton Families | GaypletoneFamilies.collectivex.com (http://gaypletonefamilies.collectivex.com/ - broken link)

StapletonLife - Gaypleton News

The commute to 13th and Speer would be so-so. Over half the births in Denver proper were for households in Stapleton. It's really all about the kids there - pretty much for people in the city who want the suburb thing but don't want the drive.

Wash Park and Platt Park are also very kid friendly (kids everywhere, involved parents, lots of family stuff nearby). I like these areas better because of the mature landscaping, varied architecture, and the parks themselves. But I don't really like any new developments in Colorado (no trees - lotta dust and dirt and new construction leaves me cold), so keep that in mind. The commute to 13th and Speer would be cake. Bonnie Brae is on the east side of university across from East Wash Park and has a lot of families.

Uptown, Capitol Hill, and the Golden Triangle are all cool with a good commute for you, but aren't really a family type of places. The housing tends to be aimed at folks without kids. Some friends of mine just moved out of the Golden Triangle because there are no kids in the area. No kids in an area means it's harder to find babysitters, not close preschools, hard to find other parents for play dates, etc.

West Highlands (west of downtown, not Highlands Ranch) along 32nd is also in the middle of a baby boom and is similar to Wash Park and Platt Park. Highlands gentrified after the others, so it's not as expensive...but the schools aren't as good. But your two year olds won't be looking at ECE until they're 4, so you've got time to figure it out.

Congress Park and Park Hill are the old time family areas in Denver. They've been consistent family areas in the city for decades. Parts of Congress Park are in the Bromwell and Steck school areas (Steck also includes Hilltop, which is nice but high end), which are both excellent. Those schools also cover Cherry Creek, which is very affluent and tends to be flashy about it. Park Hill schools are not great, most people there who care about education opt-in to other DPS schools or go private.

Down along Colorado Blvd., south of 25, there's also Eisenhower Park, Observatory Park, University Hills, and Wellshire. These are in Denver, but have more of a first ring suburb feel (except Observatory Park, which is next to the University of Denver and is as old as Denver). Eisenhower, U-Hills, and Wellshire are more 50s/60s ranches than bungalows and victorians. They're nice because they have good public transportation - still dense enough for good busing and light rail follows I25 with 13th and Speer being close to the 10th and Osage station - and are quite close to city amenities.

You might want to take a look at the public transportation site to get acquainted with the bus and light rail options:

http://rtd-denver.com/

BTW, Denver proper has a good-sized gay community and is generally progressive, I would say that being gay with a family in Denver proper isn't a big deal. Any of these close-in neighborhoods should be fine for you guys.

[Katarina Witt]

Since the OP wants to live in Denver, the above suggestions are great. But even in the burbs, there are gays raising families. Just down the street from us in Louisville is a gay woman raising a baby. The pediatric practice where I work, also in Louisville, has several kids with gay couples as parents. So what I"m saying is anywhere you want to live would probably be fine.

[Murmur]

I think either Park Hill or Mayfair may warrant some consideration. Both are nice places that would have bike-able commutes to 13th and speer. And if you're not into biking, there are a number of routes from these areas to downtown.

[steveindenver]

All of the areas mentioned are bikeable and all have public transit options.

Stapleton sticks out as the safest bet. Kid friendly, walkable amenities, a strong GLBT presence. A properly designed urban neighborhood with homes in most price ranges, but generally on the higher end of affordable.

[the3Ds]

Originally Posted by steveindenver

Stapleton sticks out as the safest bet. Kid friendly, walkable amenities, a strong GLBT presence. A properly designed urban neighborhood with homes in most price ranges, but generally on the higher end of affordable.

Before declaring it a great place to raise a family, perhaps the poster should read an article in the Denver Post today. Here's the link: Susan Greene - The Denver Post. The gist of it is that the elementary schools are currently bursting and not expected to be able to hold the children there by 2010.

Here's a few quotes from the article:

"As buyers, we were assured there would be plenty of schools available for our children," says Lesley Bush, whose daughter will be in one of those classes. "It doesn't seem like the right planning was done. And we all know that the Stapleton baby factory isn't going to stop anytime soon."

...and another:

"At first, many blamed Denver Public Schools for failing to plan for the surge.
But DPS relies on developers for accurate projections. Besides, the district's
recent $454 million bond issue didn't cover new schools in Stapleton, which were meant to be funded by money generated there. Taxes in the community are higher than in other parts of Denver. "The decisions regarding the financing and land were made years ago. It's frustrating they've fallen short."

And what do the developers have to say about it?

"None of this stuff was written in stone," adds Cheryl Cohen-Vader, president of the the quasi- governmental Stapleton Development Corp. that's supposed to oversee planning. "We didn't expect so many families to have children right away"

...and finally...

"It is, in fact, a brand-new community, built on the city's land, whose developer has reaped untold profits on what increasingly seems like hollow promises of sustainability. It still keeps sprawling without having met one of the most basic expectations of the residents who are living there already. Four of the nine moms I interviewed for this column are considering moving because of overcrowding in their schools."

While there are probably places that may be more stand-offish towards gay couples, the city of Denver in general is pretty tolerant and well educated which in turn leads to more openness. There is a little girl in my daughter's Kindergarten class who has 2 moms and they are both well accepted and very active in the PTO. While I'm sure there are people in my neighborhood who have a problem with them, the rest of us could care less and welcome them with open arms into the volunteer army who helps make our school a great one. I'm sure there are hundreds of other neighborhoods where they would be treated the same.

So the question is...do you move to a well known gay friendly area with schools that are overcrowded without a plan to fix it? Or do you move to an area with good schools and become friends with the neighbors who accept you and your family unit and involve yourself with people who can appreciate you as a parent first? I am not sure you will find both qualities you are looking for in any area of Denver, so you have to figure out what's most important.

[denverian]

We were told at one of the community meetings last year, I believe, that another grade school was going to be built at 26th and Iola St. I haven't heard anything about that lately, but it's definitely needed. We have 4 years until our kids will be in Kindergarten, and I personally know of enough babies their age within a 4 block radius of our house to fill their class!

So what are they going to do? Turn kids away and say "sorry, no education for you"? It's probably good that she brought this to public attention.

[denver_hacker]

Originally Posted by denverian

So what are they going to do? Turn kids away and say "sorry, no education for you"? It's probably good that she brought this to public attention.

What they do is have you opt-in somewhere else in DPS. It just happened to a friend of mine in a DPS school (not in Stapleton). When he called his local DPS school to register his 5 year old for kindergarten next year, the school told him they were full and he needed to find a different school.

I didn't believe him at first, as you are supposed to be guaranteed for your local school, but his kid is going to different school next year...

DPS is a complete mess - way too much red tape and bureaucracy. If there isn't strong parental involvement with a school or if the school isn't free of DPS rules, it's a trainwreck.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by denver_hacker

What they do is have you opt-in somewhere else in DPS. It just happened to a friend of mine in a DPS school (not in Stapleton). When he called his local DPS school to register his 5 year old for kindergarten next year, the school told him they were full and he needed to find a different school.

I didn't believe him at first, as you are supposed to be guaranteed for your local school, but his kid is going to different school next year...

DPS is a complete mess - way too much red tape and bureaucracy. If there isn't strong parental involvement with a school or if the school isn't free of DPS rules, it's a trainwreck.

I know the Stapleton schools have strong parental involvement. The only issue is overcrowding. I imagine there are decent grade schools near Stapleton in Park Hill, but who wants to get up every morning and drive their kids 5 miles to school?