Comments on: Denver Living Streets

By: Daren

Daren — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 02:53:12 +0000

Anonymous asked, "Is there anything I can do to make sure the Living Streets Initiative is successful?" Yes, there are a wide array of alternatives one can adopt to ensure "initiatives" such as living street become successful. For one, stop driving as often and opt for walking and riding alternatives. Also become engaged in you neighborhood's goings on. For more immediate action, go to the denver living streets.org website and complete there monkey survey, someone will be most gratified, I am sure.

By: Jeanne Robb

Jeanne Robb — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 02:35:21 +0000

I wish I had written this! Bravo! Did you copy the Denver Post?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:56:29 +0000

Vincent Carroll is a right-wing hack and a voice of "the establishment" to boot. I'm no fan of the Denver Post nor it's right-wing editorial staffers. I'll rejoice when the Post joins the Rocky Mountain News and the "town-criers" of years and years and years past and whale oil lamps… Embrace the future, kiss the past (and the Post) goodbye.

By: Simone

Simone — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:18:13 +0000

Well said, Ken. Denver is my hometown, but the whole 'car-first' thing is one of the primary reasons we will have difficulty moving back. Here in Brussels, we have one nice car…which I have never driven in the almost-two-years we've lived here.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 22:04:22 +0000

Screw them. If it were up to me I would level Colorado Blvd and start over.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:55:20 +0000

Yes. Make our streets/neighborhoods safer and more "liveable."
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

By: BeyondDC

BeyondDC — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:09:59 +0000

All this talk about how Colorado Blvd is a terrible example because it's so suburban is quite discouraging. Redeveloping aging suburban commercial strips is the next great frontier in planning. It is definitely possible. Denver isn't quite there yet, since downtown is only now filling in. But once land downtown starts to become scarce, you will see places like Colorado Boulevard redevelop to become more urban (especially if they have good transit).

Here are some links to examples of planning to do just that at locations around the DC area (just because I'm familiar with them). All are suburban corridors planning to become more urban. Maryland Route 355 in particular is remarkably similar to Colorado Blvd around where it meets I-25. Tysons Corner is, if anything, worse.

White Flint Plan, Twinbrook Commons Plan, and Rockville Pike Plan for Maryland Route 355.

Tysons Corner Plan and Summary of Falls Church Development for Virginia Route 7.

Fairfax Boulevard Plan for US Route 50 (the same 50 that goes through Pueblo).

Columbia Pike Plan for Virginia Route 244.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:50:21 +0000

Bravo, Ken, bravo!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:02:20 +0000

Yes! I remember reading that editorial and being so peeved. The use of Colorado Blvd as an example is just the kind of red herring argument that anti-smart design pundits use to spike any type of good urban planning initiatives.

Where o' where in any of the Living Streets proposals does Denver ever talk about imposing the type of policies that Carroll is talking about? Nowhere. They don't. Why? Because it would be stupid to try to turn Colorado Blvd into a Larimer Square. So why is he even talking about it?

I usually like the even-headed arguments Carroll sometimes brings to issues. But on this one he was completely off-base and disingenuous. --Jared Jacang Maher

By: RTD Watch

RTD Watch — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:47:00 +0000

Let's also realize that not all parts of all streets are the same. North Colorado Boulevard (I'm thinking between City Park and 1st Ave or so) is really a quite urban boulevard with lots of apartments and urban style businesses lining the street and great, walkable streetscaping on both sides. If you squint you can almost imagine it being a street in San Francisco or Seattle. The traffic on north Colorado isn't great, but it moves along nicely especially compared to other parts of the street. And once the former University Hospital site is redeveloped, the stretch of Colorado can really be a quite nice urban street.

It's south Colorado where the strip malls begin and where walking along side the road is a nightmare and biking on the street a death wish. It has horrible traffic, no streetscaping at all, and just an ugly, suburban style density that does nothing to distinguish the area at all.

Do a Google maps view of 1800 S. Colorado Boulevard and 900 N. Colorado Boulevard and just look at the difference between the two areas. It's not just that one has more density than the other (though that is the case as well). But
north Colorado has a median, streetscaping, an actual bus stop structure (instead of a lonely bench) and just a ton more walkability. The streets define the area a lot and I think almost everyone can agree that north Colorado, though not perfect, is much more desirable than the southern parts of the street.