Roll Call!: What Neighborhood do you live in? Pros/Cons? (Denver: sales, rent)

[heavyweight]

Let's list the pros and cons of living in specific neighborhoods around Denver. If you've lived in more than one 'hood, please feel free to comment on multiple locations.
If you haven't lived in Denver, and only visited or have family in the area, please refrain from commenting.

This could provide a good starting place for folks (families, singles etc) looking to move to Denver and determine which neighborhoods to explore.

Here's an example from the NYC forum to get you started.

Thanks for your input!

Originally Posted by Manhattan-ite

Hell's Kitchen ("Midtown West")

Pros:

*Neighborhood feel, small stores, markets, old New York feel.
*Still gritty, sketchy in some areas, industrial and desolate.
*No families, no babies, no hippies, no yuppies, no hipsters.
*Reasonable rent and affordable groceries.
*Good transportation.
*Close to uptown, midtown, downtown, east and west but far enough.
*Tons of food and restaurants from every country in the world!
*Lots of different people of all colors and walks of life, poor and rich.
*Waterfront, the Hudson River, gorgeous sunsets.


Cons:

*Awful traffic (Lincoln Tunnel).
*Tourists on their way from the cruises to Times Square.
*Cold and very windy in the winter because of the river.
*Too many Irish pubs and not enough cool/different bars.
*High pollution.
*Construction (so many high-rises going on in and around 42nd St)
*Too many people will be here in the future, living in luxury condos.

[DenverLawGal]

wow, no one answered?!? I thought it was a good idea. Here's mine:

Thornton:
*Pros
- Nice clean parks and paved trails for bike riding.
- Good sized, inexpensive rec center.
- Plenty of parking (lots).
- Affordable housing (townhomes $150 range)

*Cons
- Awful mass transit. Buses run maybe once an hour unless you can get to a park n ride, in which case you are lucky to get a seat.
- Strip malls.
- No real entertainment venues except for my love Cinebarre.
- Chain restaurants. I only go to about 2-3 mom and pops.
- People. Not so progressive.
- Lack of walkability. Everything is a drive away.

[chilicheesefries]

Since nobody has posted yet, I thought I would start out. Neighborhood is Southglenn in Centennial. Borders are roughly Broadway to Colorado, County Line to Orchard.

Pros:
-Very safe and quiet
-Relatively low property taxes (for now!)
-Low sales tax compared to other area cities, no food sales tax
-Older neighborhoods (50's, 60's, 70's) have mature trees
-Relatively large lots (~0.25 acre), shaped well and useable
-Stable (of the 6 'touching' neighbors all have been in their houses at least 15 years except for 1).
-Location: 15 minutes to downtown Denver, 10 minutes or less to Park Meadows, downtown Littleton or Englewood.
-Fairly walkable - less than 1 mile from grocery stores, Streets At Southglenn
-Schools are Littleton Public Schools. Not as highly rated as Cherry Creek and others, but still good.
-Quick access to high-ranked Library district.
-Arapahoe Sheriff provides quality police service for Centennial.
-Lots of parks, most houses within 1/2 mile of park

Cons:
-Not a place for younger singles
-Few services for seniors without vehicle access
-Centennial is limited in services - ie Public Works is outsourced
-In between light rail along Santa Fe & I-25 (still close somewhat)
-Very few smaller starter homes
-Few to no greenbelts
-Too quiet sometimes!

PS - looks like wanttomoveast beat me to the punch! Another plus is that most of the neighborhoods west of University don't have HOA/covenants.

[Bradburn1]

Neighborhood: Bradburn Village in Westminster. On the south side of 120th ave roughly between Federal and Sheridan.

Pros:

*Nice architecture, houses different colors, garages in back, less of the "cookie cutter" look usually found in the suburbs.

*Highly, highly walkable-to many restaurants, bars, shops and services

*Super social neighborhood, much like well, a village-everyone knows each other

*Many nice small pocket parks and walking distance to a large city park with ball fields and great playground

*Direct access to Dry Creek Open space which has tons of trails

*Filled to the brim with small kids

*Great public schools elementary through high school

*Easy drive to both Boulder and downtown Denver

Cons:

*Not diverse racially

*Not a good fit for people who don't want to see/know their neighbors

*A pin doesn't drop in here without everyone knowing

*Although the home public schools are great, the original plan had a elementary school in the neighborhood itself--easy walking distance--which was cancelled by the district and don't know if will ever be built.

