Urban Living

The best and the worst of any city. Downtown has always been developed into a place where the best money can be made by the industrous and driven and the young party like it's 1999. Yet the cons weigh just as heavily as the pros. It takes a certain mentality to raise kids downtown. You have little to no yard. Rules need to be set about everything, "you can't walk here, you can't talk to them, don't open the door to strangers, etc etc".

It's definetely a lifestyle choice.
For those who choose to live downtown, there are any number of reasons. When I was in Boston, I wanted to be in the epicenter of all the action. I loved going to university in the middle of it all.

In Denver, it has never occurred to me to live downtown because Denver's offerings culturally are so much different than most other cities.

It's a small slice of the American Culture Pie - Plus, you can live in a perfectly good suburb simply 10 minutes in any direction. Why move 10 minutes in town where it is 75% more likely for your car to get broken into? Why bother?





the view from my front porch...






This morning, I was awakened to sirens blaring outside my window. Here is the irony. I lived on a busy corner in the suburb where sirens blew by my home every night, and because I lived on the corner, the traffic sounds cut through my sleep on a daily basis from 5:30a-9a, every day. Again in the evening between 4p and 7p...every single day. But it didn't matter, my kids could walk to the park or the playground. I could rollerblade in my neighborhood. I could run to and from , my local park and jog in peace, without a worry for my safety in the least.

I realized this past week, I can jog to Coors Field and all around downtown. I can run to my friend's downtown loft. I can walk home from any bar/ restaurant I generally had to to drive to in order to frequent. I can walk...but, with more apprehension about my surroundings. The sirens in my old neighborhood never gave me notice because I assumed they were going someplace else. Leaving my neighborhood and headed someplace...not so safe.
This morning at 6a, I looked out the window...wondering if something was going down on my block. Was a home on fire? Had someone gotten stabbed? What was the emergency? Funny. The 1st time in weeks I hear a siren, and I conjur up all sorts of stories about what's going down in my hood. Where in my "safe" neighborhood, the sound of a siren every day gave me no notice at all.
What is wrong with this picture?

Today I am going for a jog downtown to explore my neighborhood and challenge myself to drop some of my concepts about what my new environment means to me.

Also, one of my goals for the new year.