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Whole Foods is not a good metric.
Whole Foods has a very strong criterion of: number of college graduates—when deciding where to locate a store.
There is no Whole Foods in Arvada.
You would think that the intersection of 52nd and Wadsworth would be perfect, but nope.
Their loss I guess. Where's Trader Joes? Is one Natural Grocers for a city of 400,000 enough? How about two Sprouts stores spread apart by almost 12 miles? About all you get here are crowded and mostly outdated King Soopers and Safeway, if you want a newer place to food shop you have to go to a Walmart. Are these big boys of grocery afraid of the Asian markets here or something? King Soopers at least updated the store on Parker Road/I-225 and its insanely packed half the time. Maybe they finally got the memo that Aurora residents have a few more dollars in their pockets than they thought.
I lived in an apartment in the Dayton Triangle from 2005 until 2015. When I first moved there, the complex I lived in and the one directly north of it were nice and felt safe. It had kind of a rural feel. By the time I moved, they had both become more like ghettos: high crime, kids running rampant everywhere, and vandalism. I no longer felt safe there, either in my own complex or in the neighborhood in general.
They were just starting to build a pricey housing complex across the street when I left, so I am not sure what it is like now.
Count David has actually lived in/near the areas you're looking at. I hope he chimes in to give his advice.
Thank you.
Now that I look at what year it is, it's actually been a while. But I lived in Aurora from 2007-2009 (as well as SE Denver from 2009-2014, and Arvada from 2014-present). My work since I've moved to CO has taken me literally everywhere, across Aurora all over and through it, even still at times today. I even have 3 months of pizza delivery everywhere from 6th Ave on the north, the Douglas County line on the south, and I-225 on the west, so there's that too. Had an office at Parker/Yale for years as well.
80010: This is NW Aurora, the part everybody warns you about. Everybody else in this thread is right about it, it's not what it was back in the day. Feel free to eat along Colfax west of Peoria, but maybe not much else if you don't have to/aren't adventurous. The neighborhood north of it, still not good, but there is Stanley Marketplace which is worth a visit and is oddly out of place at the collisions of both yuppie and "the hood", as well as Denver and Aurora. The CU Medical Campus is technically here too, so anything in there is fine, but only if you have something to do with the hospitals. My son lived near Fulton Park for a time, and while not anything nice, it wasn't bad really at all either. Just kinda "working-class city". The neighborhood SE of 6th/Havana is actually pretty nice, but more of an empty nest/been there forever kind of place. I would expect it to turn around.....sometime this century. I have a friend that lived SW of 6th/Havana for a time, and they absolutely hated it, but they would have been more 80016 kind of people but maybe couldn't afford it.
80011: This is NE Aurora. Kind of a continuation of NW Aurora, a bit more suburban, a bit more industrial, but generally the same or a slightly higher class level. Again, south of 6th/west of Potomac is actually pretty nice, but again, empty nest/etc. I wouldn't buy anywhere in this zip code unless I was looking to live super cheap (relatively speaking), or wanted a rental (or wanted to live in a neighborhood loaded with them). There's some trailer parks and cheap motels here too.
80012: This is West Central Aurora, and where I lived for about a year, in the Aurora Hills neighborhood. My personal experience: the APS school my son went to: horrible. The experience with kids/families: pretty abhorrent. The neighborhood was a 50/50 split of (again) empty nesters who for whatever reason haven't moved, and poor minority families that were a missed check away from the street. We didn't experience any crime, but there was just kind of this quietly overwhelming unsettledness about the area. Anything zoned to Overland HS (CCSD; Village East, Utah Park, Expo Park) would be "okay" at worst and "fine" to "average" at best IMO. Please keep in mind I'm using general/mainstream expectations here, not what you or I find acceptable (I'd be fine in any of them, you or anybody reading this: maybe not) Steer clear of the area around Gateway HS. I will say this, Aurora Mall and the shopping around it is mostly just fine, and gets a way worse reputation than it deserves....I do think some of the "unconscious racism" contributes to some of the things you hear about the place along with Aurora in general. I will also say that 80012 has vastly improved since I moved away, as the blight that was there when I lived there is all but gone (abandoned apartment blocks, shopping, etc).
