Stapleton and Bradburn Village are pretty similar.  Both are new urbanist neighborhoods, mixed-use, walkable with lots of parks.  When we were looking to move to Denver from Fort Collins, we went to look in Stapleton.  There were three main reasons we picked Bradburn over Stapleton and in order they were 1. Location (Stapleton wasn’t close enough to Boulder for us) 2. Price.  The same home in Stapleton (I mean exactly the same house, New Town Builders builds in both neighborhoods) was $60,000 more than in Bradburn. 3. The neighborhoods surrounding Stapleton.

I’m embarrassed to admit #3 but it’s the truth.  Stapleton used to be the airport for Denver and as a result, all the neighborhoods directly bordering it aren’t the nicest ones in Denver (they are far, far away from “bad” neighborhoods that other cities have though).  I was worried about crime and the state of the public schools mostly.  I have a neighbor here in Bradburn who moved from Stapleton so I asked her about crime.  She said crime had been increasing in Stapleton (no idea if that’s actually the case but it was her perception), lots of car theft, break-ins (cars, not homes), and vandalism.  Then I read the morning about a fatal car jacking in Stapleton which was a real downer.  There are have been three car jacking attempts apparently in this same area very recently.  So does this mean I was right to worry about higher crime in Stapleton?  Yes and No.

Crime statistics for Denver do in fact show a lot more crime in Stapleton than in my area, but it’s still not something I think anyone who lives in Stapleton really needs to worry about, even with the recent car jacking and I’ll tell you why.  Those kinds of things can happen anywhere in a metro area, and they are rare.  We’ve had 3 cars stolen from Bradburn in the last 4 years that I know of and some car break-ins and garages thefts.  Even in the suburbs you will get crime if you live in an area that has people in it.  Stapleton is in an area with greater density than Bradburn so it stands to reason greater density itself will equal a coorresponding increase in crime. However, people don’t really think that way.  I’m wondering if people in Stapleton will see the headlines about the shooting and be looking to move to a more suburban area because of it, I hope not as I think Stapleton is an excellent neighborhood and is safe.  

Our neighborhood, being full of tech savvy up to date folks, has an internet board (Yahoo Group).  It’s a great and easy way to inform people of neighborhood events, ask for a recommendation, or ask for help. 

Two years ago we had a mother of a blizzard here in Colorado (actually 3 of them on 3 successive weekends), one of them dropped 3 feet of snow in 48 hours.  None of us could get out because the plows couldn’t get in.  One of my neighbors had a medical emergency and needed to get to the hospital, so he posted on our internet board that he needed help digging out.  Many neighbors showed up at his house shortly thereafter and dug out the entire alley so they could get their car out.  This is an example of when the neighborhood internet board comes in very handy.  However, it does have a dark side.

You would think that having everyone know your name and where you live would inhibit you from posting stupid crap but alas, that occasionally turns out to not be the case.  The perceived anonymity of the internet seems to short circuit peoples’ brains when they are at the computer, that combined with an odd sense of humor and the lack of verbal and visual clues as to a persons’ real meaning (no facial expressions, no inflection) leads to posts which Really Piss the Neighborhood Off.  Then we get a slew of response postings/emails that clog up everyone’s inbox and angers up the blood. 

We had a discussion a bit back if we should moderate the group and decided that no, if people wanted to make asses of themselves they were free to do so (the American way!). Luckily this doesn’t happen that often, I’d say a few times a year.   I think it’s inevitable given the nature of the internet, the nature of people, and the challenges of living in a community.  I have a friend who lives in Civano (another new urbanist neighborhood) in Tucson, and they have the same problem.  One thing they’ve done to try to combat this  is to require every person to post a photo of themselves, which I think is a great idea, as it eliminates that sense of anonymity, and hopefully encourages the civility the internet sucks away.

I will have to say though, I’ve had many, many amusing conversations and long running neighborhood jokes come out of these flaming postings so I suppose they are good for something. 

Neighbor 1: “Do you think they count all the mail in ballots?”.

Me: “Of course they do”

Neighbor 1: “Well they always seem to find a box”.

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Group was discussing the creepy “real baby doll” trend when the following exchange took place:

Me: “Well have you seen the “real dolls” [link intentionally not provided, if you google it, beware NSFW] those are a lot creepier!”

Neighbor: “At least they have a purpose!”.