Littleton Englewood Arvada information please ..... (Denver, Westminster: fit in, for sale, motels)

[texan4me]

Went to Denver to visit about a month ago and checked out some areas...to the best of my abilities as I broke 3 ribs and bruised a lung in COS when we got there (1st day)! UGH..... I seemed to like the neighborhoods of Littleton and didn't get to see much of Englewood. I think I noticed a sign on 85 That road is hellacious on the injured I say! We are looking to relocate in June and I would appreciate any information you can give me about the areas.... We checked out Westminster I believe and even though I have heard good things about the schools, etc.... it seemed driving through as if we would be one of the few caucasion people there.... I am not predujiced in any way shape or form just wondering.... is this typical of that area??? Want to fit in where we move - hoping to be the last one.....

What about Arvada??? we never made it there....

Parker was way too grasslandish for my hubby... he likes some trees at least. Boulder was a definate NO--anyways too expensive I'm sure....

Looking for good area good schools safe as can be and not too far if have to commute to Denver...

Thanks so much to you all!

[Count David]

Westminster is 70.7% white.

All of those areas you mentioned are fine.

[davidv]

Littleton (Littleton Public Schools) has the best school system of the group. Englewood schools (Englewood Public School District) is the worst. Westminster schools are hit and miss because it is in two different districts - Adams Co. Dist 50 (not so great) and Adams 12 Five Star Schools (better).

[texan4me]

Thanks for your replies.... l like I said sometimes you don't even know where you end up (town-wise) as you are driving around. Thanks for the school district info, but can anyone tell me a little more about the cities??? For instance you said that Englewood has the worst schools-- is it a rough area??? We are looking for a town with a sense of community, safe and good schools that isn't too too expensive.... Somewhere we can make friends easily and become part of the community.

Anybody on Arvada??

[Dorthy]

Originally Posted by texan4me

Thanks for your replies.... l like I said sometimes you don't even know where you end up (town-wise) as you are driving around. Thanks for the school district info, but can anyone tell me a little more about the cities??? For instance you said that Englewood has the worst schools-- is it a rough area??? We are looking for a town with a sense of community, safe and good schools that isn't too too expensive.... Somewhere we can make friends easily and become part of the community.

Anybody on Arvada??

Englewood is a small city of roughly 30,000 residents. It has it's rough parts and it's nice parts. The school district is small and the test scores are below average. The class sizes are very small as Englewood has a large elderly population and not a huge population of families with young children. That is changing though. When houses go up for sale it's always young couples and young families moving in (at least that is the trend I've noticed in my little area of Englewood).

Charles Hay has a good reputation among teachers, parents and students in Englewood. It is an IB world school. That is in the NE quadrant of the city. There is also an excellent charter middle school called the Leadership Academy which has excellent test scores and a very interesting program. I don't know enough about the middle or High School to comment. I know that test scores are below average.

Englewood does have a sense of community. Certain parts are better then others. It's a blue collar type of place where you'll find more people going out for breakfast at the local diner on Sunday morning then out for Sushi on a Saturday night . You'd have to drive around it to see what areas appeal to you and what areas don't. It's a very affordable, walkable place to live with easy access to downtown Denver as well as Littleton and the tech center. I'm happy to call Englewood my home.

[Count David]

Arvada is fine, the majority of it being very nice.

[DOUBLE H]

Accurate description by Dorthy regarding Englewood. My family moved to Englewood in 1964, my mom still lives in the same house near the Chenango/Kalamath area.

[tfox]

One frequent point of confusion here. Englewood (the city) is relatively small, but much of the south metro has an "Englewood" postal address. The city is mostly but not completely in the Englewood school district -- but the Englewood area would also include Cherry Creek SD, Littleton SD, Jefferson County SD, and possibly some others.

A similar thing could also be said about Littleton. For example -- most of the nation knows about the tragedy at Columbine high school as being located in Littleton, Colorado. Yet, Columbine is in Jefferson County, not Littleton, but the Postal service gives it a Littleton address so it's called Littleton.

I know we get posters on city data asking about how they've been transferred for their job to "Englewood" -- but in reality it's almost always the big office parks in the DTC area around I-25, pretty far from the actual city of Englewood.

[chilicheesefries]

Originally Posted by tfox

One frequent point of confusion here. Englewood (the city) is relatively small, but much of the south metro has an "Englewood" postal address. The city is mostly but not completely in the Englewood school district -- but the Englewood area would also include Cherry Creek SD, Littleton SD, Jefferson County SD, and possibly some others.

A similar thing could also be said about Littleton. For example -- most of the nation knows about the tragedy at Columbine high school as being located in Littleton, Colorado. Yet, Columbine is in Jefferson County, not Littleton, but the Postal service gives it a Littleton address so it's called Littleton.

I know we get posters on city data asking about how they've been transferred for their job to "Englewood" -- but in reality it's almost always the big office parks in the DTC area around I-25, pretty far from the actual city of Englewood.

Very good point about the zip codes not matching up with city limits. Even now that Centennial/Greenwood Village are the dominate cities in 80111/80112 and they were never even in Englewood city limits (ever!) the post office won't rename them. Of course Centennial/Greenwood Village are 'acceptable' to the post office but they are still officially Englewood. The Englewood designation hails from before there were cities for the eastern parts to claim that name but now that there are they stick with it.

To your point Englewood (zip code) addresses do fall into Englewood School District, Cherry Creek SD, asmall portion of Littleton SD and Sheridan SD but none of Jeffco that I can tell? I never realized this until you posted but there are small portions of Englewood city limits that fall into Sheridan SD and Littleton SD. Interesting!

To Dorthy's point the one thing I notice about Englewood when I'm there is that it has a strong sense of community, more so than Centennial/Littleton IMO. A good amount of it I think has to do with the longer-tenured familes that live there. It doesn't seem to have a lot of transients (except the motels along Broadway!). You won't find the especially large or fancy houses but you will find liveable neighborhoods.

[PRenee]

The more north you go in Westminster the nice the homes and the area gets. I live on the border of Westminster and Broomfield and I like it. We are in Adams Five Star School District and while I heard schools are hit or miss the ones around me I have heard are good. We attend Cotton Creek and it's outstanding.