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!”.

 Orange begonias.  The Grateful Dead were obviously not gardeners.

Sometimes I stop myself and realize–with equal parts pleasure and alarm–what a true geeckoid I am.  I was gardening the other day, digging holes for tulip bulbs, and was listening to the Grateful Dead on my iPod.  The song was “Scarlet Begonias” and while listening to the lyrics my thoughts went something like this:

“Oh, funny, how appropriate.  ***song is going*** “She wore scarlet begonias tucked into her curls..” Wait?  What?  First, is there even such a thing as “scarlet begonias”?  Yes, there are, I remember seeing a vivid red variety called “Non stop bright red” this spring.  But begonias have stems that break very easily and the flowers fall apart, and they ooze because they’re sort-of succulent like.  No one would put those in their hair, they’re not suitable, he must have confused them with another flower–roses maybe, they have that album cover with roses on it–wait, no one would confuse roses with begonias, roses are the most recognizable of all the flowers.  Maybe he [the writer of the lyrics]  just liked the word “begonia” but didn’t know what he was talking about.  They were stoned a lot from all reports.  Holy crap, why am I spending so much time thinking about this?”

When I mentioned the idea of begonias in someone’s hair to my mother (a master gardener) she said

“No one would do that, they ooze”.

At least I don’t have to wonder where I get it from. Hooray for genetics!

There’s 100 plus people in this photo of our new urbanist

neighborhood’s July 4th parade this year, amazingly none of them are actors!

My new urbanist neighborhood is a real place full of real people with real lives.  Our lives are not any less authentic than those of people living in “real” urban areas.  My life and the lives of my family and neighbors are not less authentic because our neighborhood doesn’t mix beautiful historic homes next to falling down crap shacks.  We are not less real because we don’t see grafitti and homeless people every day.  I am sick of “real” urban hipsters saying people in new urbanist neighborhoods are shallow for wanting a new home in a mixed-use neighborhood with good schools instead of living in the “real” gritty city and living an “authentic” life.

I like cities and I like city living.  Denver especially is a great city with many wonderful city neighborhoods but, I don’t want to live in them at the moment.  First, I can’t afford to.  Suburbs are cheaper than the city core at least in Denver and by a significant amount.  For what I paid for my brand new 2400 sq foot house, I could get an old 1200 sq foot bungalow in need of major repairs in one of Denver’s city neighborhoods.

The people who accuse new urbanist neighborhoods of being fake, well every neighborhood was new at one time–even your historic neighborhood.  I’ve read multiple articles written by urban dwellers–most, I’m sure who do not have children–asking why would anyone want the “fake” thing when you can get the “real” thing like them?  Because not everyone wants to live in the city, and they should be able to have the benefits of urbanism (walkable, mixed-use) if they want to live in the suburbs in a new house with great public schools.  Have a kid and then look at the schools in your urban area and then ponder your question of real versus fake again, your perspective will change believe me. 

People walk past my house all the time in my neighborhood and stop to admire my small garden (primarily the front and side of my house and my containers).  Sometimes they ask me “How do you do it?”.  I always have to stop myself from saying “It’s helps to be psychotically obsessive”.  What I usually say is more diplomatic along the lines of “I water a lot” or “it’s my hobby” but the truth is a bit darker I’m afraid.  I am obsessed with plants, flowers in particular.  While everyone agrees it’s good to have a hobby, sometimes I think I take it a bit too far.  A few of the things that exemplify this:

—I don’t like to go on vacation during growing season because I don’t like leaving my plants

—I would never get a dog because dogs can dig and one of my neighbors is always telling me about the destruction her crazy German shepherd is wrecking on her backyard (he ate all my petunias!  He ate the baby Aspen tree! etc..) I know I would probably have palpitations should such a thing occur in my yard so I just steer clear.  Fortunatley my kid only likes cats.

—I wanted a house with a very small yard because I knew if I got a house with even a medium sized yard I would probably drive myself insane (I do a pretty good job as it is with a lot of around 4500 sq feet).

—I’ve run out in golf ball sized hail to protect my container plants

—In May and June, I went to at least 8 different nurseries (multiple times each) looking for exactly the plants I wanted

—I was shocked when a fellow less hard core gardener in my neighborhood hadn’t thought about the annuals we might put in our pocket park.  It was March when I asked her.

 Exhibit A

Last year I spotted a pair of American goldfinches in my neighborhood.  They are beautiful birds with a lovely song, so I bought a special birdfeeder to try to entice them back this year.  I put up the birdfeeder in April and to my delight it worked, a pair of goldfinches started hanging around the feeder in May. I’ve been enjoying seeing them all year until yesterday when I saw them violently assaulting my gerbera daisies.

