City Park, Denver

This neighborhood has played a big role in my life growing up, and it still does. I grew up in an adjacent neighborhood, so City Park was a frequent destination for family outings. We went for picnics, visits to the zoo, and trips to the museum and planetarium. I went to East High School. This is a beautiful old building (dating from 1909, if I recall the cornerstone inscription correctly). Tourists used to walk by and ask whether it was a school or a museum.
Today, I still live near the park, and love spending time there. I usually go to photograph the classic view of the lake and pavillion, with the city skyline and mountains providing the backdrop. I also go to join the many other runners who take advantage of the miles of jogging paths that wind through the park and around Ferril Lake.
My mom took an apartment in the southern strip of this neighborhood after her retirement. She may decide to move again, because rents there, while never cheap, are rising precipitously each year. This neighborhood has been revitalized, and there are many restored homes and new condos that have gone up. It is a beautiful Denver neighborhood, handy to all of the dining, shopping, and other activity of the east central neighborhoods and downtown have to offer.

Most of the City Park neighborhood is green space. The park itself is Denver’s largest, one of its oldest, and arguably its most impressive. If the view west from near the Nature and Science Museum looks familiar, it’s because that’s where they take the postcard photos of the city skyline with the Rockies as its backdrop. The park offers free open-air jazz concerts in the summer, as well as swan-shaped paddleboats visitors can rent at the small lake.

The residential area of the City Park neighborhood is all on the south side, between 17th and Colfax (15th) Avenues. The area intermixes classic older homes with apartment/condo buildings and some trendy new towers. Ownership and rental costs are both high.

What residents get for the price is one of Denver’s best parks for their backyard and a thriving, revitalized stretch of Colfax Avenue for their front porch. This area, between York and Colorado, is a destination in its own right that even draws people from Denver’s other super-trendy neighborhoods for a night out on the town. There’s good food here, everything from biscuits for breakfast to cupcakes for dessert, and good drinking at a fun and friendly chain of bars that run the gamut from good tequila to cheap PBR.

Near York and Colfax, there’s a large, elegant building in a style reminiscent of early colonial, with a soaring clock tower. This is East High, which predates the current architectural trend of designing high schools to resemble prisons. Across the street is the flagship Tattered Cover bookstore. The Tattered Cover provides a rare and happy tale of a brick-and-mortar bookstore that’s not only remained in business, but flourished over the last few years: locally grown and well-supported by residents, it has a large selection good for hours, if not days, of browsing. The Starz Film Center, one of the best places to catch an independent movie, is housed in the same complex. Residents of City Park will find themselves with plenty to do – and that’s without even mentioning the zoo, the science museum, or everything that’s going on in downtown, a short drive, bike, or bus ride away.