mapquest or google maps zip code 80206 or 80203 (where i live), then look at zip code 80126, or highlands ranch, co
a good neighborhood is a grid. i can easily go to a friends house at "11th and emerson", however recently when visiting someone way out in aurora, i had to be told to take himalaya place, not himalaya court, or way. looking close up at those neighborhoods on a map is like looking and a maze i used to draw in grade school. i'm great at maps, but it took me five minutes of driving around to find the house. in fact there was a story about how emergency workers,(ambulances and firefighters), PRACTICE driving around these areas, so they don't get mixed at night during and emergency. that's not a neighborhood i want to live in.
my neighborhood, 80206, has a great mix of small funky electic shops, and nearby (cherry creek), has more upscale chain stores. there was also a great article in this weekend's denver post about local stores WANTING to be in new smaller pedestrian type developments, and not enormous shopping areas. and the developers want the local businesses there, even if it might generate a little less revenue than an established chain store.
i live in a townhome with nine units, great older homes near me, and taller apartment buildings make for a great mix. i have condos selling for 130,000, homes for a million, and apartments renting for $500. that's a great mix of people. i don't like seeing signs that say $150,000 homes this way and $300,00 homes the other way. that's voluntary economic segregation. how would want to live that way?