Scouting out Denver - Advice Needed (Boulder, Highlands Ranch: loan, houses, neighborhoods)

[tlg1331]

We are interested in relocating to Denver and will be driving through Denver one day next week to check out the city. We would appreciate any input you have regarding the best areas and sites to see to help us get a feel for the city, specifically in the following areas:
1. Newer housing communities priced from $300k-$600k
2. Existing nice housing communities closer to downtown in the same price range
3. Best areas of the city to live in (especially between downtown and Boulder, since my husband would likely work in Boulder and I would work in downtown Denver)
4. Best shopping areas
5. Recreation
6. Landmarks
7. Cute communities that would be fun to check out (even if we lived in another community)
8. Any other things that are must-see's when checking out the city that make Denver unique.

Thanks for the help!

[dj32]

First, have you searched the forum archives? I think most of this stuff can be found and you'll get a lot of your information that way. I look forward to your posting after you return from your visit. It is always nice to hear others' impressions of our city!

1- Stapleton
2- Congress Park, platte park, university hills, highlands, park hill
3- see above but I'd focus more on park hill, city park/uptown, highlands
4- Cherry Creek, Flatirons mall, lots more eclectic areas to shop like highlands, olde south gaylord. also cherry creek arts festival is 7/6-7/8
5- too much to list. are you talking about city bike paths, running trails, etc?
6- Denver Art Musemn, washington park, boulder's pearl street, lots outside the cities of course
7- see above- also wash park (out of price range), lodo
8- good question, i think i may have answered it

[Katarina Witt]

3. If you want an area in the city between downtown and Boulder, you might look at Highlands (not to be confused with Highlands Ranch), Berkely, and Sloan's Lake, all in NW Denver.

[MobyLL]

We are moving to denver also -- well, maybe... the buyer of our house here in Miami is having difficulty qualifying for a loan. Anyway, I went to Denver last month and took some photos of a couple of areas mentioned by the posts above -- Highlands and Platt Park. You can see them here:

Highlands and Central Platte River Valley
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Platt Park (also some stuff from 5 Points, which you can ignore)
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Also from the same website there is a really nice thread on Downtown Denver from a guy named KC Gridlock who takes aerials of cities from a helicopter. He has some pretty amazing shots in there.
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My photos are just basically point and click, not artsy, just wanted to try and capture the flavor of the neighborhoods both good and bad... it's actually pretty easy to find photos online of downtown denver, 16th street mall etc., but really hard to find neighborhood photos. That's why i decided to post my pics and also don't just photo the most beautiful houses / scenes.

[MobyLL]

OK sorry to clutter up this thread, but the links I posted above were removed by a moderator b/c they were linking to a "competing" website. Anyway these are photos mostly in the Platt Park area about 4 miles south of Downtown Denver



Louisiana / Pearl Station






University Station (University of Denver AKA DU)



Broadway Station


Platt Park -- South Pearl Street Area (Near Lousiana / Pearl Station, 4 Miles south of Downtown)




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Bonus! -- Couple of shots from Hayden Green Mountain Park west of Denver
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[MobyLL]

Here are my shots of the Highlands Neighborhood.

The shots are from Saturday, May 19. I started off in the Central Platte River Valley area (I think that is what it is called) and walked over the 16th Street Pedestrian Bridge into the Highlands Neighborhood and Highlands Square. Then walked back to Downtown along a different route and crossed over the 15th Street bridge.

It was about a 5-6 mile walk (roundtrip)... the photos are no longer arranged chronologically and are scattered around, basically all the newer looking highrise building are in the Platte Valley and the older homes and commercial buildings are in Highlands.




























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