I have a large cattle trough on my deck filled with gerbera daisies that I wait very patiently to flower.  Sometimes it can take a few weeks between flower bursts, but I consider it worth it because I love their colors and how big the flowers are.  When they do flower, the flowers last quite a long time (two to three weeks).  Yesterday morning I was cleaning the kitchen and noticed the goldfinch pair that I usually see in front of my house at the feeder.  I stopped dead in my tracks in shock when I notcied what they were doing: hanging off the stems of the gerberas and dissecting brand new blossoms into tiny little pieces looking for seeds.

I didn’t know what to do–there was an ironic conflict going on in my head.  Finally I could stand seeing them pulling out petals no longer and went onto the deck and shooed them away.  Then I realized what must have happened.  Those little buggers were blackmailing me to fill up the bird feeder, which was running low.  So I’ve filled it hoping they will leave my flowers alone–but if they don’t, let’s just say I’m going to have to reevaluate our relationship.

We have a great book club in my neighborhood.  A group of ladies (ranging from 5-25) meets each month at a different person’s home.  Everyone brings something to eat or wine, both are which are consumed in abundance.  It’s a great, fun time, but book club for me has one problem: the books.

I originally joined book club to try to expand my reading selections.  I read–a lot–but I read a rather narrow range of interests.  Non-fiction (usually science related, although not always), or science fiction.  I thought I should expand my horizons a bit, maybe find something enjoyable I wouldn’t normally read on my own.  This was a good idea in theory.

I read about six books I would never normally pick, books that book clubs all over the U.S. are reading, books that get great Amazon reviews, books that have a consensus: they are good.  Most of these fall into the category of “women’s fiction”–whatever that means.  I pretty much hated every one of them.  They bored the crap out of me. A lot of the books feature extended sessions inside the protagonist’s head: what they are thinking about, their demons, what they think of events.  Romances, moral quandaries and the like. The thing is, unless there’s some crazy space faring science/alternate dimensions/worlds blowing up/black holes or the story is actually true and not fiction, I can’t bring myself to care much.  Perhaps this is a side effect of having to read so many boring Thomas Hardy novels in high school.  

So, I’m a book club failure.  I can’t decide if I should keep torturing myself by reading these books, just so I can attend the fun social aspect without looking like a loser, or if I should just give up and realize–I like what I like.

I am frequently reminded how my husband and I view things related to our house quite differently.  So have come up with this quicky wife to husband design translator.

Wife: Patina       Husband: Poor 

Useage: Wife–”That table has a wonderful patina”  Husband–”You mean it looks poor”

Wife: Industrial     Husband: Prison

Usage: Wife–”I love that bunk bed, it’s very industrial”.  Husband–”It looks too much like prison”

Wife: Cottage     Husband: Messy

Usage: Wife–My garden is cottage style.  Husband–You mean it’s messy with stuff all over the place

Wife: Modern    Husband: Expensive

Usage: Wife—-I love that Nelson bubble lamp, it’s so streamlined!  Husband–Why is something so simple so expensive?

Wife: Rustic      Husband: Poor

Usage: Wife–”I love that rustic look.”  Husband–”It looks poor.”

I’m from Phoenix, Arizona originally.  I went to middle school, high school, and got my bachelor’s degree at Arizona State.  I’ve lived in Colorado for the last 11 years.  When I go back to Phoenix now I generally find it one way. Depressing.

Every major metro area in the U.S. has sprawl, but in Phoenix, it’s an art form.  There are very, very few places you can get to without a car, and everywhere there now looks the same: beige adobe, red tile roofs, one endless soulless strip mall and big box bonanza after another.  I was in Phoenix recently to attend my best friend’s wedding.  We stayed at a four star resort in north Scottsdale (which was desert when I lived there).  There are houses all around this resort, but little else.  A trip to the grocery store is a 15 minute drive, one way (I timed it).  Most of Phoenix is this way, nearly devoid of character and totally slaved to the car, no human scale at all.

We saw a sign while driving to the grocery store that said “mixed-use development!!!” under this is said “retail AND office space!”.  This is what passes for “mixed use” in most of Phoenix.  My husband commented that is was similar to the “We have both types of music: Country AND Western” famous line.

There are a few bright spots, downtown Scottsdale is a human scaled area which is just now adding housing (VERY expensive condos but they are cool), the Willo neighborhood close to downtown Phoenix, Verrado–a new urbanist neighborhood in Buckeye (way the hell out west of downtown), and downtown Tempe which has housing in walking distance to offices and retail.  In Denver though, there’s a million walkable neighborhoods (new and old) with great access to public transit, not to mention the investment we’ve made in our rail line that will connect all the metro area.  I feel Denver is much more progressive, enviornmental, and human oriented city than Phoenix currently is.  I’m glad I live in a place that values me more than my car (at least in SOME places!).