ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — When Denver7 sat down with neighbors in Englewood, we quickly heard that the quirky, community-oriented neighborhoods are what have kept generations of families there.
One of the first people in Englewood who spoke with Denver7's Danielle Kreutter as a part of this Your Voice series was Tracy Lawson.
"It was a great place to grow up," she said. "It just ended up being a good place to stay."
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She is a third-generation Englewood resident. For others, the move to Englewood was intentional.
"I lived in Cherry Creek, Denver," Danya DeWolfe said. "I kind of just like the sense of community. There was a lot of little local spots and everybody seems really friendly."
Kevin Timken lived in Denver before moving to Englewood.
"We were getting older, and we said, let's move somewhere that's more walkable," he said. "It wasn't as walkable over there."
For Nathan Hoag, Englewood fit his community mission when he chose to move here about a decade ago.
"Neighborhood identities didn't really exist [in Denver] in the way that they did in Englewood," he said. "Places like Littleton felt a little more, like, suburban, a little bit more sprawled and monolithic, so everything kind of seemed a little bit the same. Englewood had diversity and it had variety."
Close enough to the big city while small enough to have it's own district personality, throughout Denver7's conversations with neighbors one topic kept coming up: community.
"I love the fact that it's still neighborly," Lawson said.
Emily Shea, another Englewood resident, pointed to the city's summer block parties. Englewood hosts Neighborhood Nights at various local parks throughout the summer where residents can enjoy free music, booths and food trucks.
"They've just really made an investment in making this a community," she said.
The city also offers up grant funds for neighbors who want to throw their own block parties or movie nights with their neighbors.
"Englewood has a $500 grant money to throw a block party, so we did it," Timken said. "We had a great time. We had about 50 people show up."
Timken said after his kids grew up, they were looking to downsize on their move to Englewood.
"I had a big house over by Obervatory Park; it was getting to be a pain to take care of," he said.
He now lives in one of the newer side-by-side homes/duplexes that are popping up on single family lots across the city.
One of the two newer builds on single family lots are often listed for more than a million dollars.
"There's still homes that I think are probably pretty affordable down here in this area, but it's changing," Pete Siple, who moved back to Englewood when he retired, said. "Some of those are getting scraped off, and duplexes go in."
"What do you think about that?" asked Denver7's Danielle Kreutter.
"That's what I live in now, so I do like it," he replied. "It brings people in and it'll bring the value of everybody's properties up."
Some longtime residents are on the fence about the changing neighborhoods.
"It is progress, and yet at the same time the quaint little places are going away," Lawson said.
"When new builds can pop up that are actually affordable and actually work for families, that can be a great thing too," Hoag said.
Neighbors also pointed to the number of small, locally owned businesses that are central to the city.
"We know we got a bunch of people that got our back," Jim Norris, co-owner of Mutiny Comics and Coffee, said.
A few years back, they closed up shop at their longtime Denver location and opened up in Englewood.
Denver7's Danielle Kreutter asked Norris about his experience with the City of Englewood.
"Oh my God, the polar opposite, the polar opposite," Norris said. "They've come down the let us know about grants that are available, y'know their commitment to small local businesses in this area is strong."
Access to the outdoors while still being a close drive to downtown Denver was another proud point of residents.
"The main attraction is to get to the Platte River Trail," Siple said.
Parents or not, residents are proud of their local parks.
"All the parks seem like they've gotten great makeovers," Shea said. "They did a fantastic job with [Bates Logan Park], it feels like you're on a movie set or something."
As the city changes, residents have noticed some growing pains.
"You go down on Hampden and that is almost a ghost town down there in the commercial area," Timken said. "[The city's] priorities aren't for getting money to flow into Englewood."
Siple had a different answer on what concerns him in the community.
"I would say it was the homeless issue," he said. "You don't really see it like here, but on the bike down by the Platte River, it's all over."
Affordability also was a concern expressed by neighbors.
"It was much more affordable a few years ago," DeWolfe said.
People who spoke with Denver7 said they are eager to see how the community takes on those challenges and what the future of the city could look like.
"I'm hesitant to talk about how great it is, because I don't want it to get completely overrun with people, but this place is wonderful, and I'm so glad that I get to live here," Hoag said.
Denver7 will be following up with city officials about some of the topics brought up during our conversations with neighbors and will be publishing follow up reports. Stay tuned.
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