80013: East Central/north South Aurora. I myself, love this area. Most people will see it as mostly lower-middle class homeowners, pretty average, nothing remarkable. To me, it's basically stereotypical suburban America of an only slightly aged ideal. You could probably film a 1990's period film here and it would fit in perfectly. It's been fraying a bit for some time, but that's part of the charm. It's very average across the board, and still somehow hasn't been discovered and ruined by the masses. This is the best VALUE on a budget.
80014: SW Aurora. This is a very cool area IMO. Or at least the closest thing that Aurora gets to a cool area . It's about as urban as a true suburban area gets. Very diverse, on the better side of average (ever so-slightly), not a bad place to land in metro Denver if it's your first stop. Tons of multi-unit housing, a few very nice suburban neighborhoods (some with CCSD), but generally just a decent place with an excellent location. Still a suburb, still Aurora, but a big filter on it too. Chaddsford is a beautiful tract, but it's zoned to APS so that part sucks (because APS sucks in general...one could bite their lips down hard and send their kids to Rangeview though).
I lived in 80015 (South Aurora) at Parker and Quincy for the better part of a year, in the Reflections apartment complex. Everything about this area is great. In fact, you can circle the entire zip code (save for perhaps the Pheasant Run tract {which has a few unkempt/well-lived in homes, very 80013 feeling} and some townhouses at Quincy/Chambers. Nothing "bad", just that you could do better. This zip is the best VALUE overall, your "better to do" Aurora families will live here or in 80016.
80016 SE Aurora. The pinnacle of Auroras. The place where you make sure you say "SE" before you say "Aurora" so that people know you're in the good part. Absolutely not my thing, and most of my time spent there was in a dark period of my life....HOWEVER, this is beautiful, perfect, hardcore suburbia on steroids. This is where you film your suburban-set film TODAY. Schools are excellent, the residents all work, pay their bills, stay out of trouble, it's just the kind of place most people want to be. It can be a haul to downtown Denver or the mountains, but it's a decent commute to DIA or the DTC which is where you'll find many of these residents work. Not gonna lie, Tallyn's Reach has some BEAUTIFUL homes and lots. Oh, did I mention Southlands? Where just about anything you'd want to buy resides? There's some cool parks, great views of the mountains, some great-looking large suburban housing, and all the feeder roads and cul-de-sacs you could dream of! Also, if you're diverse AND moneyed, this is where you live. This area is a testament to suburbs done right, and if you can afford it, and like that sort of thing, totally check it out and/or buy there with nary a second thought.
80017: East Central Aurora. If 80012 and 80013 had a baby and didn't take much care of it. The looks of 80013 with the cost of 80012 and the residents of it too. Not gonna work for most people, but it's cheap, diverse, well-located, but not terribly nice. Lower lower-middle.
80018: Way out East Aurora, KS. This is a series of nice newer tracts along E-470/6th Ave. There's just nothing out there but the houses. And the schools they are zoned to aren't that good. And you'll have to go to 80016/80249 for anything. There's like no infrastructure, at all yet. And they've been building out there for at least 10 years. I don't think I would buy here until they build schools, stores, or anything but more houses really.
80019: Green Valley Ranch Aurora. I like the houses here too (all built since 2000 it seems), but this is just an outgrowth (and not a very big one) of Green Valley Ranch in Denver. GVR is a slightly better-to-do, very diverse area by the airport (and of course it gets a bad reputation too). All of your creature comforts are here, but it's really just an "okay" suburban area. Those "most" people I have mentioned earlier would be avoiding here too. Last I checked this is not APS, but the kids in the Aurora part have to get hauled up to Henderson or Brighton or Commerce City to go to school????? ....somebody should check on that before buying there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by davebarnes
Whole Foods is not a good metric.
Whole Foods has a very strong criterion of: number of college graduates—when deciding where to locate a store.
There is no Whole Foods in Arvada.
You would think that the intersection of 52nd and Wadsworth would be perfect, but nope.
Dave, it wouldn't because it's likely the least educated part of Arvada (the neighborhood surrounding Foster Elementary just simply isn't very nice). We have a Sprouts at 77th/Wadsworth that suits us just fine.
Aurora isn't that bad. I live on the Denver side of Havana Street, lots of car dealerships, restaurants, and nice houses. Aurora is the Largest city in the Denver Metro when it comes to land. I like Aurora because you can find all types of foods that you may not be able to find anywhere else in the Metropolitan area. The city government is more like a small town. Aurora has no downtown but areas of towns.