*The commercial area originally was slated to be complete by 2007, currently it's only about 1/4 built out and there is no way of knowing when or what will be put there in the future (although it won't be Wal-Mart since they are building one of those right across 120th).

*Houses are close together which isn't a problem if you like all your neighbors (which I personally do) but could see how it wouldn't be so hot if your neighbors weren't cool.

*I consider the housing expensive. You can't get a single family home in here for less than 300K.

[Katarina Witt]

Louisville (not very big, so I'll cover the whole city):

Pros:

Family-friendly, lots of kids

Good schools (Boulder Valley School District)

A cute downtown

Lots of festivals, parades, community activities

Good rec center

Variety of housing, different ages, different sizes

Good public transportation to just about everywhere in the metro area

Cons:

Some might not like the family oriented atmosphere

Lack of nightlife other than the movie theaters and occasional community plays, a few bars

Not much to buy downtown except meals (restaurants) and "trinkets" (boutiques); "real" shopping, e.g. Kohl's, etc is in south part of town in strip-mall type places

Not a ton of diversity

Some neighborhoods are "cookie-cutter"

[WilliamPacker]

Berkeley neighborhood in Denver

Pros:
Multiple parks and lakes within walking distance
Grocery stores within walking distance
Many dining options
Easy interstate accesss
Close to downtown
Older neighborhood w/developed trees and non-cookie cutter homes
Close to Highlands but without the price tag
Tennyson Street
Seems to be a lot of pride in ownership (flowers planted/manicured lawns & clean homes)
Generally very walkable
Close to bike trail access

Cons:
Public school system scares some people away
No Greek restaurant (there are open stores on Tennyson St. if anybody wants to open up shop)
Some streets have much nicer/larger homes than the next block over
Somebody is always parked in front of my house (negative about living close to Tennyson)
Too many yippy dogs that bark all day

[cowboyxjon]

Indian Creek neighborhood in Denver

Pros:

*it's quiet
*it's not far from downtown (~7 miles) or the tech center
*mostly mature trees, although still sort of a rural feel right in the city and county of denver.
*near highline canal - great walking and biking path, and also near cherry creek bike path
*not too far from cherry creek reservoir
*lots of housing options - especially multi-family homes, though some of them look dated.
*served by the 73, 79, and 83L RTD bus routes so it has fairly decent transit options, can get downtown or to DU station and nine mile station quickly.
*least amount of crime of all denver neighborhoods
*easy trip to lowry, cherry creek, stapleton, etc.


Cons:

*single-family homes are EXPENSIVE.
*it has a suburban/'80s feel to it - i don't mind but other people might
*nothing within a reasonable walking distance - meaning, the arapahoe county library at florida and parker and the shopping area at albertson's are not far (.5 mile) BUT the arapahoe county-maintained part of florida avenue does not have sidewalks between quebec way and parker rd. makes it difficult to walk there.
*not a good option for someone who works along US36 or in boulder. traffic on evans from I-25 is horrible during rush hour and so is quebec to/from the 270.
*it's quiet. not a good fit for someone who wants a more urban environment.

[Dorthy]

Englewood

Pros:
*Mature trees
*Older homes with character
*Has it's own downtown
*Very walkable
*Some really good restaurants
*Live music and bowling downtown
*Nice library and Rec Center
*Excellent public transport options. Lightrail and bus
*Close to downtown Denver (about 7 or 8 miles) and DTC
*Affordable
*City and school district focused on making improvements.
*Down to earth
*quick access to bike trails
*Neighborhood in transition


Cons:
*Lots of renters
*Poorly kept homes and yards mixed with nicely kept homes and yards
*Drunks hanging out at bus stops and some parks in the middle of the day
*People who love driving fast loud motorcycles and cars with no mufflers
*Too many used auto lots
*Not the most educated population
*Lots of weird stores (like the Catholic Store and the Survivalist Store)
*Most restaurants are greasy spoons, not a lot of healthy options
*houses are close together
*Neighborhood in transition