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Yeah Stapleton and Lowry are so much like a movie set it's comical. The young hipsters with money seem to love it though. More power to 'em, shopping work and entertainment all within the neighborhood and all within 15 miles of downtown. Express buses and even *gasp* cab stands. It's a mixed use suburb where you could easily survive without a car. Most of 'em drive a lot but hey, we're American and cars define us.
Yes, Denver is the epitome of sprawl. Hell, they ran a marathon down Colfax Ave. for a couple years in a straight line. A straight line except through downtown where Colfax winds a little and they didn't even go through all of the 'burbs. Mind blowing. 45 minute commutes are common. Of course, construction workers avoid this by working 0600-1430 so I rarely drive more than 20 minutes.
It wouldn't be all bad if people would actually use the land they have but it's mainly landscaping, trampolines and pools. Screw that, I grow a garden and am tossing around the idea of getting some chickens. BTW, it's not fair to judge a man by the color of his neck. This suburb, Lakewood, used to be all farm. Surprisingly some of my neighbors have goats and turkey. I don't think anyone has a pig though, I assume I'd smell it while out and about. The new suburbs are 3000+ sq ft house footprints on 6000 sq ft lots. McMansions crammed so tight together you barely need a safety net for that damned trampoline. For an example, check out the new development in Highlands Ranch to the SW of Denver near highway 470 and the stuff in between Denver and Parker to the SE. The satellite views are boggling.
I like the idea of economy of scale re: food and products. How do you shop in this sort of environment? Do you carry food home two bags at a time, use some sort of a cart, what? We moved down to the "big city" from the mountains because I saw the writing on the wall re: fuel prices. We still shop on a monthly basis with a buttload of groceries all at once out of habit. I do like being able to just bike to the store to get anything we want at the drop of a hat now, running out of milk in the mountains means you make do without it.
Although it's probably too late now what SHOULD have been done re: getting goods into the city was trains. Trains are great for that sort of thing but there isn't anywhere to put them in most metros now.
I hate OJ and understand where you're coming from about out of season produce. That should self regulate as fuel continues to climb. That's certainly a huge price increase you've seen on your 1/2 gal container in the past 5 years.
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smoore
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