In-N-Out just opened its first location in Aurora. It has been a hit to say the least. The city has more of a suburban feel. If you like driving everywhere this place is for you. Aurora along Colfax is urban and very interesting. Aurora Highlands East of Green Valley Ranch is growing and a new development. Not sure what your likes are. I'm more urban in nature so I like inside of I225.
Wow Count David - talk about a comprehensive response That is awesome...indeed I am looking in SE Aurora a lot...and it makes sense now...for what is needed for me and my family at least!
80012: This is West Central Aurora, and where I lived for about a year, in the Aurora Hills neighborhood. My personal experience: the APS school my son went to: horrible. The experience with kids/families: pretty abhorrent. The neighborhood was a 50/50 split of (again) empty nesters who for whatever reason haven't moved, and poor minority families that were a missed check away from the street. We didn't experience any crime, but there was just kind of this quietly overwhelming unsettledness about the area. Anything zoned to Overland HS (CCSD; Village East, Utah Park, Expo Park) would be "okay" at worst and "fine" to "average" at best IMO. Please keep in mind I'm using general/mainstream expectations here, not what you or I find acceptable (I'd be fine in any of them, you or anybody reading this: maybe not) Steer clear of the area around Gateway HS. I will say this, Aurora Mall and the shopping around it is mostly just fine, and gets a way worse reputation than it deserves....I do think some of the "unconscious racism" contributes to some of the things you hear about the place along with Aurora in general. I will also say that 80012 has vastly improved since I moved away, as the blight that was there when I lived there is all but gone (abandoned apartment blocks, shopping, etc).
I lived in Expo Park for 15 years (I moved out five years ago), and I would say it was a decent place--there seemed to be a mix of singles, young couples, established families, and empty nesters. It seemed a lot of the younger/poorer families (mostly minority) were working hard to be in that area just so they could get their kids into a Cherry Creek school, from what I saw. (Unfortunately, from what I saw, the elementary school for my area got an "F" rating, so I'm not sure if that was such a good idea for them in the long run.)
I can't say anything really stood out for me one way or the other in terms of 'good and bad' in all the time I lived there. I do remember the Albertson's at Mississippi and Peoria closing, and that building being empty for years before Pacific Ocean finally took it over. Same with the Blockbuster on the other corner, before it became a dental office. Other than that....it was okay. It was neat to see all the diversity in the area--I remember seeing a group of Jewish men (with the prayer shawls and the curly sideburns) walking around, a number of Middle Easterners (my next door neighbors were immigrants from the ME, in fact), East Asians, black, white, Hispanic....and a number of little restaurants of various ethnicities in the area.
I will say it was a very convenient area--if for any reason, I didn't have access to a car, I could have walked easily to places to get things I needed. I do miss that about the area.
I lived in Expo Park for 15 years (I moved out five years ago), and I would say it was a decent place--there seemed to be a mix of singles, young couples, established families, and empty nesters. It seemed a lot of the younger/poorer families (mostly minority) were working hard to be in that area just so they could get their kids into a Cherry Creek school, from what I saw. (Unfortunately, from what I saw, the elementary school for my area got an "F" rating, so I'm not sure if that was such a good idea for them in the long run.)
I can't say anything really stood out for me one way or the other in terms of 'good and bad' in all the time I lived there. I do remember the Albertson's at Mississippi and Peoria closing, and that building being empty for years before Pacific Ocean finally took it over. Same with the Blockbuster on the other corner, before it became a dental office. Other than that....it was okay. It was neat to see all the diversity in the area--I remember seeing a group of Jewish men (with the prayer shawls and the curly sideburns) walking around, a number of Middle Easterners (my next door neighbors were immigrants from the ME, in fact), East Asians, black, white, Hispanic....and a number of little restaurants of various ethnicities in the area.
I will say it was a very convenient area--if for any reason, I didn't have access to a car, I could have walked easily to places to get things I needed. I do miss that about the area.
I've actually gone and played street basketball at Expo Park, and had a pretty darn good time. Back in 2007 when I worked in 80016, I worked with a guy who attended both Prairie and Overland (the secondary CCSD schools that I believe Expo Park was/is zoned to), and he had complained about how "rough" those schools had been (unconscious racism? ). They may be statistically the "worst" CCSD schools, but they are at least on par with the best of APS and would at least reach the upper half of DPS. Things got better for said guy (per him) when his family moved and he finished at Grandview.
