Don’t you make me leave downtown…
But I don’t wanna leave downtown… and I have no plans to. We love living downtown, we love the people, the food, the lifestyle, the events, the activity, the energy, and on and on and on…
But the conversation I hear with many of our friends is centered around an upcoming departure from downtown to raise children. Let’s face it, the lodo and CPV scene is not rich with family life (but that is quickly changing). We always hear about our dear friends who moved to the burbs to have better schools, to raise their children, and to have the white picket fence. But what is also going on is those of us who are starting families want to stay downtown. That can make all the difference in our future.
Well I am tired of this scenario. I don’t want my friends to move away. I don’t want to visit them in the burbs. What I would like is to change this problem. And why shouldn’t it change? Those of us who choose to live downtown are smart, educated, with either good jobs or darn fun ones. And we have numbers and can effect change. There are so many new babies downtown, it is only the school age that sends people flying to the burbs. I see this path and I want to choose otherwise. I want to have a family down the road and still live the urban lifestyle downtown. But lets face it, we need some assistance to make this possible.
The good news is cities are recognizing this. The Urban Land Institute recently did a survey to look at why families weren’t living downtown in cities (any city, not just Denver) and it was overwhelmingly the schools. Cities like Chicago are looking at ways to get families to stay or move downtown, and they know schools are the key. Now we just have to figure out how to use the key. Here is an article on that story.
Below: What are the barriers to Families living downtown survey
From across the whole USA
So how do we improve the schools and address the biggest issue that scares away families and encourages people to move during this phase of their life? If you have an idea share it, because I like my urban lifestyle. I also think there is more community here in the city, and especially in Riverfront Park than in any burb. Here I know my neighbors, see them in the street, greet them in the coffee shop than I ever would in any burb.
But since this survey was done across the USA, now let’s do one just for little old Denver
[Poll=19]
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4 comments
Interesting, but not suprising. Parents make a lot of sacrifices for their children’s well being. Since many/most of the people you know grew up in the ‘burbs, it stands to reason that they will think it is the best place for raising kids (incubator communities, as an old friend once said). Of course, that 2 bedroom condo in Lodo gets kind of cramped with 2 kids, and a real live house in Cherry Creek is going to take a lot of money.
I’m reminded of my mother, who went to a city school in the 1950s, talking about how kids from suburban areas would try to go to her HS because of the quality and variety of classes available (latin, advanced math and fully funded science labs), all because of the taxes paid by the business community, and because there was a large enough population to support it (she had several hundred in her class). When the plant shut down, there went the school.
Which begs the question of why we can’t have better schools downtown. If we look at most European cities aren’t the best schools in the heart of the cities. Isn’t our tax base strong enough to do this?
It’s interesting, but I don’t think people who lived in LoDo or the Valley move to the suburbs. They move, instead, to first ring suburbs which really aren’t suburbs at all. In Denver, that means Wash Park or Capitol Hill or the Highlands.
The schools are important, but the challenges at the schools are more related to simple demographic changes over the past few years. Now, as more and more families - like yours, eventually and mine even sooner - stay “city-close,” the schools will get better and better. Witness Wash Park which has undergone a dramatic transformation in demographics over the past ten years - from seniors to Gen Xers with kids. The schools there are better than they have been in years.
As for leaving the density of downtown, condos and townhomes and lofts, it’s a simple issue - a child deserves a backyard. A chance to get outside and chase butterflies and build snowmen and sandcastles and get muddy. These things are what will drive your neighbors - like me - to the “suburbs.” And, by suburbs, I mean The Highlands.
Of course, we’ll also come back, and maybe sooner than you would expect. There is so much to do downtown, more than anywhere in Denver, and it’s so safe - safer than just about any other neighborhood in Denver. Once the kids can run around on their own - fifteen or so - I can imagine no better place for them to play and learn: Six Flags, Commons Park, the museums, the Sixteenth Street shuttle, movie theaters, the Children’s Museum, the Aquarium . . .
Michael Bennett may be the change agent that is needed for DPS but improving DPS continues to be very difficult.
I would like to see some competition for the DPS school system, including publicly funded Charter schools. This may be a potential solution where developers may partner with Charter schools just as they have done in suburban master planned communities.
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