Gretchen, without an exact address I am guessing they didn't live in Greenwood Village either. Close but technically not in GW. Until just recently most of the area south of the Denver city limits (Hamden) was unincorporated Arapahoe County served by various postal offices. If they had Littleton mailing address they mostly likely living in Arapahoe Cty serviced by the Littleton post office. We had a Littleton mailing address although we were ten miles outside of the Littleton city limits. Then a lot of unincorporated Arapahoe Cty was incorporated into Centennial. So now we have a Centennial mailing address BUT the zip code didn't charge.

The reality is that city or town names have no meaning. Only the zip code counts. I deal with a legal firm in Lakewood -- far west side of Denver metro area. But their letterhead uses Denver as a mailing address with a Lakewood zip code. Suppose it means that they can charge higher fees as a Denver law firm.

But it really doesn't make much difference -- most of it is urban sprawl -- and it all looks pretty much the same.

Wow! There's a wealth of information here! As I may be relocating to Denver, I'd love to know any info on traffic patterns that split the difference between Denver and Boulder.

I probably will wind up wanting to live in Denver proper as my job will be just NE of it, but am curious to hear from the experts!

Thanks!
Chris

Chris

Need more info. Where are you coming from?

Don't understand what you are asking --- any info on traffic patterns that split the difference between Denver and Boulder ------ ??????

Denver is the typical metro area with rush hour problems. The south end is slightly better because of the I=25 rehab that was just completed. Light rail is being developed and, right now, only serves the south side. Boulder is a college town with some really bad traffic patterns. Anymore it is nearly a suburb of Denver being only 25 minutes apart,

Traffic problems are always relative. Compared to Chicago and other large metro areas, our problems are nothing. So --- refine your question a bit.

Thanks! Be happy to- I'm coming from LA so Denver will be infinitely more civilized...I'm wondering if commuting from Boulder to Denver is nightmarish/if many folks do that and how long a drive it may be from the various northern suburbs of Denver towards the 70/Havana st exit area?
Any info you can supply is greatly appreciated!

I am always reluctant to give this type of information as it is a mostly perception. The Hwy 36 corridor is one of the worst because there are a lot of people including students who make that run daily. And it is not just Boulder, it is Louisville, Broomfield, etc. along that route. And when something goes wrong there are no good alternatives. But if you can time it a little -- early or late -- much easier than anything in the LA area. Between I-25 and Havana it would be easier so only 2/3 of the route would be a problem. Of course, snow and ice are miserable no matter which road you are on and that will be shock to your system. . Boulder to that area on a good day is 30 minutes and an hour on bad days.

Northern corridor of I-25 till about I-70 or a little south of that is probably our 2nd worse area. But the side streets options are better in that area. Depending on how far north, times would be about the same. You can contact me off line if you like

I am whimpering reading this thread b/c I would love to move to Denver. It's not in the cards - my family is here, my kids are happy here (in Phila) and my husband reminds me that he has a job here and not in Denver. (although, lucky dog, his company just acquired a company in Denver. Funny how he only visits Denver in the winter and both times he has had a "business" meeting that took place on the ski slopes. Hmmm).

We've been to Colorado 4x and love the mountains. I think Denver would be great b/c you have a lot of urban amenities that you dont' hve in smaller western towns (i.e. professional sports, major airport, etc).

I do wonder if Denver would seem small to me. I am used to the larger cities of the east coast: Phila, NYC, DC, Boston. Denver seemed sort of small (and more homogeneous) in comparision.

Anyone make the move to Denver from the east coast?

Sure it feels smaller!!!! It is smaller -- about a million plus in the metro. We can here from the Chicago area 28 year. But it is all to scale. We have 20 blocks of high rises instead of a 100 or more in Chicago. The first thing we missed was the traffic and especially the truck traffic on I 80/90. Then we missed the humidity of the midwest, and then the bugs. Of course the drawback to no bugs is no birds -- nothing to eat. Five years later I was offered a substantial position in Des Moines, IA. After three days of a site visit in Iowa, in August, we decided that Denver was very good place to die and we will.

I've been in LA much longer than I thought I'd be and think Denver looks great! It has so much going on and b/c of the scale seems incredibly liveable- I'm through with people trying to kill me w/ their cars every day on the 405!
Plenty of museums, restaurants, outdoor activities AND some breathing room- sign me up!

Bring your bike -- we have over 500 miles of bike trails, paths, etc., i the metro area with a high percentage separated from vehicular traffic.

Liking Denver would depend alot on where you are moving from. My husband works 4 days a week in Denver & commutes each week to our home in Salt Lake. I looked long & hard at moving to Denver last summer, but as much time as i spent researching & spending time there in general, i never have grown to like the city. mostly because we have two high schoolers & that totally dictated the areas we could live. i found the real estate way over priced, way too much traffic & for sure the mountains are a long way away. heading to the ski areas on a week-end takes 2 hours each way. bumper to bumper traffic coming home on a sunday.

the upside of Denver is it does have good pro sports, nice selection of restaurants & shopping, all of which is missing here in Salt Lake, with the exception of our great basketball team.

but i thought the commute into downtown every day for DH job looked really tedious, and if it snowed, would be a nightmare. so if you can live downtown or near your work, your experience may be great.

Colorado is awesome, If you have the opportunity definitely go for it. So much awesome stuff going on in colorado and the rockies are absolutely breathtaking...I'm pretty jealous

Truthfully I am kind of glad not everyone likes Denver. It is all a matter of your comfort level and what you like. I spend a far amount of time in Salt Lake City and could have posted many of Ranknew comments -- only in reverse. Don't know about real estate since I have not priced SLC real estate but Utah is probably cheaper. But I do know that SLC has really odd liquor laws and restrictions. A throw back to the days of prohibition. And you can ski within an hour of Denver -- I did two weeks ago. Any skiing still available around SLC at this time? And I don't think the mountains compare but don't take it too serious. We are happy here but I would not mind shipping a couple of my neighbors to Utah, or LA, or ,,,,,,

I say ,"move on out!" We moved to the Denver area 9 months ago from the northern suburbs of Chicago and we love it ! You get a lot for your money as far as real estate goes. The taxes are WAYYYY lower and the people are SOOO nice !! It must be the 300 plus days of sunshine and no humidity !

Trust me- I'm definitely there if the offer comes through as it's supposed to at the end of the month. I really hope it happens!!
Thanks for all of the input everyone!!
Christine

Commuting downtown? There is the good light rail system all the way to County Line.
Someone mentioned no birds. Not true. Nice birds to wake up to.
300 days of sunshine/year. I was talking to a mother of a college bound child, and apparently "some" kids who opt for the northeast, for example, REALLY miss the sunny weather. Who knows. I thought it was interesting.

I think I started the post... I ended up moving to Portland, ME- but I ALWAYS think about Vail/ Denver--- it aint over yet!

Dear heavens. About as different as it can be, except for also being in a gorgeous part of the country!! Enjoy!!

The winters are much colder AND DARKER!!! Not looking forward to this one!!

I made the second post to bookmark it for future reference and I DID move to Denver.

barryk! That is awesome! What part of Denver did you move to? How do you like it? I don't know... this past w/e I got to be with my niece and their little cock-a-poo all w/e- on the beach- Its almost Thanksgiving and I WISH we would have had this nice weather in June, July, and August! People were on the beach yesterday with their dogs, picnics, bathing suits and beach chairs! (mostly with dogs... a few other brave souls brought the other things! ) Nice to live near family for these type of "snapshot" kind of days.... And had my 77 yr old father sleep over last nite on his way home from "huntin camp" with my brother and my 2 nephews...