The blight I was referring to were indeed the stuff around the old Albertson's and Blockbuster, as well as the apartments on the NW side of Mississippi/Troy, which had at least two completely bombed out buildings at the time (now remodeled and occupied). Aurora Hills MS has also had a fresh makeover since then too.
My neighbors directly across the street were a French family of African descent. Otherwise, I was surrounded by old white empty nesters, with the exception of some lower-class people who REALLY enjoyed their weed directly behind me (pre-legalization).
I agree that it was convenient, all of the shopping was close, and it was directly in the middle of everywhere I had to be for work at the time (mostly DIA, DTC, and DTD).
I've actually gone and played street basketball at Expo Park, and had a pretty darn good time. Back in 2007 when I worked in 80016, I worked with a guy who attended both Prairie and Overland (the secondary CCSD schools that I believe Expo Park was/is zoned to), and he had complained about how "rough" those schools had been (unconscious racism? ). They may be statistically the "worst" CCSD schools, but they are at least on par with the best of APS and would at least reach the upper half of DPS. Things got better for said guy (per him) when his family moved and he finished at Grandview.
A friend of mine works at Overland, and it's a constant source of frustration for her that people automatically assume it's a 'bad' school because it has more minorities in it than other CCSD high schools. (I think she said it was almost an even three-way split between white, black, and Hispanic?) She sent me a copy of their curriculum once. My jaw almost dropped at some of the stuff that's offered (advanced computer classes and the like.)
Quote:
The blight I was referring to were indeed the stuff around the old Albertson's and Blockbuster, as well as the apartments on the NW side of Mississippi/Troy, which had at least two completely bombed out buildings at the time (now remodeled and occupied). Aurora Hills MS has also had a fresh makeover since then too.
I'm not 100% sure, but I think I'd heard somewhere that the apartment complex you're referring to had a fire that made most of it structurally unsound--but I admittedly could be mistaken. I seem to recall it was occupied for years, then unoccupied while it was being renovated, then occupied again.
I agree, Expo Park is a VERY convenient area. My partner and I recently bought a house here, and the biggest draw was the close proximity to downtown, DIA, and DTC. I think Expo Park is going to start going through some major changes in the coming years; houses are big, lots are generous, and CCSD really makes this neighborhood attractive. It’s fairly quiet, to be honest it’s just as quiet as my old south Denver neighborhood (University Hills) without the scrape and build homes, which really made my old neighborhood feel less “homey” if you will.
I’m pretty excited to see how much the neighborhood changes in the coming years as the empty nesters start leaving. I truly think this is going to be a targeted neighborhood for young couples and young families as the City of Denver gets more and more expensive.
I agree, Expo Park is a VERY convenient area. My partner and I recently bought a house here, and the biggest draw was the close proximity to downtown, DIA, and DTC. I think Expo Park is going to start going through some major changes in the coming years; houses are big, lots are generous, and CCSD really makes this neighborhood attractive. It’s fairly quiet, to be honest it’s just as quiet as my old south Denver neighborhood (University Hills) without the scrape and build homes, which really made my old neighborhood feel less “homey” if you will.
I’m pretty excited to see how much the neighborhood changes in the coming years as the empty nesters start leaving. I truly think this is going to be a targeted neighborhood for young couples and young families as the City of Denver gets more and more expensive.
I agree, I think all of the communities west of I-225 have real upside ahead from Denver's costs which is why I bought here. My view on what's holding things back are the occasional rough apartments and low-end condos around, and I'm not sure what's going to get them to turn themselves around as its a lot easier to rehab or even scrape a home than a full complex. I've been hoping the proximity to the Havana corridor and light rail would bring in some younger people, maybe that just takes time and patience for us to have it happen.
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. It's about as urban as a true suburban area gets. Very diverse, on the better side of average (ever so-slightly), not a bad place to land in metro Denver if it's your first stop. Tons of multi-unit housing, a few very nice suburban neighborhoods (some with CCSD), but generally just a decent place with an excellent location. Still a suburb, still Aurora, but a big filter on it too. Chaddsford is a beautiful tract, but it's zoned to APS so that part sucks (because APS sucks in general...one could bite their lips down hard and send their kids to Rangeview though).
). They may be statistically the "worst" CCSD schools, but they are at least on par with the best of APS and would at least reach the upper half of DPS. Things got better for said guy (per him) when his family moved and he finished at Grandview.
